I remember my mother playing this song on the old record player when I was a kid. George Beverly Shea would sing in his deep bass voice but before he would sing he would read the inscription that is written on the author John Newton’s gravestone.
JOHN NEWTON. Clerk. Once an infidel and libertine a servant of slaves in Africa was by the rich mercy of our LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST preserved, restored, pardoned and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy.
John Henry Newton 1725-1807
A few years ago, I discovered a performance of this iconic song at the Roman Coliseum where thousands of the first believers in Christ were tortured and miserably killed. Il Divo is the group performing…and the song is given a new depth as it is performed in this location.