NEWTON AND COWPER WERE REMINISCIENT OF THE BIBLICAL DAVID AND JONATHAN. Soon he was studying, sharing the story of his own experience and preaching all over the area. It was God’s call and his gratitude to God, however, that now propelled Newton’s life. He abandoned the slave trade and at the young age of 31 became tide surveyor (customs officer) at the port city of Liverpool, with some 60 men under his direction. Not unlike many of those who have found themselves in deadly peril and bargained with God for life, Newton kept the promise he made. One day a North Atlantic storm threatened his ship and his life, and in a desperate moment Newton prayed to God, pleading for his physical salvation. Newton’s ship carried slaves like so much other cargo. As a young man, Newton was a merchant sailor, rising in the ranks to captain his own ship, plying the Atlantic waters in the slave trade out of Africa. Paul and an ardent proponent of the evangelical faith preached by George Whitefield and the Wesleys.īorn in 1725, John Newton hardly took the traditional 18th-century route to holy orders and the genteel life of the rural clergy. Newton was the curate of the parish church of St. During that decade the close friends lived a half-mile apart in the Buckinghamshire market town of Olney (now famous for its Shrove Tuesday Pancake Race). The book contained 348 hymns written over 10 years by Newton or Cowper. “Amazing Grace” was first published in 1779, in a collection called The Olney Hymns. It was a faith shared by the writer and his closest friend, the pastoral poet William Cowper (pronounced Cooper). In addition to its singable and moving tune, the soulful yet ultimately triumphal lyrics sum up the gospel of the evangelical faith. No words are better known in Christian hymnody than those of “Amazing Grace.” John Newton’s 18th-century lyrics must be the most widely recognized hymn in the English language. “AMAZING GRACE, HOW SWEET THE SOUND, THAT SAVED A WRETCH LIKE ME.” Mary Evans Picture Library (Mary Evans Picture Library).
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