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Amazing Grace
The Full Hymn and the Story Behind It
On a marble tablet on a tomb in the churchyard of Olney, England, where it was removed from its original position in St. Mary Woolnoth Church, Lombard St., London, is this remarkable inscription:
JOHN NEWTON, Clerk,
once an Infidel and Libertine,
a Servant of Slaves in Africa,
was, by the Rich Mercy of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
preserved, pardoned, and appointed to preach
the Faith he had long labored to destroy.
This epitaph was written by Newton himself, the author of the very popular hymn “Amazing Grace” and of many other hymns. “And I earnestly desire,” he said, “that no other monument, and no inscription but to this import, may be attempted for me.” This was as it should be; the true praise of a true servant of the Lord “is not of men but of God.” Newton's one wish was to call attention, not to himself but to “the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Oh, that all believers might be more like him in this, and follow him in his humility as he followed Christ.
He was born in London, July 24, 1725. His father was a sea-faring man, and his mother, a godly woman, died while he was yet very young. His father married again within a year, and the second wife was very unlike the first. She did not wish to have the care of young Newton, so he was sent away to school. He did not learn much there, however, and associated with bad company. At eleven, he left school finally, and accompanied his father on his voyages for the four succeeding years.
But, as bad as this young English lad had become, he could not entirely forget God, or his departed mother's prayers; and he made a profession of faith three or four times before he was sixteen. He fasted and prayed, and read the Word of God; but he did not really repent and turn to Christ for salvation; so all his efforts to be good ended in dismal failure.
But God had His eye upon him; and He allowed him to pass through many painful and humiliating experiences in order that he might see how bad he really was, and how much he needed a Savior such as Jesus is to all who call upon Him in truth.
John was carried off by a press-gang and put on board an English war-ship where the severe discipline might have done him good, but he profited little by this. When his father secured his release at the close of the war, the ship on which he was returning home encountered a terrible storm, and young Newton was greatly alarmed. He resolved that, if he ever reached shore again, he would lead a different life; but though the vessel arrived in port safely, Newton soon forgot his promises and good resolutions. Like the dog of 2 Peter 2:22, he “turned to his own vomit again.” Had he put his trust entirely in the Lord, He would have made him one of His sheep—and a sheep, you know, is a clean animal; it turns away from the mire. When souls are really saved, they are taught by God to abhor sin, and by His grace they are enabled to resist its temptations.
But God often allows those whom He is about to save to plunge into the deepest depths of sin, that they might fully know what is in their hearts, and ever after abhor them-selves, and never more have confidence in the flesh. This will help to keep them humble, and to cleave closely to the Lord, for His keeping power and grace.
After this last failure to make himself better, the young man went from bad to worse, and ended up as a slave to a black man and his wife in Africa! I will not tell you all that he passed through there, but, as he later wrote to a friend, “Had you seen me, sir, go pensive and solitary, in the dead of night, to wash my one shirt upon the rocks, and afterward put it on wet that it might dry upon my back while I slept; and had you seen me so poor a figure that, when a ship's boat came to the island, shame often constrained me to hide myself in the woods from the sight of strangers (and my conduct, principles, and heart were still darker than my outward condition)—how little you would have imagined that such an one was reserved to be so peculiar an instance of the providential care and exuberant goodness of God!”
John Newton was indeed a remarkable example of the transforming power of the grace of God, as in a still greater measure with Saul of Tarsus, who afterward called himself “chief of sinners,” and said, “For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me [the] first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him, to life everlasting" (1 Timothy 1:16).
How he was at last saved on the voyage home, after being delivered from his miserable servitude in Africa is too long a story for this article, but it can be read (and is well worth reading) in Newton’s short and interesting autobiography titled Out of the Depths. It is enough here to tell you that he was truly saved (not merely reformed, as so often previously) and brought to saving faith in Christ. This made an entirely new man out of him, and he confessed his new-found Savior boldly before the world.
What caught his attention and caused this great transformation Newton has touchingly expressed in the following verses of the following hymn which he wrote in 1779:
I saw One hanging on a tree,
In agonies and blood,
Who fixed His eyes of love on me,
As near His cross I stood.
Oh, never, till my latest breath,
Can I forget that look:
It seemed to charge me with His death.
Though not a word He spoke.
Again He looked in love, which said,
“I freely all forgive:
This blood is for thy ransom paid;
I die that thou may'st live.”
Thus while His death my sin displays
In all its blackest hue,
Such is the mystery of grace,
It seals my pardon too!
Having studied navigation, he finally obtained command of a ship; but God had called him to other service, and through the later years of his life he preached that faith which, as he says on the memorial tablet, he “had long labored to destroy.” He died like a “full shock of corn” at the ripe old age of 82.
May the grace that saved John Newton save you, dear reader, if you are still “a stranger to grace and to God.”
Amazing Grace
Amazing grace (how sweet the sound)
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How blessed did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come;
‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.
Yes, though my flesh and heart may fail
And mortal life shall cease,
I now possess within the veil
A life of joy and peace.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun shall cease to shine;
But God who called me here below
Shall be forever mine.
When we’ve been home ten thousand years
Bright shining like the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing His praise
Than when we first begun.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound—
Revealing God’s great love
Through Christ His Son, and what He’s
done,
That we might live above!
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 3:24
But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Romans 5:20
Most of the preceding article was adapted from Who Wrote Our Hymns by Christopher Knapp. Verses 1-6 of “Amazing Grace” were written by John Newton circa 1772. Verse 7 (author unknown) was popularized by Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Verse 8 by JAK 2016.