Amazing Grace

Everyone I know, Christian and non-Christian, has a special place in their heart for the reverend hymn, “Amazing Grace.” It was written by minister and hymn writer John Newton. It is the one hymn you always hear being played by bagpipes at a Police and Firefighters Memorial Service.

- Reverend Dr. Rocky Brown, 3rd

Newton was born in London, England in 1725. His mother gave him some religious training, but she died of tuberculosis when he was only seven. He received little formal education before going to sea with his father, the commander of a merchant ship, at age eleven. In 1743, he was forced to serve aboard the H.M.S. Harwich and soon deserted. He was captured, flogged, and degraded to a common seaman. After asking to be exchanged for a slave ship, he suffered brutal persecution before being rescued by a friend of his father. Newton later said that in the course of these wanderings, he lost all sense of religion. But, during a severe storm on the homeward voyage, he experienced a strong religious conversion.