American Minute with Bill Federer
"
Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound ..." - John Newton, William Wilberforce, & the fight to end slavery in the British Empire
|
|
"Amazing grace!
How sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see."
|
|
These were the words of
John Newton,
a former slave ship captain, who died DECEMBER 21, 1807.
At age 11, his mother died and he went to sea with his father.
|
|
Young
John Newton
fell in love with Mary Catlett while on shore leave, but overstaying his visit, he missed his ship's departure.
In 1744, he was caught by a
"press gang"
and dragged onto the ship
HMS Harwich
where he was forced to be a sailor.
|
|
Newton
tried to desert but was caught, stripped to the waist and flogged with 8 dozen lashes.
John Newton
later wrote in a letter:
"Like an unwary sailor who quits his port just before a rising storm, I renounced the hopes and comforts of the Gospel at the very time when every other comfort was about to fail me."
|
|
His reckless behavior caused him to be traded to a slave ship.
Being a continual problem,
Newton
was intentionally left on a
slave plantation
in
Sierra Leone, West Africa.
|
|
There, the African slave dealer, Amos Clowe, made
Newton
a slave of his wife, Princess Peye, an African duchess, where he suffered abuse and mistreatment.
|
|
Years later,
Scottish Missionary David Livingstone
mentioned
John Newton
and the Muslim Arab slave traders' shocking treatment of African slaves
(Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa,
London, October 1857):
"It was refreshing to get food which could be eaten without producing the unpleasantness described by the
Rev. John Newton,
of St. Mary's, Woolnoth, London, when obliged to eat the same roots
while a slave in the West (Africa) ..."
|
|
David Livingstone
continued:
"A party of Arabs from Zanzibar were ... at a village in the same latitude as Naliele town ... The Arabs mentioned ... they ... disliked the English, 'because they thrash (criticize) them for selling slaves' ...
|
|
... I ventured to tell them that I agreed with the English, that it was better to let the children grow up and comfort their mothers when they became old, than to carry them away and sell them across the sea ...
After many explanations of
our abhorrence of slavery,
and how
displeasing it must be to God to see his children selling one another."
|
|
Livingstone
described the Arab Muslim slave trade as "a monster brooding over Africa."
|
|
John Newton
was finally rescued from Africa but continued his immoral life in the slave trade, deriding Christians with blasphemy that shocked even sailors.
|
|
Newton
wrote in 1778:
"How industrious is Satan served.
I was formerly one of his active under-temptors and had my influence been equal to my wishes I would have carried all the human race with me. A common drunkard or profligate is a petty sinner to what I was."
|
|
In 1747,
Newton
was on the slave ship
Greyhound.
The ship was caught in a storm so terrible that he was convinced they would sink. He prayed for the first time in his life.
|
|
He then read
Thomas a Kempis'
Imitation of Christ
and the
Bible.
|
|
Newton
continued in the slave trade for a time, but endeavored to treat slaves humanely.
Newton
finally left the slave trade, married Mary Catlett in 1750, and moved to Liverpool, where from 1755 to 1760 he worked as a surveyor of tides.
He wrote:
"I am not the man I ought to be, I am not the man I wish to be, and I am not the man I hope to be, but by the grace of God, I am not the man I used to be."
|
|
While in Liverpool,
Newton
met the evangelistic preacher
George Whitefield
and
John Wesley,
the founder of Methodism.
He was inspired to become a
minister
and
taught himself Greek and Hebrew.
|
|
Newton
was turned down by the Anglican Archbishop of York, but persisted and was eventually ordained in 1764.
|
|
He was assigned to the village of
Olney,
Buckinghamshire, where he humbly proclaimed the saving power of Christ.
|
|
In 1767, poet
William Cowper
moved to
Olney,
and with his help,
Newton
composed songs for their weekly prayer meetings.
|
|
William Cowper
wrote in the poem
"Winter Walk at Noon,"
1785:
"Nature is but a name for an effect,
Whose cause is God."
|
|
Newton
and
Cowper's
songs were first published in 1779 in a collection titled
"Olney Hymns."
The
Olney Hymns
include:
"Oh! for a Closer Walk with God,"
"God Moves in a Mysterious Way," and
"There is a Fountain Filled with Blood," which has the lines:
"The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away
Wash all my sins away,
Wash all my sins away;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away."
|
|
This is a reference to
God,
being
just,
judges
every
sin,
but being
love,
He provided the Lamb to take the judgment for our sins, washing them away.
