Here is a trivia question you can ask your friends the next time you get together. Of all the songs ever written, which song has been recorded most, by the largest number of different vocal artists?
Clues you can give:
It was written in 1779.
It was written in Olney, England
It was written by a pastor in his early fifties and reflects the fascinating story of his life.
It is an “Amazing” little song about the impact of God’s grace on his life.
Well, I’m sure by now you have guessed we’ve been describing the hymn, “Amazing Grace” written by John Newton.
John Newton, 1725-1807
John’s mother gave him his early exposure to the Christian life before she died when he was six. When his father remarried, his second wife was not at all like his first. She did not wish to have the care of young Newton while his father was away at sea, so he was sent away to school. After several years of formal education away from home; John left school and joined his father’s ship at the age of eleven, to begin life as a seaman.
His teenage years were one continuous round of rebellion and revelry. Abandoning his early religious training, he became an aggressive atheist and delighted in shocking people with his profanity.
At the age of seventeen he was abducted by a “press gang” and put on board a British Royal Navy man-of-war. At the close of the war his father secured his release. The ship on which he was returning home encountered a terrible storm and young Newton resolved that, if he ever reached shore again, he would lead a different life. But though the vessel arrived in port safely, Newton soon forgot his promises and good resolutions and returned to his former lifestyle.
After this failure to make himself better, he went from bad to worse, ending up as a slave to a black man and his wife in Africa. He later wrote about this part of his life.
“Had you seen me, sir, go pensive and solitary, in the dead of night, to wash my one shirt upon the rocks, and afterward put it on wet that it might dry upon my back while I slept; and had you seen me so poor a figure that, when a ship’s boat came to the island, shame often constrained me to hide myself in the woods from the sight of strangers and my conduct, principles, and heart were still darker than my outward condition -how little you would have imagined that such an one was reserved to be so peculiar an instance of the providential care and exuberant goodness of God!”
