Reigning Grace

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Now may the Lord reveal His face

Author: John Newton
Tune: ELLA (Woodbury)
Published in 23 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Now may the Lord reveal his face,
And teach our stammering tongues
To make his sovereign, reigning grace
The subject of our songs.

2 No sweeter subject can invite
A sinner’s heart to sing,
Or more display the glorious right
Of our exalted King.

3 Grace reigns to pardon crimson sins,
To melt the hardest hearts;
And from the work it once begins
It never once departs.

4 [The world and Satan strive in vain
Against the chosen few;
Secured by grace’s conquering reign,
They all shall conquer too.]

5 ’Twas grace that called our souls at first;
By grace thus far we’re come;
And grace will help us through the worst,
And lead us safely home.

Source: A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship. In four parts (10th ed.) (Gadsby's Hymns) #202

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Author: John Newton

John Newton (b. London, England, 1725; d. London, 1807) was born into a Christian home, but his godly mother died when he was seven, and he joined his father at sea when he was eleven. His licentious and tumultuous sailing life included a flogging for attempted desertion from the Royal Navy and captivity by a slave trader in West Africa. After his escape he himself became the captain of a slave ship. Several factors contributed to Newton's conversion: a near-drowning in 1748, the piety of his friend Mary Catlett, (whom he married in 1750), and his reading of Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ. In 1754 he gave up the slave trade and, in association with William Wilberforce, eventually became an ardent abolitionist. After becoming a tide… Go to person page >

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