{
 "id": "john-newton/expostulation",
 "title": "Expostulation",
 "ordinal": "1",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 242,
 "container": "I Solemn Addresses to Sinners",
 "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-3.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": 48,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 6,
  "longest_line_chars": 29,
  "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
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    5,
    6
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "No words can declare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No fancy can paint,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What rage and despair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What hopeless complaint,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fill Satan’s dark dwelling,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The prison beneath⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What weeping and yelling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gnashing of teeth!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet sinners will choose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This dreadful abode!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each madly pursues",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The dangerous road;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though God give them warning,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They onward will go,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They answer with scorning,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And rush upon woe.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How sad to behold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rich and the poor,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The young and the old,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All blindly secure!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All posting to ruin,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Refusing to stop.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! think what you’re doing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While yet there is hope!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How weak is your hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To fight with the Lord!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How can you withstand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The edge of his sword?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What hope of escaping",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For those who oppose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When hell is wide gaping",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To swallow his foes?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How oft have you dared",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Lord to his face!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet still you are spared",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To hear of his grace.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O pray for repentance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And life-giving faith",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before the just sentence",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Consign you to death.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It is not too late",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To Jesus to flee;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His mercy is great,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His pardon is free!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His blood has such virtue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For all that believe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That nothing can hurt you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If him you receive.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}