A glance from heaven with sweet effect

Author: John Newton

John Newton (b. London, England, 1725; d. London, 1807) was born into a Christian home, but his godly mother died when he was seven, and he joined his father at sea when he was eleven. His licentious and tumul­tuous sailing life included a flogging for attempted desertion from the Royal Navy and captivity by a slave trader in West Africa. After his escape he himself became the captain of a slave ship. Several factors contributed to Newton's conversion: a near-drowning in 1748, the piety of his friend Mary Catlett, (whom he married in 1750), and his reading of Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ. In 1754 he gave up the slave trade and, in association with William Wilberforce, eventually became an ardent abolitionist. After becoming a tide… Go to person page >

A glance from heaven, with sweet effect. J. Newton. [Lightning.] This hymn, dealing with the moral and spiritual thoughts suggested by "Lightning in the night," appeared in the Gospel Magazine, April, 1775, in the Olney Hymns, 1779, Bk. ii., No. 84, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, and later editions. It is No. 301 of Martineaus Hymns, &c, 1840-1851, and 429 in J. H. Thorn's Hymns, 1858.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)