{"id":725,"date":"2006-09-14T17:51:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-14T21:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=725"},"modified":"2013-06-28T16:16:01","modified_gmt":"2013-06-28T20:16:01","slug":"a-prayer-for-youth-by-john-newton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=725","title":{"rendered":"A Prayer for Youth, by John Newton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>A Prayer for Youth<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nJohn Newton<\/p>\n<p>Bestow, dear Lord, upon our youth,<br \/>\nThe gift of saving grace;<br \/>\nAnd let the seed of sacred truth<br \/>\nFall in a fruitful place.<\/p>\n<p>Grace is a plant, where&#8217;er it grows,<br \/>\nOf pure and heavenly root;<br \/>\nBut fairest in the youngest shows,<br \/>\nAnd yields the sweetest fruit.<\/p>\n<p>Ye careless ones, oh hear betimes<br \/>\nThe voice of sovereign love;<br \/>\nYour youth is stained with many crimes,<br \/>\nBut mercy reigns above.<\/p>\n<p>True, you are the young, but there&#8217;s a stone<br \/>\nWithin the youngest breast,<br \/>\nOr half the crimes which you have done,<br \/>\nWould rob you of your rest.<\/p>\n<p>For you the public prayer is made,<br \/>\nOh, join the public prayer!;<br \/>\nFor you the sacred tear is shed,<br \/>\nOh, shed yourselves a tear!<\/p>\n<p>We pray that you may early prove<br \/>\nThe Spirit&#8217;s power to teach;<br \/>\nYou cannot be too young to love<br \/>\nThat Jesus whom we preach.<\/p>\n<p>Newton, John. <em>The Works of the Rev. John Newton<\/em>. Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson, 1841, pp. 574-575.<\/p>\n<p>Quoted in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?link_code=ur2&amp;tag=thechildrshou-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;location=%2FWorthy-Lamb-Puritan-Poetry-Christ%2Fdp%2F1573581593%2Fsr%3D1-1%2Fqid%3D1158270441%2Fref%3Dsr_1_1%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks\">Worthy is the Lamb, Puritan Poetry in Honor of the Savior<\/a><br \/>\nMaureen Bradley; Edited by Don Kistler and Joel Rishel (page 309)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Prayer for Youth John Newton Bestow, dear Lord, upon our youth, The gift of saving grace; And let the seed of sacred truth Fall in a fruitful place. Grace is a plant, where&#8217;er it grows, Of pure and heavenly root; But fairest in the youngest shows, And yields the sweetest fruit. Ye careless ones, &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/?p=725\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;A Prayer for Youth, by John Newton&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3712,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions\/3712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayvanneste.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}