Amazing Grace

He was the only child of a sea captain and was taught the Bible by his mother who died when he was seven. He joined his father at sea but by 17 he had abandoned his mother's teaching. It was only his love for a childhood sweetheart whom he later married that kept any spark of decency alive in him.

John joined the crew of a slave ship and packed slaves together like sardines in the hold of the ship where the heat and stench were unbearable. There was also the stench of foul language from the lips of John that matched his squalid life-style.

The turning point for Newton came on March 10, 1748 onboard the 'Greyhound'. A howling gale battered the vessel until only the cargo of beeswax and wood kept her afloat. After a month of terror and hardship she limped into port.

This experience knocked the atheism out of John and he cried to God for mercy. Despite his wickedness God showed him 'Amazing Grace'! He turned from his sins to Christ and found pardon and power through His death and resurrection. No wonder he wrote "Amazing grace -- that saved a wretch like me!"

John became a successful preacher and eventually accepted a call to St. Mary Woolnoth in London. One day the famous William Wilberforce heard Newton preach and came to a personal knowledge of Christ.

On the advice of John he continued in parliament and by drawing upon all the facts given by John Newton, the old slave trader, the bill for the abolition of slavery was passed 44 years later and 6 days before Wilberforce died in 1833!