I will wash my hands in innocency.

1.

I’ll wash my hands in waters

That are innocent as snow,

And thus unto thine altars,

My Redeemer, will I go:

I’ll stand within thy temples,

In garments pure and white,

And take thy yoke upon me,

For ’tis easy and ’tis light.

2.

But give me in the beauty

Of holiness to shine,

And to sound upon the mountains

That cheery trump of thine;

And to ope the gushing fountains

In the desert’s dreary ways,

And herald joyful tidings,

And the holy cross to raise.

3.

And with a soul that tramples

On the laurel and the gem,

May I strive, in godlike meekness,

For a brighter diadem;

And run my race with glory,

And fight a noble fight,

Till I join the victor-pÆan

Of the conquerors in light.

4.

Now clothe me in mine armor,

Ye fathers of the host,

And give my hand the banner

Of the dove-like Holy Ghost;

While swells around the war-song

Of my Redeemer King,

And all the warrior-anthems

That the noble armies sing.

5.

Then bless me for the onset

That I may battle well,

For the Captain of salvation,

’Gainst the leaguered hosts of hell;

Nor shun the hottest conflict,

Where the spoiler is abroad,

But breast his fiercest phalanx,

In the panoply of God.

6.

Oh, glorious is the warfare

And the triumph-cry shall sound,

Not sweeter to the victors,

Than the vanquished heathen round:

Messiah’s armies ever,

To their foemen faint in strife,

Bend down the laden branches

Of the healing tree of life.

7.

Yet, Saviour, not with boasting

Would I gird me for the fight,

And take thy yoke upon me,

Though so easy and so light!

Who putteth on his harness,

And striveth for a crown,

Oh, let him never glory

Till he lays his armor down.