{
 "id": "john-newton/is-this-thy-kindness-to-thy-friend",
 "title": "Is This Thy Kindness to Thy Friend?",
 "ordinal": "30",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 30,
 "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": 45,
  "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
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    6,
    7
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VIII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    7,
    8
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Poor, weak, and worthless, though I am,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have a rich, almighty Friend;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Jesus, the Saviour, is his name,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He freely loves, and without end.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He ransom’d me from hell with blood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And by his power my foes control’d;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He found me wand’ring far from God,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And brought me to his chosen fold.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He cheers my heart, my want supplies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And says that I shall shortly be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Enthroned with him above the skies:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "what a Friend is Christ to me!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But ah! my inmost spirit mourns,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And well my eyes with tears may swim,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To think of my perverse returns;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve been a faithless friend to him.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Often my gracious Friend I grieve,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Neglect, distrust, and disobey;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And often Satan’s lies believe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sooner than all my Friend can say.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He bids me always freely come,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And promises whate’er I ask;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But I am straiten’d, cold, and dumb,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And count my privilege a task.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Before the world, that hates his cause,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My treach’rous heart has throbb’d with shame;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loath to forego the world’s applause,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I hardly dare avow his name.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sure, were not I most vile and base,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I could not thus my Friend requite!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And were not he the God of grace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He’d frown, and spurn me from his sight.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}