AMAZING GRACE
A violent storm at sea was the turning-point in John Newton’s life. Motherless at six and sent to sea on his eleventh birthday, he soon became a teenage rebel. He was press-ganged into the navy and flogged for desertion. Newton became involved with the African slave- trade and came close to starvation while living in extreme poverty in Sierra Leone. But in March 1748, at the age of twenty-three, he was on board a cargo ship which was fighting for its life against heavy seas and rough weather. Worn out with pumping and almost frozen, he called out for God’s mercy at the height of the storm, and was amazed to be saved from almost certain death. Newton’s life had many twists and turns. Eventually he renounced his involvement with slave- trading and, at thirty-nine, became a minister in the church. He persuaded the young William Wilberforce to stay in politics, and joined him in the fight to abolish the slave-trade. Amazing…
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