{
 "id": "john-newton/sins-deceit",
 "title": "Sin’s Deceit",
 "ordinal": "76",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 317,
 "container": "VI Cautions",
 "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": 36,
  "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": [
    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
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VIII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    7,
    8
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Sin, when view’d by Scripture light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is a horrid, hateful sight;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But when seen in Satan’s glass,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then it wears a pleasing face.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When the gospel-trumpet sounds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When I think how grace abounds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When I feel sweet peace within,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then I’d rather die than sin.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When the cross I view by faith,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sin is madness, poison, death:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tempt me not, ’tis all in vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sure I ne’er can yield again.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Satan for a while debarr’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When he finds me off my guard,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Puts his glass before my eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Quickly other thoughts arise.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What before excited fears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rather pleasing now appears;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If I sin, it seems so small,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or perhaps no sin at all.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Often thus through sin’s deceit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grief and shame and loss I meet;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a fish, my soul mistook,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Saw the bait, but not the hook.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O my Lord, what shall I say?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How can I presume to pray?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not a word have I to plead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sins like mine are black indeed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Made by past experience wise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let me learn thy word to prize;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Taught by what I’ve felt before,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let me Satan’s glass abhor.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}