"Amazing
Grace" is a Christian hymn published in 1779, with words written in 1772
by the English poet and Anglican clergyman John Newton (1725–1807).
Newton
wrote the words from personal experience. He grew up without any particular religious
conviction, but his life's path was formed by a variety of twists and
coincidences that were often put into motion by others' reactions to what they
took as his recalcitrant insubordination.
He was
pressed (conscripted) into service in the Royal Navy. After leaving the
service, he became involved in the Atlantic slave trade. In 1748, a violent
storm battered his vessel off the coast of County Donegal, Ireland, so severely
that he called out to God for mercy. This moment marked his spiritual conversion
but he continued slave trading until 1754 or 1755, when he ended his seafaring
altogether. He began studying Christian theology.
Ordained
in the Church of England in 1764, Newton became curate of Olney,
Buckinghamshire, where he began to write hymns with poet William Cowper.
"Amazing Grace" was written to illustrate a sermon on New Year's Day
of 1773. It is unknown if there was any music accompanying the verses; it may
have been chanted by the congregation. It debuted in print in 1779 in Newton
and Cowper's Olney Hymns but settled into relative obscurity in England. In the
United States, "Amazing Grace" became a popular song used by Baptist
and Methodist preachers as part of their evangelizing, especially in the South,
during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century. It has been
associated with more than 20 melodies. In 1835, American composer William
Walker set it to the tune known as "New Britain" in a shape-note
format. This is the version most frequently sung today.
With
the message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of sins
committed and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the mercy of
God, "Amazing Grace" is one of the most recognisable
songs in the English-speaking world. Author Gilbert Chase writes that it is
"without a doubt the most famous of all the folk hymns."[1] Jonathan
Aitken, a Newton biographer, estimates that the song is performed about 10
million times annually.[2] It has had particular influence in folk music, and
has become an emblematic black spiritual. Its universal message has been a
significant factor in its crossover into secular music. "Amazing
Grace" became newly popular during a revival of folk music in the US
during In the 1960s, and it has been recorded
thousands of times during and since the 20th century, in versions that have
occasionally ranked on popular music charts.
“How industrious is Satan served. I was formerly
one of his active undertemptors and had my influence been equal to my wishes I
would have carried all the human race with me. A common drunkard or profligate
is a petty sinner to what I was.”
John
Newton, 1778[3]
According
to the Dictionary of American Hymnology, "Amazing Grace" is John
Newton's spiritual autobiography in verse.[4]
EARLY LIFE
In
1725, Newton was born in Wapping, a district in London near the Thames. His
father was a shipping merchant who was brought up as a Catholic but had
Protestant sympathies, and his mother was a devout Independent, unaffiliated
with the Anglican Church. She had intended Newton to become a clergyman, but
she died of tuberculosis when he was six years old.[5] For the next few years,
while his father was at sea Newton was raised by his emotionally distant
stepmother. He was also sent to boarding school, where he was mistreated.[6] At
the age of eleven, he joined his father on a ship as an apprentice; his
seagoing career would be marked by headstrong disobedience.
As a youth,
Newton began a pattern of coming very close to death, examining his
relationship with God, then relapsing into bad habits. As a sailor, he
denounced his faith after being influenced by a shipmate who discussed with him
Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, a book by the Third Earl of
Shaftesbury. In a series of letters Newton later wrote, "Like an unwary
sailor who quits his port just before a rising storm, I renounced the hopes and
comforts of the Gospel at the very time when every other comfort was about to
fail me."[7] His disobedience caused him to be pressed into the Royal
Navy, and he took advantage of opportunities to overstay his leave.
He
deserted the navy to visit Mary "Polly" Catlett, a family friend with
whom he had fallen in love.[8] After enduring humiliation for deserting,[a] he
was traded as crew to a slave ship.
