{
 "id": "william-cowper/prayer-for-children",
 "title": "Prayer for Children",
 "ordinal": "12",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "William Cowper",
 "poet_slug": "william-cowper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 153,
 "container": "Before Annual Sermons to Young People on New-Year’s Evenings",
 "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 3,
  "longest_line_chars": 36,
  "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
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Gracious Lord, our children see!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By thy mercy we are free,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But shall these, alas! remain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Subjects still of Satan’s reign?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Isr’el’s young ones, when of old",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pharaoh threaten’d to withhold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then thy messenger said, “No⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let the children also go.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When the angel of the Lord,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drawing forth his dreadful sword,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slew, with an avenging hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All the first-born of the land.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then thy people’s door he pass’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the bloody sign was placed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hear us now upon our knees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Plead the blood of Christ for these!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lord, we tremble, for we know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How the fierce malicious foe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wheeling round his watchful flight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Keeps them ever in his sight.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spread thy pinions, King of kings!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hide them safe beneath thy wings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lest the ravenous bird of prey",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stoop, and bear the brood away.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}