The evolution of "Amazing Grace"

This Sunday, we will be singing “Amazing Grace,” originally by John Newton. And while it might not be the melody we are used to, we shouldn’t get caught complaining “…but this isn’t the melody that John Newton wrote!”, because that’s a trap – I did a little research into this popular hymn, and it turns out John Newton never set his poem to music at all!

John Newton wrote the lyrics to Amazing Grace under a very different title: “Faith’s Review and Expectation”, as part of a New Year’s Day sermon he would deliver in 1773, some 25 years after his dramatic conversion at sea. It had no music at that time, and likely was recited in unison by the congregation.

Almost as soon as Newton first published the poem, however, composers started adding music to it. It was given at least 20 melodies in the 18th and 19th centuries, but it had to wait more than 60 years before it was paired with a melody called New Britain, the tune we traditionally sing today. And even then, its transformation wasn’t complete. For these were the original last two stanzas that Newton penned:

Yes, 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 call'd me here below,

Will be forever mine.

It’s not too bad, but I guess singers weren’t thrilled with the idea of the earth dissolving like snow in the near future – the lyrics to the fourth stanza we traditionally sing (“When we’ve been there ten thousand years”) actually come from another hymn, "Jerusalem, My Happy Home", but have been substituted into "Amazing Grace" since the mid-19th century.

So, I guess the lesson is: even if something doesn’t start the way you intend, even if something doesn’t end the way you intend, even if something isn’t delivered in the manner you intended, God uses it to his glory. And while we may be inherently resistant to change, this example shows how changes over time can lead to something pretty exceptional – today’s “Amazing Grace” is a special hymn indeed. Let’s bow our heads.

Dear Father, we thank you for your Amazing Grace, for John Newton, and the evolution of his poem into the powerful hymn we sing today. We give you tonight’s rehearsal, and our services this Sunday, Father. In your holy name, Amen.


(Sources: http://www.irishmusicdaily.com/amazing-grace, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Newton, and http://www.anointedlinks.com/amazing_grace.html)