Have you ever heard the song Amazing Grace? It is often sung at regular or music schools. It was also played in many movies. You can find different versions of this song on youtube.

This hymn was written by a man called John Newton who lived in England many years ago. His father was a ship captain. His mother died when he was only six and his father married again.

Young John was sent away from home to a boarding school where he got into bad company. He later said, “Instead of making progress, I nearly forgot all that my good mother had taught me.”

When he was 11 years old he became a sailor on board of his father’s sailing ship. It was hard work and the food was bad, but for five years he sailed on the ship with his father making many long journeys.

When John was 17 his father left the sea and John started working on other ships. That same year he fell in love with a 14-year-old girl called Polly.

Her family was very nice to him and he enjoyed being with them so much that once he stayed at their place too long and missed the ship to the West Indies that he was supposed to catch. Each time his ship came back to England, John went off to see Polly and again there were times when he was late reporting back to his ship. This got him into bad trouble and the captain of the ship had him beaten and made him do the hardest tasks. He had to scrub the deck, haul heavy ropes or climb up above the sails and stand for hours watching to make sure the ship did not run onto rocks.

John did not believe in God and made fun of anyone who did. He did such evil things that even the other tough men in the crew of the ship were shocked by his conduct.

But after many years John became the master of his own ship and began to make journeys from Africa to America. But do you know what he was buying and selling? Slaves. Like cattle, these poor slaves were packed into the lower deck and were given hardly enough food or water to survive. They were treated so cruelly that many died even before they reached America to be sold. And John Newton was the man who was in charge of this bad business.

On one journey a great storm arose. Huge waves crashed against the boat. The animals that they were carrying for food were washed overboard and the men had to tie themselves with ropes to the railings so that the same would not happen to them. The storm was horrifying, everybody was frightened. But God helped them and after some very frightening days they reached port.

John began to realise that there was a great, good, powerful and loving God who had saved them from shipwreck. He remembered what his mother had taught him as a little boy and with all his heart he asked God to forgive him and to save him from the punishment that he deserved for all the sinful things that he had done.

Of course, God heard his prayer, forgave him and accepted him into His heavenly family. God began to change John little by little. After some years he gave up his life on the sea and went back to England. He was ashamed of the terrible life that he had been living. Now, more than anything he wanted other people to know and to love God, so he became a preacher of the Gospel and a writer of hymns.

Thousands of people were changed as they listened to his sermons. John told them about how God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus, into this world to live a perfect life and to be punished for our sins. We still sing some of the hymns that John Newton wrote. The most famous one is Amazing Grace. In this hymn John confesses that the happiest day of his life was the day he accepted Jesus.