The New Year’s Day that Changed the World and Two FREE books

253 years ago today. Two remarkable hymns released. One horrific mental health breakdown. Great grace of friendship. A day that changed the world. Let John Newton speak to your heart today in modern English through the early access preview of my book released today.

John Newton released the hymn Amazing Grace which would go on to be the most popular and most recorded song of any genre in the Western World. My book Amazing Grace: How Faith Grows in the Human Heart is released in a preview early access edition on Kindle today.

 If you have kindle unlimited it is free. If you do not it will be free for five days only from tomorrow.  My first book Raised with Christ is also free on Kindle for a few days. You are welcome to download them both, and if you are able it would be wonderful if you would please post a review on Amazon.

Why does that hymn speak so deeply to us? Because it summarizes the gospel and speaks to the human condition. It does this in an autobiographical way that acknowledges our pain. Imagine if you will that you were sitting in the Olney church on New Year’s Day 1773, the sermon that day as based on the following verses:

Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? And this was a small thing in your eyes, O God. You have also spoken of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and have shown me future generations,O Lord God! (1 Chronicles 17:16-17)

The new hymn introduced to accompany the sermon, given a title as often was the case at the time that did not contain the lyrics, Faith’s review and expectations. Newton was feeling optimistic about the year to come according to his diary:

31 December 1772

“How many scenes I have passed through in that time! By what a way the Lord has led me! What wonders has he shown me! My book is now nearly full and I shall provide another for the next year. O Lord accept my praise for all that is past. Enable me to trust you for all that is to come, and give a blessing to all who may read these records of Your goodness and my own vileness. Amen and Amen.” Cited in Aitken (2007), page 165.

How little could he have known of what was to come and how much he would have to trust God in the middle of great anxiety about his friend.

1 January 1773

“This is the Ninth New Years day I have seen in this place. I have reason to say, The Lord crowns every year with his goodness. The entrance of this finds me and my Polly in health and peace. I am still favoured with strength, and with some liberty for my public work and hope the Lord is still pleased to work by me, for the edification of his people already called, and the awakening of sinners. As to myself, It is given me to trust in the Lord Jesus for life and salvation – I know he is both willing and able to save. Upon him as an All-sufficient Saviour and upon his word of promise I build my hope, believing that he will not allow me to be put to shame. My exercise of grace is faint, my spiritual comfort is weak, my heart is full of evil, my main burdens I am aware of are, a wild ungoverned imagination, and a strange sinful backwardness to reading the Scriptures, and, to secret prayer. These have been my complaints for many years, and I have no less cause of complaint than previously.

But my eye and my heart is to Jesus. I am His.  I desire to serve Him. To him I this day would devote and surrender myself anew. O Lord, accept, support, protect, teach, comfort and bless me. Be my Arm, my Eye, my Joy and my Salvation. Mortify the power of sin, and increase the image of your holiness in my heart. Anoint me with fresh oil, make me humble, faithful, diligent and obedient. Let me in all things attend to your word as my rule, to you glory as my goal, and depend upon your power and promise for safety and success.

I am now in the 49th year of my age, and may expect in the course of a few years at most to go where I shall no more return, nor have I a certainty of continuing here a single year or even a month or a day. May your grace keep me always waiting till my appointed change shall come, and when the summons comes may I be enabled to rejoice in you, as the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.

I preached this forenoon from 1 Chronicles 17:16,17. I hope I was enabled to speak with some liberty, but I found my own heart sadly unaffected. The afternoon I devoted to rest, and to beg a blessing upon the important service of the evening, an annual sermon to the young people, which is usually laid upon my heart with more weight than any other opportunity in the course of the year.” Updated from Newton’s Diary 1 January 1773

His friend, William Cowper (said Cooper), volunteer co-minister, and part of his hymn writing project was at church that morning.  He probably looked like he was inspired during the service.  Later the same day Cowper would write another incredibly popular and deeply moving hymn, God Moves in a Mysterious Way. Perhaps he shared it with Newton that afternoon over the tea they shared together as they did so often. Those two truly great hymns. One great day.  How little could either man imagine how many millions would be blessed by the work they unveiled that day? How much those hymns would change the world!

