{
 "id": "john-newton/perplexity-relieved",
 "title": "Perplexity Relieved",
 "ordinal": "35",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 276,
 "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": 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": [
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   "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": "Uncertain how the way to find",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which to salvation led,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I listen’d long, with anxious mind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To hear what others said.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When some of joys and comforts told,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I fear’d that I was wrong;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For I was stupid, dead, and cold⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had neither joy nor song.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The Lord my lab’ring heart relieved,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And made my burden light;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then for a moment I believed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Supposing all was right.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Of fierce temptations others talk’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of anguish, and dismay⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Through what distresses they had walk’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before they found the way.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah! then I thought my hopes were vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For I had lived at ease;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I wish’d for all my fears again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To make me more like these.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I had my wish: the Lord disclosed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The evils of my heart,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And left my naked soul exposed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To Satan’s fiery dart.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Alas! “I now must give it up,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I cried in deep despair;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How could I dream of drawing hope",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From what I cannot bear?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Again my Saviour brought me aid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when he set me free,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Trust simply on my word,” he said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“And leave the rest to me.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}