Amazing grace-how sweet the sound

On New Year’s morning 1773, John Newton preached at the parish church of Olney on 1 Chronicles 17:16–17. His main headings were drawn from his text: 1, ‘Who am I?’ (miserable, rebellious, undeserving); 2, ‘That thou hast brought me hitherto’ (before, at, and since conversion); 3, ‘Thou hast spoken’ (about the future … followed by a personal challenge to respond). The hymn to accompany the spoken word was this one. If not in the front rank of hymns for sheer quality (though some Americans place it there) it may well be for documentation, comment and public recognition. This is partly because, for a mixture of commercial and musical reasons, it featured in a different kind of top 20 at the beginning of the 1970s; if the popular music charts seem an unlikely place to find lyrics based on 1 Chronicles, they share this ambivalent distinction with at least Psalm 137 and Ecclesiastes 3. ‘Faith’s review and expectation’ was the heading for Newton’s words in the 1779 Olney Hymns—the sole entry from the books of Chronicles. The hymn had no more than average circulation in Britain, though more in the USA, until Judy Collins’ unaccompanied solo record in 1970 (in the charts for 32 weeks, reaching number 5), followed by many others, brought it into general use and, ironically, back into many hymnals and churches which had formerly neglected it. In 1891 Julian wrote that ‘In G Brit it is unknown to modern collections’; by 2005 Steve Turner reported 3,000 different versions in print. Other authors who have written on the hymn include William R White (2010).

The author’s extraordinary career, as well as his Scripture source, richly illustrates the text of his hymn; his letters and other sermons are well supplied with similar testimony to this assurance of the merciful, sovereign providence of God. Speaking of Christ and his own people, Newton the sailor-turned-preacher says, ‘He knows where to find them, and when to call them; and when his time is come, one word or look from him can disarm them in a moment, and bring them humbly to his feet.’ Again, ‘though [God’s] providence leads us through fire and water, though we walk upon the brink of a thousand apparent, and a million of unseen dangers, we are in reality in perfect safety … Though the tempest greatly assaulted, and seemingly overpowered the ship he was in, St Paul was as safe on the stormy sea, when all probable hope of being saved was taken away, as Caesar himself upon his throne.’

‘Grace’ was once presumably understood as meaning the grace of God. Those editors who insist on retaining ’Twas and ’Tis (but often replace Newton’s final stz with the different rhyme-scheme of ‘When we’ve been there …’, from a camp-meeting version of Jerusalem, my happy home) probably underestimate the need to clarify the fact of God’s grace, as this modest revision does in 2.1. 4.3 was originally ‘he will my shield and portion be’ and stz 5 read ‘Yes, when this heart and flesh shall fail/ and mortal life shall cease;/ I shall possess, within the vail,/ a life of …’; and 6.2 had ‘forbear’. The Jubilate version is more radical. If the hymn’s opening phrase has become a cliché relied on by many 20th-c song-writers, it is fair to add that Newton in his day had borrowed it from his older contemporarires John Cennick and Philip Doddridge. To reduce the hymn to 4 stzs (ending ‘as long as life endures’) seems as big a mistake, and as unworthy of Newton, as adding an extra one.

The tune AMAZING GRACE (=NEW BRITAIN, among other names) on which for many the popularity of the words has largely depended, has proved amazingly resilient, being adapted as a football chant and to many other secular and religious lyrics. It is found in 1829 in the American Columbian Harmony, or Pilgrim’s Musical Companion; the Virginia Harmony of 1831 compiled by J P Carrell and D S Clayton; and (first wedded to Newton’s words) in the Southern Harmony from S Carolina in 1835. E O Excell’s Make His Praise Glorious (1900) is credited with what has now become the most common version of the tune. However, it was known earlier as a folk-tune, possibly of Scottish origin; if so, like the words it knew some crucial Atlantic crossings. It certainly resembles a tune named TWENTY-FOURTH ascribed to Amzi Chapin c1812, and which itself echoes the ballad Fair Helen of Kirkconnel—a possible ancestor of MARTYRDOM (14).

A different discussion of the music is found in the American Hymn Society’s journal The Hymn of Jan 2002, where Kenneth R Hull also considers the effect of various tunes on not just the mood but the meaning of the words: ‘Different tunes create new readings of the text.’ Congregations may prove resistant, but singing these words to ANTIOCH or LONDON NEW (etc) could produce some striking discoveries, and highlight what we sometimes take for granted. Meanwhile the writer describes the now traditional pentatonic tune as having a ‘slightly rugged and primitive’ effect, and its ‘uninterrupted rocking rhythm’ as suggesting ‘security, predictability, a kind of luxurious warmth … the cumulative effect of these rhythms and melodic shapes is oceanic …’ (Would that be Newton’s word?) Stories proliferate about the sometimes surprising uses of words and/or music in both sacred and other contexts. Marylynn Rouse of the John Newton project has done much research into both; see also B E Underwood in HSB 148, April 1980. Several popular studies have appeared from the late 20th c onwards, including Amazing Grace by the poet Steve Turner; this is also the one hymn commended (and briefly analysed) by Nick Page in And now let’s move into a time of nonsense (2004) pp70–78. It is salutary to recall that Newton and his congregation sang his words to quite different music, possibly from
Martin Madan’s 1769 book of tunes. This arrangement is by Praise Trust musicians.

