From pole to pole let others roam

Author: John Newton

John Newton (b. London, England, 1725; d. London, 1807) was born into a Christian home, but his godly mother died when he was seven, and he joined his father at sea when he was eleven. His licentious and tumul­tuous sailing life included a flogging for attempted desertion from the Royal Navy and captivity by a slave trader in West Africa. After his escape he himself became the captain of a slave ship. Several factors contributed to Newton's conversion: a near-drowning in 1748, the piety of his friend Mary Catlett, (whom he married in 1750), and his reading of Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ. In 1754 he gave up the slave trade and, in association with William Wilberforce, eventually became an ardent abolitionist. After becoming a tide… Go to person page >

From pole to pole let others roam. J. Newton. [Security in Christ.] Published in the Olney Hymns, 1779, Book i., No. 69, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed, "The Lord is my Portion." It is found in a few collections in Great Britain and America. In the American Songs for the Sanctuary, N. Y., 1865, stanzas ii.-v. are given as, “Jesus, Who on His glorious throne.”

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)