Scripture References:
st. 1 = Rev. 14:13, Heb. 12:1-2
st. 3 = Rev. 2:10
st. 4 = John 17:22
st. 6 = Prov. 4:18
st. 7 = Rev. 7:9-17
"For All the Saints" is considered to be William W. How's (PHH 279) finest hymn text. Originally in eleven stanzas, it was published in Earl Nelson's Hymns for Saints' Days (1864) with the heading, "Saints' Day Hymn. A Cloud of Witnesses. Heb. 12:1." The Psalter Hymnal includes the original stanzas 1-2, 6-8, and 10-11, with modernized pronouns. (Among the stanzas omitted in most hymnals are those that begin "for all the apostles," "for all the evangelists," and "for all the martyrs.")
The text begins with a proclamation of thanksgiving for the saints ("the cloud of witnesses") who confessed Christ and found in him protection and inspiration (st. 1-2). That proclamation is followed by a prayer for Christ's soldiers on earth to be "faithful, true, and bold" (st. 3). At the crux of the text is the confession of a "blest communion" of saints in heaven and on earth (st. 4). Though the holy warfare may be "fierce and long" (st. 5), "all the saints" may take courage from the vision of a victorious church that worships the triune God on that "more glorious day" (st. 6-7).
Liturgical Use:
Traditionally for All Saints Day (the first Sunday in November) and similar church festivals; worship that emphasizes the church as militant and triumphant; funerals.
--Psalter Hymnal Handbook
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For all Thy [the] saints who from their labours rest. Bp. W. W. How. [Saints' Days.] First published in Hymn for Saints' Day, and Other Hymns. By a Layman [Earl Nelson], 1864, in 11 stanzas of 3 lines, and the refrain "Alleluia." It was republished in Lyra Britannica, 1867; in the Sarum Hymnal, 1868; in the 1869 Appendix to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Psalms & Hymns, and subsequently in nearly every hymnal of importance published in Great Britain. It is also found in the best collections of all English-speaking countries, and, with hymnal compilers, it is one of the most popular of the author's compositions. It is sometimes given in American hymnals (as it is in the S. P. C. K. Church Hymns, as "For all the saints," &c, this being Bishop How's revised reading. In the Protestant Episcopal Hymnal, 1872, stanzas iii.-v. are given as a separate hymn (No. 186), beginning, "For the Apostles' glorious company." Original text as above. Authorized text in S. P. C. K. Church Hymns.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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For all Thy [the] saints who from their labours rest, p. 380, ii. The alterations in the text of this hymn, as given in the 1904 edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern, were reluctantly sanctioned by Bp. How shortly before his death in 1897.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)
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