Scripture Verse

Before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal. Revelation 4:6

Introduction

portrait
William Kuipers
(1884–1933)

Words: Will­iam Kui­pers, 1932. Kuip­ers wrote these words while pas­tor of the Sum­mer Street Chris­tian Re­formed Church (CRC) in Pas­sa­ic, New Jer­sey, and died on­ly a few months lat­er. Kui­pers in­tend­ed for the hymn to be sung to El­gar’s Pomp and Circumstance, but as that mu­sic was un­der co­py­right, The Ban­ner, a CRC week­ly ma­ga­zine, held a tune writ­ing con­test. Sie­bolt H. Fries­wyk of Whit­ins­ville, Mas­sa­chu­setts, won the con­test, but Van­der­ho­ven’s tune re­ceived hon­or­able men­tion, and was pub­lished with Kui­pers’ words in the 1934 Psal­ter Hym­nal.

Music: Crys­tal John L. Van­der­ho­ven, 1933 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Van­der­ho­ven (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

By the sea of crys­tal, saints in glo­ry stand,
Myriads in num­ber, drawn from ev­ery land,
Robed in white ap­par­el, washed in Je­sus’ blood,
They now reign in Hea­ven with the Lamb of God.

Out of tri­bu­la­tion, death and Sa­tan’s hand,
They have been trans­lat­ed at the Lord’s com­mand.
In their hands they’re hold­ing palms of vic­to­ry;
Hark! the ju­bi­lant chor­us shouts tri­um­phant­ly:

Unto God Al­migh­ty, sit­ting on the throne,
And the Lamb, vic­to­ri­ous, be the praise alone,
God has wrought sal­va­tion, He did won­drous things,
Who shall not ex­tol Thee, ho­ly King of kings?