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“Amazing Grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now I am found
Was blind but now I see.”
Thus goes one of the most popular hymns ever composed.
This hymn was written by a man named John Newton.
John Newton was born in 1725.
He went to the sea at 11 years of age which was quite common in those times.
He was very unpopular in the ship and when he was a teenager ,due to his disobedience he was stripped of his rank ,tied to a mast,and was given 60 lashes and was reduced to a common seaman.He continued to be unpopular so he was kicked off that ship and got onto a slave trader’s ship on the way to Africa.
One fine day his shipmates kidnapped him and sold him to a slave trader.
He remained a slave in Africa for four years until his father sent a search party for him and he was rescued at the age of 25.
However on his journey back home his ship faced a terrible storm in the sea and half the crew of the ship died. John Newton thinking that he was going to die as well started praying for salvation.
However,God had other plans.
The storm subsided and he returned home.
This incident did bring about a change in John Newton but not completely.
Once in England ,he became a Captain of a slave ship ,at the age of 25 years.
The age of 29 years he had a fever and a stroke and was blind for four months so he had to give up the sea.
He became a tax collector and over a time became interested in ministry so he started studying.
He was rejected by the Methodists, the Presbyterians and finally was accepted by the church of England and became a minister.
At the age of 55 years in 1779 he wrote a hymn which was known as “faiths review and expectation “but was later published under the name, “Amazing Grace”.
In the late 1700s ,50,000 Africans were transported to America by British slave traders.
William Wilburforce was a young man who lived in the lap of luxury in his two houses in London and Wimbledon.
He spent his years gambling and dining ,with his friends from the college in Cambridge. There was a time when he was fascinated by a preacher called George Whitfield but now all he wanted was a seat in the British parliament.
In the year 1718 at a young age of 21 years he became a member of Parliament. In the early years he did nothing of value and in his own words says, “I did nothing
to any purpose .My own distinction was my darling object.”
In 1785 during a trip to Europe the emptiness of his plush life gnawed at his soul.
In 1786 he fell into a dark depression and then he trusted Jesus Christ to transform his troubled soul.
As a young believer he thought of abandoning his political position,but JOHN NEWTON ,the ex-slave trader ,(who wrote 'Amazing grace'),who was now his old pastor urged William Wilberforce to use the position for the glory of God.
A few months later William Wilberforce received a letter that urged him to end the slave trade and he began to put his effort towards this goal.
Along with a friend of his ,named Thomas Clarkson ,introduced the legislation to end slave trade in the years 1789 ,1791,,1792,1793,1797,1798,1799,1804 and 1805.
They were defeated every time.
The opposition to them increased so much that it looked like the African merchants would barbecue them alive.
In 1807 their continuous effort and a slave uprising in Haiti turned the tide.
The Parliament outlawed slave trade in the British Empire.
However they continued to work towards abolishment of slavery itself.
Poor health forced William Wilberforce to resign from Parliament but Clarkson and others continued the campaign.
In July 1833, three days before William Wilberforce died it was clear that they had the majority vote they needed to abolish slavery.
Next month the slavery abolition act was passed.
It was 30 more years before it happened in America.
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