Show l Hymn 1 Born n n r It 1 1 BY cL CLINT NT IER BONI-IER ff Amazing Grace r The co nf of n CJ C aVA din chin rAnt J. J An old r windjammer tied UP at Southampton n The captain staggered down the tho gangplank paused and looked back at his Ms ship Then he disappeared up the ancient cobblestone street Capt John Ne Newton lon was only 23 years old h h IK but he had been u to sea ever since his pious m mother he had j died when he was 7 H He 5 had sailed with h his sea captain sea captain rather father had done a trick Jn the n British Navy deserted been caught put In Irons and whipped in public Defiant he signed on the lowest of all aU craft a slave ship He hardly knew how to read but he knew the sea and It wasn't long until he was walking the bridge as master of his own slaver with a whip In one hand and and and-a a gun in the other John Newton wasn't drunk that day In 1784 when he staggered down the plank He was sick sick physically spiritually and morally Most of all aU he was sick of the filthy slave business business business busi busi- ness ness- nessOn On a long voyage from Brazil he had read reada a book called Imitation of Christ Then came Amazing gr grace ce how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like mel met melI Tories once I once was lost but now am found Was blind but now I see Twos grace that taught my heart to fear And grace my fears fear relieved How precious did that at grace appear The hour I first believed ur r no x a storm a vicious storm that threatened for tor days to send him to the bottom When the tho storm calmed he fell tell to thinking thinking about Christ who Thomas Kempis had written about in his book Not an Englishman In His lIls Majesty's Empire would have dreamed that Capt John Newton would have quit the sea for the ministry That is not an Englishman except Capt John Newton But when he paused for a n last look at his ship that's exactly what the hard-boiled hard skipper had in miner mind After 16 18 years of self education John Newton was ordained and given a little church at the town of ot Olney But he never gave up his sea garb In the sunset of life as pastor of one of London's greatest churches he appeared in Sn the pulpit dressed like a sailor with sailor with a cane In one hand and a Bible Dible in the other But it was while serving his little church at Olney that he wrote many dangers toils tolls and snares I have already come comer Ti is grace hath hoth brot me safe thus far And grace will lead me ho home e. e When weve we've been there ten thousand years yean Bright shining as at the sun Weve We've no less ess days to sing Gods praise Than when we first begun |