287 For All the Saints Who From Their Labor Rest

This hymn is usually used for All Saints Sunday, November 1.  Bishop William How wrote this hymn in 1864 in praise of the faithful deeds of a score of Old Testament. He cited Hebrews 12:1 ("Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.") . But he actually used Hebrews 11 for his inspiration.  That chapter discusses what faith is  and all the deed of faith done by Old Testament individuals: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses,  and more.

Bishop How could have been considered a hero of fiath himself during his time.  He was a man of the people, regularly reaching out to minister to the poor and needy in his area.  Always humble, he once listed the characteristics that a minister should have, including among others, "being wholly without thought of self." Family and friends how knew him best were certain that he fit that description.

His son wrote his biography that "It is the fate of a hymn-writer to be forgotten.  The hymn remains; the name of the writer passes away." To those who knew the Bishop, the man would have agreed. Further, How was quoted ,"but to be a blessing is the abundant satisfaction of those who find their loving service of their fellow man."

My own mother, born in 1913, would have agreed with the Bishop.  Her advice to me from the time I was very young was, "the best thing to do with your life is to serve the Lord and serve others."  I hope I am making her proud through my organ playing and my counseling.

The composer of the hymn was the great British composer, Ralph Vaugh Williams. Vaughan Williams was born on the 12th October, 1872 in the Cotswold village of Down Ampney. He was educated at Charterhouse School, then Trinity College, Cambridge. Later he was a pupil of Stanford and Parry at the Royal College of Music, after which he studied with Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice Ravel in Paris.

At the turn of the century he was among the very first to travel into the countryside to collect folk-songs and carols from singers, notating them for future generations to enjoy. As musical editor of The English Hymnal he composed several hymns that are now world-wide favorites (For all the Saints, Come down O love Divine). Later he also helped to edit The Oxford Book of Carols, with similar success. Before the war he had met and then sustained a long and deep friendship with the composer Gustav Holst. Vaughan Williams volunteered to serve in the Field Ambulance Service in Flanders for the 1914-1918 war, during which he was deeply affected by the carnage and the loss of close friends such as the composer George Butterworth.

For many years Vaughan Williams conducted and led the Leith Hill Music Festival, conducting Bach's St Matthew Passion on a regular basis. He also became professor of composition at the Royal College of Music in London. In his lifetime, Vaughan Williams eschewed all honors with the exception of the Order of Merit which was conferred upon him in 1938.

He died on the 26th August 1958; his ashes are interred in Westminster Abbey, near Purcell. In a long and productive life, music flowed from his creative pen in profusion. Hardly a musical genre was untouched or failed to be enriched by his work, which included nine symphonies, five operas, film music, ballet and stage music, several song cycles, church music and works for chorus and orchestra.