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John Newton - slave trader, poet, and preacher. (1725 – 1807)

John Henry Newton Jr. born in Wapping, London, son of John Henry Newton Sr. and Elizabeth Newton (nee Seatclife). His father a shipmaster in the Mediterranean service was educated at Jesuit College in Spain .His mother a godly women, brought John up as a Nonconformist Christian and dedicated him to the Lord and His ministry. When John was six, his mother died of tuberculosis. His father remarried the following year. The stepmother didn’t pay much attention to John and his needs so when he was 9 he was sent to a boarding school for two years and at the age of 11 he went to sea with his father for a total of six voyages. John became a teenager raised in a godless surrounding. After the six voyages his father retired, and his father planned for John to take up a position as a slave master at a sugar plantation in Jamaica however, in 1743 he became a captain of a slave-ship himself. 

John’s life sounds like a movie with being forced to join the naval service, trying to escape, being caught and flogged 96 times, contemplating suicide, put on another ship called the Pegasus where he again is in trouble for making a deal with a slave traitor named Amos Clowe, who was married to an African duchess named Princess Peye. Both Clowe and his wife abused him terrible. Newton later remembered this as the time he was “once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa.” Now, John’s father is looking for him, and had asked a captain friend of his to keep and eye out for him, he was found and rescued from his bondage. Next upon a ship heading home, a terrible storm cames up awakens him as the ship was filling with water, he cries out to God - upon that moment the Lord touched his heart, although it was not with salvation at  this point in time – oh the goodness of God as He worked in John’s life and heart! Surviving this ordeal he began to read the Bible.  He turned away from gambling, drinking and profanity; though he continued to work in the slave industry he had a compassion now for the slaves he was dealing with. John said “I cannot consider myself to have been a believer in the full sense of the word, until a considerable time afterwards.” 

Next in his this very unusual life John returns to England and a friend of his father’s hires him as his first mate, once again on a slave trading vessel. This ship was now bound for the West Indies off the coast of Guinea. In 1748-49 John became sick with a fever and finally professed total belief in the Lord and asked God to take control of his life. John marks this as his conversion and at this point he said he now had total peace, the amazing grace of God and how mysteriously are His ways.  

On February 12, 1750 John married his live long friend and distant cousin Mary Catlett, who he had been in love with since he was seventeen. Now he goes back to sea and after three more trips to trade slaves and after having a stroke, he stopped this type of employment but continued to invest his monies in the trade business. With time on his hands he began to study Hebrew, Greek and Syriac and became known as a lay minister, seven years later was ordained into the Church of England.  Through a series of things he is finally ordained makes friends with George Whitefield and picks up the nickname of “Young Whitefield.” He also became friends with John Wesley. He was called a moderate Calvinist or a hidden one because of the debates of the day. Newton held strong objection to secular amusement and did not tolerate the Roman Catholic Chruch and its false teachings. 

In December 1790 his dear wife passed away from cancer. In “Letters to a Wife” (2 columns) you can read of his love for his wife. Though his faculties failed him with age, being elderly and blind he continued to preach,. He said he could not stop. On December of 1807 Mr. Newton died and was buried next to his wife at St. Mary Woolnoth. Later in 1893 both bodies were move to Olney, as the church at St. Mary’s removed all those buried there.  

John Newton was a great hymnist and writer – writing one of our best known hymns – Amazing Grace.

(Letters of John Newton)

November 13, 1772
My dear Miss,
I am glad that you complain of evil thoughts and temptations; for, though these things are grievous, they always accompany a saving work of grace. Though every Christian does not suffer greatly by persecution, poverty, and worldly troubles–yet they all suffer much from indwelling sin, temptation and Satan.

As to evil thoughts, they as unavoidably arise from an evil nature–as steam arises from a boiling tea-kettle! Every cause will have its effect–and a sinful nature will have sinful effects. You can no more keep such thoughts out of your mind–than you can stop the course of the clouds!

But if the Lord had not taught you–you would not have been sensible of them, nor concerned about them. This is a token for good. By nature your thoughts would have been only evil, and that continually. But you find ’something’ within you that makes you dislike these thoughts; makes you ashamed of them; makes you strive and pray against them.

Now, this ’something’ that resists your evil thoughts–what can it be? It cannot be human nature; for we naturally love our vain imaginations. It is the grace of God! The Lord has made you sensible of your disease–that you might love and prize the great Physician! The knowledge of His love for you–shall make you hate these thoughts! Yet you will be pestered with them more or less, while you live in this world. For sin is wrought into our bodies, and our souls must be freed from our bodies–before we shall be fully freed from the evils under which we mourn!

Your other complaint of temptations is likewise a good one. If you were to visit some young ladies who know no other end of living–but to dress and dance and socialize; and if you were to ask them if they are troubled with Satan’s temptations–they would think that you were out of your wits! Poor things! They know no better! They are blinded by the god of this world; they go on quietly in the way of sin and vanity, careless of their souls, and mindless of eternity! While they continue in this course, you may be sure that Satan will not disturb them! They are asleep, and it would not be for his interest to do anything that might awaken them out of their pleasant dream!

And if you yourself were thus asleep, Satan would be content that you should sleep on–and take your rest. But, when he sees anyone awakened out of this deadly sleep, he probably tries first to lull them asleep again. And, if the Lord prevents that by His mercy, then Satan alters his measures, and roars like a lion which has lost his prey! Be thankful, my dear, that he treats you as his enemy! For the state of those to whom he behaves as a friend, is miserable indeed! And always remember that he is a chained enemy! He may terrify–but he cannot devour those who have fled for refuge to Jesus!

