"I Sing A Song"

When I was a girl, it was a societal rule that one didn't talk about religion or politics. And though times have changed, I still pretty much live by this principle. I rarely mention either one on my blog, or in my "real" life. I believe what I believe and let others do the same. But on this All Saints' Day, I want to share a hymn that I love. I am, as they say, a cradle Episcopalian, and I grew up singing this hymn. Even if one isn't religious, I think you can appreciate the words as a beautiful British poem.

I sing a song of the saints of God,
Patient and brave and true,
Who toiled and fought and lived and died
For the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
And one was a shepherdess on the green:
They were all of them saints of God - and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.

They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
And his love made them strong;
And they followed the right, for Jesus’ sake,
The whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
And one was slain by a fierce wild beast:
And there’s not any reason - no, not the least,
Why I shouldn’t be one too.

They lived not only in ages past,
There are hundreds of thousands still,
The world is bright with the joyous saints
Who love to do Jesus’ will.
You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,
In church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea,
For the saints of God are just folk like me,
And I mean to be one too.

Lesbia Lesley Locket was born in Willesden, England in 1898. She married John Mortimer Scott, a naval officer, who later became an Anglican priest and served a parish near Dartmoor. Active in amateur theatre and religious drama, Mrs Scott did considerable writing, especially of religious drama. She died in 1986 at Pershore, England. "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God," was not written for publication. The author wrote the hymn, as she herself says: "for use in our nursery, as an expression of the Faith my husband and I were trying to give our children. Most of the hymns I wrote were in response to the children’s demands. ‘Make a hymn for a picnic!’ or ‘Make a hymn for a foggy day!’ ‘I Sing a Song' was written for us to sing on Saints’ Days, to impress on them the fact that sainthood is a living possibility today."