{
 "id": "john-newton/davids-fall",
 "title": "David’s Fall",
 "ordinal": "29",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 29,
 "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": 39,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    1
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   "title": null,
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  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VIII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "How David, when by sin deceived,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From bad to worse went on!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For when the Holy Spirit’s grieved,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our strength and guard are gone.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "His eyes, on Bathsheba once fix’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With poison fill’d his soul;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He ventured on adult’ry next,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And murder crown’d the whole.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So from a spark of fire at first,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That has not been descried,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A dreadful flame has often burst,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ravaged far and wide.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When sin deceives it hardens too;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For though he vainly sought",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To hide his crimes from public view,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of God he little thought.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He neither would nor could repent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No true compunction felt,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till God in mercy Nathan sent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His stubborn heart to melt.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The parable held forth a fact,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Design’d his case to show;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But though the picture was exact,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Himself he did not know.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Thou art the man,” the prophet said:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That word his slumber broke;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And when he own’d his sin and pray’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Lord forgiveness spoke.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let those who think they stand, beware,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For David stood before:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor let the fallen soul despair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For Mercy can restore.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}