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 has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
When we've been here ten thousand years...
bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise...
then when we've first begun
---John Newton.
Have you ever sung a song and wondered where we go the song from? Well, i do...I had to tell a story for my Teaching History and Geography class and decided to tell this one! Enjoy!
Born in London on July 24, 1725 my father was a shipmaster and my mother taught me all of my religion. When I was just six years old my mother passed away from tuberculosis. I then became very bitter towards God. At the age of eleven, I went to work with my father on the ships. I was forced to joined the naval service in 1943, which I soon tried to desert but was caught. By request, I was a sent to be servant to a slave trader who abused me. One day a friend of my fathers rescued me, in 1748. A few months later, I was awaken in the middle of a storm, and it was that night that I found the Lord. I wrote the first stanza of the song “Amazing Grace” about my own life! The third stanza was written late one night. It was the night of my “conversion”. I awoke from my sleep to realize there was a violent storm and my men were being washed overboard ad others were tying themselves to the ship so as not to get taken with the current. Though I was converted, I did not stop slave trading until almost 40 years later.