You cannot be too jealous of your own heart, or too cautious of the snares which you are exposed to. But the Lord is able and faithful to keep those from falling, who, sensible of their own weakness, cry daily to Him, “Hold me up–and I shall be safe!” Continue in prayer, that you may be preserved humble and abased in your own eyes–and then I am sure that you will not fall.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil!” Ephesians 6:10-11

I am sincerely, your affectionate friend and servant,
John Newton

With permission from Grace Gems

(the following is from the diary of John Newton)

January 1, 1773
This is the ninth New Years day I have seen in this church. I have reason to say, ‘The Lord crowns every year with His goodness!’ The entrance of this year finds me and my dear Mary in health and peace. I am still favored with strength, and with some liberty for my pastoral work, and hope the Lord is still pleased to work by me–for the edification of His people, and the awakening of lost sinners.

As to myself . . .
  my exercise of grace is faint,
  my consolations small,
  my heart is full of evil,
  my chief burdens 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 formerly. But my eye and my heart are to Jesus! His I am; Him I desire to serve; to Him this day, I 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 Your glory as my end, and
  depend upon Your power and promise for my safety and success.

I am now in the 49th year of my life, and may expect in the course of a few years at most–to go whence 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 until my appointed change shall come, and when the summons shall come–may I be enabled to rejoice in You, as the strength of my heart and my portion forever!

“You guide me with Your counsel, and afterwards You will take me up in glory. Whom do I have in heaven but You? And I desire nothing on earth but You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever!” Psalm 73:24-26

With permission from Grace Gems

Lord when things do not go my way – help me to understand you are directing my path and that You have ordained - yes all things that do come to pass. Increase my faith so that I may understand how You are guiding me and that I may have the strength to endure all the things You set before me. Help me to see that when I don’t get my way, that Your way is better for me. help me to see you might have a purpose for things I get upset over.

In 1840 a baby boy named James Russell was born in Frankfort Spring, Pennsylvania, to his parents James Alexander Miller and Eleanor Creswell (both were of Irish-Scottish ancestors). Frankfort Springs is in the southern portion of Beaver County, on the banks of the Big Traverse which was a small mill steam which drained what is said was a very beautiful valley. James Alexander and Eleanor had ten children, of which their oldest child a daughter died before James Russell their second child was born. James and Eleanor had three boys and seven girls, of which one brother and two sisters died in infancy. The children went to the regional school in Hanover Township, Beaver County, Pennsylvania. When James was around fourteen, the family moved to a farm near Calcutta, Ohio, where the children attended the regional school in the winter time, however during the summer and harvest time they helped their father on the farm, gardening, doing chores and bringing in the fall crops. In 1857 James Russell was accepted by Beaver Academy.

In 1861 The Christian Commission (YMCA) was organized at a convention in New York City and James would later become a delegate for the organization. This group was created to minister to the troops during the civil war.

James then went to Westminster College, Pennsylvania in 1862 and graduated from Westminster College that same year.  The fall of that year he entered the United Presbyterian Church theological seminary at Allegheny, Pennsylvania. In 1863 James took a break from his studies at the seminary and agreed to serve The Christian Commission as a delegate for six weeks, however upon the end of his service he became an Assistant Field Agent and later he was appointed to the office of General Field Agent, of which he served until July 15, 1865

In 1865 he resumed his studies at the seminary and completed them in the spring of 1867. In the fall of 1867 he was ordained and installed (on September 11, 1867) by the First United Presbyterian Church of New Wilmington, Pennsylvania where he had accepted a call. In two years as the pastor of the church of the First United Presbyterian Church he added almost two hundred people to the church membership. He was raised in the United Presbyterian Church and held strongly their views. Although he did not agree with singing the Psalms only and therefore decided to leave because he could not profess this as part of his beliefs. He then resigned from his office and began the process to join the Presbyterian Church (USA).

On November 12, 1869 both the old and new Presbyterian churches joined together as the Presbyterian Church USA, of which nine days later Reverend Miller was called as their pastor to the church called Bethany Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. The congregation grew from 75 members to around twelve hundred and was the largest church in Philadelphia. In 1878 he resigned this position and accepted a call as pastor with the new Broadway Presbyterian Church out of Rock Island, Illinois.

James, now thirty years of age, married Louise E. King of Argyle, New York on June 22, 1870. The couple had three children named William, Russell, and Mary.

In 1875 he began to write Christian articles while at the seminary in Allegheny, Pennsylvania of which he did for some time. Then in 1880 Pastor Miller resigned his position at Broadway Presbyterian Church and was given the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Westminster College, they then invited him to assume editorial work for the Presbyterian Board of Publication in Philadelphia, where he became the assistant to the Editorial Secretary for the said board of publication.

While in Philadelphia he became involved with the Hollond Mission and later became their pastor. He was their pastor for sixteen months and while there the membership increased greatly. Then in 1899 a new church was organized with sixty-six members. They named themselves St. Paul Church in West Philadelphia and asked Miller to become their pastor. He was there from 1899 to 1912, which was the year he died. This congregation grew from the 66 members to 1,397.

In 1911 he retired his positions due to health issues. On July 2, 1912 in the afternoon, James was resting quietly and without warning he quietly passed away, with his wife Louise and his daughter by his side. He passed so quickly there was not time to call Louise and James sons to the bedside of their father.

James Russell Miller wrote numerous articles and books. Under his direction 66 million copies of the periodicals were printed by the Presbyterian Board of Publications. His books had a circulation of over two million copies during just his lifetime. It is in hopes that many of his articles and books will continue to be republished, as so many good solid Christian writers of the past books need to be reprinted, not for money sake but for building the Church.

In the USA all James R. Millers works before 1923 are out of copyright and all of his poems are out of copyright.

Gleaned from J.R. Miller’s Archives, and Wikipedia