1 Prepare a thankful song,
To the Redeemer's name!
Let his high praise employ each tongue
And every heart enflame!
2 He laid his glory by,
And bitter pains endured:
That sinners of the blackest dye
From wrath might be secured.
3 Stretched on the cross he died,
Our debt of sin to pay,
The blood and water from his side
Wash guilt and filth away.
4 Pleading for us he stands
Before the father's throne;
And answers all the Law's demands,
With what himself hath done.
5 The Holy Ghost he sends,
Our stubborn souls to move;
To make his enemies his friends,
And conquer them by love.
6 Assured that Christ our King,
Will put our foes to flight;
We, on the filed of battle sing,
And triumph, while we fight.
The Hartford Selection of Hymns from the most approved authors, 1799
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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