He
began a career in slave trading.[b]
Engraving
of an older heavyset man, wearing robes, vestments, and wig
John
Newton in his later years
Newton
often openly mocked the captain by creating obscene poems and songs about him,
which became so popular that the crew began to join in.[9] His disagreements
with several colleagues resulted in his being starved almost to death,
imprisoned while at sea, and chained like the slaves they carried. He was
himself enslaved and forced to work on a plantation in the British colony
Sierra Leone near the Sherbro River. After several months he came to think of
Sierra Leone as his home, but his father intervened after Newton sent him a
letter describing his circumstances, and crew from another ship happened to
find him.[c] Newton claimed the only reason he left the colony was because of
Polly.[10]
While
aboard the ship Greyhound, Newton gained notoriety for being one of the most
profane men the captain had ever met. In a culture where sailors commonly used
oaths and swore, Newton was admonished several times for not only using the
worst words the captain had ever heard, but creating new ones to exceed the
limits of verbal debauchery.[11] In March 1748, while the Greyhound was in the
North Atlantic, a violent storm came upon the ship that was so rough it swept
overboard a crew member who was standing where Newton had been moments
before.[d] After hours of the crew emptying water from the ship and expecting
to be capsized, Newton and another mate tied themselves to the ship's pump to
keep water from being washed overboard,
working for several hours.[12] After proposing the measure to the captain,
Newton had turned and said, "If this will not do, then Lord have mercy
upon us!"[13][14] Newton rested briefly before returning to the deck to
steer for the next eleven hours. During his time at the wheel, he pondered his
divine challenge.[12]
About
two weeks later, the battered ship and starving crew landed in Lough Swilly,
Ireland. For several weeks before the storm, Newton had been reading The
Christian's Pattern, a summary of the 15th-century The Imitation of Christ by
Thomas à Kempis. The memory of his own "Lord have mercy upon us!"
uttered during a moment of desperation in the storm did not leave him; he began
to ask if he was worthy of God's mercy or in any way redeemable. Not only had
he neglected his faith but directly opposed it, mocking others who showed
theirs, deriding and denouncing God as a myth. He came to believe that God had
sent him a profound message and had begun to work through him.[15]
Newton's
conversion was not immediate, but he contacted Polly's family and announced his
intentions to marry her. Her parents were hesitant as he was known to be
unreliable and impetuous. They knew he was profane, but they allowed him to
write to Polly, and he set to begin to submit to authority for her sake.[16] He
sought a place on a slave ship bound for Africa, and Newton and his crewmates
participated in most of the same activities he had written about before; the
only immorality from which he was able to free himself was profanity. After a
severe illness his resolve was renewed, yet he retained the same attitude
towards slavery as was held by his contemporaries.[e] Newton continued in the
slave trade through several voyages where he sailed up rivers in Africa – , now
as a captain – , procured slaves being offered for sale in larger ports, and
subsequently transported them to North America.
In
between voyages, he married Polly in 1750, and he found it more difficult to
leave her at the beginning of each trip. After three shipping voyages in the
slave trade, Newton was promised a position as ship's captain with cargo
unrelated to slavery. But at the age of thirty, he collapsed and never sailed
again.[17][f]
Engraving
of a two-storey building, eight windows across, partially obscured by trees and
shrubs
The
vicarage in Olney, where Newton wrote the hymn that would become "Amazing
Grace"
Olney
curate
Working
as a customs agent in Liverpool starting in 1756, Newton began to teach himself
Latin, Greek, and theology. He and Polly immersed themselves in the church
community, and Newton's passion was so impressive that his friends suggested he
become a priest in the Church of England. He was turned down by John Gilbert,
Archbishop of York, in 1758, ostensibly for having no university degree,[18]
although the more likely reasons were his leanings toward evangelism and
tendency to socialise with Methodists.[19] Newton continued his devotions, and
after being encouraged by a friend, he wrote about his experiences in the slave
trade and his conversion. William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, impressed with
his story, sponsored Newton for ordination by John Green, Bishop of Lincoln,
and offered him the curacy of Olney, Buckinghamshire, in 1764.[20]
Olney
was a village of about 2,500 residents whose main industry was making lace by
hand. The people were mostly illiterate and many of them were poor.[2] Newton's
preaching was unique in that he shared many of his own experiences from the
pulpit; many clergy preached from a distance, not admitting any intimacy with
temptation or sin. He was involved in his parishioners' lives and was much
loved, although his writing and delivery were sometimes unpolished.[21] But his
devotion and conviction were apparent and forceful, and he often said his
mission was to "break a hard heart and to heal a broken heart".[22]
He struck a friendship with William Cowper, a gifted writer who had failed at a
career in law and suffered bouts of insanity, attempting suicide several times.
