{
 "id": "john-newton/the-little-book",
 "title": "The Little Book.",
 "ordinal": "141",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 141,
 "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": 41,
  "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": "When the beloved disciple took",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The angel’s little open book,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which by the Lord’s command he eat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It tasted bitter after sweet.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thus when the gospel is embraced,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At first ’tis sweeter to the taste",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than honey or the honey-comb,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But there’s a bitterness to come.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What sweetness does the promise yield,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When by the Spirit’s power seal’d!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The longing soul is fill’d with good,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor feels a wish for other food.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "By these inviting tastes allured,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We pass to what must be endured;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For soon we find it is decreed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That bitter must to sweet succeed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When sin revives and shows its power,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When Satan threatens to devour,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When God afflicts, and men revile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We draw our steps with pain and toil.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When thus deserted, tempest-toss’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sense of former sweetness lost,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We tremble lest we were deceived",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In thinking that we once believed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The Lord first makes the sweetness known,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To win and fix us for his own;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And though we now some bitter meet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We hope for everlasting sweet.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}