This new built Bethel now is done

Author: John Winebrenner

Winebrenner, John, 1797-1860; usage: John Winebrenner; Johann Weinbrenner; note: clergyman, evangelist, editor and publisher of religious works; founder of the General Eldership of the Churches of God in North America. LOC Name Authority Files Go to person page >

Author (stanza 4): 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 >

The Newton stanza is taken from Dear Shepherd of Thy People Hear (Here).