Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history. Today is July 25

and yesterday was the birthday of John Newton. It was many many

yesterday's ago. He was born on July 24th, 1725 in London. His father also

named John was a ship's captain and his mother's name was Elizabeth. Sadly she

died when he was only seven years old and at that

point a young John Newton seems to be adrift. His father would remarry but John

didn't seem to connect with either him or her, and at age

11 he went to see.

Now many years later in his life, Newton published his memoirs under the title, An Authentic Narrative of Some Remarkable and Interesting Particulars

in the Life of John Newton.

He starts that book by referencing Israel in the Wilderness.

And from Deuteronomy 8, he quotes,

thou shalt remember all the ways by which the Lord thy God led thee through this wilderness.

Well, from age 11 on, John Newton's wilderness was the sea.

Newton saw his life as, in his own words, a remarkable display of God's sovereign efficacious grace.

But just as God's grace was amazing and great in his life,

so Newton was a great sinner.

He recalls that his mother was pious and he might have picked up a few things from her,

but he says he just has faint memories of her.

She was very ill, of of course and as I mentioned she died when he was only

seven. He was educated as a young man at 10 years old he was reading Virgil in the Latin, but he didn't seem all that content with things,

and so he went out to see.

...