Amazing Grace
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.

This is the first verse of "Amazing Grace," a Christian hymn written by English poet and clergyman John Newton(1725–1807)and published in 1779. With a message that forgiveness and redemption is possible regardless of the sins people commit and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the God’s grace and mercy,"Amazing Grace" is one of the most recognizable songs in the English-speaking world.

The hymn is found in both the Lutheran Worship page 509 and the Lutheran Service Book page 744. There are a wide variety of verses of that can be found for the hymn because of its popularity but the best (and original) theme is that we as sinners are “wretched” but it is “amazing” that God loves us so much!

Newton wrote the words from personal experience. He was in the Royal Navy and became a sailor, eventually participating in the slave trade. One night a terrible storm battered his vessel so severely that he became frightened enough to call out to God for mercy, a moment that marked the beginning of his spiritual conversion. Eventually,he was ordained in the Church of England where “Amazing Grace” was written to illustrate a sermon on New Year's Day of 1773. It debuted in print in 1779, but settled into relative obscurity in England. In the United States however, "Amazing Grace" was used extensively during the Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century.

It has been associated with more than 20 melodies, but in 1835 it was joined to a tune named "New Britain" to which it is most frequently sung today.