To us, John Newton is best known as the slave captain who later became the composer of the hymn “Amazing Grace.” To London’s “smart society,” John Newton was also an evangelical, but the “worst” kind: a fanatic who denounced all the self-indulgence and pleasures that society loved the most.
“[Praise to the God of All Comfort] Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”