Amazing Grace

Gift through Mary

Amazing Grace

The conversion of John Newton

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            How many of us consider the gift that has come through the name, Mary?

            The first came from our relationship with the first Mary. After all, she is the blessed mother of our Lord and Savior. She was the original, and, often, those of her namesake continue to remind us of the simple virtues that are basic to our existence.

            In January, a celebration and memorial of the life of Mary Agnew was held in Grant County.  Many friends and family assembled to be with Mary for the last earthly gathering we would share with her. She had a lasting and positive impact on our lives. Never could there be a more uplifting experience than to seek her for a word or a laugh.

            As the service concluded, Mary’s own hymn selection was grandly appropriate.  The second verse, though, was more subdued as the emotion and the words of the first impacted the crowd.

            From the row behind us, arose a young voice with clarity and strength that rallied everybody. The young man was a relative of Mary like so many others present. In an instant, there was a reminder that another elder will emerge to fill her role.

            That leader will urge the return to the strength and courage of the first verse when we sang:

Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind but now could see.  

            John Newton

            A very human character born in England in 1725 became a lasting reminder that God’s grace is endless. In fact, a good place to start would be to consider the final words of his diary entry in 1772. He wrote:

“Blinded by the God of this world until mercy came to us not only undeserved but undesired … our hearts endeavored to shut Him out ‘till he overcame us by the power of his Grace.”

As so much of his work reveals, he was prone to write in first person. In fact, the lyrics of “Amazing Grace”, John Newton’s timeless hymn, was centered on first person. He was writing about himself.

Pastor John Newton was born to a Catholic shipping merchant and a devoutly but congregationally independent mother. What is known about her was she did have hope her son would someday consider the clergy. She didn’t live long enough to see that happen. She died when he was six.

That traumatic experience launched John into an abyss of tumult and chaos. Insolent, disobedient, and unmanageable, he was first sent off to boarding school. That ended after he was beaten and humbled to no avail at age 11. His father put him on his sailing ship and proceeded to treat him like the vile urchin he was. By the time he was a middle teen even his father had lost all patience and banned him from his own ship for insubordination and wanton behavior. 

He landed in the English Navy and a growing and persistent pattern of his life emerged. He demonstrated a fatalistic pattern of near death experiences followed by an examination of any relationship with his deity followed by a relapse of unbridled chaos.

Incarcerated following a desertion, he was stripped of his rank and whipped publicly. The humiliation did nothing but redouble his impertinence and rage. He would later write he didn’t commit suicide or kill somebody, especially his captain, because he was concerned a young lady by the name of Polly Catlett would think unfavorably of him.

Who was this young lady who entered into John Newton’s life? She was one of the three most powerful influences of his life, and, ultimately, she would become his wife. Before that occurred, though, Newton would be assigned to a slave ship where its captain would record he was the most profane man he had ever encountered.

  Openly defying all authority and mocking the captain with uninterrupted contempt he was imprisoned at sea and starved. He was then off loaded and rendered a slave on a plantation in Sierra Leone. It was there his father learned of his plight and rescued him.

It was on the ship that assisted in his rescue, the Greyhound, the first step in his monumental transformation began. On the outbound voyage, a great storm nearly sank the ship. Lashed to the bilge pump, Newton was purported to say, “If this will not do (pumping frantically), then Lord have mercy on us.”

He would rest and return to duty at the wheel. For eleven hours he would remain at war against the storm and his own soul. He pondered his divine challenges, and … survived.

The transformation

With horrified and distraught parents, Polly conceded to John’s insistence and married him. The toughest of the toughs, though, he would not immediately remain ashore. Becoming the captain of a slaver himself, he would continue that trade until he collapsed of what might have been a stroke at the age of 30.

He found employment as a customs agent by 1756. It was then he began an educational and spiritual journey that would prompt him to seek the course his mother had desired of her son, the ministry.

He first sought sponsorship from the Bishop of York, but that fellow saw his record and refused. It was the Earl of Dartmouth who found his case interesting. The good Earl took a chance that remains one of history’s most insightful leaps of faith. He agreed to sponsor him. Under his guidance and authority, Newton was ordained.

By 1764, Polly and John were preaching in the small community of Olney. Two profound things happened at Olney. First, Newton’s style of preaching matured. He increasingly concentrated not on an impersonal orthodox delivery, but in first person, up close and personal. After all, he was the sinner of his sermons. He was the modern day miracle!

The other influence was the arrival of William Cowper. Cowper’s life mirrored John’s in terms of disappointment and suicidal tendencies. Together, they not only supported one another’s weakness, they stoked creative genius.

Starting a weekly bible study, they embarked on the attempt to create a new poem or hymn each week. That work would be parlayed into the weekly lesson.  They were preaching to congregants who shared trials and tribulations of everyday life. They became hugely popular among their following.

It was from this effort the lyrics of Amazing Grace in 1772.  It was presented for the first time on the first Sunday in 1773.

The Olney Hymns

Their work, described as the Olney Hymns, became widely popular. The creators of the work, however, were criticized by the prevailing Anglican establishment.

In a scathing assessment, a critic wrote,” (he is) unabashedly (a) middlebrow lyricist writing for a lowbrow congregation.” He substantiated the rebuke reminding his readers that only 21 of the words in the verses had more than a single syllable!

History has shown Newton’s approach to first person was brilliant. His insistence on faith in salvation, wonder of God, Grace, love for Jesus, and his own earthly transformation were the synopsis of Christianity.

Where England failed to accept the popularity, America was a sponge ready to absorb it. It was there the hymn became the anthem of the religious reawakening of the 19^th Century. Out of the spiritual grassroots of Kentucky and Tennessee it emerged, caught fire, and swept the country.

It is little wonder and immensely important to note the hymn is a dynamic miracle that has reached beyond the Olney impact.  For example, a following verse often sung today was not from the pen of Newton, but the very slave descendents he carried to America generations earlier.

For some 50 years, many slaves sang this different verse. That one is now the verse that is so often difficult to sing after singing the emotionally charged first one.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining of the Sun

We’ve no less days to see God’s praise

Than when we first begun …

Today

It is unfortunate that John Newton’s name is not more widely known. His gift that remains so powerful every time it is sung remains the spiritual banner hymn for rural folks who must defend their very existence.

We are not alone. The Cherokees sang the hymn translated into their native tongue as they endured the tyrannical tragedy of their dislocation.

In the end, the song embraces original values without trumpeting triumph. It is sung by young and old, rich and poor, Presbyters and Catholics, and Mary Agnew’s friends and family.

She would remind each of this blessed Easter morning … HE HAS RISEN!

HE HAS RISEN INDEED.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Mary Agnew was one of two people who suggested a word now and then from this saddle shop should be shared. God bless her soul and God Bless … our America.”