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Barnes in Commonthe magazine of Churches Together in Barnes
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John Newton, the slave trader who became a clergymanby the Revd John Forster, Supernumerary Minister in the
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The 25th March 2007 is a very important date in our calendar. It marks the bicentenary of the Parliamentary Act to abolish the slave trade in the British Colonies, so ending more than three centuries of British involvement in a trade which transported over three million men, women and children from Africa to America. It was, however, some years later in 1834 that slavery was abolished in all British territories showing how deeply rooted such an abominable practice had been.
Set against this background what do you know about the Clapham Sect? This would seem to have the ring of The Da Vinci Code but there is no connection! They were a group of influential Anglican evangelical Christians who attended Holy Trinity Church on Clapham Common and were involved with the attempt to bring about the abolition of slavery. One of those who gave encouragement to this group and who had influenced William Wilberforce to become an M.P rather than a clergyman was John Newton who at one time had been a slave trader.
John Newton was born in London in 1725, the son of a sea captain, who was engaged in the Mediterranean trade. His mother died when he was very young and after a short period of formal schooling he joined his father's ship at the age of eleven. His early life was one of immorality, debauchery and failure and yet remarkably we find him at times accepting religion and then reverting to his former degradation. He said of himself, "This seeming goodness had no solid foundation, but passed away like a morning cloud or the early dew".
He eventually left his father's ship and a few years later he was caught by a press-gang and forced to serve on a naval ship. His behaviour was appalling and he soon deserted but he was recaptured and thrown into prison. Then he was transferred to a slave ship and in time became the master. He had long since vowed that God did not exist and it would appear that he had no qualms of conscience about his slave trading but then that was also true of the many with vested interests.
What then was it that brought such a dramatic change in John Newton's life, character, and belief? One day he picked up a book and as he glanced through it the words began to challenge his thinking. The book was called The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis. I have a copy in my own library and many of the pages are brown with age! It is a book marked by both the learning and sanctity of the highest sort of ascetic and monastic life. John Newton's actual conversion, however, was the result of a violent storm at sea in which he almost lost his life. Which sections of the book had such a profound effect on him we can only guess but he must have read, at some time, this quote: "Command the winds and tempests; say unto the sea, Be still; say to the north wind, Blow not; and there shall be a great calm. Send out Thy light and Thy truth, that they may shine upon the earth; for until Thou enlighten me I am but as the earth, without form and void."
After this very powerful conversion he left the sea to become a minister of religion and gave the rest of his life to serving God and the Church. Ordained by the Bishop of Lincoln he was offered the curacy of Olney in Buckinghamshire. When, in October 1767, the poet William Cowper settled in the parish he and Newton became great friends. This friendship stimulated in both of them an interest in hymns and hymn writing which resulted in the publication of what became known as the Olney Collection which was widely used in Anglican churches.
This sinner turned saint enriched English literature and the world's religious experience by writing many glorious hymns such as How sweet the name of Jesus sounds, Glorious things of thee are spoken, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound! - all expressions of John Newton's own testimony of his conversion and his life as a Christian.
His final Parish was at St. Mary Woolnoth in London and it was here that he preached his last sermon in October 1806 for the benefit of the sufferers at the Battle of Trafalgar. How they must have appreciated the words and presence of this man who knew so much about the power of the sea, slave trading ships, and naval man-of-war vessels and now could share his Christian faith through his own personal experience. He was then in his eighty-first year, his memory, sight and hearing were all failing, but when his friends advised him to give up preaching he was most reluctant to follow their advice. "What!" he said, "Shall the old African blasphemer stop while he can speak?" He never ceased to marvel at God's mercy and amazing grace that had been granted to him, and his epitaph on his tombstone, written by himself, just before his death sums up the life of this remarkable man:
"John Newton, Clerk; once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa: was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy".
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