| Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. | | | The Holy Year (1862).
III. “Hark the sound of holy voices” | | By Christopher Wordsworth (1807–1885) |
| | (All Saints’ Day)
HARK the sound of holy voices, chanting at the crystal sea, | |
| Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Lord, to Thee; | |
| Multitudes which none can number, like the stars in glory stand, | |
| Cloth’d in white apparel, holding palms of victory in their hand. | |
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| Patriarch, and holy Prophet, who prepar’d the way for Christ; | 5 |
| King, Apostle, Saint, and Martyr, Confessor, Evangelist, | |
| Saintly Maiden, godly Matron, Widows who have watch’d to prayer, | |
| Join’d in holy concert singing to the Lord of all, are there. | |
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| They have come from tribulation, and have wash’d their robes in blood, | |
| Wash’d them in the blood of Jesus; tried they were, and firm they stood: | 10 |
| Mock’d, imprison’d, ston’d, tormented, sawn asunder, slain with sword, | |
| They have conquer’d Death and Satan, by the might of Christ the Lord. | |
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| Marching with Thy Cross their banner, they have triumph’d following, | |
| Thee the Captain of Salvation, Thee their Saviour and their King; | |
| Gladly, Lord, with Thee they suffer’d; gladly, Lord, with Thee they died; | 15 |
| And, by Death, to Life immortal they were born, and glorified. | |
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| Now they reign in heavenly glory, now they walk in golden light, | |
| Now they drink, as from a river, holy bliss and infinite; | |
| Love and Peace they taste for ever; and all Truth and Knowledge see | |
| In the beatific vision of the Blessèd Trinity. | 20 |
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| God of God, the One-begotten, Light of Light, Emmanuel, | |
| In Whose Body, join’d together, all the Saints for ever dwell; | |
| Pour upon us of Thy fulness, that we may for evermore | |
| God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost adore. | | | | |
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