 How sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.”  At age 11, his mother died and he went to sea with his father.
Young John Newton fell in love with Mary Catlett while on shore leave, but overstaying his visit, he missed his ship’s departure. In 1744, he was caught by a gang and ‘pressed’ onto the ship HMS Harwich.
Newton tried to desert but was caught, stripped to the waist and flogged with 8 dozen lashes. John Newton later wrote in a letter: “Like an unwary sailor who quits his port just before a rising storm, I renounced the hopes and comforts of the Gospel at the very time when every other comfort was about to fail me.”
His reckless behavior caused him to be traded to a slave ship. Being a continual problem, Newton was intentionally left on a plantation in Sierra Leone, West Africa.
There the African slave dealer, Amos Clowe, made John Newton one of the slaves of his wife, Princess Peye, an African duchess, where he suffered abuse and mistreatment.
Years later, Scottish Missionary David Livingstone, mentioned John Newton and the Muslim Arab slave traders’ shocking treatment of African slaves (Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, London, October 1857): “It was refreshing to get food which could be eaten without producing the unpleasantness described by the Rev. John Newton, of St. Mary’s, Woolnoth, London, when obliged to eat the same roots while a slave in the West (Africa)…”
David Livingstone continued: “A party of Arabs from Zanzibar were…at a village in the same latitude as Naliele town… I ventured to tell them that I agreed with the English, that it was better to let the children grow up and comfort their mothers when they became old, than to carry them away and sell them across the sea… After many explanations of our abhorrence of slavery, and how displeasing it must be to God to see his children selling one another…”
John Newton wrote in 1778: “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.”
In 1747, Newton was on the slave ship Greyhound. They were caught in a storm so terrible that he was convinced they would sink. He prayed for the first time.
John Newton then read Thomas a Kempis’ ‘Imitation of Christ’ and the Bible.
He continued in the slave trade for a time, but endeavored to treat slaves humanely. Newton finally left the slave trade, married Mary Catlett in 1750, and moved to Liverpool, where from 1755 to 1760 he worked as a surveyor of tides.
While there, Newton met the evangelistic preacher George Whitefield and John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Newton was inspired to become a minister and taught himself Greek and Hebrew.
He was turned down by the Archbishop of York, but persisted and was eventually ordained in 1764.
John Newton was assigned to the village of Olney, Buckinghamshire, where he humbly proclaimed the saving power of Christ.
In 1767, poet William Cowper moved to Olney, and with his help, Newton composed songs for their weekly prayer meetings.
These songs were first published in 1779 in a collection titled “Olney Hymns.” The Olney Hymns include: “Oh! for a Closer Walk with God,”
In 1785, William Cowper wrote in the poem “Winter Walk at Noon”: “Nature is but a name for an effect,
In 1780, Newton moved to London to become rector of St. Mary Woolnoth, St. Mary Woolchurch. John Newton continually preached against slavery and published his ghastly experiences in the slave trade in 1788.
Many influential leaders attended John Newton’s services, among them being William Wilberforce. John Newton was instrumental in encouraging William Wilberforce to champion the effort to end slavery in the British Parliament. American Minute-Notable Events of American Significance Remembered on the Date They Occurred
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan wrote in “Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation” (The Human Life Review): “Prayer and action are needed to uphold the sanctity of human life. I believe it will not be possible to accomplish our work of saving lives, ‘without being a soul of prayer.’ The famous British member of Parliament William Wilberforce prayed with his small group of influential friends, the ‘Clapham Sect,’ for decades to see an end to slavery in the British empire. Wilberforce led that struggle in Parliament, unflaggingly, because he believed in the sanctity of human life. He saw the fulfillment of his impossible dream when Parliament outlawed slavery just before his death.”
Engraved on Newton’s tomb and on a church plaque is,
“John Newton,
“Amazing grace! How sweet the sound ‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, Thro’ many dangers, toils, and snares, The Lord has promis’d good to me, Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail, The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, For God’s Glory Alone Ministries thanks Bill Federer and www.AmericanMinute.com
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The American Minute: “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me!…” -John Newton, 1779
