God lifted him out of the mire

A violent storm in the Atlantic brought Newton to his knees and back to his God. In the following years, as his life changed and his faith grew, he became a slave ship captain and a customs officer during the height of smuggling.

After all this, he entered Christian ministry. He was a common sailor at eleven and forced to serve on a warship at nineteen; he experienced the tremendous thrill of fighting French warships, the cruel lash of naval discipline for desertion, the licentious and blasphemous life of a freethinker, and the pain of an irresistible love for a young woman beyond his reach.

Rejecting God and morality, Newton entered the slave trade, became a slave himself, and at twenty-three, the state of his life was not much different from that of a wild animal. This servant of slaves rose to occupy the pulpit of London's most influential church, counting among his friends a politician, a poet, and a writer; all of whom became national figures. He authored numerous hymns which, along with his letters, have led many people to Christ for two hundred years.

Although the circumstances and environment surrounding his life belong to the past, his life itself is pertinent to our time because it wonderfully illustrates what God can do with a man whom His mercy and power pulled from the mire.