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Review of John Newton’s Diary, 1791 & 1794, edited by Marylynn Rouse for the John Newton Project, www.johnnewton.org 2026.

            On 15 December 1790, Newton’s beloved wife, Mary (whom he called Polly), died, and Newton lamented that the world seemed to die with her. The next year Newton explained that ‘My church is shut up to be repaired and cleaned, and I shall probably have a vacation of about three months.’ So in the aftermath of his grief for Polly and with church repairs being undertaken, Newton left London for Cambridge. In this most attractively-presented booklet, Marylynn Rouse has produced Newton’s Cambridge diaries for two years – 1791 and 1794.

            In his endorsement of the booklet, Alasdair Paine is, rightly, struck by Newton’s focus on preaching, prayer and people. Not so spiritually, I was struck by the long walks which Newton and his companions would undertake. In Cambridge, Newton met Charles Simeon many times – whose long ministry at Cambridge from 1783 to 1836 was destined to be greatly blessed. On 26 June 1791 Newton preached twice for the embattled Simeon, on Ecclesiastes 2:26 and Hebrews 11:1. Two weeks later he worshipped with the Moravians.

            We learn that Newton loved the countryside, and only took to London because there the Lord had given him a flock to shepherd. Even when quite ill, Newton would be refreshed by preaching the Word. Also, the diminutive William Farish, the Professor of Chemistry at Cambridge, operated as Simeon’s bouncer, standing at the doors of Holy Trinity to fend off unruly students.  

            Newton’s spiritual life is revealed in small snippets. He prayed: ‘Lord, make me mindful of the certainty and the uncertainty of death.’ Also, ‘Oh, enable me to set thee always before me, and to be intent on thy presence, in the midst of company, no less than when alone.’

            A letter to William Wilberforce is quite fascinating. Newton makes the point that wisdom is comparative, and ‘we seldom lament the want of knowing the things of which we have no conception.’ There are illiterate and uninformed people who are truly wise: ‘They know themselves, they know the Lord. They know the Summum Bonum, the true happiness of man; wherein it consists, and how it is to be obtained.’

            Newton’s true catholicity is seen in his understanding of why many who were converted under the ministry of John Berridge were now Dissenters. Newton informed Wilberforce of the problem: ‘Diligent and faithful men, meet no encouragement or protection from their superiors; and incompetent idlers (if deemed scholars) need fear no reproof.’ The gospel is the same in every generation, and so is human nature, even episcopal human nature.

            Newton’s writings have a way of sanctifying the soul, one hopes. Marylynn Rouse has again put us in her debt, and we eagerly await the full correspondence between Newton and Wilberforce, which is her current project.

– Peter Barnes