{
 "id": "john-newton/help-in-the-time-of-need",
 "title": "Help in the Time of Need",
 "ordinal": "22",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 263,
 "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": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 6,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "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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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    5,
    6
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Unless the Lord had been my stay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(With trembling joy my soul may say,)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My cruel foe had gain’d his end:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But he appear’d for my relief,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Satan sees, with shame and grief,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That I have an almighty Friend.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh! ’twas a dark and trying hour,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When harass’d by the tempter’s power,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I felt my strongest hopes decline!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You only who have known his arts,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You only who have felt his darts,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can pity such a case as mine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Loud in my ears a charge he read,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(My conscience witness’d all he said,)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My long black list of outward sin:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then bringing forth my heart to view,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Too well what’s hidden there he knew,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He show’d me ten times worse within.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Tis all too true, my soul replied,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But I remember Jesus died,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now he fills a throne of grace;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll go, as I have done before,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His mercy I may still implore;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have his promise⁠—“Seek my face.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But as when sudden fogs arise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The trees and hills, the sun and skies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are all at once conceal’d from view;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So clouds of horror, black as night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By Satan raised, hid from my sight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The throne of grace and promise too.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then, while beset with guilt and fear.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He tried to urge me to despair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He tried and he almost prevail’d:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But Jesus by a heavenly ray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drove clouds and guilt and fear away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the tempter’s malice fail’d.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}