A GREAT BLESSING TO ME
John Newton Encounters George Whitefield
By Grant Gordon
Christian Focus. 220 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978 1 781 917 152
This book shows how John Newton was inspired by George Whitefield at a key stage in his life. Much of the content is related in their own words from their diaries and correspondence. The final chapters summarise Whitefield’s influence on Newton and compare their similarities and differences.
In an easy-reading style, Grant Gordon first gives a brief background to their lives up to 1755, when Newton was thriving on his first taste of evangelical teaching and fellowship. He seized the opportunity to ‘strike while the iron is hot’, travelling to London to hear Whitefield, ‘that I might judge and speak of him from my own knowledge’. They had a few very brief meetings. Newton heard as many sermons as he could. ‘Never before had I such an idea and foretaste of the business of heaven!’ he exclaimed.
