Description
John Newton (1725-1807), sailor, preacher and hymnwriter, used to be one of the crucial colourful figures within the great Evangelical Revival of the 18th Century. Once an infidel and
libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, he wrote for his own epitaph,
by the wealthy mercy of Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and
appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy .
It used to be through his correspondence that Newton fulfilled his distinctive
work as the letter creator par excellence of the Evangelical Revival . His clutch of Scripture and deep personal experience, his many friends (among them, George Whitefield, William Cowper and William Wilberforce), his manifold trials, his country pastorate, his strong, clear, idiomatic style a lot of these factors combined to organize the writer of How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds , for the exercise of his special gift. These practical letters cover all kinds of subjects and aim to conform the believer to Christ .