{
 "id": "john-newton/time-how-short",
 "title": "Time How Short",
 "ordinal": "2",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 143,
 "container": "New Year’s Hymns",
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 4,
  "longest_line_chars": 35,
  "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
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Time, with an unwearied hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pushes round the seasons past;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in life’s frail glass the sand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sinks apace, not long to last:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Many who, as you or I,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The last year assembled thus,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In their silent graves now lie:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Graves will open soon for us.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Daily sin and care and strife,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While the Lord prolongs our breath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Make it but a dying life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or a kind of living death:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wretched they and most forlorn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who no better portion know;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Better ne’er to have been born,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than to have our all below.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When constrain’d to go alone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leaving all your love behind,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ent’ring on a world unknown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What will then support your mind?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the Lord his summons sends,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Earthly comforts lose their power;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Honour, riches, kindred, friends,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cannot cheer a dying hour.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Happy souls who fear the Lord!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Time is not too swift for you;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When your Saviour gives the word.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Glad you’ll bid the world adieu:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then he’ll wipe away your tears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Near himself appoint your place;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swifter fly, ye rolling years,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lord, we long to see thy face!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}