{
 "id": "john-newton/the-burdened-sinner",
 "title": "The Burdened Sinner",
 "ordinal": "6",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 247,
 "container": "II Seeking, Pleading, and Hoping",
 "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": 56,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 7,
  "longest_line_chars": 29,
  "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
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah! what can I do,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or where be secure?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If justice pursue,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What heart can endure?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The heart breaks asunder,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though hard as a stone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When God speaks in thunder,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And makes himself known.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With terror I read",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My sins heavy score,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The number exceed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sands on the shore:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Guilt makes me unable",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To stand or to flee;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So Cain murder’d Abel,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And trembled like me.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Each sin, like his blood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a terrible cry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Calls loudly on God",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To strike from on high:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor can my repentance,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Extorted by fear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reverse the just sentence;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis just, though severe.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The case is too plain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I had my own choice;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Again, and again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I slighted his voice⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His warnings neglected,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His patience abused,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His gospel rejected,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His mercy refused.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And must I then go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For ever to dwell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In torments and woe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With devils in hell?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh where is the Saviour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I scorn’d in times past?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His word in my favour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would save me at last.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lord Jesus, on thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I venture to call,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh look upon me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The vilest of all!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For whom didst thou languish,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bleed on the tree?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh pity my anguish,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And say, ’Twas for thee.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A case such as mine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will honour thy power;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All hell will repine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All heaven adore;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If in condemnation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Strict justice takes place,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It shines in salvation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More glorious through grace.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}