Sunday's Hymn: John Newton

I’ve featured John Newton’s hymns here before, but today I’m presenting one more because I want to post a little bit about Olney Hymns, a hymnal published in 1779 that contained hymns written by William Cowper and John Newton. Shortly after Cowper’s conversion, John Newton became his pastor when Cowper moved to live in Olney. They shared a close relationship that continued after John Newton moved from Olney to take over a new pastorate thirteen years later. From John Piper’s book, The Hidden Smile of God:

Newton saw Cowper’s bent to melancholy and reclusiveness and drew him into the ministry of visitation as much as he could. They would take long walks together between homes and talk of God and his purposes for the church. Then, in 1769, Newton got the idea of collaborating with Cowper on a book of hymns to be sung by their church. He thought it would be good for Cowper’s poetic bent to be engaged.¹

As it turned out, Cowper wrote 68 of the hymns included in the Olney Hymns before he suffered another mental breakdown, and Newton finished things off by contributing more than two hundred. The previously featured hymns by Cowper were all Olney Hymns, and so was the ever popular Amazing Grace by Newton.

The breakdown that Cowper suffered was a bad one, and once again he was often suicidal. Newton, Piper writes, “stood by him all the way through this, even sacrificing at least one vacation so as not to leave Cowper alone.”² You get a glimpse there, I’d say, of John Newton’s pastoral heart. When Newton left Olney, he kept in close touch with Cowper, and the two men exchanged frequent letters for the next twenty years.

This hymn by Newton from Olney Hymns is one I was unfamiliar with, but it is in my church’s hymnal. I love it’s cross-centered words.

I Saw One Hanging on a Tree 

I saw One hanging on a tree,
In agony and blood,
Who fixed His languid eyes on me,
As near His cross I stood.

Refrain

O, can it be, upon a tree,
The Savior died for me?
My soul is thrilled, my heart is filled,
To think He died for me!

Sure, never to my latest breath,
Can I forget that look;
It seemed to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke.

My conscience felt and owned the guilt,
And plunged me in despair,
I saw my sins His blood had spilt,
And helped to nail Him there.

A second look He gave, which said,
“I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid;
I die that thou mayst live.”

Thus, while His death my sin displays
In all its blackest hue,
Such is the mystery of grace,
It seals my pardon too.

 
¹ John Piper, The Hidden Smile of God, 96.
² Ibid., 97.

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Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross at Fish and Cans
• Not What My Hands Have Done at New Lumps
• Day by Day at The Happy Wonderer
  
• Take the Name of Jesus with You at Above the Clouds
• The Gospel Way, from The Valley of Vision, at The Thirsty Theologian.
  
• From the Depths of Woe I Raise to Thee at John Dekker’s Journal
• Take My Life and Let It Be at Seasonings of the Heart
• Quiet, Lord, my froward heart at joythruChrist
• The Collect for Sunday after Ascension Day at Magic Statistics

Have you posted a hymn this Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar, and I’ll add your post to the list.

Comments

[rosemary]

When I was a young teenager--eons ago--my parents had a record of George Beverly Shea singing this song. I used to sing along, and the words pierced me. I haven't heard them for a long time, and I thank you for bringing them back.

[David Fisher]

Rebecca: Thanks for another excellent post. I hope you don't mind but I reprinted your post in its entirety on my Pilgrim Scribblings blog. Please check it out and let me know if you're O.K. with this.

Have a good and godly week!

David

[rebecca]

Hi David,

I'm just glad you found it interesting, so I'm fine with you reposting it!

I'm just wondering why I'm the only one who's never heard of this hymn.

[Julana]

I've actually sung it in church before. I went to cyberhymnal and listened to the tune, and recognized it.

I got to see the film Amazing Grace over the weekend, in which John Newton appears as a supporting character. The movie made me want to read a biography of Wilberforce. There has to be a lot more to that story.

[rebecca]

If you are interested in the spiritual side of Wilberforce's life, then the little biography by John Piper published to go along with the movie is a good one. I reviewed it on the old blog.

[David Fisher]

Rebecca: Thanks for your permission to put your post on my blog! John Piper's little book on Wilberforce is a good one!

David