Learning from John Newton 300 years on
Adrian Warnock
The headlines of the story are well-known.
A rebellious youth. Pressganged into the Royal Navy. Whipped after an attempted desertion. Swapped onto a ship on its way to pick up slaves. Enslaved, himself, in Africa. Rescued by a captain friend of his father’s only to almost die in a storm on the way home. So far from God that his fellow sailors thought that he, like Jonah, had brought the wrath of God down on them.