{
 "id": "john-newton/waiting-at-wisdoms-gates",
 "title": "Waiting at Wisdom’s Gates",
 "ordinal": "23",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 164,
 "container": "After Sermons to Young People on New-Year’s Evenings, Suited to the Subjects",
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 7,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "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
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Ensnared too long my heart has been",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In folly’s hurtful ways;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "O may I now at length begin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To hear what Wisdom says!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Tis Jesus, from the mercy-seat,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Invites me to his rest;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He calls poor sinners to his feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To make them truly blest.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Approach, my soul, to Wisdom’s gates",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While it is call’d to-day;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No one who watches there and waits",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall e’er be turn’d away.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He will not let me seek in vain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For all who trust his word",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall everlasting life obtain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And favour from the Lord.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lord! I have hated thee too long,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dared thee to thy face;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve done my soul exceeding wrong",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In slighting all thy grace.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now I would break my league with death,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And live to thee alone;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh! let thy Spirit’s seal of faith",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Secure me for thine own.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let all the saints assembled here,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yea, let all heaven rejoice,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That I begin with this new year",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To make the Lord my choice.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}