{
 "id": "john-newton/casting-the-gospel-net",
 "title": "Casting the Gospel Net",
 "ordinal": "10",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 151,
 "container": "Before Annual Sermons to Young People on New-Year’s Evenings",
 "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-2.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": 40,
  "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 Peter, through the tedious night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had often cast his net in vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Soon as the Lord appear’d in sight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He gladly let it down again.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Once more the gospel net we cast;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Do thou, O Lord, the effort own!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We learn from disappointments past",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To rest our hope on thee alone.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Upheld by thy supporting hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We enter on another year;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now we meet at thy command,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To seek thy gracious presence here.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "May this be a much-favour’d hour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To souls in Satan’s bondage led;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "clothe thy word with sovereign power",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To break the rocks and raise the dead!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Have mercy on our num’rous youth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who, young in years, are old in sin;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And by thy Spirit, and thy truth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Show them the state their souls are in.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then by a Saviour’s dying love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To every wounded heart reveal’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Temptations, fears, and guilt remove,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And be their sun and strength and shield",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To mourners speak a cheering word,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On seeking souls vouchsafe to shine;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let poor backsliders be restored,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all thy saints in praises join.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O hear our prayer, and give us hope,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That when thy voice shall call us home,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou still wilt raise a people up",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To love and praise thee in our room.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}