{
 "id": "john-newton/reigning-grace",
 "title": "Reigning Grace",
 "ordinal": "86",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 327,
 "container": "VII Praise",
 "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": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 5,
  "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": [
    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
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Now may the Lord reveal his face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And teach our stammering tongues",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To make his sovereign, reigning grace,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The subject of our songs!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No sweeter subject can invite",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A sinner’s heart to sing;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or more display the glorious right",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of our exalted King.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This subject fills the starry plains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With wonder, joy, and love;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And furnishes the noblest strains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For all the harps above:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While the redeem’d in praise combine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To grace upon the throne,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Angels in solemn chorus join,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And make the theme their own.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Grace reigns, to pardon crimson sins,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To melt the hardest hearts;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And from the work it once begins",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It never more departs:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The world and Satan strive in vain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Against the chosen few;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Secured by grace’s conq’ring reign,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They all shall conquer too.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Grace tills the soil, and sows the seeds.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Provides the sun and rain,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till from the tender blade proceeds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The ripen’d harvest grain.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis grace that call’d our souls at first,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By grace thus far we re come,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And grace will help us through the worst,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lead us safely home.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lord, when this changing life is past,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If we may see thy face,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How shall we praise and love at last,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sing the reign of grace.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet let us aim, while here below,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy mercy to display;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And own at least the debt we owe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Although we cannot pay.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}