A baby boy was born in England long ago and they called the little fellow John. He had a lovely mother who gave all her time to his schooling and to his spiritual education as well. She labored hard to store up in his mind passages of Scripture which she knew, if well learned, could never be wholly shaken from his mind. She prayed for and with him every day.
But when John was but seven years of age his mother was stricken with a fatal illness and lay on her deathbed. The thought of leaving her little son to the mercy of a hard cruel world was a great sorrow to the dying mother. But she had sown the seed faithfully, and she died trusting God for a rich harvest in the life of her dear child.
However, John soon forgot all her words of instruction and wisdom, for at the age of eleven he ran away to sea. Many times did God bring to his remembrance the things that he had learned at his mother’s knee.
On one occasion he fell from a horse and death looked him right in the face. He was deeply moved at this close call, but he soon forgot, and went on in his careless way of living.
Another time, he was to go with some friends boating. He was late in arriving and they went off without him. The boat capsized and all his friends were drowned. He went to their funeral and God spoke to him again. He was deeply moved, but he soon forgot.
Then on another occasion, God spoke to him in a dream. Again he was deeply moved, but again he soon forgot.
So it was, because he forgot, that he ran away to sea that he might do as he pleased, and sin to his heart’s content. He sailed to many places, and finally he arrived in Africa where he became involved in the atrocities of the slave trade. He sank lower and lower until for a time he himself became a slave.
In the meantime, he had fallen in love with a young girl named Mary Carlett, and he married her when she was twenty. Mary was a good woman and John loved her deeply, but not enough to change his ways. It seemed as if the influences of his mother and his wife had no effect upon him.
One night out on the high seas, in a terrific storm, the ship on which he was sailing began to founder. The hold filled rapidly with water. As John took his place hurriedly at the pumps, he heard himself say to the Captain, “If this will not do it, the Lord have mercy upon us.” His own words startled him. “Mercy,” he said. “what mercy can there be for me?” This was the first desire he had breathed for mercy for many years.
Later they managed to pump the hold of the ship free from water, and then came a gleam of hope. John said, “I thought I saw the hand of God displayed in our favor.” “That 10th day of March is a day I can never forget,” he wrote afterward, “for on that day the Lord came from on high and delivered me indeed out of the deep waters. It seems as if He came and looked into my very soul.” There on the high seas John’s memory was stirred to the extent that he thought not so much of physical as of spiritual safety. He sought the Lord’s mercy and found Him a gracious forgiving God, for he received an abundant pardon. He proved that the blood of Jesus could cleanse the vilest sinner, and he found peace in believing in Jesus, the Saviour of sinners.
After that, the one-time infidel and slave trader gave himself up to the work of the Lord, and God used him greatly. Many indeed were those who were influenced by the ministry and hymns of John Newton. Some were mightily used of God in carrying the gospel of His grace to the world. And still today, thousands of Christians love to sing John Neon’s hymns, such as, “Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound,” “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken,” “How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds in the Believer’s Ear,” and many others.
John Newton was a tireless worker in the cause of Christ. When he was an old man, someone suggested that he should take things more easily. “What?” he asked, “Shall this old blasphemer cease to serve while he has breath with which to speak?” He was determined while he lived to preach the grace of God toward sinners as found in Jesus Christ. until he could speak no more.
On his study wall was a text he greatly loved, “Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondsman,... and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.” Deuteronomy 15:1515And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to day. (Deuteronomy 15:15). Just before the end of his life, he said, “My memory is failing me, but two things I shall never forget: I was a great sinner, and Jesus Christ is a great Saviour.”
Before he died, he prepared an epitaph for himself and on a plain tablet were inscribed his own words:
John Newton, clerk
Once Infidel and Libertine was by
The mercy and grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ
Pardoned... Redeemed...
Restored—
And appointed to preach the faith
He had so long sought to destroy.
ML 05/16/1965