The Life of John Newton- A Review

We all know the song he wrote, but not a lot of people know the man. John Newton lost his mother at a young age. She made him read his bible and always believed her son would be a preacher. His father was gone a lot so he never really knew him. Once his mother passed away, his father still did not return until years later. He then had a new step-mother and more children came along. John was not close to his father and was very rebellious. He was always looking for trouble or trying to cause someone else to get in trouble. John wanted to leave the ship he worked on with his father. He had big dreams of making more money somewhere else. John ended up a slave of a slave trader, becoming like one of the slaves. He was mistreated, starved, beaten, and the like. He would not return home unless his father sent for him. His father eventually did, and he was eventually made captain of his own slave trader ship. During a bad storm he started reflecting on all the miracles Jesus had performed in his favor, all the times he almost died, but was spared. He began reading scriptures, learning Latin and Greek so he could read text in different languages. John Newton got out of the slave trading business and began to seek work for God.

This is a really great story, and since most of this book is John's letters he had written you have to do some translating and read carefully. If you want to learn about John Newton and how his life was radically changed, this is a great book to read.

I received this book from Attic Books, A Division of New Leaf Publishing Group in exchange for my honest review.