{
 "id": "john-newton/the-change",
 "title": "The Change.",
 "ordinal": "44",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 44,
 "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": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 6,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "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
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Saviour, shine, and cheer my soul;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bid my dying hopes revive;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Make my wounded spirit whole;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far away the tempter drive;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Speak the word, and set me free;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let me live alone to thee.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Shall I sigh and pray in vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wilt thou still refuse to hear;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wilt thou not return again;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Must I yield to black despair?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou hast taught my heart to pray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Canst thou turn thy face away?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Once I thought my mountain strong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Firmly fix’d, no more to move;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then thy grace was all my song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then my soul was fill’d with love:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those were happy golden days,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweetly spent in pray’r and praise.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When my friends have said, “Beware,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Soon or late you’ll find a change,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I could see no cause for fear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Vain their caution seem’d and strange:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not a cloud obscured my sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Could I think a tempest nigh?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Little then myself I knew,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Little thought of Satan’s power;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now I find their words were true,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now I feel the stormy hour!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sin has put my joys to flight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sin has changed my day to night.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Satan asks, and mocks my woe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Boaster, where is now your God?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Silence, Lord, this cruel foe;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let him know I’m bought with blood;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tell him, since I know thy name,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though I change, thou art the same.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}