Chapter One
Amazing GraceIf America were to have a national Christian hymn,
many would argue that it would have to be "Amazing
Grace." Because of its roots and the miraculous
turnaround found in its message, "Amazing Grace" is a
song that reflects both the good and the bad found in
America's past, present, and future, as well as on the road
to individual salvation.
This inspirational standard, written, ironically, by an Englishman,
was born not from an experience of love but from a sordid
tale of human exploitation. So while much of what is both
human and divine can be seen in John Newton's short verses, to
fully appreciate the hymn one must know the story behind it and
discover the verse that has now been deleted from the song.
John Newton was born in London, England, on August 4,
1725. Though he was not poor, Newton did not have a wonderful
or secure home life. His father was a hardened sailor, the
owner of a trade ship that sailed the Mediterranean. The elder
Newton was often gone for months at a time, leaving the boy
alone with his mother. Mrs. Newton was a loving Christian
woman, a devoted parent who took a vital interest in her son,
but she was also chronically ill and physically weak. Because of
his mother's frailty, John literally had the run of the house from
the time he could walk. The energetic child was in constant
trouble, often missed school, and was usually at the center of
neighborhood pranks. After his mother died
when he was only seven, his one hope for a normal life
ended. He dropped out of school, all but living on the streets.
Four years later, at the age of eleven, John followed in his
father's footsteps and became a cabin boy on a ship. It was
probably the only thing that kept him out of juvenile prison,
but it didn't keep him out of trouble.
Even as a teenager, Newton was hard drinking and ill-tempered.
Law officers in the port towns called the youth
vicious, brutal, and fearless. His public brawls were legendary.
When he wasn't in jail, he could often be found in
a ship's brig. Newton even scared veteran sailors with his
unpredictable and violent behavior. By the time he was
twenty, he had lived enough adventures to fill the lives of
four men, spilled more blood than most career soldiers, and
consumed enough alcohol to stock London's largest pub.
He later described himself as a godless monster, and few
who knew him during his youth would have disagreed.
His attitude and illegal exploits finally drove him out of
Europe to Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa. There
Newton discovered a band of men who were as wild and
depraved as he. For the next few years this group was
responsible for untold suffering and death. Newton and his
shipmates sought out tribal chiefs and traded guns, spices,
liquor, and clothes for strong young native men and women.
This innocent human cargo was then loaded aboard tiny
ships and transported across the Atlantic to the New World.
Of the more than six hundred people who were literally
chained shoulder to shoulder in each ship's hold, between
20 to 40 percent died on the journey. Those who somehow
survived were then sold at auctions, and Newton
and his shipmates shared the bounty. In most ports, pirates
were considered more respectable and honorable than
slavers; thus, Newton was considered one of the lowest of
the men who sailed the seas.
John Newton's decadent life was fueled by America's
demand for slaves. Strangely, many of the men who bought
Newton's cargo were Christians who found no moral dilemma
in their actions. Some slave owners were even ministers. The
moral indifference of many in the church just made it easier
for Newton to help engineer a system that reflected the very
worst of humanity. Like millions of others, he felt no regret
and no shame. In the slave trade, black human beings were
just soulless products to use and dispose of. As Newton
tossed dead men and women overboard or watched others
being sold on auction blocks, he could only say, "So be it."
The time spent crossing the Atlantic offered sailors an
opportunity to play cards, swap stories, or read. In 1758
twenty-three-year-old Newton was studying a book calledThe Imitation of Christ. By now this veteran of several slave
runs could easily tune out the moans and screams of the
chained cargo. He had also grown used to the smell of the
human waste, disease, and death that came from the cargo
hold. Nothing really bothered him, not even a fellow crewman
dragging a dead body up on the deck and heaving it
overboard.
On this calm day as Newton read, he forgot about the
world around him. He grew so lost in the pages of his book
that he even failed to note the storm that had quickly gathered
in the west. Only when wild winds began to jostle the
ship's masts and pelting rain hit the deck did the
sailor turn his attention from Thomas A. Kempis's The Imitation
of Christ to his duties. By then it appeared to be too late.
