{
 "id": "john-newton/the-bitter-waters",
 "title": "The Bitter Waters",
 "ordinal": "13",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 13,
 "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": 40,
  "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": [
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   ]
  },
  {
   "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,
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    6,
    7
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Bitter indeed the waters are",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which in this desert flow;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though to the eye they promise fair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They taste of sin and woe.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Of pleasing draughts I once could dream;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But now, awake, I find",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That sin has poison’d every stream,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And left a curse behind.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But there’s a wonder-working wood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve heard believers say,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Can make these bitter waters good,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And take the curse away.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The virtues of this healing tree",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are known and prized by few:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Reveal the secret, Lord, to me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That I may prize it too.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The cross on which the Saviour died",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And conquer’d for his saints,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This is the tree by faith applied,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which sweetens all complaints.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thousands have found the bless’d effect,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor longer mourn their lot;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While on his sorrows they reflect,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their own are all forgot.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When they, by faith, behold the cross,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though many griefs they meet,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They draw a gain from every loss,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And find the bitter sweet.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}