And yet…. human life is not always simple and clean.  Later that same day, and over night into the 2nd of January Cowper’s mental illness came crashing back into the peaceful life of those friends.  He tried to kill himself.  He felt despair that would never fully lift.  He would never attend church again.  And later that month he had a dreadful dream where he was convinced God had damned him.

Newton did not give up on his friend. He refused to believe that this was a spiritual problem, and was instead convinced that his friend was sick and needed support. Oh for every Christian today to understand suffering that well!

Here is how the crisis was recorded in a deeply understated but emotive way by Newton over the next few days:

2 January 1773

“My time and thoughts much engrossed today by an affecting and critical bloodstained scene at my friends house. I was sent for in the early morning and returned astonished and grieved. How mysterious are the ways of the Lord! How much seems now at stake. But while all is in His hands, all is safe. I could hardly pay attention to anything else.”

(Aitken (2007), page 157 explains that the phrase originally used by Newton at the time meant a “distribution of blood)

3 January 1773
“Sent for again in the morning an affecting scene – I was told appearances were worse afterwards. But before noon the Lord interposed in mercy, but I fear it will be a trying case. My mind was much affected but the Lord was pleased to carry me through the day with liberty.”

Tuesday 5 January
“I have now devoted myself and my time as much as possible to be with William Cowper. We walked today, and probably shall daily. I shall now have little leisure except for such that truly require attention. At the Great House I mentioned the case in general terms, and made it the subject of my evening’s discourse. It was a solemn affecting time, and I hope earnest prayer was and will be poured out to the Lord.”

Wednesday 6 January
“Much as yesterday. I have now to perform family worship morning and evening in two houses. Walked again. The storm is heavy but I can perceive the Lord is present in it, preserving from all impulsive passions, and maintaining a gracious meekness of spirit. I find the Lord has laid the case much upon the hearts of the people, surely this is a token for good.”

Thursday 7 January
“Most of my leisure with William Cowper. The storm still heavy, but favorable circumstances are given daily. We wait and hope for certain deliverance.”

Friday 8 January
“Have but little time at home now, endeavoring to improve it. Through the Lord’s goodness appearances are more and more favourable. I trust this dispensation shall be for good to all immediately concerned and to others also.”

Saturday 9 January
“Much like yesterday. Time divided between my friend, and my immediate calls of service. I think the Lord has been pleased to give me more liberty in secret prayer this week than for some time past, and though my inner feelings are far from lively, I am enabled to trust myself and my all in his hands.”

Sunday 10 January
“My attendance at William Cowper’s house along with the usual service of the day, took up almost my whole time. But the Lord carried me through all with pleasure though I felt something weary in the evening. I hope we had his gracious presence in the church meetings.”

Thursday 21 January
“Our trial still continues, and I think increases. The Lord knows how and when to moderate it. We all find it a sharp trial for faith and patience. How mysterious are the Lord’s ways, but we are sure all that he does is right and good. Preached in the evening and was favoured with liberty.”

Friday 22 January
“My dear friend William Cowper still walks in darkness. I can hardly conceive that anyone in a state of grace and favour with God, can be in greater distress. And yet no-one walked more closely with him, or was more simply devoted to him in all things. Thus as in the case of Job he shows his right to deal as he wills with his own, he knows how to make up for all, to bring light out of darkness and real good out of seeming evil. When we presume to say, Why have you done this? He answers in his word, Be still and know that I am God.”

Saturday 23 January
“Much like yesterday. Our great trial still continues. ”

Sunday 24 January
“A very alarming event roused us from our beds, and called us to William Cowper’s house at four in the morning. I stayed there till eight, before which time the threatening appearance went entirely away, and now things remain much as they were, if any alteration I hope it is for the better. My dear was there the whole day. I had no leisure for rest from morning till night.  In the afternoon I was much weakened, my head and heart being greatly confused. But I had rather a comforting time at the Great House.”

Newton’s diary online at the John Newton Project.

Towards the end of February Cowper had a dream in which he was convinced God had damned him forever. He would never fully recover from this terrible experience. Newton describes his relationship with his friend William Cowper as broken into two halves divided by the date their hymns were introduced to the world and Cowper had such a catastrophic mental breakdown:

“For nearly 12 years we were seldom separated for seven hours at a time when we were awake and at home: the first six I passed daily admiring and aiming to imitate him: during the second six, I walked pensively with him in the valley of the shadow of death.”

