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Home  »  The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century  »  Henry Alford (1810–1871)

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Hymns. III. “Ten thousand times ten thousand”

Henry Alford (1810–1871)

(Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity)

TEN thousand times ten thousand,

In sparkling raiment bright,

The armies of the ransom’d saints

Throng up the steeps of light:

’Tis finish’d—all is finish’d,

Their fight with death and sin;

Fling open wide the golden gates

And let the victors in.

What rush of Hallelujas

Fills all the earth and sky!

What ringing of a thousand harps

Bespeaks the triumph nigh!

O day, for which Creation

And all its tribes were made!

O joy, for all its former woes

A thousand-fold repaid!

O then what raptured greetings

On Canaan’s happy shore,

What knitting sever’d friendships up,

Where partings are no more!

Then eyes with joy shall sparkle

That brimm’d with tears of late;

Orphans no longer fatherless,

Nor widows desolate.

Bring near Thy great salvation

Thou Lamb for sinners slain,

Fill up the roll of Thine elect,

Then take Thy power and reign:

Appear, Desire of nations,—

Thine exiles long for home;

Show in the heavens Thy promised sign;

Thou Prince and Saviour, come!