{
 "id": "john-newton/on-the-commencement-of-hostilities-in-america",
 "title": "On the Commencement of Hostilities in America",
 "ordinal": "64",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 205,
 "container": "III Providences",
 "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-2.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": 9,
  "n_parts": 9,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
  "max_indent": 1
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 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
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   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
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   "title": null,
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   "title": null,
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  },
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   "ordinal": "VII",
   "title": null,
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   "ordinal": "VIII",
   "title": null,
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   "title": null,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The gath’ring clouds, with aspect dark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A rising storm presage;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh! to be hid within the ark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And shelter’d from its rage!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "See the commission’d angel frown!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That vial in his hand,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Fill’d with fierce wrath, is pouring down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon our guilty land!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ye saints, unite in wrestling pray’r,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If yet there may be hope;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who knows but mercy yet may spare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bid the angel stop?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Already is the plague begun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, fired with hostile rage,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Brethren, by blood and interest one,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With brethren now engage.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Peace spreads her wings, prepared for flight;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And war, with flaming sword",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And hasty strides, draws nigh, to fight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The battles of the Lord.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The first alarm, alas, how few,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While distant, seem to hear!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But they will hear, and tremble too,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When God shall send it near.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So thunder o’er the distant hills",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gives but a murm’ring sound;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But as the tempest spreads, it falls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And shakes the welkinround.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "May we, at least, with one consent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fall low before the throne:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With tears the nation’s sins lament,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The church’s, and our own.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The humble souls who mourn and pray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Lord approves and knows;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His mark secures them in the day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When vengeance strikes his foes.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}