The storm that suddenly struck the slave ship that day
was the worst Newton had ever experienced. As the ship was
tossed about like a leaf in the wind, rolling from side to side,
the veteran of scores of storms sensed that this time he was
not going to survive. He felt sure the ship was going to be
crushed and he would be tossed into an unforgiving sea with
no hope of rescue. While others cried, cursed, and begged,
Newton thought back on his own
miserable life. As the Atlantic
churned back and forth
across the decks, the
sailor concluded that the
only person he had ever
known who really loved
him was his mother. He
also realized she would be
heartbroken if she knew
what he had become. Feeling a
need to try to seek some kind of redemption before it was too
late, Newton fell to his knees, clinging to a rope, and began
to pray. He pleaded with the Lord to save him. The sailor
promised that if God would give him a second chance at life,
then Newton would become a moral man.
In a matter of minutes the storm abated and roared off to
the east. Miraculously, not one person lost his life that day,
and the mildly damaged ship was able to complete its journey
and deliver its cargo. Yet for the first time, when Newton
was given his cut of the profits, he did not seek out
a bar to celebrate. Instead, the man who had felt the touch of
God's saving hand returned to his ship and read the Bible.
Within two years of the storm, John Newton became the
captain of a slave ship. He oversaw his cargo from the capturing
and chaining of young African natives to the delivering
to auction blocks of those who lived through the ocean crossing.
Yet as he watched his men carry out these operations,
he could no longer say, "So be it." With Christ in his heart,
the immorality of his acts began to nag at Newton's soul.
Unable to mesh his Christian convictions with his duties as a
slave trade captain, Newton resigned, returned to England,
and sought a way to serve Christ. Under the guidance of
Charles Wesley, the famous father of the Methodist movement,
the former hardened sailor and slave trader became a
preacher.
In 1779, two decades after he was literally and spiritually
saved, Newton was pastoring a church in Olney, England.
One Sunday morning he delivered a message on the
grace of Jesus. From the pulpit the now respected moral
voice and beloved community leader spoke of his life at sea.
He freely admitted his past sins and told his congregation
how the Lord had come to him during a violent storm. He
finished his message by singing an autobiographical song
that began with this touching but now forgotten verse.
In evil long I took delight, Unawed by shame or fear, Till a new object struck my sight, And stopped my wild career.
Newton's "Amazing Grace" may have been
composed for a single sermon, but it quickly made its way
into songbooks. The hymn was published the same year it
was written, and it was quickly brought to the United
States. In America, Newton's verses were matched to a
number of different tunes, but it was a folk song called
both "Kentucky Harmony" and "Virginia Harmony" that
became the vehicle that took the message across the new
frontier and then back to England. Ironically, "Amazing
Grace" first gained wide acceptance in the American
South. Little did those in slave states realize that the song
had been inspired by a man's realization of the immorality
of the very thing that was sustaining many of their
livelihoods. By the start of the Civil War, after the familiar
final verse was added by an unknown American, "Amazing
Grace" was one of the best-known Christian songs in
the world. It was also so associated with the United States
and the early missionary movement from this country that
most believed it to be the product of an American author.
Popular black gospel singers such as W. M. Nic and
Roberta Martin made the English song a spiritual anchor
in African-American music circles in the early 1900s. The
song was popular with troops in both World War I and
World War II and was often used at navy funerals at sea
and at army and marine battlefront memorials. Later, popular
musicians such as Hank Williams and Elvis Presley
sang "Amazing Grace" at many of their concerts. It was
also a standard in almost every Christian songbook. Yet it
wasn't until 1971 that the song climbed out of the nation's
hymnbooks and into the mainstream.
