John Newton's story: Amazing grace - John Pollock

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me;
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

Today John Newton is remembered as composer of many glorious hymns. Yet his life was a series of remarkably changed circumstances: first as a slave himself; as a seaman almost drowned in a storm; as a slave captain not averse to using torture on his human cargo; as a hard-swearing atheist teaching blasphemy; and then as a zealous convert and fierce opponent of the slave trade in partnership with Wilberforce; as a Church of England parson with a beloved wife; a preacher to the last. “My memory is nearly gone,” he stated on his deathbed, “But I remember two things: that I am a great sinner… and that Christ is a great Saviour!”