John Newton described himself as a "wretch" in need of grace. Though his mother taught him to pray, she died when he was 7 and his heart hardened against God. He became a wild, young man who mocked Christianity and drowned himself in drink.

At 23, while a crewman on a slave ship, Newton was jolted awake by a violent storm—so terrifying that he cried out to the Lord. The John Newton who arrived safely in England was a repentant man. For the rest of his life he would refer to March 10, 1748, as the day of his conversion.

Unfortunately, Newton's conversion did not change his views of slavery for many years. He became the captain of his own slave ship. In time, under the influence of famed abolitionist William Wilberforce and Anglican priests John Wesley and George Whitefield, he had another spiritual awakening. In 1760 he became an ordained minister and a powerful foe of slavery.

He eventually settled in the Olney parish where he and his friend William Cowper spent four days a week collaborating on hymns for their prayer meetings. On Jan. 1, 1773, the hymn was "Amazing Grace," which accompanied a text on David's response to God's blessings (1 Chron. 17:16-17). The original title for the song was "Faith's Review and Expectation."

Two earlier forms of the tune were published in the 19th century, but recent scholarship credits William Walker's Southern Harmony (1835) with the marriage of Newton's text to an old plantation melody. Much of the hymn's early popularity was the result of the songbook, which sold 800,000 copies.

In 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe added a verse to Newton's text in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)—the now familiar "10,000 years" verse. The revised hymn was published in Dwight L. Moody's songbook and later in hymnals of many denominations. Today, parts of Newton's story are retold in Amazing Grace, a feature film about the life of William Wilberforce. It arrives in theaters in February.

The redeemed sinner who wrote, "I was lost but now I'm found … was blind but now I see" was literally blind when he died—but he had seen clearly the wonder of God's grace.

Linda Owen is a freelance writer and the editor of www.saWorship.com in San Antonio, Texas.

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