Merry Christmas 2008 To One And All

[Guest guest]

www.amazinggracemovie.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtrnB4FZ-yc & feature=email http://tinyurl.com/7agjmm Newton and the lyrics to Amazing Grace

"Amazing Grace"

Amazing grace, how sweet the soundThat sav’d a wretch like me!I once was lost, but now am found,Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,And grace my fears reliev’d;How precious did that grace appear,The hour I first believ’d!

Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares,I have already come;’Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promis’d good to me,His word my hope secures;He will my shield and portion be,As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,And mortal life shall cease;I shall possess, within the veil,A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,The sun forbear to shine;But God, who call’d me here below,Will be forever mine.

New­ton, Ol­ney Hymns (Lon­don: W. Ol­i­ver, 1779)

See also: Newton

Newton, the author of the lyrics to Amazing Grace, was born in 1725 in Wapping, Britain.[1] Despite the powerful message of "Amazing Grace," Newton's religious beliefs initially lacked conviction; his youth was marked by religious confusion and a lack of moral self-control and discipline.[1]

After a brief time in the Royal Navy, Newton began his career in slave trading. The turning point in Newton's spiritual life was a violent storm that occurred one night while at sea. Moments after he left the deck, the crewman who had taken his place was swept overboard. Although he manned the vessel for the remainder of the tempest, he later commented that, throughout the tumult, he realized his helplessness and concluded that only the grace of God could save him. Prodded by what he had read in à Kempis' Imitation of Christ, Newton took the first step toward accepting faith.[1]

These incidents and his 1750 marriage to Catlett changed Newton significantly. On his slave voyages, he encouraged the sailors under his charge to pray. He also began to ensure that every member of his crew treated their human cargo with gentleness and concern. Nevertheless, it would be another 40 years until Newton openly challenged the trafficking of slaves.[1]

Some three years after his marriage, Newton suffered a stroke that prevented him from returning to sea; in time, he interpreted this as another step in his spiritual voyage. He assumed a post in the Customs Office in the port of Liverpool and began to explore Christianity more fully. As Newton attempted to experience all the various expressions of Christianity, it became clear that he was being called to the ministry. Since Newton lacked a university degree, he could not be ordained through normal channels. However, the landlord of the parish at Olney was so impressed with the letters Newton had written about his conversion that he offered the church to Newton; he was ordained in June 1764.[1]

In Olney, the new curate met the poet Cowper, also a newly-born Christian. Their friendship led to a spiritual collaboration that completed the inspiration for "Amazing Grace," the poem Newton most likely wrote in Kineton, Warwickshire[citation needed] around Christmas 1772.[1] The lyrics are based on his reflections on an Old Testament text he was preparing to preach on,

adding his perspective about his own conversion while on his slave ship, the Greyhound, in 1748.

Newton's lyrics have become a favourite for Christians, largely because the hymn vividly and briefly sums up the doctrine of divine grace. The lyrics are based on 1 Chronicles 17:16-17, a prayer of King in which he marvels at God's choosing him and his house. Newton apparently wrote this for use in a sermon he preached on this passage on New Year's Day 1773, and for which he left his sermon notes, which correspond to the flow of the lyrics[2]. (He entitled the piece "Faith's review and expectation.")

The song has also become known as a favorite with supporters of freedom and human rights, both Christian and non-Christian, in part because many assume it to be Newton's testimony about his slave trading past.

The hymn was quite popular on both sides in the American Civil War.

[edit] Extra verses

In her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe quoted three stanzas as seemingly from one hymn, two of them corrupt versions of Amazing Grace stanzas, and one reading:

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,Bright shining like the sun,We've no less days to sing God’s praiseThan when we first begun. [3]

Despite its relatively poor mesh with the rest of the hymn (the change from "I" to "we," change of subject, no reference for "there"), a form of this stanza became common as part of Amazing Grace in hymnals in the early twentieth century, due in large part to the influential hymnodist and publisher Edwin Othello Excell. While the stanza is often credited to P. Rees (1828-1900),[4] it antedates his birth. It was in print by 1790, added to an old and

widely-varied hymn most usually beginning "Jerusalem, my happy home" [5], and was still appearing as part of this hymn in books published around the time of Stowe's book,[6].

[edit] Cherokee lyrics

While on the "Trail of Tears," the Cherokee were not always able to give their dead a full burial. Instead, they sang a translation (or rather, paraphrase) previously made by Worcester.[7][8] For this reason, many contemporary Native American musicians have recorded the song.

[edit]