Lyrics
For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might;
Thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
And win with them the victor’s crown of gold.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
But then there breaks a still more glorious day:
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Public domain hymn text (1864). Words by William Walsham How.
The Story Behind the Hymn
William Walsham How was an English clergyman who spent much of his early ministry working specifically among the poor in the industrial slums of the English Midlands. He later became the first Bishop of Wakefield, a position he was reportedly reluctant to accept, preferring direct pastoral work among ordinary working people to higher ecclesiastical office.
He became known during his lifetime by the affectionate popular nickname ‘the poor man’s bishop,’ for his consistent focus on the needs of impoverished industrial parishes.
He wrote this hymn’s text in 1864, specifically for use on All Saints’ Day — the day set aside in the traditional church calendar to commemorate all Christian believers who have died.
That included both the formally recognized saints of church history and, in How’s own broader intent, ordinary faithful believers largely unknown outside their own immediate communities.
The hymn’s original text ran to eleven full verses, considerably more than the four or five typically sung in modern hymnals. Each additional verse commemorated a different specific category of faithful believer — apostles, evangelists, martyrs.
It built toward a final verse picturing the entire company of the faithful across all of history, marching together into the ‘countless host’ of eternal glory.
Ralph Vaughan Williams, one of the most significant English classical composers of the twentieth century, composed the tune most commonly used today, titled ‘Sine Nomine’ (‘without a name’). He wrote it considerably later, in 1906, more than four decades after How wrote the original words.
Vaughan Williams’s own sweeping, deliberately grand musical setting has done much to secure the hymn’s lasting popularity, particularly as a processional hymn at funerals and All Saints’ Day services, across a very wide range of denominations well beyond How’s own Church of England.
