{
 "id": "john-newton/the-word-more-precious-than-gold",
 "title": "The Word More Precious Than Gold",
 "ordinal": "63",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 204,
 "container": "On the 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-2.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": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
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   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
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   "title": null,
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 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Precious Bible! what a treasure",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Does the Word of God afford!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "All I want for life or pleasure,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Food and med’cine, shield and sword;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Let the world account me poor,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Having this I need no more.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Food, to which the world’s a stranger,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here my hungry soul enjoys;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of excess there is no danger,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though it fills, it never cloys:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On a dying Christ I feed⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He is meat and drink indeed!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When my faith is faint and sickly,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or when Satan wounds my mind,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Cordials to revive me quickly,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Healing med’cines, here I find:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To the promises I flee,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Each affords a remedy.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In the hour of dark temptation,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Satan cannot make me yield;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For the word of consolation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is to me a mighty shield:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While the Scripture truths are sure,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From his malice I’m secure.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Vain his threats to overcome me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When I take the Spirit’s sword;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then with ease I drive him from me⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Satan trembles at the word:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis a sword for conquest made,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Keen the edge and strong the blade.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Shall I envy then the miser,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Doting on his golden store?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sure I am, or should be, wiser:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I am rich, ’tis he is poor:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Jesus gives me, in his word,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Food and med’cine, shield and sword.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}