O let my voice proclaim the joys

O let my voice proclaim the joys
My heart has known and felt;
And let my tongue declare the woes
My soul has known by guilt.

Long in the paths of sin I trod,
And, in her foulest way,
Provoked a kind and gracious God,
And grieved him day by day.

I tried his patience with my crimes,
By days and years of sin;
Resolved to mend in aftertimes,
And wash the leper clean.

I tried, resolved, and toiled, and tugged,
But filthier still I grew;
My darling sins in secret hugged,
Nor how to leave them knew.

But when the Lord his arm made bare,
And took my heart in hand,
Effectual cleansing work was there,
Which I could not withstand.

He doomed me in the dust to lie,
In sorrows sharp and long;
Then changed my sadness into joy,
My mourning to a song.