John Newton

“ On the other hand, it is a heart-withering reflection, that his mightier efforts of genius— the poems by which he commands universal admiration though they breathe the soul of purest, humblest, holiest piety, and might have been written amidst the clear shining of the Sun of Righteousness arisen on him with healing in his wings— were yet composed under darkness like that of the valley of the shadow of death. ”

“ Our warm affections move ;
Did he but shine alike on all,
Then all alike would love.
5 Then love in every heart would reign,
And war would cease to roar ;
And cruel and blood-thirsty men
Would thirst for blood no more.
6 Such Jesus is, and such his grace,
Oh may it shine on you !
And tell him, when you see his face,
I long to see him too.
14.
Rest for weary Souls.
1 DOES the gospel-word proclaim
Rest for those who weary be ?
Then my soul put in thy claim,
Sure that promise speaks to thee :
Marks of grace I cannot show,
All polluted is my best ”

“ When, to save us, on the cross his blood he shed.
6 When a guilty sinner sees him,
While he looks his soul is heal'd ;
Soon this sight from anguish frees him,
And imparts a pardon seal'd:
May this Saviour be to all our hearts reveal'd ! ”

“ By tempests be tost
On perilous deeps,
But cannot be lost:
Though Satan enrages
The wind and the tide,
The promise engages
The Lord will provide.
4 His call we obey,
Like Abr'am of old,
Not knowing our way,
But faith makes us bold:
For though we are strangers,
We have a good guide,
And trust, in all dangers,
The Lord will provide.
5 When Satan appears,
To stop up our path
And fill us with fears,
We triumph by faith ”

“ Surrenders all to thee ;
Against thy terrors long I strove,
- But who can stand against thy love ?
Love conquers even me.
2 AU that a wretch could do I tried,
Thy patience scorn d, thy power defied,
And trampled on thy laws :
Scarcely thy martyrs at the stake
Could stand more steadfast for thy sake
Than I in Satan s cause.
3 But since thou hast thy love reveal d,
And shown my soul a pardon seal d,
I can resist no more :
Couldst thou for such a sinner bleed ? ”

“ Fain would I hope that thou didst bleed
For such a wretch as I.
8 That blood which thou hast spilt,
That grace which is thine own,
Can cleanse the vilest sinner's guilt,
And soften hearts of stone. ”

“ And by a word his power reveal d.
2 Wonder and joy at once
Were painted in his face ;
" Does he my name pronounce,
And does he know my case ?
Will Jesus deign with me to dine ?
Lord, I, with all I have, are thine."
3 Thus, where the gospel s preach d,
And sinners come to hear,
The hearts of some are reach d
Before they are aware :
The word directly speaks to them,
And seems to point them out by name. ”

“ Saviour, who hast us bought,
Spirit, by whom we re bora again,
And sanctified and taught !
2 Thy glory, holy Three in One,
Thy people s song shall be,
Long as the wheels of time shall run,
And to eternity.
106.
1 GLORY to God the Father s name,
To Jesus, who for sinners died ;
The Holy Spirit claims the same,
By whom our souls are sanctified. ”

“ To these disappointments of laudable ambition, alone sufficient to drive a fevered brain to frenzy, or plunge a self-tormenting mind in melancholy, were added, about the same time, the bereavement, by death, of a friend whom he loved as his own soul; and the loss, by something worse than death, of another object yet more beloved. ”

“ Behold the man who shall be the father of a new generation of bards, worthy of their native language and their native land; —the man, who shall exhibit, in his uncompromising verse, a style so pure, so simple, and severe, that intellectual excellence alone shall compel admiration, even from those who hate the poet's themes because they hate the gospel. ”

“ Was comforted and glad.
In trouble what a resting-place
Have they who know the throne of grace I
3 Though men .and devils rage,
And threaten to devour,
The saints from age to age
Are safe from all their power ;
Fresh strength they gain to run their race
By waiting at the throne of grace. ”

“ The counsels of God, even in what does come to pass, are in many respects unsearchable. Known unto himself alone from the beginning are all his works; and to justify his ways— for, after all, they were God's ways, and not man's in the particular instance before us, it is sufficient to consider what was the positive result of the connection between these two remarkable men,— the one brought from a slave- ship, and the other from a lunatic asylum, to teach the world justice and mercy, and enlighten it with knowledge. ”

“ After acting such a part ?
"Thou hast greatly sinn d," he said,
"But I freely all forgive;
I myself thy debt have paid,
Now I bid thee rise and live."
4 Come, my fellow-sinners, try,
Jesus heart is full of love !
Oh that you, as well as I,
May his wondrous mercy prove!
He has sent me to declare,
All is ready, all is free :
Why should any soul despair,
When he saved a wretch like me ? ”

“ The page which commemorates our Poet's deliverance from the fear that hath torment, into joy unspeakable and full of glory, is the fairest in the dark-and-bright volume of his book of life; and that page is written by his own hand, in the language of his heart, when he poured forth its fulness and sweetness, in those two hymns of the following Collection, which cannot be read and understood without experiencing, by sympathy, a measure of the bliss and tranquility which they breathe.— See Book iii, Hymns 44 and 45. "How blest thy creature is, O God!" ”

“ Confidence.
1 YES! since God himself has said it,
On the promise I rely ;
His good word demands my credit,
What can unbelief reply ;
He is strong, and can fulfill ;
He is truth, and therefore will. ”

