{
 "id": "william-cowper/welcome-cross",
 "title": "Welcome Cross",
 "ordinal": "16",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "William Cowper",
 "poet_slug": "william-cowper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 257,
 "container": "III Conflict",
 "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-3.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": 37,
  "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": [
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    3
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "’Tis my happiness below",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not to live without the cross,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the Saviour’s pow’r to know,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sanctifying every loss.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trials must and will befall;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But with humble faith to see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love inscribed upon them all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This is happiness to me.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "God in Isr’el sows the seeds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of affliction, pain, and toil:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These spring up and choak the weeds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which would else o’erspread the soil.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trials make the promise sweet;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trials give new life to pray’r;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trials bring me to his feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lay me low and keep me there.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Did I meet no trials here,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No chastisement by the way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Might I not with reason fear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I should prove a cast-away?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bastards may escape the rod,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sunk in earthly vain delight;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the true-born child of God",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Must not, would not, if he might.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}