Hidden Saints – a hymn for All Saints

1	She had sewn her life with sadness
	Of the thread that joined each part;
	Now she weaves the song of gladness,
	Now rejoices in her heart.
	Though her fingers, bent, were crippled,
	Though her mind was taught with pain,
	Now as heaven's ether ripples,
	She has grasped a greater gain.

2	He had plumbed the shafts of wonder,
	Dug the coal from earth's dark veins;
	Now the darkness ripped asunder,
	Tells that more than life remains.
	Though his were lungs were torn with crying,
	Though his flesh was bruised and scarred,
	Now he soars, to glory climbing,
	Shares the loud angelic chord.

3	He had worked and toiled and worried
	At the tasks he undertook,
	He had hurtled, rushed and hurried
	Giving life no second look.
	Now at last the task is finished,
	Now the day is dead and gone,
	Urgency has been relinquished,
	Satisfied he joins the song.
	
4	We had seen a body lying,
	One we loved, as still as death;
	Now by faith, that death defying,
	Through God's resurrection breath
	Heaven now is more than story,
	Love is more than want or gain.
	Saints are carolling the glory
	Of the God they know by name.
	
Andrew E Pratt (born 1948)
Words © 1997 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://www.stainer.co.uk.
Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider 
and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.
Metre: 8 7 8 7 D Trochaic
Tune: HYFRYDOl