The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #604   Message #1439207
Posted By: Haruo
20-Mar-05 - 06:21 PM
Thread Name: Amazing Grace verse
Subject: Lyr Add: AMAZING GRACE (John Newton)
The hymn originally entitled "Faith's Review and Expectation" only has six verses as Newton published it in the Olney Hymns:

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav'd a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev'd;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ'd!

Thro' many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promis'd good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call'd me here below,
Will be forever mine

give or take a variant spelling or punctuation mark.

Recent hymnal versions most often omit the sixth stanza, often omit the fourth and/or fifth, and usually include as the final stanza:

When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we'd first begun.

This last verse is not by Newton; its origin, like the origin of the tune hymnologists call NEW BRITAIN that we think of as "Amazing Grace", is a matter of speculation.

Haruo