{
 "id": "george-macdonald/blessed-are-the-merciful",
 "title": "Blessed Are the Merciful",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "For They Shall Obtain Mercy",
 "poet": "George MacDonald",
 "poet_slug": "george-macdonald",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Disciple and Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "the-disciple-and-other-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 16,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1867,
  "venue": "The Disciple and Other Poems (1867)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/metadata/discipleandothe02macdgoog"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/george-macdonald_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8949",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9543",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9984",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10578",
   "https://archive.org/details/bookofstrifeinfo00macd",
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/hiddenlifeandoth00macduoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/rampolli00macd",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102955776",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011821572"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 37,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "It was an awful hour that gave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thee, Lord, the strength to win",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Unholy men up from the grave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of darkness and of sin.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And is this all thou dost require",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For thy forgiveness now⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That we to loftier bliss aspire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By doing even as thou?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou risest on our darksome earth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Radiant of human light,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That men may see, recall their birth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And claim its lofty right;",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The right to pardon and to bless,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By service high to rule;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Upheld with wealth of tenderness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From God the pitiful.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}