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Sunday Hymn: “Amazing Grace”
by Scott Gilbreath ~ November 23rd, 2008
This hymn was sing during Morning Prayer at Christ Church, Windsor, while a special collection was taken for the work of the Council of the North. We sang all six of John Newton’s original verses as well as the later additional verse from an unknown hand.
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.The Lord has promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures;
He will my Shield and Portion be,
As long as life endures.Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who called me here below,
Will be forever mine.When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.
Words: John Newton, Olney Hymns (London: W. Oliver, 1779). Exception: the last stanza is by an unknown author; it appeared as early as 1829 in the Baptist Songster, by R. Winchell (Wethersfield, Connecticut), as the last stanza of the song “Jerusalem My Happy Home.”
More on “Amazing Grace” here. John Newton served as rector at St Mary Woolnoth Church, London, for 28 years.
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