Cowper enjoyed Olney – and Newton's company; he was also new to Olney and had
gone through a spiritual conversion similar to Newton's. Together, their effect
on the local congregation was impressive. In 1768, they found it necessary to
start a weekly prayer meeting to meet the needs of an increasing number of
parishioners. They also began writing lessons for children.[23]
Several
prolific hymn writers were at their most productive in the 18th century,
including Isaac Watts – whose hymns Newton had grown up hearing[24] – and
Charles Wesley, with whom Newton was familiar. Wesley's brother John, the
eventual founder of the Methodist Church, had encouraged Newton to go into the
clergy.[g] Watts was a pioneer in English hymn writing, basing his work after
the Psalms. The most prevalent hymns by Watts and others were written in the
common meter in 8.6.8.6: the first line is eight syllables and the second is
six.[25]
Newton
and Cowper attempted to present a poem or hymn for each prayer meeting. The
lyrics to "Amazing Grace" were written in late 1772 and probably used
in a prayer meeting for the first time on 1 January 1773.[25] A collection of
the poems Newton and Cowper had written for use in services at Olney was bound
and published anonymously in 1779 under the title Olney Hymns. Newton
contributed 280 of the 348 texts in Olney Hymns; "1 Chronicles 17:16–17,
Faith's Review and Expectation" was the title of the poem with the first
line "Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)".[4]
Dissemination
Although
it had its roots in England, "Amazing Grace" became an integral part
of the Christian tapestry in the United States. More than 60 of Newton and
Cowper's hymns were republished in other British hymnals and magazines, but
"Amazing Grace" was not, appearing only once in a 1780 hymnal
sponsored by the Countess of Huntingdon. Scholar John Julian commented in his
1892 A Dictionary of Hymnology that outside of the United States, the song was
unknown and it was "far from being a good example of Newton's finest
work".[39][h] Between 1789 and 1799, four variations of Newton's hymn were
published in the US in Baptist, Dutch Reformed, and Congregationalist
hymnodies;[34] by 1830 Presbyterians and Methodists also included Newton's
verses in their hymnals.[40][41]
The
greatest influences in the 19th century that propelled "Amazing
Grace" to spread across the US and become a staple of religious services
in many denominations and regions were the Second Great Awakening and the
development of shape note singing communities. A tremendous religious movement
swept the US in the early 19th century, marked by the growth and popularity of
churches and religious revivals that got their start on the frontier in
Kentucky and Tennessee. Unprecedented gatherings of thousands of people
attended camp meetings where they came to experience salvation; preaching was
fiery and focused on saving the sinner from temptation and backsliding.[42]
Religion was stripped of ornament and ceremony, and made as plain and simple as
possible; sermons and songs often used repetition to get across to a rural
population of poor and mostly uneducated people the necessity of turning away
from sin. Witnessing and testifying became an integral component to these
meetings, where a congregation member or stranger would rise and recount his
turn from a sinful life to one of piety and peace.[40] "Amazing
Grace" was one of many hymns that punctuated fervent sermons, although the
contemporary style used a refrain, borrowed from other hymns, that employed
simplicity and repetition.
"Amazing
Grace... The music behind 'amazing' had a sense of awe to it. The music behind
'grace' sounded graceful. There was a rise at the point of confession, as
though the author was stepping out into the open and making a bold declaration,
but a corresponding fall when admitting his blindness."[49] Walker's
collection was enormously popular, selling about 600,000 copies all over the US
when the total population was just over 20 million.
Two
musical arrangers named Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey heralded another religious
revival in the cities of the US and Europe, giving the song international
exposure. Moody's preaching and Sankey's musical gifts were significant; their
arrangements were the forerunners of gospel music, and churches all over the US
were eager to acquire them.[59] Moody and Sankey began publishing their
compositions in 1875, and "Amazing Grace" appeared three times with
three different melodies, but they were the first to give it its title; hymns
were typically published using the first line of the lyrics, or the name of the
tune such as "New Britain".
With
the advent of recorded music and radio, "Amazing Grace" began to
cross over from primarily a gospel standard to secular audiences. The ability
to record combined with the marketing of records to specific audiences allowed
"Amazing Grace" to take on thousands of different forms in the 20th
century.
Those
songs come out of conviction and suffering. The worst voices can get through
singing them 'cause they're telling their experiences.