“ It softens care and sweetens toil,
The sun shines forth with double light,
The whole creation wears a smile, .
3 Upon thine arm of love I rest,
Thy gracious voice forbids my fear ;
No storms disturb my peaceful breast,
No foes assault when thou art near.
4 But, ah ! since tliou hast been away,
Nothing but trouble have I known ;
And Satan marks me for his prey,
Because he sees me left alone.
5 My sun is hid, my comforts lost,
My graces droop, my sins revive ;
Distress d, dismay d, and tempest-toss d,
My soul is only just alive ! ”

“ The patient was little advanced in manhood, but sorrow had done the work of years on his debilitated frame and faded cheek, while some thing more than sorrow had wrought a sadder ruin within, where no eye could search out the cause, unless it could see into the invisible world, and discern the spirit itself within the tabernacle of clay. ”

“ And bring me home to God.
2 Soon as the morn the light reveal d,
His praises tuned my tongue ;
And when the evening shades prevail d,
His love was all my song :
3 In vain the tempter spread his wiles,
The world no more could charm ”

“ For Jesus is our sun and shield,
Our righteousness and strength.
10 Assured that Christ our King
Will put our foes to flight,
We on the field of battle sing,
And triumph while we fight.
88.
Man by Nature, Grace, and Glory.
1 LORD, what is man ? extremes how wide
In this mysterious nature join !
The flesh to worms and dust allied,
The soul immortal and divine ! ”

“ Arms hanging idly down, hands clasp'd below,"
brooding over bosom-sorrows not to be told, refusing comfort or hope from every created source, and from religion itself deriving nothing but despair: had Dr. Johnson seen him thus; and had the good angel of the poor unknown spoken aloud in the critic's ear, and cried, "Behold the man whose mind, by its ascendance over the minds of contemporaries, shall purify the public taste, and restore British song from its half-century of captivity and degradation, in French fetters, to its inherited freedom. ”

“ SIMILAR HYMNS.
Book I. Hymns 57, 58, 59, 79, 80.
Book II. Hymns 37, 38, 39, 41, 42.
VIII. SHORT HYMNS.
BEFORE SERMON.
89.
CONFIRM the hope thy word allows,
Behold us waiting to be fed ;
Bless the provisions of thy house,
And satisfy thy poor with bread :
Drawn by thine invitation Lord,
Thirsty and hungry we are come !
Now from the fulness of thy word,
Feast us, and send us thankful home.
90.
1 Now, Lord, inspire the preacher s heart,
And teach his tongue to speak ;
Food to the hungry soul impart,
And cordials to the weak. ”

“ Newton's portion of the work is by far the largest, and it is no disparagement to his memory to say, that this might be considerably reduced with advantage to the remainder, though it would be a bold hand, and ought to be a delicate one, that should presume to attempt the desirable excision. Let the good man, however, speak for himself: "My part would have been much smaller than it is, and the book would have appeared in a very different form, if the wise though mysterious providence of God had not seen fit to cross my wishes. ”

“ I saw the hills as distinct as if awake, and that they were all in flames. I perceived, too late, my folly ; and my tempter, with an air of insult, informed me, that all the mercy God had in reserve for me was comprised in that ring, which I had wilfully thrown away. ”

“ In plain truth, scripture language, whether historical, poetic, or doctrinal, is so comprehensive, that in anywise to alter is to impair it; if you add you encumber; if you diminish you maim the sense; to paraphrase is to enfeeble everlasting strength; to imitate is to impoverish inexhaustible riches; and to translate into verse is necessarily to do one, or the other, or both of these, in nearly every line. ”

“ May I not plead for an equal liberty? The views I have received of the doctrines of grace are essential to my peace; I could not live comfortably a day or an hour without them. I likewise believe, yea, so far as my poor attainments warrant me to speak, I know them to be friendly to holiness, and to have a direct influence in producing and maintaining a gospel conversation; and therefore I must not be ashamed of them.
The Hymns are distributed into three Books. ”

“ How our renegade stripling, at an age when youth and ill health might have softened the heart of the least compassionate of the gentler sex, came to be so much out of favour with his mistress, has not been told by himself, but her cruelty has, and the record will not soon be effaced from his pages, though thousands of wretches like him may have suffered as much, under similar circumstances, whose wrongs and oppressions ceased from the earth with themselves, and were written in no book but that out of which the dead as well as the living shall be judged at the last day. ”

“ On the contrary, when he adorns a train of his private thoughts with scripture images and ideas, or interweaves with his own language, scripture phrases, that fall without straining into his verse, the latter is illustrated and enriched by the alliance or the amalgamation. In a word, divine themes are necessarily degraded by human interpolations; while human compositions are necessarily exalted by the felicitous introduction of sacred allusions. ”

“ As the workings of the heart of man, and of the Spirit of God, are in general the same in all who are the subjects of grace, I hope most of these hymns, being the fruit and expression of my own experience, will coincide with the views of real Christians of all denominations. But I cannot expect that every sentiment I have advanced will be universally approved. ”

“ But those original works of genius, of which language is the expression, scarcely admit of fellowship, either in conception or execution. One book must be the product of one brain, in which, to constitute excellence, there ought to be as strict unity of thought and diction as the ancient critic required of time and place in dramatic action. ”