"Reflections for New Year's Day - 'Amazing Grace'" - Chuck Colson, Jan. 1, 2008;
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/26600
At the end of December 1772, an Anglican priest in the poor parish
of Olney worked by candlelight on his New Year's
Day sermon. He would preach on the text of 1 Chronicles 17, verses 16 and 17.
That passage was David's response to God after Nathan informed him that his
descendants would be enthroned forever as kings of Israel
In those last days of 1772, Newton
As was his habit, Newton
Those now-famous words of "Amazing Grace," first sung in
the small parish of Olney on New Year's Day, 1773, lingered in obscurity for
many years. Even as Newton counseled the young
William Wilberforce and encouraged him to stay
the course in the long battle against the slave trade, the words to "Amazing Grace" were little sung in England Newton ,
caught on in the Americas
The words of "Amazing Grace" would surface again some 80
years later in a book that would change the course of this
nation, Uncle
Tom's Cabin. In it, the slave, Tom, at his lowest point, sings the
words of "Amazing Grace." Two verses hardly sung today were sung by
Tom: "And when this mortal life shall fail/And flesh and sense shall
cease,/ I shall possess within the veil,/ A life of joy and peace." These
words of the ultimate hope in God, even in the face of deep injustice, forever
entwined the words of "Amazing Grace" with the plight of the slaves.
But it all began in that dark little study in the waning days of a
year gone by, when one man took the time to reflect on God's goodness to him.
This New Year's Day we would all do well to pay tribute to Newton
[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]
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Another year is dawning, Dear Father, let it be,
In working or in waiting, another year with Thee;
Another year of progress, another year of praise,
Another year of proving Thy presence all the days.
Another year of mercies, of faithfulness and grace;
Another year of gladness in the shining of Thy face;
Another year of leaning upon Thy loving breast;
Another year of trusting, of quiet, happy rest.
Another year of service, of witness for Thy love;
Another year of training for holier work above.
Another year is dawning, Dear Father, let it be,
On earth or else in heaven, another year for Thee.
- by Frances Ridley Havergal, the nineteenth-century British poet and hymn writer
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Another year is dawning, Dear Father, let it be,
In working or in waiting, another year with Thee;
Another year of progress, another year of praise,
Another year of proving Thy presence all the days.
Another year of mercies, of faithfulness and grace;
Another year of gladness in the shining of Thy face;
Another year of leaning upon Thy loving breast;
Another year of trusting, of quiet, happy rest.
Another year of service, of witness for Thy love;
Another year of training for holier work above.
Another year is dawning, Dear Father, let it be,
On earth or else in heaven, another year for Thee.
- by Frances Ridley Havergal, the nineteenth-century British poet and hymn writer
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