Amazing Grace
It’s been described as the
“spiritual national anthem of America”[1],
the hymn Amazing Grace is probably one of the most beloved religious songs ever
written, and this year marks the 250th anniversary of origin of the
song back in 1773.
The song actually nearly
disappeared into obscurity. It was one of a number of hymns written by church
of England minister, John Newton with a friend of his, William Cowper when they
lived in Olney in Northamptonshire. (William Cowper by the way once lived in
Huntingdon and after which Cowper Road is named).
But after slow beginnings the hymn
grew in popularity in the US and indeed around the world, and has been sung at
weddings, funerals, and special occasions ever since, including at memorials
for the NASA astronauts in 1986 and at Ground Zero in New York in 2001. It is
one of only a few Christian songs to have made it into the UK singles charts,
and has been sung by artists as diverse as Rod Stewart, Mahalia Jackson, Aretha
Franklin, Elvis Presley and the Lemonheads.
What is it that has made it such a
classic? Some have pointed to the simplicity of the language and the beauty of
the emotion. But it is perhaps the meaning of the words that is most important.
John Newton who wrote the song did
so partly to teach the adults and children in his church about the central
point at the heart of the Christian faith, which was also at the heart of his
own story.
Amazing GRACE. Grace is undeserved kindness, and it is what God specialises in. Many people think that you have to be good enough to be accepted by God, but that is not true, since none of us have loved God as we should. But he is the God that (in the words of the song) saves “a wretch like me”. John Newton was a slave trader who for the first decades of his life led a very immoral life, not least in the way he treated black slaves in the transatlantic slave trade. But after he cried out to God on board a sinking ship, God turned his life around, and eventually used him to fight against the slave trade that he used to be part of. If God can forgive and turn around John Newton, he can forgive and turn around you and I.
Charlie Newcombe, 19/04/2023
[1] “John
Newton- from Disgrace to Amazing Grace” Jonathan Aitken p237.