A popular hymn with lyrics written in 1779 by John Newton.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved 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 relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will be my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

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.

For maximum effect, Amazing Grace should be played on the bagpipes. The sound of the pipes somehow adds poignancy. This is often done in dramatic funeral scenes in movies (offhand example: Spock's funeral scene in The Wrath of Khan).

bookw56 says: Did you see Reagan's burial service in California*? They had a solo bagpiper playing Amazing Grace on those beautiful hills. It was amazing and did exactly what that hymn is supposed to do--inspire hope and confidence.
* I did not. I spent that whole week without TV on Vancouver island.

Amazing Grace is an international Christian favorite. Most interesting to me, though, is that my mom's Presbyterian hymnal includes phonetic transcriptions for the first verse in five different Native American tongues. They are as follows:

Kiowa
Daw k'ee da ha dawtsahy he tsow'haw
Daw k'ee da ha dawtsahy hee
Bay dawtsahy taw, gaw aym ow thah t'aw,
Daw k'ee da ha dawtsahy h'ee

Creek
Po ya fek cha he thlat ah tet
Ah non ah cha pa kas
Cha fee kee o funnan la kus
Um e ha ta la yus

Choctaw
Shilombish holitopa ma!
Ishmminti pulla cha
Hatak ilbusha pia ha
Is pi yukpalashke

Cherokee
Ooh nay thla nah, hee oo way gee'.
E gha gwoo yah hay ee.
Naw gwoo joe sah, we you low say,
E gah gwoo yah ho nah.

Navajo*
Nizhóníígo jooba' diits' a'
Yisdáshíítinigíí,
Lah yóóiiyá, k'ad shénáhoosdzin,
Doo eesh'íí da ńt'éé.


*The Navajo transcription is almost correct. However, in "eesh'íí," the two i's have acute accents under them as well. Apparently one can do this in Unicode, but either my computer isn't set up to see it or I've been lied to. I'm hoping it's just the former.

Bibliography:
   The Presbyterian Hymnal. Westminster/John Knox Press. Louisville, KY: 1990.

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