A track from the fifth part of EMI’s anthology “The Treasury of English Church Music”, recorded in Chichester Cathedral, 22-24 June 1966. With the choir of Chichester Cathedral, directed by John Birch, and Richard Seal (organ).

This anthem was commissioned for the Patronal Festival of St John the Baptist, Leytonstone, in 1962. The text is by Isaac Watts (1709).

Give me the wings of faith to rise
Within the veil, and see
The saints above, how great their joys,
How bright their glories be.

Once they were mourning here below,
Their couch was wet with tears;
They wrestled hard, as we do now,
With sins and doubts and fears.

I ask them whence their victory came:
They, with united breath,
Ascribe their conquest to the Lamb,
Their triumph to his death.

They marked the footsteps that he trod,
His zeal inspired their breast,
And, following their incarnate God,
Possess the promised rest.

Our glorious Leader claims our praise
For his own pattern given;
While the long cloud of witnesses
Show the same path to heaven.