{
 "id": "john-newton/cain-and-abel",
 "title": "Cain and Abel",
 "ordinal": "2",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 2,
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 8,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "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": [
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    4
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    5,
    6
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    6,
    7
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VIII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    7,
    8
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When Adam fell he quickly lost",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God’s image, which he once possess’d:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "See all our nature since could boast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Cain, his first-born son, express’d!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The sacrifice the Lord ordain’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In type of the Redeemer’s blood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Self-righteous reasoning Cain disdain’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thought his own first-fruits as good.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet rage and envy fill’d his mind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When, with a sullen downcast look,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He saw his brother favour find,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who God’s appointed method took.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "By Cain’s own hand good Abel died,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because the Lord approved his faith;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, when his blood for vengeance cried,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He vainly thought to hide his death.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Such was the wicked murderer Cain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And such by nature still are we⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Untill by grace we’re born again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Malicious, blind, and proud as he.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Like him the way of grace we slight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in our own devices trust;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Call evil good, and darkness light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hate and persecute the just.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The saints in every age and place",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have found his history fulfill’d:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The numbers all our thoughts surpass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Abels whom the Cains have kill’d!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thus Jesus fell; but, oh! his blood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far better things than Abel’s cries⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Obtains his murderers’ peace with God,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gains them mansions in the skies.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}