{
 "id": "john-henry-newman/the-witness",
 "title": "The Witness",
 "ordinal": "LIII",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Henry Newman",
 "poet_slug": "john-henry-newman",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Verses on Various Occasions",
 "book_slug": "verses-on-various-occasions",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 53,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1903,
  "venue": "Verses on Various Occasions (1903)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/a600744000newmuoft"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/john-henry-newman_verses-on-various-occasions",
  "file": "verses-on-various-occasions.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "http://www.newmanreader.org/works/verses",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009038168",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48927",
   "https://archive.org/details/dreamofgerontius01newmuoft"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "How shall a child of God fulfil",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His vow to cleanse his soul from ill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And raise on high his baptism-light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like Aaron’s seed in vestment white",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And holy-hearted Nazarite?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "First, let him shun the haunts of vice,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sin-feast, or heathen sacrifice;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fearing the board of wealthy pride,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or heretic, self-trusting guide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or where the adulterer’s smiles preside.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Next, as he threads the maze of men,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Aye must he lift his witness, when",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A sin is spoke in Heaven’s dread face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And none at hand of higher grace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Cross to carry in his place.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But if he hears and sits him still,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "First, he will lose his hate of ill;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Next, fear of sinning, after hate;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Small sins his heart then desecrate;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And last, despair persuades to great.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}