Olney hymns
The Olney Hymns are a collection of hymns . They are named after the town of Olney in England, where John Newton , author of Amazing Grace , worked as an extremely successful curate for years after his conversion . The church in which he preached became so overcrowded after a while that it had to be expanded.
This collection of hymns was written by John Newton together with his poet friend William Cowper . The first edition of 1779 contained 68 contributions from Cowper and 280 from Newton. A well-preserved copy of the original is still in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin .
The collection consists of three parts:
- On Select Passages of Scripture
- On Occasional Subjects
- On the Rise, Progress, Changes and Comforts of the Spiritual Life (on the origin, progress, changes and comforts of the spiritual life)