Jacob's ladder

Author: John Newton

Newton, John, who was born in London, July 24, 1725, and died there Dec. 21, 1807, occupied an unique position among the founders of the Evangelical School, due as much to the romance of his young life and the striking history of his conversion, as to his force of character. His mother, a pious Dissenter, stored his childish mind with Scripture, but died when he was seven years old. At the age of eleven, after two years' schooling, during which he learned the rudiments of Latin, he went to sea with his father. His life at sea teems with wonderful escapes, vivid dreams, and sailor recklessness. He grew into an abandoned and godless sailor. The religious fits of his boyhood changed into settled infidelity, through the study of Shaftesbury and… Go to person page >

If the Lord [my] our Leader be. J. Newton. [Jacob's Ladder.] Josiah Bull, in his John Newton of Olney and St. Mary Woolnoth, 1868, says, under date of June, 1774:—

"Writing about this time to his sister-in-law, Mrs. Cunningham, who had removed to Scotland, he sends her a copy of his hymn, entitled ‘Jacob's Ladder,' saying, ‘Your removal led my thoughts to the subject of the following hymn, and therefore you ought to have a copy.'" (2nd ed. p. 202.)

In 1779, the hymn was given in the Olney Hymns, Bk. i., No. 9, in 5 stanzas of 8 lines, with the title “Jacob's Ladder." It is found in a few modern collections in America.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)