Author
James Basker states that the song has been employed by African Americans as the
"paradigmatic Negro spiritual" because it expresses the joy felt at
being delivered from slavery and worldly miseries.[31] Anthony Heilbut, author
of The Gospel Sound, states that the "dangers, toils, and snares" of
Newton's words are a "universal testimony" of the African American
experience.[68] she
said it had "developed a life of its own".[70] It even made an
appearance at the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969 during Arlo Guthrie's
performance.[71]
The
U.S. Library of Congress has a collection of 3,000 versions of and songs
inspired by "Amazing Grace", some of which were first-time recordings
by folklorists Alan and John Lomax, a father and son team who in 1932 travelled
thousands of miles across the South to capture the different regional styles of
the song. More contemporary renditions include samples from such popular
artists as Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers (1963), the Byrds (1970), Elvis
Presley (1971), Skeeter Davis (1972), Mighty Clouds of Joy (1972), Amazing
Rhythm Aces (1975), Willie Nelson (1976), the Lemonheads (1992) and MNL48
(2018).[64]
Somehow,
"Amazing Grace" [embraced] core American values without ever sounding
triumphant or jingoistic. It was a song that could be sung by young and old,
Republican and Democrat, Southern Baptist and Roman Catholic, African American
and Native American, high-ranking military officer and anticapitalist
campaigner.
Following
the appropriation of the hymn in secular music, "Amazing Grace"
became such an icon in American culture that it has been used for a variety of
secular purposes and marketing campaigns, placing it in danger of becoming a
cliché. It has been mass-produced on souvenirs, lent its name to a Superman
villain, appeared on The Simpsons to demonstrate the redemption of a murderous
character named Sideshow Bob, incorporated into Hare Krishna chants and adapted
for Wicca ceremonies.[84] It can also be sung to the theme from The Mickey
Mouse Club, as Garrison Keillor has observed.[85] The hymn has been employed in
several films, including Alice's Restaurant, Invasion of the Body Snatchers,
Coal Miner's Daughter, and Silkwood. It is referenced in the 2006 film Amazing
Grace, which highlights Newton's influence on the leading British abolitionist
William Wilberforce,[86] and in the film biography of Newton, Newton's
Grace.[87] The 1982 science fiction film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan used
"Amazing Grace" amid a context of Christian symbolism, to memorialise
Mr. Spock following his death,[86] but more practically, because the song has
become "instantly recognizable to many in the audience as music that
sounds appropriate for a funeral" according to a Star Trek scholar.[88]
Since 1954, when an organ instrumental of "New Britain" became a
best-seller, "Amazing Grace" has been associated with funerals and
memorial services.[89] It has become a song that inspires hope in the wake of
tragedy, becoming a sort of "spiritual national anthem" according to
authors Mary Rourke and Emily Gwathmey.[90] For example, President Barack Obama
recited and then sang the hymn at the memorial service for Clementa Pinckney,
one of the victims of the 2015 Charleston church shooting.[91]
Due to
its immense popularity and iconic nature, the meaning behind the words of
"Amazing Grace" has become as individual as the singer or
listener.[96] Bruce Hindmarsh suggests that the secular popularity of
"Amazing Grace" is due to the absence of any mention of God in the
lyrics until the fourth verse (by Excell's version, the fourth verse begins
"When we've been there ten thousand years"), and that the song represents
the ability of humanity to transform itself instead of a transformation taking
place at the hands of God. "Grace", however, had a clearer meaning to
John Newton, as he used the word to represent God or the power of God.[97]
The
transformative power of the song was investigated by journalist Bill Moyers in
a documentary released in 1990. Moyers was inspired to focus on the song's
power after watching a performance at Lincoln Center, where the audience
consisted of Christians and non-Christians, and he noticed that it had an equal
impact on everybody in attendance, unifying them.[22] James Basker also
acknowledged this force when he explained why he chose "Amazing
Grace" to represent a collection of anti-slavery poetry: "there is a
transformative power that is applicable ... : the transformation of sin and
sorrow into grace, of suffering into beauty, of alienation into empathy and
connection, of the unspeakable into imaginative literature."[98]
The Dictionary of American Hymnology claims it is included in more than a thousand published hymnals, and recommends its use for "occasions of worship when we need to confess with joy that we are saved by God's grace alone; as a hymn of response to forgiveness of sin or as an assurance of pardon; as as an assurance of pardon; as a confession of faith or after the sermon".[4]
Source: wikipedia
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INCREDIBLE PRINCE
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