b Wapping, E London 1725, d City of London 1807. His early life ‘might form the groundwork of a story by Defoe, but that it transcends all fiction’—Ellerton. When he was not quite 7 his godly mother died; his father, a merchant navy captain, found the new situation, and his son, hard to handle but took him to sea when he was 11. Back on shore at 18 or 19 John was press-ganged for the royal navy, and recaptured and flogged after desertion. A life of increasing godlessness and depravity on board ship was relieved only by his love for Mary Catlett of Chatham, Kent, whom he had met when he was 17 and she was 14. But he had to sink as low as to be ‘a servant of slaves’ (JN) on the W African coast, and have many brushes with death, when the only book he had was a copy of Euclid’s geometry. Strangely still a non-swimmer, he was almost drowned during a storm at sea before (even more surprisingly) he dipped into The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis and eventually ‘came to himself’. After a series of providential events he finally arrived on the Irish coast. Now 23, he renewed his attachment to Mary before another African voyage as ship’s mate; this time he was laid low by fever, but during that time made his decisive Christian commitment—or rather, simply cast himself on the mercy of God in Christ. In 1750 John and Mary were married. He accompanied or captained several ships on the notorious Atlantic slavetrade, and came with what seems surprising slowness to see the inconsistency of this with his growing Christian faith. Eventually he was to be a supporter of Wm Wilberforce, Thos Clarkson, Granville Sharp and James Stephen; while he came to oppose slavery itself, he was not as consistent or prominent a campaigner as they, and did not list the trade among Britain’s national sins. Further illness in 1754 compelled him to give up his seafaring career and he spent 9 years as Liverpool’s tide surveyor, including leading a large team of inspectors for contraband. He made a friend of Wm Grimshaw, vicar of Haworth, and of Lord Dartmouth who read his story in ms (see also under Fawcett and Haweis). With Dartmouth’s help and after many difficulties he was admitted to ordination (CofE) and in 1764 became curate, effectively incumbent, of Olney, Bucks.

Here Newton became the means of enlightening his neighbour clergyman Thos Scott, whose cynical rationalism was transformed through Newton’s patient and courteous witness into clear evangelical faith. Scott became a noted Bible commentator and published his testimony (re-issued in the 20th c) as The Force of Truth. More famously, Newton became the close friend of William Cowper (qv); he compiled the Olney Hymns (1779) partly with a view to helping Cowper to regain a sense of purpose and use his poetic gifts for the gospel; JN’s Preface claims that ‘I am not conscious of having written a single line with an intention, either to flatter or to offend any party or person on earth’. While many of Newton’s hymns on prayer are searching and lasting (and ‘grace’ is a favourite word), his positive, objective cheerfulness generally provides an excellent foil to Cowper’s sometimes wistful and questioning introspection. Comparisons of the two men’s contributions are common; Montgomery is typical in elevating Cowper, but Lord Selborne speaks for others in balancing Newton’s ‘manliness’ with his friend’s ‘tenderness’, and in clear biblical doctrine they were one. One unexpected result of the book and a sign of its wide and enduring influence was the spur it gave to the RC convert F W Faber (1814–63), as he acknowledged, to try to emulate it for his fellow-Romans some 75 years later. Some extraordinary ‘invective’ (Dr W T Cairns’s word, HSB16, July 1941) has been directed against Newton, by David Cecil and others, for his supposedly malign influence on Cowper. His article examines the evidence for and against such assertions, observing incidentally that ‘neither Cowper nor Newton seems to have been conscious of the alleged unfortunate effect of this association’. JN features more positively in some lines from Wordsworth’s major autobiographical poem The Prelude (begun 1798, final posthumous version 1850), Bk 6.

In 1779 Newton became Rector of St Mary Woolnoth in the City of London, where at that time evangelical incumbents were almost unknown. He ministered there until his death, having lost much of his hearing and sight, surviving his beloved Mary by 17 years. Among other publications, some posthumous, were his sermons and even more remarkable letters to many friends (Cardiphonia, partly republished in the 1960s). A memorial tablet in the city church outlines his story, which has often been made the subject of popular biographies. Among recent books are Brian Edwards’ Through Many Dangers (1975, revised edn 1980), Bernard Braley’s study in Hymnwriters 2 (1989), and Steve Turner’s Amazing Grace (2002; see Introduction to the present book); all of which are complemented by Adam Hochschild’s eloquently disturbing Bury the Chains: the British struggle to abolish slavery (2005). Until fairly recently brief biographical notes on Newton made no mention of Amazing grace; for many now it seems to be the most important fact about him. The John Newton Project currently aims to promote evangelical renewal through the study and appreciation of Newton’s contribution to gospel work and the ending of the slave trade 2 centuries ago. In 2000 Marilynn Rouse, founder leader of the Project, published her edited and annotated edn of Richard Cecil’s 1808 biography. Nos.276, 299, 313*, 326, 570, 600, 602, 603, 607, 717, 767, 772, 791, 875, 903, 958.