Quote of the Day (John Newton, on the Christian’s ‘Many Difficulties He Has Had to Struggle With’)

“The exercised and experienced Christian, by the knowledge he has gained of his own heart and the many difficulties he has had to struggle with, acquires a skill and compassion in dealing with others; and without such exercise, all our study, diligence, and gifts in other ways, would leave us much at a loss in some of the most important parts of our calling.”— English Anglican clergyman, hymn writer, and slavery abolitionist John Newton (1725-1807), Aug. 30, 1770 letter, in Cardiphonia: or, The Utterance of the Heart (1780)

John Newton—born 300 years ago today in London—knew all about a Christian’s “difficulties.” Before his conversion, his days, as a young sailor on a slave ship, been filled with drinking, gambling, and profanity. Nor was his radical change of heart the product of a single day: it would be some years before he gave up how he made money, as the captain of several slave ships and an investor in the slave trade.

But when the change was complete, it was remarkable. He became one of the most prominent proponents of the African slave trade, and lived to see Great Britain abolish the practice just a few months before his death.

Long after his death, Newton has continued to influence lives. Among his compositions is “Amazing Grace,” perhaps the best-known Christian hymn. It has sustained movements, notably for civil rights, and, at the most personal level, individuals struggling with substance abuse, as related in this March 2018 blog post on the Website for the Council on Recovery.

One of those individuals is singer Judy Collins, who began singing the hymn in concert in 1964 and recorded it in 1970. In an interview with Beliefnet, she told how the song offers “a spiritual message which anybody can relate to, because people understand that transformation happens. And that it comes as a surprise and is often inexplicable, which means grace has to have something to do with it.”