{
 "id": "john-newton/a-friend-that-sticketh-closer-than-a-brother",
 "title": "A Friend That Sticketh Closer Than a Brother",
 "ordinal": "53",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 53,
 "container": "Book I On Select Texts of Scripture",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1779,
  "venue": "Olney Hymns (1779)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_olney-hymns-in-three-bo_newton-john_1779",
   "https://cowperandnewtonmuseum.org.uk/bulletin/computerised-index-to-the-olney-hymns/",
   "https://archive.org/details/olneyhymnsinthre00cowpuoft"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/john-newton_william-cowper_olney-hymns",
  "file": "book-1.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Olney_Hymns_%281840%29",
   "https://archive.org/details/olneyhymnsinthre00cowpuoft"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-15"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 6,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    1
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    1,
    2
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    2,
    3
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    3,
    4
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    4,
    5
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    5,
    6
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "One there is, above all others,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Well deserves the name of Friend!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His is love beyond a brother’s,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Costly, free, and knows no end:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They who once his kindness prove,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "find it everlasting love!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Which of all our friends, to save us,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Could or would have shed their blood?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But our Jesus died to have us",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reconciled in him to God:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This was boundless love indeed!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Jesus is a Friend in need.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Men, when raised to lofty stations,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Often know their friends no more;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Slight and scorn their poor relations,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though they valued them before:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But our Saviour always owns",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Those whom he redeem’d with groans.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When he lived on earth abased,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Friend of sinners was his name;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Now above all glory raised,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He rejoices in the same:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Still he calls them brethren, friends,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And to all their wants attends.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Could we bear from one another",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What he daily bears from us?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet this glorious Friend and Brother",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loves us though we treat him thus:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though for good we render ill,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He accounts us brethren still.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O for grace our hearts to soften!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Teach us, Lord, at length to love;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We, alas! forget too often",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What a Friend we have above:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But when home our souls are brought,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We will love thee as we ought.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}