Amazing Grace Lyrics

Amazing Grace, from [Newton-J 1779]

Newton was ordained into the Church of England in 1764 and wrote Amazing Grace as a counterpoint to his 1773 New Year's Day sermon. The hymn, without music, was first published in 1779, in Olney Hymns, pages 53-54 ([Newton-J 1779]):

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 vail,
  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 for ever mine.

Some later versions of the hymn include an additional verse added by Harriet Beecher Stowe as it appears in her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin ([Stowe-HB 1852]):

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.