To All the Saints of God on Earth

To all the saints of God on earth;

Their death day is their day of birth

Death is their door of life

the Sac­red Way

By which they pass to realms of end­less day.

And whence do all the saints de­rive

The life by which through death they live?

From God made flesh; on Him their vir­tues grow.

He is the fount from which their grac­es flow.

We sang to God on yes­ter­morn

When Je­sus Christ for us was born;

And from His birth the saints their birth­days date;

And in the saints their Lord we ce­le­brate.

Today the first of mar­tyrs dies

And dy­ing en­ters para­dise;

Foes rage against him; but what gleams of grace

Angelic shine on his trans­fig­ured face!

While storms of stones around him fly

His soul is an­chored in the sky;

I see Heav’n op­ened

and at God’s right hand

The Son of Man

he cries

in glo­ry stand.

Jesu

re­ceive my soul

he says.

Kneels down

and then more loud­ly prays

Lord

do not this their sin in me­mo­ry keep—

And when he thus had said

he fell asleep.

Lord

when we suf­fer here for Thee

Grant us Thy glo­ri­ous face to see

And on the spir­it’s wings of faith and love

Waft us from earth to light and life ab­ove.

Praises to God the Fa­ther give

And to the Son in whom we live;

And praise to God the Ho­ly Spir­it be

One ev­er­last­ing God

and Per­sons Three.