{
 "id": "john-newton/humbled-and-silenced-by-mercy",
 "title": "Humbled and Silenced by Mercy",
 "ordinal": "70",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 70,
 "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": [
    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
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    6,
    7
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VIII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    7,
    8
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Once perishing in blood I lay;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Creatures no help could give;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But Jesus pass’d me in the way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He saw, and bade me live.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Though Satan still his rule maintain’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all his arts employ’d;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That mighty word his rage restrain’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I could not be destroy’d.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "At length the time of love arrived,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When I my Lord should know;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then Satan, of his power deprived,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was forced to let me go.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O can I e’er that day forget,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When Jesus kindly spoke!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Poor soul, my blood has paid thy debt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now I break thy yoke.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Henceforth I take thee for my own,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And give myself to thee;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Forsake the idols thou hast known,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yield thy heart to me.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah, worthless heart! it promised fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And said it would be thine;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I little thought it e’er would dare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Again with idols join.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lord, dost thou such backslidings heal,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And pardon all that’s past?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sure, if I am not made of steel,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou hast prevail’d at last.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "My tongue, which rashly spoke before,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This mercy will restrain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Surely I now shall boast no more,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor censure, nor complain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}