In our natural state, we are…driven and tossed about, by the changing winds of opinion, and the waves of trouble, which hourly disturb and threaten us upon the uncertain sea of human life. But faith, uniting us to Christ, fixes us upon a sure foundation, the Rock of Ages, where we stand immovable, though storms and floods unite their force against us.
By nature we are separated from the divine life, as branches broken off, withered and fruitless. But grace, through faith, unites us to Christ the living Vine, from whom, as the root of all fulness, a constant supply of sap and influence is derived into each of his mystical branches, enabling them to bring forth fruit unto God, and to persevere and abound therein.
— John Newton
From: John Newton, Richard Cecil, The Works of the John Newton, vol. 1 (London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1824), 322.
John Newton (1725-1807) was an English slave trade who came to faith and became an Anglican minister, abolitionist, and hymn writer. Amazing Grace is Newton’s most renowned hymn. Newton collaborated with William Wilberforce in founding the Society for Effecting the Abolition of Slavery, i.e., the Anti-Slavery Society. He is also the author of Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade. His work as an abolitionist contributed to the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire.
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