Easter is coming, tomorrow the Church begins to celebrate the death of its Saviour. Let these wonderful words of John Newton remind you of how precious that death was…and is:

“I was formerly one of his most active under-tempters. Not content with running the broad way myself, I was indefatigable in enticing others; and had my influence been equal to my wishes, I would have carried all the human race with me. And doubtless some have perished to whose destruction I was greatly instrumental, by tempting them to sin and by poisoning and hardening them with principles of infidelity; and yet I was spared. When I think of the most with whom I spent my unhappy days of ignorance, I am ready to say, “I only am escaped alive to tell thee.” Surely I have not half the activity and zeal in the service of Him who snatched me as a brand out of the burning as I had in the service of His enemy. Then the whole stream of my endeavors and affections went one way; now my best desires are continually crossed, counteracted, and spoiled by the sin which dwelleth in me; then the tide of a corrupt nature bore me along; now I have to strive and swim against it. The Lord cut me short of opportunities and placed me where I could do but little mischief; had my abilities and occasions been equal to my heart, I should have been a Voltaire and a Tiberius in one character, a monster of profaneness and licentiousness. “O to grace how great a debtor!” A common drunkard or profligate is a petty sinner to what I was. I had the ambition of a Cæsar or an Alexander and wanted to rank in wickedness among the foremost of the human race. When you have read this, praise the Lord for His mercy to the chief of sinners and pray that I may have grace to be faithful.”¹

1. John Newton, “The Voice of the Heart”, Page 425. ↩︎