Life of John Newton (cont.)

FREED FROM A CAPTIVITY OF FIFTEEN MONTHS”

In February, 1747, I know not the exact day, my fellow-servant, walking down to the beach in the afternoon, saw a vessel sailing past and made a smoke in token of trade. She was already a little beyond the place, and as the wind was fair the captain was in doubt whether to stop or not. However, half an hour later the ship would have gone beyond recall. When my companion saw her come to an anchor, he went on board from a canoe. One of the first questions he was asked was concerning me. When the captain understood I was so near, he came on shore to deliver his message. Had an invitation from home reached me when I was sick and starving at the Plantanes I should have received it as life from the dead, but now, for the reasons already given, I heard it at first with indifference. The captain, unwilling to lose me, told a story altogether of his own framing. He gave me a very plausible account how he had missed a large packet of letters and papers which he should have brought with him. But this he said he was sure of — having had it from my father’s own mouth as well as from his employer — that a person lately dead had left me four hundred a year; adding further that if I was any way embarrassed in my circumstances, he had express orders to redeem me, though it should cost one half of his cargo. Every particular of this was false. I could hardly believe what he said about the estate, but as I had some expectation from an aged relative I thought a part of it might be true.”

I was not long in suspense. Though my father’s care and desire to see me had too little weight with me, and would have been insufficient to make me quit my retreat, the remembrance of my loved one, the hope of seeing her, and the possibility that accepting this offer might once more put me in a way of gaining her hand, prevailed over all other considerations.”

The captain further promised (and in this he kept his word) that I should lodge in his cabin, dine at his table, and be his constant companion, without his expecting any service from me. Thus I was suddenly freed from a captivity of about fifteen months. I had neither a thought nor a desire of this change one hour before it took place. I embarked with him, and in a few hours lost sight of Kittam.”

GOD’S RULING POWER AND WISDOM”

So blind and stupid was I at that time, I made no reflection, I sought no direction, in what had happened. Like a wave of the sea driven with the wind, and tossed, I was governed by present appearances and looked no further. But He who is eyes to the blind was leading me in a way that I knew not.”

Now that I am in some measure enlightened, I can easily perceive that it is in these seemingly fortuitous circumstances that the ruling power and wisdom of God are most evidently displayed in human affairs. How many such casual events in the history of Joseph had each a necessary influence on his ensuing promotion! If he had not dreamed, or if he had not told his dream; if the Midianites had passed by a day sooner or a day later; if they had sold him to any person but Potiphar; if his mistress had been a better woman; If Pharoah’s officers had not displeased their lord; or if any or all these things had fallen out in any other manner or time than they did, all that followed would have been different. The promises and purposes of God concerning Israel, their bondage, deliverance, polity, and settlement, must have failed. If history had not been as it was according to God’s plan, then the promised Saviour, the Desire of all nations, would not have appeared. Mankind had been still in their sins, without hope, and the counsels of God’s eternal love in favor of sinners defeated.”

Thus we may see a connection between Joseph’s first dream and the death of our Lord Christ, with all its glorious consequences, so strong, though secret, is the connection between the greatest and the smallest events. What a comfortable thought is this to be a believer, to know that amid all the various interfering designs of man, the Lord has one constant design which He cannot, will not, miss, namely His own glory in the complete salvation of His people; and that He is wise and strong and faithful, to make even those things which seem contrary to this design, subservient to promote it.”

DANGERS AND DELIVERANCES”

The ship I was now on as a passenger was on a trading voyage for gold, ivory, dyers’ wood, and beeswax. It requires much longer time to collect a cargo of this sort than of slaves. The captain had begun his trade at Gambia, had been already four or five months in Africa, and continued about a year after I was with him. We ranged the whole coast as far as Cape Lopez, which lies about a degree south of the equinoctial, and more than a thousand miles farther from England than the place where I embarked.”

I had no business to employ my thoughts, but sometimes amused myself with mathematics. Excepting this, my life, when awake, was a course of most horrid impiety and profaneness. I know not that I have ever since met so daring a blasphemer. Not content with common oaths and imprecations, I daily invented new ones, so that I was often seriously reproved by the captain, who was a very passionate man and not at all circumspect in his expressions.”

A JONAH ON BOARD”

From what I told him of my past adventures and what he saw of my conduct, especially toward the close of the voyage, when he met with many disasters, He would often tell me that to his grief he had a Jonah on board; that a curse attended me wherever I went, and that all the troubles he met with in the voyage were owing to his having taken me into the vessel.”

Although I lived long in the excess of almost every other extravagance, I never was fond of drinking. My father has often been heard to say that while I avoided drunkenness he should still entertain hopes of my recovery. But sometimes I would promote a drinking bout for the sake of a frolic, as I called it. Although I did not love the liquor, I was sold to do iniquity and delighted in mischief.”

The last abominable frolic of this sort I engaged in was in the river Gabon; the proposal and expense were my own. Four or five of us one evening sat down upon deck to see who could hold out longest in drinking geneva and rum alternately. A large sea shell supplied the place of a glass. I was very unfit for a challenge of this sort, for my head was always incapable of bearing much strong drink. However, I proposed the first toast, which I well remember was some imprecation against the person who should start first. This proved to be myself. AN AMAZING ESCAPE”

My brain was soon fired, I arose and danced about the deck like a madman. While I was thus diverting my companions, my hat went overboard. By the light of the moon I saw the ship’s boat and eagerly threw myself over the side to get into her, that I might recover my hat. The boat was not within my reach as I thought, but perhaps twenty feet from the ship’s side. I was half over, and should in one moment more have plunged into the water, when somebody caught hold of my clothes behind and pulled me back. This was an amazing escape. I could not swim if I had been sober; the tide ran very strong; my companions were too intoxicated to save me; and the rest of the ship’s company were asleep. So near was I to perishing in that dreadful condition, and sinking into eternity under the weight of my own curse!”

Another time, at Cape Lopez, some of us had been in the woods and shot a buffalo or wild cow. We brought a part of it on board and carefully marked the place, as I thought, where we left the remainder. In the evening we returned to fetch it. I undertook to be the guide, but night coming on before we could reach the place, we lost our way. Sometimes we were in swamps up to the middle in water; and when we reached dry land we could not tell whether we were walking toward the ship or wandering farther away. Every step increased our uncertainty. The night grew darker, and we were entangled in inextricable woods where, perhaps, the foot of man had never trod before. That part of the country is entirely abandoned to wild beasts, with which it prodigiously abounds.”

We were in a terrible state, having neither light, food, nor arms, and expecting a tiger to rush from behind every tree. The stars were clouded, and we had no compass to form a judgment which way we were going. Had things continued thus we had probably perished; but it pleased God no beast came near us. After some hours’ perplexity the moon arose and pointed out the eastern quarter. It appeared then, as we had expected, that instead of drawing nearer to the seaside, we had been penetrating into the country. By the guidance of the moon, we at length came to the waterside, a considerable distance from the ship. We got safe on board without any other inconvenience than what we suffered from fear and fatigue.”

These and many other deliverances were all at that time entirely lost on me. The admonitions of conscience, which from successive repulses had grown weaker, at length entirely ceased. For a space of many months, if not for some years, I cannot recollect that I had a single check of that sort. At times I have been visited with sickness and have believed myself near to death, but I had not the least concern about the consequences. I seemed to have every mark of final impenitence and rejection; neither judgments nor mercies made the least impression on me.”

(To Be Continued)”

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