Though troubles assail, And dangers affright. J. Newton. [Security in God.] Written in February, 1775, for the service at the Great House at Olney (Bull's Life of Newton, 1868, p. 208), and first published in the Gospel Magazine, Jan. 1777, p. 42, in 8 stanzas of 8 lines, and headed "Jehovah-Jireh, i.e. The Lord will provide, Gen. xxii. 14." It was included in the Olney Hymns, 1779, Bk. i., No. 7, with the title ”The Lord will provide." It is usually given in an abbreviated form.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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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