John Newton

I have been reading John Newton’s autobiography “out of the depths” and in many ways, the way he was taken to a thorough conversion was extraordinary even in his day. In my own lot in life, one of extraordinary suffering, I often feel that the puritans and people of that time, could relate to what I endure and experience more than anyone I know alive today. I’m thankful for this great cloud of witnesses, and want to share a short something by Newton now, there is also something else I would like to share over the next day or two from the same source, one which I relate to very much, and often burdens my soul, yet to know Newton also experienced the same thing, is of some small comfort. But for now

All true believers walk by the same rule and mind the same things. The Word of God is their compass, Jesus is both their polar star and their sun of righteousness, and their hearts and faces are all  zion-ward. They are as one body, animated by one spirit yet their experiences, formed upon these common principles, are far from being uniform. The Lord in his first call, and his following providential actions, regards the situation, temperament, and talents of each and the particular services or trials he has appointed for them. All are tested at times yet some pass through the voyage of life much more smoothly than others. But he who “walketh upon the wings of the wind” (Psalm 104:3) and “measures the water in the hollow of his hand” (Isa. 40:12) will not suffer any in his charge to perish in the storms, although for a season perhaps, many of them are ready to give up hope.
—John Newton

We still feel the weakness and failings of our sinful nature. Because of our own ignorance and unbelief, we often fail to understand the LORD’s dealings with us, and we are all too ready to complain. If we knew anything from God’s perspective, we would rejoice.

For us, however, there is a time coming when our spiritual warfare will be finished, our perspective enlarged and our understanding increased. Then we will look back upon the experiences through which the Lord led us and be overwhelmed by love and adoration for Him. We will then see and acknowledge that mercy and goodness directed every step. We shall see that what we once mistakenly called afflictions and misfortune were in reality blessings without which we would not have grown in faith. Nothing happened to us without a reason. No problem came upon us sooner, pressed on us more heavily, or continued longer than our situation required. God, in divine grace and wisdom, used our many afflictions, each as needed, that we might ultimately possess an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, prepared by the Lord for His people.

We very often fail to see our present circumstances in right perspective. Look back over the past, however, and compare what you have been brought through with your frame of mind during each successive period. Consider how wonderfully one thing has been connected with another so that what  we now count as our greatest benefits are rooted in incidents that at the time seemed insignificant. We have sometimes escaped from grave dangers not by any wisdom or foresight of our own, but by the intervention of unforeseen circumstances. So both the revelation of Scripture and our own individual experiences confirm the wisdom and good providence of God. He watches over His people from the earliest moment of their lives. He overrules and guards them through all their blind wanderings and leads them in a way they know not.
–John Newton from “Out of the Depths” his autobiography

To-morrow is the Sabbath. I am usually glad when it returns, though it seldom finds me in that frame of mine which I would desire. But it is my happiness to live amongst many who count the hours from one ordinance to another. I know they pray that I may he a messenger of peace, and an instrument of good to their souls; and I have cause to hope their prayers are in a measure answered. For their sakes, as much as my own, I am glad to go up to the house of the Lord. O that in watering others I may be also watered myself! I have been praying that to-morrow may be a day of power with you and with us, and with all that love Jesus in sincerity; that we may see his glory, and taste his love in the sanctuary! When it is thus, the Sabbath is a blessed day indeed, an earnest of heaven. There they keep an everlasting sabbath, and cease not night or day admiring the riches of redeeming love, and adoring Him who washed his people from their sins in his own blood.

To have such imperfect communion with them as is in this state attainable in this pleasing exercise, is what alone can make life worth the name. For this I sigh and long, and cry to the Lord to rend the vail of unbelief, scatter the clouds of ignorance, and break down the walls which sin is daily building up to hide him from my eyes. I hope I can say, My soul is athirst for God, and nothing less than the light of his countenance can satisfy me. Blessed be his Name for the desire: it is his own gift, and he never gives it in vain. He will afford us a taste of the water of life by the way; and ere long we shall drink abundantly at the fountain-head, and have done with complaint for ever. May we be thankful for what we receive, and still earnestly desirous of more.
—From the Letters of John Newton

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Dear Sir,

Though many authors have written largely and well concerning communion with God, I shall not refer you to books or have recourse to them myself; but in compliance with your request, shall simply offer you what occurs to my thoughts upon the subject. I propose not to exceed the limits of a sheet of paper, and must therefore come immediately to the point.

That God is to be worshipped, is generally acknowledged, but that they who worship him in spirit and in truth, have real fellowship and communion with him, is known only to themselves. The world can neither understand nor believe it. Many who would not be thought to have cast off all reverence for the Scripture, and therefore do not choose flatly to contradict the apostle’s testimony, I John i. 3, attempt to evade its force by by restraining it to primitive times. They will allow that it might be so then; but they pretend that circumstances are, indeed, altered with us, so far, that men now pass for Christians who confess and manifest themselves strangers to the Spirit of Christ: but who can believe that the very nature and design of Christianity should alter in the course of time? and that communion with God, which was essential to it in the apostles days, should be now so unnecessary and impracticable, as to expose all who profess an acquaintance with it to the charge of enthusiasm and folly? However, they who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, will not be disputed out of their spiritual senses. If they are competent judges whether they ever saws the light, or felt the beams of the sun, they are no less certain that, by the knowledge of the Gospel, they are brought into a state of communion with God.

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