“Amazing Grace”
John Newton
1725-1807
The story of John Newton is one of unbelievable grace and mercy, and the words of his beloved hymn were borne out of God’s amazing grace in saving him.
Born in London, on July 24th, 1725, to a Godly mother and merchant ship captain father, John Newton had a tragic childhood. His mother, who had already taught him to read Latin and to memorize much of the Word, died of tuberculosis two weeks before his 7th birthday. Sent to boarding school when he was 8, John was severely mistreated, and by the age of 11, he went to work onboard one of his father’s merchant vessels. He quickly rejected any and every one of his mother’s Christian beliefs and adopted the vulgar lifestyle of a sailor. He said, “I often saw the necessity of religion, as a means of escaping hell; but I loved sin, and was unwilling to forsake it.” At the age of 17 when he was back in England and reconnecting with old friends of his mother’s, he became infatuated with their 14-year-old daughter Mary. The family was very uncertain about this brazen, immoral young man who had captivated their daughter. A year later, in 1943, John Newton was gang-pressed into service in the Royal Navy.
Newton’s reputation as a sailor began to be characterized by rebellion, obscenity, violence, and open mockery of his superiors. Newton himself says, “How industrious is Satan served. I was formerly one of his active undertemptors and had my influence been equal to my wishes I would have carried all the human race with me. A common drunkard or profligate is a petty sinner to what I was.”
Whenever in England, he would attempt to visit Mary, his determination to marry her growing at the same rate as his recklessness. Mary prayed fervently for him.
Meanwhile, John’s behaviour led him to attempt to desert the Navy, making such enemies among his crew that the first mate handed him over to a slave trader in West Africa. He was sold as a slave to Princess Peye of the Sherbro people in what is now Sierra Leone. She treated him brutally, starved him, and beat him nearly to death before he was rescued through his father’s connections.
Newton returned to work at sea, this time aboard a slave ship. He continued to gain notoriety as one of the most profane men the captain had ever met. In a culture where sailors habitually swore, he was actually rebuked repeatedly for using the worst words the crew had ever heard and creating new ones to exceed the imagination of verbal debauchery. Gifted with song writing, he also put many of these obscenities to verse.
Early in 1748, at the age of 23, Newton came across Thomas A Kempis’ book The Imitation of Christ, and out of boredom, began to secretly read it, even contemplating what it said. Within months a violent storm came upon the ship. After an 11-day unbelievable battle with the waves and a constant expectation of drowning, Newton said to the captain “If this will not do, then Lord have mercy upon us!” And He did! After a horrific two-week battle with the storm, the battered ship and starving crew landed in Ireland.
The memory of his own “Lord have mercy upon us!” desperately uttered during the fray did not leave Newton, and he began to ask if he was worthy of God’s mercy or in any way redeemable. Not only had he neglected the faith his mother had taught him, but he had directly opposed it, mocking other believers and denouncing God as a myth. He became convinced that God had intervened and saved his life in the storm, and responded by attempting to “clean up his act” through external morality. The only sinful vice he was able to overcome, though, was his speech. Newton said later, “I consider this as the beginning of my return to God, or rather of his return to me; but I cannot consider myself to have been a believer (in the full sense of the word) till a considerable time afterwards.”
Newton began slave-trading between Africa and the Americas, attracted to the transatlantic slave trade as an easy and creditable way of life. Working his way up to Captain, he enslaved hundreds of people even showing immense cruelty towards them, employing torture devices such as the thumb screws, and showing contempt for human life. But on a return voyage just one year later he became deathly ill. Under the weight of that illness the Lord allowed him to feel the weight of his sin, and John finally and fully gave his life to Christ.
In 1750 he married Mary Catlett who had been praying for his conversion for 8 years. But sanctification is a slow process, and Newton continued in the slave-trade for another four years — often struggling even with assurance. However, this time his life was truly transformed, and he clung to Christ. With a disciplined schedule of Bible study, prayer, and Christian reading, John strove to be a Christian example to the sailors under his command. The Lord in His kindness brought a strong, mature believer into Newton’s life — another sea captain whom he met off the coast of Africa. This man discipled him and taught him about the sovereignty of God – and under this discipleship he began to see radical growth. “I began to understand…and to expect to be preserved, not by my own power and holiness, but by the mighty power and promise of God, through faith in an unchangeable Saviour.”
In 1754 following another significant illness, he left slave-trading and life at sea, taking the job of tide surveyor at Liverpool, and settling down to life with Mary. It was only years later that Newton finally began to view the slave trade and his participation in it with disgust and moral outrage. “Custom, example, and [commercial] interest had blinded my eyes,” he said. But once the Holy Spirit had opened his eyes to see the evils of the slave trade, Newton spoke up against it and mentored a young believer named William Wilberforce who became the most famous and effective abolitionist in British history.
However, John’s greatest passion was his calling to Ministry, which he entered into at the age of thirty-nine and continued in for forty-three years, faithfully preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ, his great Saviour. ”My grand point in preaching is to break the hard heart” he said, “and to heal the broken one.”
Having been gifted with the ability to compose songs, Newton used this gift to honour the Lord and serve the bride of Christ. In 1772, at the age of 47, he wrote the much beloved “Amazing Grace”, filled with rich imagery from his own life and God-exalting themes of salvation. In 1779, he published a collection of over 200 works known as the Olney Hymns.
Newton passed away on December 21, 1807, at the age of 82. Mere weeks before he died he expressed to those near him, “My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour.”
~ by Naphtali P.
