John Newton's Counsel

About a year ago I posted a portion of the letter below from John Newton and made some comments...it seems that I ought to send this out a few times a year as I see professing-Christians swept into the confusion of our society...

The toxicity we are imbibing is causing brain, mind, heart, and soul damage; we are living in an opium den and don't know it.

An excerpt from a letter from John Newton (author of the hymn Amazing Grace) to a young pastor, John Ryland, Jr. This is dated August 1, 1775 and the context is the rebellion in the American Colonies.

“You and I will not differ about politics…As a minister and a Christian I think it is better to lay all the blame upon sin. Instead of telling the people Lord North [the Prime Minister] blunders, I tell them the Lord of hosts is angry. If God has a controversy with us, I can expect no other than that wisdom should be hidden from the wise. If our Lord’s kingdom was of this world, then I think his servants would have as good a right as others to take the lead in political disputes; at present I believe they will do as well to let the dead bury the dead, to mourn for what they cannot help, and to ply the throne of grace as the best and most effectual method of serving their country. I believe the sins of Britain and America have too much prevailed, and that a wrong spirit and wrong measures have taken place on both sides because the Lord has left us to ourselves….

“It seems to me one of the darkest signs of the times, that so many of the Lord’s professing people act as if they thought he was withdrawn from the earth, and amuse themselves and each other, with declamations against instruments and second causes and indulge unsanctified passions instead of taking that part which is assigned them, Ezekiel 9:4. [Sighing and crying for all the abominations done in the midst of Jerusalem.] I believe if instead of unavailing clamours against men and measures they would all unite in earnest prayer, we might hope for better times, otherwise I fear bad will be worse. Thus you have the substance of my political creed. Only I should add further that I believe the Lord reigns, that He is carrying on his great purposes in a straight line, that his wall shall be built in troublous times, and that He will be a sure sanctuary to them that fear him. For the rest I refer you to Ps. 46….”

Newton continues to write…concerning Jeremiah:

“He preached against sin, and foretold judgment, but I do not find that he made a parade about liberty, or concerned himself with the administration. He does not seem to have troubled his head, who was scribe or recorder, or who was over the host, for he knew that whoever had the management, the public affairs would miscarry because the Lord fought against them. When I hear the cry about liberty I think of the old cry, ‘Great is Diana of the Ephesians’ [Acts 19:28, 34.] Civil liberty is a valuable blessing, but if people sin it away, it is the Lord [who] deprives them of it…It grieves me to hear those who are slaves to sin and Satan, make such a stir about that phantom which they worship under the name of liberty, and especially to see not a few of the Lord’s people so much conformed to the world in this respect…”