1 What a mournful life is mine,
Filled with crosses, pains and cares!
Every work defiled with sin,
Every step beset with snares!
2 If alone I pensive sit,
I myself can hardly bear;
If I pass along the street,
Sin and riot triumph there.
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 When thy children's grief I view,
Their distress becomes my own;
All I hear, or see, or do,
Makes me tremble, weep and groan.
5 Mourning thus I long had been,
When I heard my Saviour's voice;
"Thou hast cause to mourn for sin,
"But in me thou may'st rejoice."
6 This kind word dispelled my grief,
Put to silence my complaints;
Tho' of sinners I'm the chief,
He has ranked me with his saints.
7 Tho' constrained to dwell a while
Where the wicked strive and brawl;
Let them frown, so he but smile,
Heaven will make amends for all.
8 There, believers, we shall rest,
Free from sorrow, sin and fears:
Nothing there our peace molest,
Thro' eternal rounds of years.
9 Let us then the fight endure,
See our Captain looking down:
He will make the conquest sure,
And bestow the promised crown.
Hymns and Spiritual Songs for the use of Christians, 1803
John Newton (b. London, England, 1725; d. London, 1807) was born into a Christian home, but his godly mother died when he was seven, and he joined his father at sea when he was eleven. His licentious and tumultuous sailing life included a flogging for attempted desertion from the Royal Navy and captivity by a slave trader in West Africa. After his escape he himself became the captain of a slave ship. Several factors contributed to Newton's conversion: a near-drowning in 1748, the piety of his friend Mary Catlett, (whom he married in 1750), and his reading of Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ. In 1754 he gave up the slave trade and, in association with William Wilberforce, eventually became an ardent abolitionist. After becoming a tide… Go to person page >
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