My heart becomes filled when I reflect upon the lyrics of this hymn! But it should also be remembered that lyrics are meant to be sung to a melody or tune. I don’t mean this as a slight to any of the tunes – past or present – to which For All the Saints have been sung, but the tune now most associated with this hymn, Sine Nomine (without name), is part of what has made this song so meaningful to me. This tune was written by Ralph Vaughn Williams at the beginning of the 20th Century. I cannot really explain why a certain tune sounds to my ear as if it so well fits a given lyric, but I cannot imagine a better tune. It sounds to me as if it is a victory march, so that when one imagines countless host from all places streaming through gates of pearl while singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost – the earthly soul is spiritually elevated.

Hebrews 12 begins by proclaiming:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us….

Certainly, the cloud of witnesses portrays saints who have left this earthly life and whose souls are now found in heaven with the LORD. Perhaps the number includes all those named in Hebrews 11 – and perhaps we are meant to know it includes even more. Yet, the designation “witnesses” could be considered in two different ways. The saints could be thought of as witnesses in the sense that they are looking upon believers in this present world who are running with endurance their own earthly races. Or, it could be the other way around. Perhaps, readers could be looking heavenward themselves, to those prior saints who “witness” in the sense of giving us the testimony of their former lives. In that manner, the “cloud” would be testifying or witnessing to us as to what running the race of life with greater endurance as a Christian should look like. They witness to us about how our faith should be demonstrated in the manner in which we live.

That second way of understanding “the cloud of witnesses” is how I tend to read Hebrews 12:1 – and though Hebrews 12:1 might not have been planted in the mind of Anglican Priest William Walsham How when he penned the lyrics to For All the Saints in 1864 – to me, that sentiment permeates his words. The lyrics beckon singers to consider for themselves how to serve the Lord best in their own day, as a part of the church militant, to the glory of God, through the encouragement of looking upon those citizens already enrolled in the church triumphant.

The hymn begins by directing our voices to bless the name of Jesus for those saints who now enjoy their eternal rest – saints who had confessed the name of Christ to the world during the time of their mortal lives:

For all the saints who from their labors rest,
Who Thee, by faith, before the world confessed,
Thy name O Jesus, be forever blest.

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