Communion of Saints
Through the Night of Doubt and Sorrow
- Words:
- Bernhardt S. Ingemann, 1826. Translated by Sabine Baring-Gould, 1867.
- Music:
- 'Rex Gloriae' Henry Thomas Smart, 1868.
- Setting:
- "Appendix to Hymns Ancient and Modern", 1869.
- Metre:
- 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7
- 1Through the night of doubt and sorrowOnward goes the pilgrim band,Singing songs of expectation,Marching to the Promised Land.Clear before us through the darknessGleams and burns the guiding light:Brother clasps the hand of brother,Stepping fearless through the night.
- 2One the light of God's own presence,O'er His ransomed people shed,Chasing far the gloom and terror,Bright'ning all the path we tread:One the object of our journey,One the faith which never tires,One the earnest looking forward,One the hope our God inspires.
- 3One the strain that lips of thousandsLift as from the heart of one;One the conflict, one the perilOne the march in God begun:One the gladness of rejoicingOn the far eternal shore,Where the One Almighty FatherReigns in love for evermore.
- 4Onward, therefore, pilgrim brothers,Onward, with the cross our aid!Bear its shame, and fight its battle,Till we rest beneath its shade.Soon shall come the great awaking,Soon the rending of the tomb;Then the scatt'ring of all shadows,And the end of toil and gloom.
More sheet music
Scripture
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In the hymnals
- The words are in 341 hymnals indexed by Hymnary.org. Their history →
- The tune, Rex Gloriae, is in 116 hymnals. The tune →
Words, music and setting are in the public domain. The score is from the Open Hymnal Project (Brian J. Dumont), which places its own work in the public domain. Further sheet music is from PDHymns.com. The piano is the FluidR3 General MIDI sound font (MIT licence). How many hymnals print a hymn, and when it was written, is from Hymnary.org.