Amazing Grace

Last year in my European History class, we watched a movie called Amazing Grace.  While it was mainly about the ending of the European slave trade, it also included, as a minor character, the man who composed the famous song "Amazing Grace."  As "Amazing Grace" is one of my favorite hymns, this movie piqued my interest enough to do a bit of research on the subject.  And frankly, what I discovered was pretty incredible.  John Newton, the composer, was born in 1725 as the son of a merchant ship captain.  In 1744, he was impressed into service on a man-of-war, but deserted and was flogged brutally.  Eventually, he ended up as a servant on a slave ship and would go on to captain his own slave ship in time.  Having given up religion as a child, he experienced a "great deliverance" in 1748 when his ship was spared destruction in a violent storm at sea.  For the rest of his life, he celebrated this day as the day of his conversion, and decided to become ordained as a minister.  Throughout his life, he composed many hymns, but by far the most famous was "Amazing Grace."  I have included the verses of this hymn below:

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav’d 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 reliev’d;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ’d! Thro’ 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 promis’d 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 call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.   Oh also, here's the link for the website where I obtained a lot of this information: http://www.anointedlinks.com/amazing_grace.html