Amazing Grace

I used to think America's favorite hymn, "Amazing Grace,” was a bit extreme “... that saved a wretch like me." Wow, that is a pretty blunt word to describe his self-appraisal!

But the author was indeed a wretch, a moral pariah. While a new believer, about the year 1750, Captain John Newton had commanded an English slave ship.

      Do you know what that meant? Ships would make the first leg of their voyage from England nearly empty until they would anchor off the African coast. There, tribal chiefs would deliver to the Europeans, stockades full of men and women captured in raids and wars against other tribes. Buyers would select the finest specimens, which then would be bartered for weapons, ammunition, metal, liquor, trinkets, and cloth. Then the captives would be loaded aboard, packed for sailing. They were chained below decks to prevent suicides, laid side by side to save space, row after row, one after another, until the vessel was laden with as many as 650 units of human cargo.

Captains sought a fast voyage across the Atlantic's infamous "middle passage," hoping to preserve as much of their cargo as possible, yet mortality sometimes ran 20% or higher. When an outbreak of smallpox or dysentery occurred, the stricken were thrown overboard. Once in the New World, the slaves were traded for sugar and molasses to manufacture rum, which the ships would carry to England for the final leg of their "triangle trade." Then off to Africa for another round. John Newton transported more than a few shiploads of the 6 million African slaves brought to the Americas in the 18th century.

At sea by the age of eleven, John Newton was forced to enlist on a British man-of-war seven years later. Recaptured after desertion, the disgraced sailor became part of the crew of a slave ship bound for Africa. It was a book he found on board--Thomas Kempis' “Imitation of Christ” which sowed the seeds of his conversion.

When his ship nearly floundered in a storm, he gave his life to Christ. Later, he was promoted to captain of a slave ship. Commanding a slave vessel seems a strange place to find a new Christian. Finally, the inhuman aspects of the business began to eat at his sense of right and wrong, and he left the sea for good.

While working as a tide surveyor he studied for the ministry, and for the last 43 years of his life preached the gospel in Olney London. At 82, Newton said, "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior." No wonder he understood so well grace--the completely undeserved mercy and favor of God.

Newton's tombstone reads:

"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, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy." Yet a far greater testimony outlives Newton in the most famous of the hundreds of hymns he wrote.

From BBS Newsletter

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 precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,

I have already come.

'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,

And grace will lead me home.

(Other verses were added in later years.)