{
 "id": "john-newton/sauls-armour",
 "title": "Saul’s Armour",
 "ordinal": "28",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 28,
 "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": 48,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 6,
  "longest_line_chars": 33,
  "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
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When first my soul enlisted",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My Saviour’s foes to fight,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Mistaken friends insisted",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I was not arm’d aright:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So Saul advised David",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He certainly would fail,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor could his life be saved",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Without a coat of mail.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But David, though he yielded",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To put the armour on,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Soon found he could not wield it,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ventured forth with none.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With only sling and pebble",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He fought the fight of faith:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The weapons seem’d but feeble,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet proved Goliath’s death.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Had I by him been guided,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And quickly thrown away",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The armour men provided,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I might have gain’d the day:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But arm’d as they advised me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My expectations fail’d;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My enemy surprised me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And had almost prevail’d.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Furnish’d with books and notions,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And arguments and pride,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I practised all my motions,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Satan’s power defied:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But soon perceived with trouble",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That these would do no good;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Iron to him is stubble,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And brass like rotton wood.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I triumph’d at a distance,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While he was out of sight;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But faint was my resistance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When forced to join in fight:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He broke my sword in shivers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And pierced my boasted shield;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Laugh’d at my vain endeavours,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And drove me from the field.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Satan will not be braved",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By such a worm as I;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then let me learn with David",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To trust in the Most High⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To plead the name of Jesus,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And use the sling of prayer:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus arm’d, when Satan sees us",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He’ll tremble and despair.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}