The Vows of a Freed Man

On the first day of every new year, John Newton sat at his desk and wrote a prayer of thanksgiving. He had kept this practice since 1773, the year he penned Amazing Grace, but the habit stretched back further — to a night in 1748 when a violent storm nearly sank the slave ship he crewed off the coast of Ireland. Newton had been a profane, godless sailor. That night, chest-deep in seawater, he cried out to the Almighty for the first time in years.

God answered. Newton survived. And he never stopped giving thanks.

What could he return to the Lord for all His goodness? Newton found the answer the psalmist found centuries before: he lifted the cup of salvation and called on the name of the Lord — publicly, persistently, for the rest of his life. He became a pastor in the small parish of Olney, where he preached every week for sixteen years. He fought to abolish the slave trade. He mentored a young William Wilberforce. Even in old age, nearly blind and feeble, Newton refused to stop preaching. "My memory is nearly gone," he told a friend, "but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior."

Newton understood Psalm 116 in his bones. God had freed him from his chains. The only fitting response was a lifetime of thank offerings, fulfilled in the presence of all His people.