Folk-rock songstress Judy Collins probably
recorded "Amazing Grace" as much as an act of protest as she
did as a symbol of faith. With the divisions caused by the
Vietnam War, American cultural clashes, government scandals,
and fights for racial equality, Collins's version of "Amazing
Grace" became a mirror that reflected the wrongs that
seemed to be taking over the nation. Yet as the public voted
the old hymn to the top position on the rock charts, the message
was transformed and "Amazing Grace" came to mean
something else altogether. Americans might have deserted
God, but he had not deserted any of those who had seemingly
fallen so far from him. In the midst of all the chaos, "Amazing
Grace" became a part of a revival movement in which millions
again found faith in God and rediscovered faith in their own
country at the same time. In the early seventies, whenever the
old hymn was played on the radio or sung in public it seemed
to reflect the fact that no matter how bad things were, no
matter how far individuals and the nation had sunk, even in
these stormy historic times there was still the opportunity to
ask God for a second chance.
In the past three decades "Amazing Grace" has become
almost as much an American icon as the flag, and in
some ways these two national symbols represent many
of the same concepts and ideals. America is a place where
faith seems to surface even in the worst of times, where past
mistakes are admitted and wrongs are slowly righted, and
where the lost are usually found. John Newton did not have
America or Americans in mind when he wrote his testimony
into a song, yet at the age of eighty-two he said something
that all Christians in this country and around the world can
cling to in times of both triumph and trial: "My memory is
nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I am
a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior."
John Newton's "Amazing Grace" is a road map showing
how to seek forgiveness and then explaining what that forgiveness
can mean to the past, present, and future of all who
accept Jesus as Lord. Perhaps that is why this hymn has
come to mean so much to Americans and why, as long as it
does mean so much, the United States still has a chance to
find its moral voice and lead the world with grace, compassion,
and charity.
Chapter Two
America, the BeautifulWhen Samuel Ward was a boy in Newark, New
Jersey, in the 1850s, there was no indication
the gifted child would have much impact on
the world. Though Ward's ancestors were founders of
Newark and heroes of the Revolutionary War, the city and
the nation had grown a great deal since then. Ward could
not perceive how he would escape a humdrum life and rise
to prominence even in his own neighborhood, much less in the
nation. So rather than fortune or fame, his one real wish in life
was to somehow make a living through what he loved the
most-music. Ward did not know that this choice would not
only bring him great joy but ultimately would make a greater
impact on the United States than anything ever accomplished
by those from his illustrious family tree.
At the age of six, when Ward began to play the accordion,
it was just a small indication of what was to come. By the time
he was a teenager he was teaching piano lessons to help
support his family. He moved to New York and became a
professional church organist at sixteen. Ward was at the right
place at the right time doing the right thing when, in the days
after the Civil War, band music exploded onto the national
scene. Sensing the nation's growing interest in all things musical,
the young man opened a store in which he taught piano
and sold everything from instruments to sheet music. By the
age of thirty, he was married, had a family of four daughters,
and was considered a successful businessman.
Ward was now so financially secure he even took vacations
in Europe.
By 1890 Ward had formed his own male vocal group.
Under his leadership the Orpheus Society became one of
New York's best-known choirs. Ward didn't just direct the
group, he also wrote and arranged much of their music.
Though many around him were now calling the clean-cut,
distinguished-looking man a genius, the businessman
turned choirmaster still seemed content to be known as
just a friend, husband, and father. By all accounts, even
when things were at their best, Ward simply took one day
at a time, finding a way to enjoy each of them as they
came. This desire to relish the moment and squeeze the
most out of life led him to create the musical foundation for
one of America's most loved patriotic hymns.
Coney Island was hardly an awe-inspiring place. The
amusement park was like a carnival gone wild. Huge in
scope, the playground of New York was a place to have fun
and spend money. Part circus and part medieval fair, with
its rides, sideshows, food plazas, and beach, Coney Island
was American capitalism and consumption in all its glory.
Most patrons left the Island tired and broke. Yet the deeply
religious Ward seemed to find God's hand everywhere he
went. He could see the Lord in a child's smile, a mother's
hug, or the crashing of an ocean wave. With this kind of
attitude it is hardly surprising that the music store owner
left the park with more energy and in better spirits than
most around him. It was as if the day had just begun and
he had a great deal more to look forward to.
Continues.
