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Affiliated with the
Cowper & Newton
Museum
Olney, England
Cowper & Newton Museum
website
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Welcome to our website!
Formerly located in
Carlisle,
Pennsylvania,
the John Newton Center for the present time has ended its former
mission as an educational outreach to the academic community in
central Pennsylvania and is being reorganized as an online outreach
to a broader audience. We
have appreciated your support and prayer during the former phase
of our work and will appreciate your ongoing interest in what will
be done at this website and beyond in coming years. Please check
back from time to time.
Rev. John Newton was an eighteenth century Anglican clergyman
who led a life of blasphemy and violence until he encountered the
power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Captain of an Atlantic slave ship,
he recorded for posterity the events of that cruel and evil
occupation.
However, as the result of childhood instruction in the
Christian faith and a near-death experience in an overwhelming storm
on the north Atlantic ocean,
Newton
in time changed his ways and came to faith in the God he so long had
rejected.
His life was then devoted to serving others, including playing
an important role in the abolition of the slave trade. He once
wrote “My youthful years were spent in
Africa, and I ought to take my
degrees (if I take any) from thence. Shall such a compound of
misery and mischief, as I then was, be called DOCTOR? Surely not.”
Newton
believed that Christians should have an impact on every area of
society.
GOVERNMENT
AND LAW
Newton had a profound influence on English law and society. He
inspired a young Member of Parliament named William Wilberforce to
resolve to fight slavery in the halls of government. Wilberforce was
a close friend of Prime Minister William Pitt the
Younger and became the leader of the antislavery movement
in Parliament. The same year
Newton
died (1807) the English government outlawed the slave trade.
THE CHURCH
Newton also inspired a fellow Anglican clergyman (Thomas Scott) who
had no personal knowledge of God’s power to study the Scriptures and
turn in faith to the Savior. This minister later wrote the most
widely read Bible Commentary published in America. Newton developed
fraternal ties to ministers in Congregational, Baptist,
and Methodist churches as well.
LITERATURE
AND MENTAL HEALTH
Finally,
Newton developed close ties with English poet William Cowper and was
the source of the idea for Cowper to write hymns while they both
lived in Olney. Newton himself composed numerous hymns (poems)
which were published and are still sung today. The literary
achievements of Cowper and Newton were monumental.
Newton
became a confidante to Cowper who grappled most of his life with the
mental illness of clinical depression. His insights and attitudes
toward this important health issue are instructive even today.
In coming months we hope to provide additional source materials to
illustrate the multi-faceted role of Newton in the vital work
he pursued for eighty years.
Any questions about this ministry and its future may be addressed
to Mr. Bill Barko, President of the Board of Directors, at wbarko@comcast.net.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Copyright
2003, The John Newton Intl. Center for Christian Studies
Modified: 8-14-08
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