Even aboard this ship his behavior remained remarkably despicable. And then after attempting to desert his first ship, he was flogged, demoted, and transferred to a second ship, a slave ship. He spent a short time as a merchant sailor, but his bad behavior got him into trouble and he was pressed into the service of the British Royal Navy. And after about six years at his father’s side, the elder John Newton retired from the sea and the younger John Newton began his own career. He picked up many of the habits that sailors of his day were renowned for, drinking, gambling, and boy did that man have a mouth. And then after some time with his step-mother, and some more time at a boarding school, finally, at the young age of eleven, John Newton joined his father at sea.Īs you could probably guess, growing up among the sailors was not work out well for John.

Newton remembered her fondly, but unfortunately she passed away when he was just seven and his step-mother was not the same kind of woman. In fact he had been born to a kind, Christian woman in London who did her very best to love and provide for her boy and to give him religious instruction. Now, I must say, that John Newton was not born a wretch. And if you listen to the stories I am about share with you, I think you’ll be prone to agree. I don’t want to judge him too harshly, but using his own words, John Newton described himself as a wretch. The man I would like to tell you about was born in 1725 and his name was John Newton.

Not a physically blind man, but a spiritually blind man. Let me tell you the story of a blind man.

Gospel parallels