John Newton – Slave Trader to Parson
There wasn’t much that could be said in favour of young John Newton. His mother, was a gentle soul, whom he loved dearly, but who died when he was just seven years old. When he was only 11, his father, a ship’s captain took him off to sea with him. Later, while still in his teens John was press-ganged into the Royal Navy and when he attempted to desert, he was flogged for his pains.
Newton later entered the slave trade and worked in a plantation on the Gold Coast of Africa, completely indifferent to all of the horror and the misery around him.
Yet, a wonderful and strange change overtook him and when John died at age 82, he was a beloved, Anglican Minister and lived long enough to see the complete end to the slave trade. At the age of 40 he had turned aside from his past life of the support of slavery, became a country parson, and fought passionately for its abolition.
Reflecting his amazing life-changing experience, he went on to write around 280 Hymns among them “Amazing Grace”, “Approach, My Soul, the Mercy Seat”, “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken” and perhaps the loveliest of them all: “How sweet the name of Jesus Sounds.”
Consider the wonderful words of that hymn:
How sweet the name of Jesus Sounds
in a believer’s ear:
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
and drives away his fear.
John died serving the faith he had fought so long to destroy and through his many wonderful hymns, he serves it still. He put his trust in Jesus and when he left this world behind entered into the Glory of heaven.
Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
(Psalm 100:2)