365 Days With Newton
With painstaking effort, Marylynn Rouse, the Director of the John Newton Project, has culled through hundreds of letters, sermons, diaries, and hymns written by John Newton to produce 365 daily devotionals, each with a related Scriptural meditation. As Pastor Tim Keller has said, “As an 18th-century Anglican minister, Newton was a good preacher, but it was as a pastor, counselor, and adviser that he excelled. His pastoral letters are a treasure chest.” This collection of Newton’s words opens that treasure chest for all to read.
In the following excerpt, Newton bares his heart, sharing his fervent prayer for listeners on the brink of the New Year in 1774.
“If ever a sense of the worth of souls is impressed upon my heart (and I hope it sometimes is), if ever I find myself willing to spend and be spent for you, if I can ever adopt with sincerity the Apostle’s words, and say, Being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us [I Thessalonians 2:8], it is peculiarly so at the return of this opportunity. To the most of you, I preach frequently and I have no new tricks to set before you now. Why then is my heart engaged on a New Year’s evening more than at other times? Why do I stand up at these times with a solicitude as if I had never preached before, or as if I expected never to preach again? I have frequently entertained a hope upon this account, that my concern was a token for good, a token that the Lord was about to do great things for us, and that the seed I endeavour to sow among the young people should, in the course of the year, spring up abundantly and give us the prospect of a plentiful harvest. Painful experience has taught me my own insufficiency, that though I should address you with the greatest earnestness, though I should accompany every word with tears, though I could even weep blood, all my earnestness will be in vain, unless the Lord himself is pleased to take the work into his own hands and apply the word by his own power to your hearts. This has been my prayer, and from entreating the Lord, I now come to entreat and beseech you, that you would hear with attention and receive with meekness the word which, by his blessing, is able to save your souls—that I may not have to return again and say, Lord, who hath believed our report? [John 12:38].
FOR MEDITATION: [written to be sung before this sermon]
Now may fervent prayer arise
Winged with faith, and pierce the skies;
Fervent prayer shall bring us down
Gracious answers from the throne.
Bless O Lord, the opening year
To each soul assembled here;
Clothe thy word with power divine,
Make us willing to be thine.