On what has now been sown. J. Newton. [Close of Service.] This hymn is in common use in three forms, as follows:—
1. The original in 1 stanza of 6 lines. This is found in a few of the older collections. The stanza is the sixth of J. Newton's hymn "What contradictions meet," which appeared in the Olney Hymns, 1779, Book ii., No. 26.
2. The same stanza, with the addition of a doxology as given in Common Praise, 1879.
3. The same stanza, with the addition of J. Newton's “Short Hymn," "To Thee our wants are known," from the Olney Hymns, 1779, Book iii., No. 103. This is No. 68 in the Irish Church Hymnal, 1873.
--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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