{
 "id": "john-newton/good-effects-by-weak-means",
 "title": "Good Effects by Weak Means",
 "ordinal": "39",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 280,
 "container": "III Conflict",
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 7,
  "longest_line_chars": 36,
  "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": [
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    5,
    6
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    6,
    7
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Unbelief the soul dismays,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What objections will it raise!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But true faith securely leans",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the promise, in the means.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If to faith it once be known,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God has said, “It shall be done,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in this appointed way,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Faith has then no more to say.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Moses road, by faith uprear’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the sea a path prepared;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Jericho’s devoted wall",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the trumpet’s sound must fall.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With a pitcher and a lamp",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gideon overthrew a camp:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a stone, well aim’d by faith,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Proved the arm’d Philistine’s death.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thus the Lord is pleased to try",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those who on his help rely;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the means he makes it known",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That the power is all his own.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet the means are not in vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If the end we would obtain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though the breath of pray’r be weak,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "None shall find but they who seek.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "God alone the heart can reach,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet the ministers must preach:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis their part the seed to sow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ’tis his to make it grow.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}