O speak that gracious word again

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 >

O speak that gracious word again. J. Newton. [Peace.] This is No. 53 of Book iii. in the Olney Hymns, 1779, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, and is headed “Peace restored." In its full or in an abridged form it is found in a few modern hymnals. In the American Methodist Episcopal Hymns, 1849, No. 882, it is changed from C. M. to S. M., and reads, "O speak that word again;" but this form of the hymn has not met with favour.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)