Doctrine and Covenants 25:12
For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.
If you want to practice singing it, you can download the minus track here.
Work toward memorizing the words to Come, Come Ye Saints as we will sing it often.
Come, Come Ye Saints
1. Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear;
But with joy wend your way.
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
'Tis better far for us to strive
Our useless cares from us to drive;
Do this, and joy your hearts will swell—
All is well! All is well!
But with joy wend your way.
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
'Tis better far for us to strive
Our useless cares from us to drive;
Do this, and joy your hearts will swell—
All is well! All is well!
2. Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard?
'Tis not so; all is right.
Why should we think to earn a great reward
If we now shun the fight?
Gird up your loins; fresh courage take.
Our God will never us forsake;
And soon we'll have this tale to tell—
All is well! All is well!
'Tis not so; all is right.
Why should we think to earn a great reward
If we now shun the fight?
Gird up your loins; fresh courage take.
Our God will never us forsake;
And soon we'll have this tale to tell—
All is well! All is well!
3. We'll find the place which God for us prepared,
Far away in the West,
Where none shall come to hurt or make afraid;
There the Saints will be blessed.
We'll make the air with music ring,
Shout praises to our God and King;
Above the rest these words we'll tell—
All is well! All is well!
Far away in the West,
Where none shall come to hurt or make afraid;
There the Saints will be blessed.
We'll make the air with music ring,
Shout praises to our God and King;
Above the rest these words we'll tell—
All is well! All is well!
4. And should we die before our journey's through,
Happy day! All is well!
We then are free from toil and sorrow, too;
With the just we shall dwell!
But if our lives are spared again
To see the Saints their rest obtain,
Oh, how we'll make this chorus swell—
All is well! All is well!
Happy day! All is well!
We then are free from toil and sorrow, too;
With the just we shall dwell!
But if our lives are spared again
To see the Saints their rest obtain,
Oh, how we'll make this chorus swell—
All is well! All is well!
History of
"Come, Come Ye Saints"
Although it is
generally believed that William Clayton wrote "Come, Come, Ye Saints"
on the journey between Winter Quarters and Salt Lake City, the hymn was really
written, while Brigham Young's Company was traveling from Nauvoo to Winter
Quarters.
President Young,
feeling great anxiety because there were murmurings in the camp of Israel,
called Elder William Clayton aside and said, "Brother Clayton, I want you to write a hymn that the people can sing at
their campfires in the evening; something that will give them succor and
support, and help them to fight the many troubles and trials of the journey.”
Elder Clayton withdrew from the camp and in two hours returned with the hymn
familiarly known as "Come, Come, Ye Saints." His personal testimony
is to the effect that it was written under the “favor and inspiration of the Lord."
The song, indeed,
seems to have been written under the Lord's inspiration, for He has used it
often to uplift His Saints. Oscar Winters, President Heber J. Grant's father-in
law, relates the following story:
One night, as we were making camp, we noticed
one of our brethren had not arrived and a volunteer party was immediately
organized to return and see if anything had happened to him. Just as we were
about to start, we saw the missing brother coming in the distance. When he
arrived, he said he had been quite sick, - so some of us un-yoked his oxen and
attended to his part of the camp duties. After supper, he sat down before the
campfire on a large rock and sang in a very faint, but plaintive and sweet
voice, the hymn "Come, Come, Ye Saints.” It was a rule of the camp
that whenever anybody started this hymn, all in the camp should join, but for
some reason this evening nobody joined him. He sang the hymn alone. When he had
finished, I doubt if there was a single dry eye in the camp. The next morning,
we noticed that he was not yoking up his cattle. We went to his wagon and found
that he had died during the night. We dug a shallow grave and after we had
covered the body with the earth, we rolled the large stone to the head of the
grave to mark it--the stone on which he had been sitting the night before when
he sang, "And should we die before our journeys through--Happy day! Al1 is
well ".
Truly,
"Come, Come, Ye Saints" is worthy to be placed among the great hymns
of Christian literature. With it, Clayton catches the spirit and sentiment of
an oppressed people and crystallizes them into simple verse that arouses the
interest of the multitude.
When the Salt
Lake Tabernacle Choir was in Europe in 1955, they sang an arrangement of
"Come, Come, Ye Saints," in every concert. Notwithstanding the
difficulties caused by the various languages, it was encored every time it was
performed. The repetitive phrase "all is well" seemed to be
understood in each country and even by the refugees in Berlin where the people
before whom the choir sang were without home, work, food, and even citizenship.
Nothing was "well" with them, yet they encored the grand old hymn.
"Come, Come,
Ye Saints" has served the purpose named in President Young's request: it
was sung at every camp-fire, it gave succor and support to the saints, and it
has helped pioneers, both of yesterday and today, to lay aside useless cares
and to "fight the many troubles and trials of the journey."
You can also familiarize yourself with other hymns that will be sung often:
- “The Spirit of God”, Hymn #2
- “I Am a Child of God”, Hymn #301
- “As Zion’s Youth in Latter Days”, Hymn #256
- “Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel”, Hymn #252
- “They The Builders of the Nation, Hymn #36
- “True to the Faith”, Hymn #254
- “There is Sunshine in My Soul Today”, Hymn #227
- “I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go”, Hymn #270
- “Families Can Be Together Forever”, Hymn #300
- “Handcart Song”, Children’s Songbook, Page 220
- “Pioneer Children Sang As They Walked”, Children’s Songbook, Page 214
The Handcart Song
Verse 1:
Ye saints who dwell on Europe's shore
Prepare yourselves for many more,
To leave behind your native land,
For sure God's judgments are at hand.
For you must cross the raging main
Before the promised land you gain,
And with the faithful make a start,
To cross the plains with your handcart
Verse 1:
Ye saints who dwell on Europe's shore
Prepare yourselves for many more,
To leave behind your native land,
For sure God's judgments are at hand.
For you must cross the raging main
Before the promised land you gain,
And with the faithful make a start,
To cross the plains with your handcart
Chorus
For some must push and some must pull,
As we go marching up the hill;
So merrily on the way we go
Until we reach the Valley-o.
For some must push and some must pull,
As we go marching up the hill;
So merrily on the way we go
Until we reach the Valley-o.
Verse 2:
As on the roads the carts are pulled
'Twould very much surprise the world
To see the old and feeble dame
Thus lend a hand to pull the same.
And maidens fair will dance and sing—
Young men more happy than a king,
And children too, will laugh and play
Their strength increasing day by day.
As on the roads the carts are pulled
'Twould very much surprise the world
To see the old and feeble dame
Thus lend a hand to pull the same.
And maidens fair will dance and sing—
Young men more happy than a king,
And children too, will laugh and play
Their strength increasing day by day.
Verse 5:
And long before the Valley's gained,
We will be met upon the plains
With music sweet and friends so dear,
And fresh supplies our hearts to cheer.
And then with music and with song
How cheerfully we'll march along,
And thank the day we made a start,
To cross the plains with our handcart.
And long before the Valley's gained,
We will be met upon the plains
With music sweet and friends so dear,
And fresh supplies our hearts to cheer.
And then with music and with song
How cheerfully we'll march along,
And thank the day we made a start,
To cross the plains with our handcart.
Chorus
For some must push and some must pull,
As we go marching up the hill;
So merrily on the way we go
Until we reach the Valley-o.
For some must push and some must pull,
As we go marching up the hill;
So merrily on the way we go
Until we reach the Valley-o.
["The Handcart Song," Pioneer
Songs (1940), 21]
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