1 Sweeter sounds than music knows,
Charm me in Emmanuel's Name;
All her hopes my spirit owes
To His birth, and Cross, and shame.
2 When He came the angels sung,
"Glory be to God on high:"
Lord, unloose my stammering tongue;
Who shall louder sing than I?
3 Did the Lord a man become,
That He might the law fulfil,
Bleed and suffer in my room,
And canst thou, my tongue, be still?
4 No; I must my praises bring,
Though they worthless are, and weak;
For, should I refuse to sing,
Sure the very stones would speak.
5 O my Saviour, Shield, and Sun,
Shepherd, Brother, Lord, and Friend--
Every precious name in one!
I will love Thee without end.
Source: Church Book: for the use of Evangelical Lutheran congregations #222
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 >
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