What a mournful life is mine

The words

1. 1

   Stanza 1. What a mournful life is mine,Fill with crosses, pains and cares!Every work defiled with sin,Every step beset with snares!

2. 2

   Stanza 2. If alone I pensive fit,I myself can hardly bear;If I pass along the street,Sin and riot triumph there.

3. 3

   Stanza 3. Jesus! how my heart is pained,How it mourns for souls deceived!When I hear thy name profaned,When I see thy Spirit grieved!

4. 4

   Stanza 4. When thy children’s griefs I view,Their distress becomes my own;All I hear, or see, or do,Makes me tremble, weep and groan.

5. 5

   Stanza 5. Mourning thus I long had been,When I heard my Savior’s voice;Thou hast cause to mourn for sin,But in me thou may’st rejoice.”

6. 6

   Stanza 6. This kind word dispelled my grief,Put to silence my complaints;Though of sinners I am chief,He his ranked me with his saints.

7. 7

   Stanza 7. Though constrained to dwell a whileWhere the wicked strive and brawl;Let them frown; so he but smile,Heav’n will make amends for all.

8. 8

   Stanza 8. There, believers, we shall rest,Free from sorrow, sin and fears;Nothing there our peace molests,Through eternal rounds of years.

9. 9

   Stanza 9. Let us then the fight endure,See our Captain looking down;He will make the conquest sure,And bestow the promised crown.

Olney Hymns (1779), Book 1, Hymn 51. John Newton. Public domain. CCEL transcription with modernized spelling. www.praylock.com/olney-hymns/1-51