More helpful thoughts from John Newton. Please keep in mind as you read this that Newton was NOT disengaged from the welfare of people - for example, he was an encouraging and guiding hand in the anti-slavery movement...as well he should have been, having once been the captain of a slave ship. When Newton wrote "Amazing Grace" he knew what he was talking about.
On March 15, 1794, Newton wrote to John Ryland, Jr.:
“You are welcome to tell
everybody you please that I do not justify all the measures of those in power.
Indeed I do not justify any of them because they do not live in my way, and I
think myself not competent to judge. I only wish to preach the Gospel and to be
one of the quiet in the land…
“But I compose my mind by
considering all hearts and all things as instruments of him who worketh all things
according to the counsel of his own will, and makes all subservient to the
fulfilling [of] it. I think the crucifixion of our Lord, was, taken in one view
the worst action that the worst men ever committed. But instead of scolding
Caiaphas, Judas and Pilate (whose part I should have acted had I been in their
places and left to myself) I rather choose to admire the wisdom and love of God
in this transaction, which considered his appointment, was the brightest
display of His glory ever afforded to his creatures.
“Farther, if the measures of
government were totally wrong and pernicious, it would excite in me, more of
grief than wonder. Neither our great men nor I fear the bulk of the nation
acknowledge God. Neither his direction nor his blessing are sought. And
therefore I should rather pity than blame them, if they blundered most
egregiously. I should say the thing is of the Lord who takes wisdom from the
wise and then of course they must stumble like men in the dark. So while our
fleets and armies set the Lord of hosts at defiance, if he gives success to
their enterprises so as to preserve us from such desolation as prevails in many
parts of the continent, I shall ascribe it not to their prowess, for he can
soon make the boldest captains tremble…
“I am neither Whig nor Tory, but
a well wisher to both. I would pass on as a stranger in a strange land, without
intermeddling in the disputes of people whose language I do not understand…
“I grieve for the war and its
mischiefs. But I believe our sins plunged us into it, and that by a
providential train of circumstance, it was, humanly speaking inevitable. I pray
for peace, but I know the Lord alone can give it. I know not how I can serve my
country, but by prayer, and by using my influence so far as it will go, to
sooth angry spirits on both sides, and to try to lead their thoughts to the
cross and to eternity.”
From:
Wise Counsel, John Newton’s
Letters to John Ryland, Jr., Ed. Grant Gordon, Banner of Truth, 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment