{
 "id": "john-newton/the-borrowed-axe",
 "title": "The Borrowed Axe",
 "ordinal": "39",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 39,
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 8,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
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   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
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  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VII",
   "title": null,
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  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VIII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "1 The prophets’ sons in times of old,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though to appearance poor,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Were rich without possessing gold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And honour’d though obscure.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In peace their daily bread they eat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By honest labour earn’d;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While daily at Elisha’s feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They grace and wisdom learn’d.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The prophet’s presence cheer’d their toil,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They watch’d the words he spoke,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whether they turn’d the furrow’d soil,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or fell’d the spreading oak.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Once as they listen’d to his theme",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their conference was stopp’d;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For one beneath the yielding stream",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A borrow’d axe had dropp’d.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Alas! it was not mine,” he said;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“How shall I make it good?”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Elisha heard, and when he pray’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The iron swam like wood.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If God in such a small affair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A miracle performs,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It shows his condescending care",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of poor unworthy worms.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Though kings and nations in his view",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are but as motes and dust,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His eyes and ear are fix’d on you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who in his mercy trust.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Not one concern of ours is small",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If we belong to him.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To teach us this, the Lord of all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Once made the iron swim.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}