{
 "id": "john-newton/on-the-earthquake-sept-8-1775",
 "title": "On the Earthquake. Sept. 8, 1775",
 "ordinal": "68",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 209,
 "container": "Fast Day Hymns",
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 8,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    1
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VIII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Although on massy pillars built,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The earth has lately shook:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It trembles under Britain’s guilt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before its Maker’s look.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Swift as the shock amazement spreads,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sinners tremble too;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What flight can screen their guilty heads,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If earth itself pursue?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But mercy spared us while it warn’d⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The shock is felt no more:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And mercy, now, alas! is scorn’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By sinners, as before.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But if these warnings prove in vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Say, sinner, canst thou tell",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How soon the earth may quake again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And open wide to hell?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Repent before the Judge draws nigh;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or else, when he comes down,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou wilt in vain for earthquakes cry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To hide thee from his frown.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But happy they who love the Lord,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And his salvation know;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The hope that’s founded on his word,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No change can overthrow.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Should the deep-rooted hills be hurl’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And plunged beneath the seas,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And strong convulsions shake the world,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your hearts may rest in peace.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Jesus, your Shepherd, Lord, and Chief,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall shelter you from ill,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And not a worm or shaking leaf",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can move but at his will.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}