When All Is Ended

1 When all is ended, time and troubles past,
shall all be mended, sin and death out-cast?
In hope we sing, and hope to sing at last:
Alleluia! Alleluia!

2 As in the night, when lightning flickers free,
and gives a glimpse of distant hill and tree,
each flash of good discloses what will be:
Alleluia! Alleluia!

3 Against all hope, our weary times have known
wars ended, peace declared, compassion shown,
great days of freedom, tyrants overthrown:
Alleluia! Alleluia!

4 Then do not cheat the poor, who long for bread,
with dream-worlds in the sky or in the head,
but sing of slaves set free, and children fed:
Alleluia! Alleluia!

5 With earthy faith we sing a song of heaven:
all life fulfilled, all loved, all wrong forgiven.
Christ is our sign of hope, for Christ is risen:
Alleluia! Alleluia!

6 With all creation, pain and anger past,
evil exhausted, love supreme at last,
alive in God, we'll sing an unsurpassed
Alleluia! Alleluia!