The Endless Alleluia

Representative Text

1 Alleluia! let the holy sounds of cheerful praises ring,
Freemen of the heavenly city, join in sweetest notes to sing
Alleluia evermore!

2 In the everlasting anthem, while the hymning choirs unite,
Alleluia shall uplift you hence in realms of endless light.
Alleluia evermore!

3 You, in God's illustrious city, shall a ready welcome greet,
City with glad songs resounding, where the echoes still repeat
Alleluia evermore!

4 Of that happy restoration freely gather all the joys,
To the Lord ascribing glory, singing with melodious noise
Alleluia evermore!

5 Victors of the star-bespangled fatherland ye now attain
All the radiant honors, wherefore peals aloud the ceaseless strain,
Alleluia evermore!

6 Thence a sound of noble voices, grandly echoing, rolls along,
Telling out the King's high praises ina blithe and merry song,
Alleluia evermore!

7 There is rest for all the weary, there immortal wine and bread,
Sweetly luring home the travellers, plenteous though they allbe fed.
Alleluia evermore!

8 Thee, with all our hearts and voices, Maker of the world we praise,
And to thy deserved honor our melodious music raise,
Alleluia evermore!

9 Thee, O Christ, as Lord Almighty, shall thy glorious praise proclaim,
By our gladsome voices chanted, while we sing to thy dear name,
Alleluia evermore!

Source: Songs of the Soul: gathered out of many lands and ages #613

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Alleluia! let thy holy sounds of cheerful praises ring
Title:	The Endless Alleluia
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Alleluia piis edite laudibus. This anonymous hymn, Mone, 1853, i. p. 87, assigns to the 5th century, on the ground that it was included in the Mozarabic Breviary, in which no hymns were admitted which arc of later date than the 8th century, and that the shortened strophe indicated that date. He gives the text from a Munich manuscript of the 10th century, and adds numerous readings and a few notes.
The text is also in the Hymnarium Sarisburiense, London, 1851, pp. 60,61, where it is given as the hymn at Matins on Septuagesima Sunday and through the week, and as from a manuscript (date 1064), formerly belonging to Worcester Cathedral; which manuscript professes to contain Ambrosian Hymns for the different Hours, according to the Constitutions of our Father Benedict, and to have St. Oswald as its compiler. [Rev. W. A. Shoults, M. A.]

Translation not in common use:—
Alleluia! let the holy sounds of cheerful praises ring. Crippen's Ancient Hymns, 1868, p. 25.

-- Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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