威廉·豪威（William W. How）. Explore “For All the Saints”: song information and official sources.
Hope for the end of the age · Victory and the crown
Hebrews 12 describes a cloud of witnesses surrounding us. This hymn sings of that cloud: saints already at rest and those of us still fighting belong to the same company. Its fourth and fifth stanzas place the two together, those struggling in battle and those already rejoicing in victory, as one fellowship. At funerals this offers great comfort. The person has arrived ahead of us, rather than simply gone elsewhere. The tune's name SINE NOMINE means “without a name”. Whether it was chosen to honour unnamed saints remains a scholarly suggestion rather than a settled conclusion. Yet the name does evoke those whose names no one remembers, all belonging to the innumerable multitude of Revelation 7:9. Many denominational traditions use it on All Saints' Day.
Memorials, funerals, All Saints' Day and church anniversaries; teaching on Hebrews 12 or the communion of saints.