Few things in this world bear the power of a mother’s heartfelt prayer. John Newton’s earliest memories with his devoted but frail mother recall afternoons spent praying and memorizing hymns and Bible passages. His mother died when he was seven years old, but her tearful prayers for him would leave a lifelong impression.
John Newton was on his own at a young age, alternating between boarding school and the grueling work of the high seas. As a teenager he was pressed into service with the British navy and fell into a life of sin. Finding the conditions unbearable, he deserted the navy but was later captured and flogged. A darkness settled over him as he sailed through dangers and adventures unrivaled in fiction. He was exchanged to a slave ship where he worked as a slave trader and was brutally abused by the captain. Eventually he became the captain of his own ship.
One night in the spring of 1748, as John was returning home from Africa, a violent storm arose. Steering the ship in what must have seemed like his last hours alive, perhaps John thought of his mother’s prayers. He later wrote of his experience, “The Lord came from on high and delivered me out of deep waters.”1
Upon his safe return home, John acknowledged his spiritual roots and committed himself to a life of living and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. His mother’s prayers had been answered, for her son had been saved by God’s amazing grace. In the words of John Newton’s famous hymn, “Amazing Grace.” “Thru many dangers, toils and snares I have already come; ’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.”2
Program #3900
1. In “John Newton, Servant of Slaves, Discovers Amazing Grace!” Christian History Institute. http://www.gospelcom.net/chi/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses/glmps028.shtml.
2. In Kenneth W. Osbeck, 101 Hymn Stories (1982), 28.