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In 1725, a baby boy was born to Captain John Newton and his wife Elizabeth, in their hometown of London, England. At the young age of 11, the boy was forced to go to sea with his father following the death of his mother four years earlier. Unsurprisingly, the life of a sailor had its usual effect upon the young man, and he developed a very rebellious spirit by the time he was 18.
After joining a merchant ship, he was pressed into service in the Royal Navy, but was severely flogged after attempting to desert. He was then transferred to a slave ship, but his persistent insubordination was so great that his shipmates actually abandoned him as a slave himself in what is now Sierra Leone on the continent of Africa. Fortunately, he was eventually rescued from the clutches of slavery by a ship captain who’d been dispatched by his father.
However, on the voyage home, their ship was caught in a storm that was so violent the crew thought they’d be lost at sea. The 23-year-old went below deck and began to man the pumps because the ship was taking on water at a rapid rate. “If this will not do,” he said to the captain who rescued him, “the Lord have mercy upon us!” Even as he spoke the words, they startled his soul! “Mercy?! Mercy?! What mercy can there be for me?” He tried to pray while feverishly working to remove the seawater from the ship, but he couldn’t muster the faith to draw close to a God that he’d despised for so long.
Weeks later, after arriving in England, the rattled young man began to read his Bible and pray. However, the lucrative nature of the slave trade still held him captive, so he became a captain in the trade, himself, even though he knew it was wholly inconsistent with the Christian faith. But at the age of 29, God captured his attention in an unmistakable way. After suffering a stroke that ended his seafaring days for good, the hard-hearted sailor came under the preaching of John Wesley, his brother Charles, and the mighty George Whitefield, one of the pastors who went on to lead the Great Awakening.
Finally, the stiff-necked sinner bowed his will to Christ and even took on the role of pastor in Buckinghamshire. He proved to be an effective leader and his congregation soon tripled in size! In addition to preaching, Rev. Newton also dabbled in the writing of books and the composing of hymns. With the help of a dear friend, he eventually released a book of hymns that contained 348 songs written to the glory of God.
Eventually, the pastor would return to the place of his birth and lead a congregation in England. There, he met and personally mentored William Wilberforce, the youngest member of the Parliament. Under Newton’s tutelage, Wilberforce worked tirelessly for 46 years to end the slave trade and the practice of slavery, itself.
How is it that a man who once made a fortune in the buying and selling of human beings could have such a radical change of heart that he would work to rid the British Empire of the same slave trade? It’s simple, he had been transformed, transformed by the grace of God that he called “amazing.”
You might not know the man, but you know his most famous hymn.
Amazing grace, How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I am found
Was blind, but now I see
