A glance from heaven with sweet effect

Author: John Newton

Newton, John, who was born in London, July 24, 1725, and died there Dec. 21, 1807, occupied an unique position among the founders of the Evangelical School, due as much to the romance of his young life and the striking history of his conversion, as to his force of character. His mother, a pious Dissenter, stored his childish mind with Scripture, but died when he was seven years old. At the age of eleven, after two years' schooling, during which he learned the rudiments of Latin, he went to sea with his father. His life at sea teems with wonderful escapes, vivid dreams, and sailor recklessness. He grew into an abandoned and godless sailor. The religious fits of his boyhood changed into settled infidelity, through the study of Shaftesbury and… Go to person page >

A glance from heaven, with sweet effect. J. Newton. [Lightning.] This hymn, dealing with the moral and spiritual thoughts suggested by "Lightning in the night," appeared in the Gospel Magazine, April, 1775, in the Olney Hymns, 1779, Bk. ii., No. 84, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, and later editions. It is No. 301 of Martineaus Hymns, &c, 1840-1851, and 429 in J. H. Thorn's Hymns, 1858.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)