# “Our sea may sometimes be stormy, but we have an infallible Pilot, and shall infallibly gain our port” by John Newton

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2020/09/26/our-sea-may-sometimes-be-stormy-but-we-have-an-infallible-pilot-and-shall-infallibly-gain-our-port-by-john-newton/
- Published: 2020-09-26T12:00:00-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“I heartily sympathize with you in your complaints, but I see you in safe hands.
The Lord loves you, and will take care of you.

He who raises the dead can revive your spirits when you are cast down. He who sets
bounds to the sea, and says ‘Hither to shalt thou come, and no further,’ can limit
and moderate that gloom which sometimes distresses you.

He knows why He permits you to be thus exercised. I cannot assign the reasons, but
I am sure they are worthy of His wisdom and love, and that you will hereafter see
and say, ‘He has done all things well.’

If I was as wise as your physician, I might say a great deal about your melancholy
complexion; but I love not to puzzle myself with second causes, while the First 
Cause is at hand, which sufficiently accounts for every phenomenon in a believer’s
experience. Your constitution, your situation, your temper, your distemper, all 
that is either comfortable or painful in your lot, is of His appointment.

The hairs of your head are all numbered; the same power which produced the planet
Jupiter, is necessary to the production of a single hair; nor can one of them fall
to the ground without His notice, any more than the stars can fall from their orbits.
In providence, no less than in creation, He is _maximus in minimis_ (‘the greatest
in the smallest’).

Therefore, fear not, only believe. Our sea may sometimes be stormy; but we have 
an infallible Pilot, and shall infallibly gain our port.

I must now end my speech, and begin my supper. We wish you and Mrs. Bull a good 
night. The Lord be with you, and with your poor friend,

JOHN NEWTON
 Olney, November 2, 1778″

–John Newton, “Letter XIX,” [_Letters of the Reverend John Newton_](https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QacECdaMnkcPoA859J3KEl1q6dCncP2-_ymvqrPun8rk0NHLgFF8JdIo3GlHofVnlBvSK0-OCXiuVQvYSG6B2pUIX0RGDuvphitlebaS83_SxOhl73025XZPCfGjdWJXGp4eUDZB2yAJnT2IuK0hGwp-h-5YBGnrSlWqm3t-mYwI_uXGNTKZ-XtRXyemzrOLkX5o9GrUYMHGFCksDfeqNrLcoiCI9rz_mfJNLwXC9hOap56KOHSmcxG5gOWrkxfKhEni6Q8vBufhJUEfedKpqv-gvkOZWYCIajvLfEkR2UPltmflmAk)(
London: Hamilton and Adams Co, 1847), 36-37.

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