Cited in Piper, J. (2002) The roots of endurance: invincible perseverance in the lives of John Newton, Charles Simeon, and William Wilberforce. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, p. 56.

This spirit of kindness even in the valley of the shadow of death is something we should ask God to give us this New Year.  This slightly updated quote from Cecil’s remarks from his introduction to John Newton’s Work’s should convict us:

“The spirit of Christian kindness and love seems to not have been sufficiently cultivated among us, while a furious and often abusive zeal for certain points, as Cowper remarks, has been substituted for the whole truth.”

Newton, J., Richard Cecil (1824) The works of the John Newton. London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., p. 123.

How true those words are not just of the 1700s but of the 2020’s too.  As is so commonly the case as I have been studying Newton these last few months I am struck with how very relevant and modern he really is.

Newton’s love for his friend and his pain at seeing him suffer so led to him saying the following as he preached his funeral sermon:

The Lord has given me many friends but with none have I had so great an intimacy, as with my friend Mr Cowper.  But he is gone.  I was glad when I heard it . . . He was indeed a bush in flames for 27 years but he was not consumed.  And why?  Because the Lord was there.

Mr Cowper was afflicted with what is called a nervous complaint to such a degree as might justly be called insanity.  He had an attack very early in life which did not continue long . . .As he was sitting at his breakfast the Lord shone in upon his soul and so enlightened his understanding and gave such a clear view of the gospel and his interest in it without his ever reading it or hearing a gospel sermon. For seven years afterwards I never in all my life saw a man walk, I want to say so honorably, so closely with God and always set the Lord before him in all he did . . .

The last sermon he ever heard preached was on New Year’s Day 1773. He drank tea with me in the afternoon.  The next morning a violent storm overtook him which caused a very great shyness.  I used to visit him often but no argument could prevail with him to come to see me.  He used to point with his finger to the church and say: you know the comfort I have had there and how I have seen the glory of the Lord in his house and until I can go there I’ll not go anywhere else.  But after some time this shyness wore off.  I remember one time we were walking together in a very deep snow.  The weather was remarkably severe.  He desired me to stop.  I observed the sweat drop from his face occasioned by the agony of his mind.  He said he knew the Lord was a Sovereign and had a right to do with and lay upon him what he pleased and if he was [sure] that by holding out a finger he could remove what he then felt, he would not do it unless he knew it were the will of God.  He has often said he thought the Lord had not a child who loved him with a more simple heart than he did.

The first temptation the enemy assaulted him with was to offer up himself as Abraham his son.  He truly thought he should do it.  We were obliged to watch him night and day.  I, my dear wife and Mrs Unwin with whom he lived never left him alone for more than an hour for seven years.  He was also tempted to think butcher’s meat was human flesh, therefore he would not take it.  We found it very difficult to provide any sustenance he would take.  He had various temptations which would be very improper for me to mention in this place.  I was at that time obliged to leave Olney but the Lord did not leave him without friends but provided for him persons of abilities and respect who did that for love which no money could have procured.

I don’t know a person upon earth I consult upon a text of scripture or any point of conscience so much to my satisfaction as Mr Cowper.  He could give comfort though he could not receive any himself.  He was not only a comfort to me but a blessing to the affectionate poor people among whom I then lived.  He used frequently to visit them and pray with them . . .

I had hopes the Lord would remove his sickness a little before his death but it continued.  The last twelve hours of his life he did not speak nor seem to take notice of anything but lay in a state of apparent insensibility.  But I seem to think that while the curtains were taking down in the tabernacle removing, glory broke in upon his soul.  The Lord had set his seal upon him and though he had not seen him he had grace to love him.  He was one of those who came out of great tribulation.  He suffered much here for twenty seven years, but eternity is long enough to make amends for all.  For what is all he endured in this life, when compared with that rest which remains for the children of God?”

May 1800 

The fact that this hymn was released just before the terrible breakdown of William Cowper makes it all the more poignant:

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.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who called me here below,
Will be forever mine.

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