The Letters of John Newton

I have started reading the letters of John Newton – the writer of the hymn “Amazing Grace.”

Here is an extract from a letter of 2 November 1761:

Let us not be greatly discouraged at the many tribulations, difficulties, and disappointments which lie in the path that leads to glory, seeing our Lord has told us before, has made a suitable provision for every case we meet with, and is Himself always near to those that call upon Him, a sure refuge and almighty strength, a never-failing ever-present help in every time of trouble; seeing likewise that He Himself was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief for our sakes. He drank of the full cup of unmixed wrath for us; shall we then refuse to taste of the cup of affliction at His appointment, especially when His wisdom and love prepare it for us, and proportion every circumstance to our strength; when He put it into our hands, not in anger but in tender mercy, to do us good, to bring us near to Himself; and when He sweetens every bitter draught with those comforts which none but He can give? Let us rather say, None of these things move us, neither do we count anything on this side eternity dear, so that we may finish our course with joy, and run with patience the race which is set before us.

John Newton wrote many challenging pastoral letters. This one, written to his brother-in-law who had just recovered from serious illness is surely one that speaks to us today!

To Mr John Catlett. (1755)

Dear brother, I suppose you will receive many congratulations on your recovery from your late dangerous illness… You have been, my dear friend, upon the brink, the very edge of an eternal state; but God has restored you back to the world again.

I used a wrong word when I spoke of your recovery…. Look upon it as no more than a REPRIEVE; for you carry the sentence of death about with you still. If you will suffer mercies and providences, afflictions and deliverances, to pass unimproved and unacknowledged, and live in the world as though you were created only to eat, sleep, and play, and after a course of years to be extinguished like the snuff of a candle, why, then, you must abide by the consequences. But, assuredly, sooner or later, God will meet you.

My hearty, daily, constant prayer is that it may be in a way of mercy, and that you may be added to the number of the trophies of rich, free, and sovereign grace.