{
 "id": "john-newton/the-good-that-i-would-do-i-do-not",
 "title": "The Good That I Would Do, I Do Not",
 "ordinal": "126",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 126,
 "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": 9,
  "n_parts": 9,
  "longest_line_chars": 35,
  "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": [
    2,
    3
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    3,
    4
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    5,
    6
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    6,
    7
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VIII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    7,
    8
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IX",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    8,
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   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I would, but cannot sing⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Guilt has untuned my voice,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The serpent sin’s envenom’d sting",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Has poison’d all my joys.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I know the Lord is nigh,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And would, but cannot pray;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For Satan meets me when I try,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And frights my soul away.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I would, but can’t repent,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though I endeavour oft;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This stony heart can ne’er relent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till Jesus make it soft.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I would, but cannot love,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though woo’d by love divine:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No arguments have power to move",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A soul so base as mine.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I would, but cannot rest",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In God’s most holy will;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I know what he appoints is best,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet murmur at it still.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O could I but believe!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then all would easy be;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I would, but cannot⁠—Lord, relieve;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My help must come from thee!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But if indeed I would,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though I can nothing do;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet the desire is something good,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For which my praise is due.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "By nature prone to ill,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till thine appointed hour,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I was as destitute of will,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As now I am of power.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Wilt thou not crown at length",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The work thou hast begun,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And with a will afford me strength",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In all thy ways to run?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}