{
 "id": "john-newton/the-two-debtors",
 "title": "The Two Debtors",
 "ordinal": "98",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 98,
 "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": 48,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 6,
  "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": [
    4,
    5
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    5,
    6
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Once a woman silent stood",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While Jesus sat at meat;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From her eyes she pour’d a flood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To wash his sacred feet:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Shame and wonder, joy and love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All at once possess’d her mind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That she e’er so vile could prove,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet now forgiveness find.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“How came this vile woman here?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will Jesus notice such?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sure, if he a prophet were,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He would disdain her touch!”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Simon thus, with scornful heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slighted one whom Jesus loved;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But her Saviour took her part,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thus his pride reproved:",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“If two men in debt were bound,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One less, the other more,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Fifty, or five hundred pound,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And both alike were poor;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Should the lender both forgive",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When he saw them both distress’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which of them would you believe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Engaged to love him best?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Surely he who most did owe,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Pharisee replied:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then our Lord, “By judging so,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou dost for her decide:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Simon, if like her you knew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How much you forgiveness need,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You like her had acted too,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And welcomed me indeed.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“When the load of sin is felt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And much forgiveness known",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then the heart of course will melt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though hard before as stone:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Blame not then her love and tears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Greatly she in debt has been;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But I have removed her fears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And pardon’d all her sin.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When I read this woman’s case,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her love and humble zeal,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I confess, with shame of face,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My heart is made of steel.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Much has been forgiven to me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Jesus paid my heavy score;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What a creature must I be,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That I can love no more!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}