{
 "id": "john-newton/preaching-to-the-dry-bones",
 "title": "Preaching to the Dry Bones",
 "ordinal": "15",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 156,
 "container": "Before Annual Sermons to Young People on New-Year’s Evenings",
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 7,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "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
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Preachers may from Ezekiel’s case",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Draw hope in this declining day.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A proof like this of sovereign grace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should chase our unbelief away.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When sent to preach to mould’ring bones,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who could have thought he would succeed?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But well he knew the Lord from stones",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Could raise up Abr’am’s chosen seed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Can these be made a num’rous host,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And such dry bones new life receive?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The prophet answer’d⁠—“Lord, thou know’st",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They shall, if thou commandment give.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Like him around I cast my eye,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And oh! what heaps of bones appear;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like him, by Jesus sent I’ll try,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For he can cause the dead to hear.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Hear, ye dry bones, the Saviour’s word,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He who when dying gasp’d⁠—“Forgive,”⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That gracious sinner-loving Lord",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Says⁠—“Look to me, dry bones, and live.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou heav’nly wind, awake and blow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In answer to the prayer of faith.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now thine almighty infl’ence show,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fill dry bones with living breath.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O make them hear and feel and shake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And at thy call obedient move.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bonds of death and Satan break,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bone to bone unite in love.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}