THEIR AUTHORS AND OR [GIN. 185
freedom lie had purposed, and led others into sin ; but, on writing to his father, arrangements were made for a vessel to call for him. In the beginning of the year 1748 the vessel, having received him on board, set out on a tedious homeward voyage. During this voyage he one day took up Stanhope s " Thomas a Kempis," and the thought struck him, " What if these things should be true ? " That very night the vessel was almost wrecked in a terrible storm. On the following day, when exhausted with pumping, after resting a little, he steered the ship for some time. During those hours of solemn reflection, his whole former life passed in review before him, and especially his scoffing at Scripture, his vicious conduct, and the dangers he had been in. The ship outrode the storm, and the awakened sinner was saved to serve God in the world. On reaching Ireland, New ton heard from his father, who had gone to be Governor of Yoi k Fort, Hudson s Bay, but soon after received the painful news that his father had been drowned while bathing.
In his twenty-fifth year, Newton married Miss Catlett, whom he had loved from his boyhood with unfailing constancy, and whom he afterwards idolized. Up to the year 1754, we find him actively engaged in what he did not then regard as an unlawful occupation the slave trade. As a captain, he did what he could for the religious benefit of the sailors under him. At the end of 1754, when about to set out on a voyage, he was seized with an apoplectic fit. In consequence of this, he rested for a time, and then ob tained the office of tide-surveyor, at Liverpool. This position he held for eight years. His Christian life now became purified and strengthened by his experience, and he owed much to the religious influence of a captain whom he met with on one of his voyages.
Anxious to turn to good account for others the remarkable religious change he had experienced, he began, in the year 1758, to attempt to preach. His first efforts were so little successful, that he confined himself to a meeting on Sundays with his friends in his own house. He had all through life given some attention
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