Kilsyth Anderson Church Magazine autumn 2013 | Page 9

No 2 of the stories behind the hymns

Amazing Grace
Calling himself a “wretch” who was lost and blind, John Newton recalled
leaving school at the age of eleven to begin life as a rough, debauched
seaman. Eventually he engaged in the despicable practice of capturing
natives from West Africa to be sold as slaves to markets around the world.
But one day the grace of God put fear into the heart of this wicked slave
trader through a fierce storm. Greatly alarmed and fearful of a shipwreck,
Newton began to read The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. God
used this book to lead him to a genuine conversion and a dramatic change in
his way of life. Feeling a definite call to study for the ministry,
Newton was encouraged and greatly influenced by John and Charles Wesley
and George Whitefield. At the age of thirty-nine, John Newton became an
ordained minister of the Anglican Church at the little village of Olney, near
Cambridge, England. To add further impact to his powerful preaching,
Newton introduced simple heart-felt hymns rather than the usual psalms in
his services.
When enough hymns could not be found, Newton began to write his own,
often assisted by his close friend William Cowper. In 1779 their combined
efforts produced the famous Olney Hymns hymnal. “Amazing Grace” was
from that collection.
Until the time of his death at the age of eighty-two, John Newton never ceased
to marvel at the grace of God that transformed him so completely. Shortly
before his death he is quoted as proclaiming with a loud voice during a
message, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: That I am a
great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior!”

Sunday School
During the summer holidays, we took a shoe box
full of old postcards which had been someone’s
collection dating back to 1902, along with our bag of
coppers and our jar of foreign coins to the offices of the Scottish Bible
Society and received a letter of thanks for our contribution to their funds.
Since then we have started to collect ‘Coppers for Kids’ in
Yorkhill Children’s Hospital. If you have any foreign coins
(and notes) left from your holidays abroad we are also
collecting them for the Scottish Bible Society.
Two jars have been placed on the table at the front of the
church for your convenience and we hope that our congregation will help
us to help others too.
Thank you