Scripture Verse

Sing to the Lord, you saints of His; praise His holy name. Psalm 30:4

Introduction

Words: Ho­ra­tio Nel­son, Hymn for Saint’s Day and Oth­er Hymns 1864.

Music: Ew­ing Al­ex­an­der Ew­ing, 1853 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Nel­son or Ew­ing (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

From all Thy saints in war­fare,
For all Thy saints at rest,
To Thee, O bless­èd Je­sus,
All prais­es be ad­dressed;
Thou, Lord, didst win the bat­tle,
That they might con­quer­ors be;
Their crowns of liv­ing glo­ry
Are lit with rays from Thee.

Praise, Lord, for Thine apos­tle,
The first to wel­come Thee,
The first to lead his bro­ther
The ve­ry Christ to see.
With hearts for Thee made rea­dy,
Watch we through­out the year,
Forward to lead our breth­ren
To own Thine ad­vent near.

All praise for Thine apos­tle,
Whose short lived doubt­ings prove
Thy per­fect two­fold na­ture,
The full­ness of Thy love.
On all who wait Thy com­ing
Shed forth Thy peace, O Lord,
And grant us faith to know Thee,
True man, true God, adored.

Praise for the first of mar­tyrs,
Who saw Thee rea­dy stand
To aid in midst of tor­ments,
To plead at God’s right hand.
Share we with him, if sum­moned
By death our Lord to own,
On earth the faith­ful wit­ness,
In Hea­ven the mar­tyr’s crown.

Praise for the loved dis­ci­ple,
Exiled on Pat­mos’ shore;
Praise for the faith­ful record
He to Thy God­head bore,
Praise for the mys­tic vi­sion
Through him to us re­vealed.
May we, in pa­tience wait­ing,
With Thine elect be sealed.

Praise for Thine in­fant mar­tyrs,
By Thee with ten­der­est love
Called ear­ly from the war­fare
To share the rest above.
O Ra­chel! cease thy weep­ing:
They rest from pains and cares.
Lord, grant us hearts as guile­less
And crowns as bright as theirs.

Praise for the light from Hea­ven,
Praise for the voice of awe,
Praise for the glo­ri­ous vi­sion
The per­se­cut­or saw.
Thee, Lord, for his con­ver­sion,
We glo­ri­fy today;
So light­en all our dark­ness
With Thy true Spi­rit’s ray.

Lord, Thine abid­ing pre­sence
Directs the won­drous choice
For one in place of Ju­das
The faith­ful now re­joice.
Thy Church from false apos­tles
Forevermore de­fend,
And by Thy part­ing pro­mise
Be with her to the end.

For him, O Lord, we praise Thee,
The weak by grace made strong,
Whose la­bors and whose Gos­pel
Enrich our tri­umph song.
May we in all our weak­ness
Find strength from Thee sup­plied,
And all, as fruit­ful branch­es,
In Thee, the vine, abide.

All praise for Thine apos­tle,
Blest guide to Greek and Jew,
And him sur­named Thy bro­ther
Keep us Thy breth­ren true,
And grant us grace to know Thee,
The way, the truth, the life;
To wres­tle with temp­ta­tions
Still vic­tors in the strife.

The son of con­so­la­tion,
Moved by Thy law of love,
Forsaking earth­ly trea­sures,
Sought rich­es from above.
As earth now teems with in­crease,
Let gifts of grace des­cend,
That Thy true con­so­la­tions
May through the world ex­tend.

We praise Thee for the Bap­tist,
Forerunner of the Word,
Our true Eli­as, mak­ing
A high­way for the Lord.
Of pro­phets last and great­est,
We saw Thy dawn­ing ray:
Make us the ra­ther bless­èd
Who love Thy glo­ri­ous day.

Praise for Thy great apos­tle,
The eag­er and the bold;
Thrice fall­ing, yet re­pent­ant,
Thrice charged to keep Thy fold.
Lord, make Thy pas­tors faith­ful
To guard their flocks from ill,
And grant them daunt­less cour­age,
With humble, ear­nest will.

For him, O Lord, we praise Thee,
Who, slain by Her­od’s sword
Drank of Thy cup of suf­fer­ing,
Fulfilling thus Thy word.
Curb we all vain im­pa­tience
To read Thy veiled de­cree,
And count it joy to suf­fer,
If so brought near­er Thee.

All praise for Thine apos­tle,
The faith­ful, pure, and true,
Whom un­der­neath the fig tree
Thine eye all see­ing knew.
Like him may we be guile­less,
True Is­ra­el­ites in­deed,
That Thy abid­ing pre­sence
Our long­ing souls may feed.

Praise, Lord, for Him whose Gos­pel
Thy hu­man life de­clared,
Who, world­ly gains for­sak­ing,
Thy path of suf­fer­ing shared.
From all un­right­eous Mam­mon
O give us hearts set free,
That we, whate’er our call­ing,
May rise and fol­low Thee.

For that be­loved phy­si­cian,
All praise, whose Gos­pel shows
The heal­er of the na­tions,
The shar­er of our woes.
Thy wine and oil, O Sav­ior,
And bruised hearts deign to pour,
And with true balm of Gi­le­ad
Anoint us ev­er­more.

Praise, Lord, for Thine apos­tles,
Who sealed their faith to­day:
One love, one zeal im­pelled them
To tread the sac­red way.
May we with zeal as ear­nest
The faith of Christ main­tain,
And, bound in love as breth­ren,
At length Thy rest at­tain.

Apostles, pro­phets, mar­tyrs,
And all the sac­red throng,
Who wear the spot­less rai­ment,
Who raise the cease­less song,
For these, passed on be­fore us,
Savior, we Thee adore,
And, walk­ing in their foot­steps,
Would serve Thee more and more.

Then praise we God the Fa­ther,
And praise we God the Son,
And God the Ho­ly Spi­rit,
Eternal Three in One;
Till all the ran­somed num­ber
Fall down be­fore the throne,
And hon­or, pow­er, and glo­ry,
Ascribe to God alone.