Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote the music for this hymn in 1906. Strangely (or not!), the hymn tune is SINE NOMINE, which is Latin for “without name”. Whether or not it actually has a name, therefore, is for the philosophers to sort out… but the hymn is probably most often used on All Saints’ Day when those who have passed during the previous twelve months are remembered and celebrated.
Here is our arrangement for eight handbells and piano, available just in time for this year’s All Saints’ Day – but it also makes a wonderful addition to a church service anytime during the year.
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!
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!