Isaiah 53: "Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
But
he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities; the
punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed ...
|
|
The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led
like a lamb
to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent ...
He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished ...
Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer ... The Lord makes his life an offering for sin ...
My righteous servant will justify many, and
he will bear their iniquities
... For
he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors."
|
|
John Newton
moved to
London
in 1780 to become rector of
St. Mary Woolnoth Church.
|
|
He continually preached against slavery and published his ghastly experiences in the slave trade in 1788.
|
|
On
John Newton's tomb,
and on a church plaque, is written:
|
|
"John Newton,
Clerk,
once an infidel and libertine,
a servant of slaves in Africa,
was, by the rich mercy
of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ,
preserved, restored, pardoned,
and appointed to preach the faith
he had long labored to destroy."
|
|
Many influential leaders in England attended
John Newton's services.
In 1795, a famous British member of Parliament,
William Wilberforce,
came to have a living faith in Jesus Christ through the help of
Newton.
Wilberforce
initially wanted to become a preacher, but
Newton
persuaded him to serve God by
fighting slavery
in the British Parliament, as Britain was the world's largest slave trader in the 19th century.
|
|
In 1983,
President Ronald Reagan
wrote in "Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation"
(The Human Life Review):
"Prayer
and
action
are needed to uphold the
sanctity of human life.
I believe it will not be possible to accomplish our work of saving lives, 'without being a soul of prayer.'
The famous British member of
Parliament William Wilberforce
prayed with his small group of influential friends, the
'Clapham Sect,'
for decades to see
an end to slavery
in the British empire."
|
|
Eric Metaxas
wrote in his post,
"BreakPoint: Wilberforce and the 'Necessary Evil'"
(July 26, 2018):
"Historian Christopher D. Hancock wrote, the slave trade 'involved thousands of slaves, hundreds of ships, and millions of pounds [sterling]; upon it depended the economies of Britain and much of Europe.'
|
|
... After his dramatic conversion to Jesus Christ in 1785, the heretofore unfocused
Wilberforce
made three consequential decisions that ended up changing the world:
first,
stay in politics,
at a time when conventional wisdom held that politics was too dirty a business for Christians;
second,
work for the abolition
of the
slave trade
in Britain; and,
third,
work for
moral reformation in society."
|
|
The movie,
Amazing Grace
(2006) starred Ioan Gruffudd as
William Wilberforce
and Albert Finney as
John Newton.
|
|
Wilberforce
wrote in his journal:
“My walk is a public one ... My business is in the world, and I must mix in the assemblies of men or quit the post which Providence seems to have assigned me.”
|
|
Wilberforce
later added:
“A man who acts from the principles I profess reflects that he is to give an account of his political conduct at the judgment seat of Christ.”
|
|
Fighting the entrenched, deep-state slavery interests for 11 years,
Wilberforce
wrote:
“So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the trade’s wickedness appear ... that my own mind was completely made up …
Let the consequences be what they would; I from this time determined that
I would never rest until I had effected its abolition.”
|
|
Parliament
finally passed an act
abolishing the slave trade
in 1807, but it took 26 years to
abolish slavery throughout the British Empire.
|
|
Eric Metaxas
wrote:
"So it was ... on July 26, 1833, that the
Emancipation Act
passed its third reading in the House of Commons, ensuring the
end of slavery in the British Empire,
some three decades before the bloody Civil War would end it in America.
When an aged
Wilberforce
heard the news, he said, 'Thank God I have lived to witness [this] Day.' He died three days later."
|
|
President Reagan wrote:
"Wilberforce
led that struggle in Parliament, unflaggingly, because he believed in the sanctity of human life.
He saw the fulfillment of his impossible dream
when
Parliament outlawed slavery just before his death."
|
|
Considered the most popular Christian hymn ever,
John Newton's
word began:
"AMAZING GRACE!
How sweet the sound
That sav'd a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev'd;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believ'd!
|
|
Thro' many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promis'd good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.
|
|
Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call'd me here below,
Will be forever mine."
|
|
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
|
|
Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
wjfederer@gmail.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
|