Perhaps the saying 'Behind every great man there is a great woman' should be expanded to 'Behind every great man there are two great women: his mother and his wife.' This is certainly true in the case of John Newton.
The story of the man behind Amazing Grace begins with his mother, a woman of great faith.
Elizabeth Newton (nee Seatliffe) of Stepney was born in 1705 at Chatham, England. At the tender young age of nineteen, she married Captain John Newton on September 24, 1724, at the St. Mary-le-bow Church.
The following year, when Elizabeth was twenty, baby Johnny was born on July 24, 1725 in Wapping. (Captain James Cook came to Wapping in 1764 to do his apprenticeship with a local shipowner.)
On March 30, 1727, Elizabeth Newton became a member of a small independent chapel, a nonconformist congregation in Old Gravel Lane, Wapping New Stairs. Her pastor, Dr. David Jennings (1691-1762), an able communicator, was a close friend of Isaac Watts (the well known hymn writer); Samuel Brewer (who helped establish Newton in the Christian faith after his conversion); and Phillip Dodridge (who won William Wilberforce to Christ).
This young mum raised little junior pretty much on her own. Her husband, a commander in the Mediterranean trade, was away at sea most of the time.
Her parenting approach was simple and straight forward.
* She trusted God and prayed for her boy fervently;
* She took her son to church regularly;
* She taught him to read and write early.
In 1732, at the age of twenty-seven, and just thirteen days before John's seventh birthday, his devout mother and dedicated mentor died of tuberculosis, in the home of George and Elizabeth Catlett (their daughter Mary–Polly later became John's wife), Chatham, Kent.
Her absence left a big void in the boy's young heart in that he no longer had access to her good instructions, and he lived from then on without her godly influence.
The following year his father remarried. His new wife, Thomasina, a daughter of a substantial grazier from Aveley, bore him two sons, William and Henry, and a daughter Thomasina. The step mother had no interest in spiritual things. John wrote:
"… (she) lived many years, without the least thought of religion, never going so much as to a place of worship, except for the birth of a child." (John Newton by Richard Cecil P.316)
The distant heart behind the different hands sent the young boy away to a boarding school in Stratford, Essex, for two years until the young lad eventually left there in his tenth year.
When Johnny was only eleven, his sailor father took him on his maiden sea voyage. Expected to follow in his dad's footsteps, he made several more trips over the next seven years. In regard to his distant father, John wrote:
"A man of remarkable good sense, and great knowledge of the world, he took great care of my morals. But hcould not supply my mother's part. Having been educated in Spain, he always observed an air of distance and severity in his carriage (manner), which overawed and discouraged my spirit. I was always in fear before him, and therefore he had the less influence." (Out of the Depths P.23) (To Be Continued…)
With the love of Christ
Peter Rahme
Pastor - Inner West Baptist Church
(Taken from Pastor Rahme's book - 'The Man & The Story Behind Amazing Grace'. To order call (02) 9742 5716; or visit www.amazinggrace.org.au)