{
 "id": "john-newton/pleading-for-mercy",
 "title": "Pleading for Mercy",
 "ordinal": "45",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 45,
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 7,
  "longest_line_chars": 37,
  "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
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "In mercy, not in wrath, rebuke",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy feeble worm, my God!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My spirit dreads thy angry look,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And trembles at thy rod.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Have mercy, Lord, for I am weak;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Regard my heavy groans;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O let thy voice of comfort speak,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And heal my broken bones!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "By day, my busy beating head",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is fill’d with anxious fears;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "By night, upon my restless bed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I weep a flood of tears.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thus I sit desolate and mourn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mine eyes grow dull with grief;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How long, my Lord, ere thou return,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bring my soul relief?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O come and show thy power to save,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And spare my fainting breath;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For who can praise thee in the grave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or sing thy name in death?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Satan, my cruel envious foe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Insults me in my pain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He smiles to see me brought so low,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And tells me hope is vain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But hence, thou enemy, depart!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor tempt me to despair;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My Saviour comes to cheer my heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Lord has heard my prayer.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}