When President Obama began to sing Amazing Grace in his eulogy to Clementa Pinckney, he was only to the second line when the congregation of more than 6000 joined in the familiar hymn. The story of how those words came into being requires some research and an article by Al Rogers published 19 years ago in an issue of “Away Here in Texas” recounts its origins. The reason this is important is because it shows how a personal transformation can take place in an individual life that can profound consequences.
John Newton was born in London in 1725. His father was commander of a merchant ship that plied the Mediterranean Sea. At the age of 11 John Newton went to sea with his father for six voyages, but when the elder Newton retired, things took a bad turn for John. In 1744, only 19 years old, he was impressed into the British navy, serving on a man-of-war, the H.M.S.
Harwich. Life was so miserable that he deserted, was soon captured and flogged publicly with eight dozen lashes; how he survived that is a wonder.
Newton asked to be transferred to a slave ship and ended up in Sierra Leone where he became a virtual slave himself to a slave trader. Although difficult to document he was brutally abused by his master until he was rescued by a sea captain who had known his father. Thoroughly embittered by his experiences, he was widely known as a libertine and blasphemer of monumental proportions, so much so that when he took command of a slave ship he had difficulty persuading seamen to sign on for his voyages.
On a homeward trip his ship was caught in a terrific storm in which disaster seemed inevitable. Newton recorded in his journal that he experienced “a great deliverance.” When all seemed lost, he cried out, “Lord, have mercy upon us!” In his cabin after the storm, he recalled what he had said and believed that God had addressed him through the storm and grace entered his life.
He listed May 10, 1748 as the day of his conversion and he committed his life to a higher power. He educated himself but continued in the slave trade, although he treated his captives with humanity. While sailing he taught himself Latin, Greek, and Hebrew but after a severe illness in 1755 he gave up the sea and worked as a surveyor of tides in Liverpool until 1760. During that time he came to know George Whitehead, a deacon in the Church of England and met John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, both of whom greatly influenced him
After being refused acceptance into the church by the Archbishop of York, he eventually was ordained by the Bishop of Lincoln (there’s a bit of irony for you) and served a number of churches in Buckinghamshire and in Olney where he met the poet William Cowper. The two of them composed hundreds of hymns, Amazing Grace being the best known. The origin of the tune is unknown, although Bill Moyers suggested on a TV special that it may have been a melody the slaves sang on their sad journey to America.
Newton was not only a prolific hymn composer but a powerful preacher. His congregations were large, particularly in London where he met and influenced William Wilberforce who became the leader in the House of Commons of the abolitionist movement in England. The Slave Trade Act was passed by Parliament in 1807, the year of Newton’s death, and a half century before the Emancipation Proclamation.
Many verses not by Newton have been added to the text, the best known of which was done by Harriet Beecher Stowe in her novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” itself a powerful catalyst for abolition.
When we’ve been here ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.
John Newton would have approved of that. From libertine and blasphemer to a leader of abolition and a hymn that even non-believers know . . . it shows how we all can be changed for the better.
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.
Has there ever a time when clear vision was more needed than now? Let’s hope we have the grace to be found.
Hayden Hollingsworth