St. Augustine and John Newton: Influential Sinners

A study of the life of St. Augustine brings to mind the life of another man of historical significance--slave trader John Newton. Both men were alike in three ways: they led sinful lives while trying to avoid the truth of the gospel, they had godly mothers who cared about their spiritual conditions, and they both went on to write about their sinful pasts in the hopes of being a positive influence on the lost.

Like many young men living in the declining days of the Roman Empire, Augustine sought to indulge himself in as many selfish endeavors as possible while claiming to be searching for the truth. He abandoned the Christian teachings of his mother to pursue the cult-like religion of Manicheism. His religion allowed him to seek worldly pleasures while he supposedly searched for the truth, but after he read the Greek classics and still did not find satisfying answers, Augustine turned to Paul's gospel letters, and the change in his life began. Like Augustine, John Newton led a life made even more wicked by the fact that he committed every cruel act associated with slavery. He also rejected the Christian teachings of his childhood. Through a series of unfortunate circumstances, Newton was press-ganged into naval service and later endured abuse as the servant of a slave trader in Africa. He had been living as an "infidel and libertine" when a storm at sea forced him to turn to God. The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a'Kempis and the Bible began to have a strong impact on his spirit as Newton began to turn to the Lord.

It is said in Proverbs 22:6 that parents should "train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." The mothers of Augustine and Newton believed in this and their efforts helped lead to their sons' salvations later in life. As Augustine's mother Monica watched her son drift farther from the faith she had taught him as a child, she grieved to think that he might never return to God. Augustine writes of her constant prayers and tears for him, saying that she "suffered greater pains" in his "spiritual pregnancy" than when she originally gave birth to him. He also writes of her ecstatic joy when her years of faithful prayers were finally answered when he chose to follow Christ. Newton was also blessed with a devout mother who knew the importance of teaching her son how to read Scripture and to memorize hymns and the Reformed catechism while he was quite young. Newton's mother died when he was six, and his father, stepmother, and others did nothing to encourage him in his faith. But the influence of those early Christian teachings could never be erased, even when he was living deeply in sin, and later the prayers of his future wife, Mary Catlett, helped lead him back to the God he had known as a child.

Both Augustine and Newton felt led in their later years to to share with others how terribly they had fallen into sin and how great was the God who pulled them out and forgave them. Augustine wrote a detailed account of his past life in his Confessions. It reads like a letter or journal to God Himself, and because it is so deeply personal, Confessions is often considered the first true autobiography in literature (others had been written before but were not so personally revealing). Today theology students study the contributions of St. Augustine because of their great impact on Christian thought and doctrine. John Newton's most influential written work may not have the length of Augustine's, but the few verses of "Amazing Grace" are beloved around the world. Newton, along with some help from William Cowper, wrote many hymns, but the words of the lost, blind person in "Amazing Grace" are the ones that have touched more hearts than perhaps any other hymn in history. Not only did Newton influence millions with "Amazing Grace," but years after his slave trading days were over and he had become a respected clergyman, he also influenced Parliament to abolish the slave trade in England.

Augustine wrote that "those who are known to many are to many a personal influence to salvation." Both Augustine and Newton were infuenced by others and were an influence themselves, both good and bad. The same thing can be said of great literature as it continues to speak to us, and our words and actions today can be an influence for ages yet to come.