{
 "id": "john-newton/dagon-before-the-ark",
 "title": "Dagon Before the Ark",
 "ordinal": "26",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 26,
 "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": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 5,
  "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": [
    3,
    4
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    4,
    5
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When first, to make my heart his own,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Lord reveal’d his mighty grace,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Self reign’d, like Dagon, on the throne,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But could not long maintain its place.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It fell, and own’d the power divine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Grace can with ease the victory gain,)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But soon this wretched heart of mine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Contrived to set it up again.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Again the Lord his name proclaim’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And brought the hateful idol low;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then self, like Dagon, broken, maim’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seem’d to receive a mortal blow:",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet self is not of life bereft,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor ceases to oppose his will;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though but a maimed stump be left,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis Dagon⁠—’tis an idol still.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lord! must I always guilty prove,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And idols in my heart have room?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh! let the fire of heavenly love",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The very stump of self consume.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}