A hymn and its story
Amazing Grace
Amazing Grace was written by John Newton, a former slave-ship captain who became an Anglican curate, for his New Year's Day sermon at Olney, England, in 1773, and published in Olney Hymns in 1779. It means that God's grace, His free and undeserved favour, saved a man who knew himself to be a wretch, and will carry him home. The tune it is sung to today, NEW BRITAIN, was first joined to the words in America in 1835.
Words by John Newton, for New Year’s Day 1773 · first published in Olney Hymns, 1779
The man who wrote 'Amazing grace, that saved a wretch like me' had captained slave ships, and he never got over being forgiven.
Amazing Grace at a glance
- Words
- John Newton, for New Year's Day 1773
- Original title
- Faith's Review and Expectation
- Sermon text
- 1 Chronicles 17:16-17
- First published
- Olney Hymns, 1779
- Tune
- NEW BRITAIN, an American folk melody, first paired with the words by William Walker in Southern Harmony, 1835
- Meter
- 8.6.8.6 (common meter)
Who wrote Amazing Grace, and why?
John Newton went to sea as a boy and grew into a hard, blaspheming young man in the Atlantic slave trade, for a time a captain of ships that carried enslaved Africans. In 1748 a violent storm nearly sank his vessel; he cried out to God, and marked that day for the rest of his life as the beginning of his turning. His change was not instant, he remained in the trade for years afterward, but it was real and deepening, and he came at last to loathe the traffic in human beings he had once profited from.
Newton became the Anglican curate of Olney, in Buckinghamshire, and wrote this hymn for his New Year’s Day sermon in 1773. In old age, nearly blind, he helped William Wilberforce in the fight to abolish the slave trade, and said, 'My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour.' The hymn is simply that memory, set to music.
The history of Amazing Grace
Newton preached at Olney, a small market town in Buckinghamshire, and often wrote a hymn to go with his sermon. For New Year's Day 1773 he preached on 1 Chronicles 17:16-17, where King David, overwhelmed, asks God who he is that the Lord should have brought him so far, and then dares to trust Him for the future. The hymn he wrote for that morning was headed ‘Faith's Review and Expectation’: a look back at grace already received and a look forward to grace still to come.
It appeared in 1779 in Olney Hymns, the collection Newton made with his friend the poet William Cowper. In England it was little noticed. Its great life began in America. In 1835 William Walker printed the words with the folk tune NEW BRITAIN in his tunebook Southern Harmony, and the pairing stuck. A further verse, ‘When we've been there ten thousand years,’ was not Newton's; it came from an older American collection and was joined to the hymn later, and Edwin O. Excell's 1910 setting fixed the form most people sing today.
Newton lived to see the hymn sung, and in old age, nearly blind, he stood with William Wilberforce in the long fight to end the British slave trade, which Parliament abolished in 1807, the year he died.
The words of Amazing Grace
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.
These are John Newton's six original verses from Olney Hymns (1779), in modern spelling.
The Scripture behind Amazing Grace
What does Amazing Grace mean?
Verse one is a confession. ‘A wretch like me’ is not modesty; Newton knew what he had done in the slave trade. Lost and found, blind and seeing, echo the prodigal son and the man born blind, and he claims them as his own story.
Verse two says grace did two things in order: it first taught his heart to fear, to see his danger before God honestly, and then it relieved those fears. Grace wounds before it heals, and both are mercy.
Verse three looks back over ‘many dangers, toils, and snares,’ and draws a conclusion: the grace that brought me this far will lead me home. That is the review and the expectation of the original title.
Verses four to six rest everything on God's promise: He will be shield and portion as long as life endures, and when flesh and heart fail, the soul will possess life and peace within the veil. The last verse, where the earth dissolves like snow and God remains forever mine, is the hymn's quiet climax: everything passes except the God who called him.
So the meaning of Amazing Grace is simple and enormous. Salvation is not earned; it is given, and the One who gives it is faithful to finish what He began. That is good news for anyone, whatever they have been.
Why it still moves us
Amazing Grace endures because it is honest about both the wretchedness and the rescue. Newton did not soften the word 'wretch,' because he knew exactly what he had been. And precisely because his sin was real, the grace that reached him is amazing, unearned, undeserved, and stronger than any past. That is why the hymn belongs to everyone: whatever you have been, the same grace that led a slave-trader home is offered to you.
Sing it, and mean it
A hymn is a prayer you can carry in your chest. The people who wrote these did not write from a stage; they wrote from shipwreck and sickbeds, from ordinary faithful mornings, and handed us words for the days we cannot find our own. You do not have to sing well. You only have to lift it, and mean it, to the One it is about.
Meet the One these hymns are aboutWorship in The Living BreadThe good news of graceWhy did Jesus die?Jesus Christ is Lord.
Frequently asked questions
- Who wrote Amazing Grace?
- John Newton, an English clergyman who had once been a slave-ship captain. He wrote the words for his New Year's Day sermon at Olney in 1773, out of his own experience of God's undeserved mercy, and published them in Olney Hymns in 1779.
- What is the story behind Amazing Grace?
- Newton spent his early life in the slave trade until a near-fatal storm in 1748 began his turning to God. He became a pastor and, in old age, an abolitionist alongside William Wilberforce. Amazing Grace is his testimony of being a great sinner saved by a great Saviour.
- What does Amazing Grace mean?
- It means that God's grace, his unearned favour and forgiveness, is powerful enough to save anyone, however lost. 'I once was lost, but now am found' confesses that salvation is a gift, not a reward (Ephesians 2:8).
- When was Amazing Grace written?
- For New Year's Day 1773, when John Newton preached at Olney on 1 Chronicles 17:16-17. It was first published in Olney Hymns in 1779.
- How many verses did John Newton write for Amazing Grace?
- Six. The verse that begins 'When we've been there ten thousand years' was not written by Newton; it was added from an older American collection and became standard through Edwin O. Excell's 1910 setting.
- What tune is Amazing Grace sung to?
- Usually NEW BRITAIN, an American folk melody that William Walker first paired with Newton's words in Southern Harmony in 1835.
Sources
Dates and attributions are checked against these sources. The reflections are our own words.
