AMAZING GRACE~ JOHN NEWTON

Amazing Grace 

John Newton's devout mother dedicated him to be a
pastor at an early age. Sadly, she died when he was
seven. At the age of eleven, after several years of
schooling away from home, he went to sea with his
captain father. He served in the British Navy but later
deserted.

John abandoned the faith taught by his mother and
embarked on such a life of extreme debauchery that his
friends questioned his sanity. He signed onto a slave
ship and was soon the master of his own ship, dealing
in the evil of bringing slaves from Africa to America.
With a whip in one hand and a gun in the other,
Newton--often given to drunkenness and lust --sank into
the depths of sin. In 1748, at age twenty-three, he ran
into a savage storm that threatened to sink his ship.

Newton thought of himself, like Jonah, as the cause of
the mountainous waves and raging wind. His close brush
with death set him thinking about the true meaning of
life. The Holy Spirit used the storm to convict him of
his need for Christ. Sick of his pitiable condition and
the filthy slave trade, he was led to leave it and
ultimately go into the ministry.

All through his life John Newton never ceased to marvel
at the grace of God that transformed him so completely.
While the pastor of a church, he wrote his spiritual
autobiography in a song that God gave him from the dark
night of his soul: "Amazing Grace."

  Author unknown. Cited in Encounter magazine. 
  Published by ACTS International (Australia) 
  http://www.actsweb.org/au