Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand

For Advent

Words: Henry Alford, 1867

Music: "Alford" by Henry Alford, 1875
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer
Gresham

Meter: 76 86 D

1. Ten thousand times ten thousand
    In sparkling raiment bright,
The armies of the ransomed saints
    Throng up the steeps of light;
'Tis finished, all is finished,
    Their fight with death and sin;
Fling open wide the golden gates,
    And let the victors in.

2. What rush of alleluias
    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!

3. O then what raptured greetings
    On Canaan's happy shore;
What knitting severed friendships up
    Where partings are no more!
Then eyes with joy shall sparkle,
    That brimmed with tears of late;
Orphans no longer fatherless,
    Nor widows desolate.

4. 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 heaven thy promised sign;
    Thou Prince and Savior, come.

Sheet Music "Alford" by John B. Dykes, 1875, from Henry Sloane Coffin and Ambrose White Vernon, eds., Hymns of the Kingdom of God. New York: The A. S. Barnes Company, 1910, #198

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