Page "Amazing Grace" Paragraph 5

The greatest influences in the 19th century that propelled " Amazing Grace " to spread across the U. S. and become a staple of religious services in many denominations and regions were the Second Great Awakening and the development of shape note singing communities.

A tremendous religious movement swept the U. S. in the early 19th century, marked by the growth and popularity of churches and religious revivals that got their start in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Unprecedented gatherings of thousands of people attended camp meetings where they came to experience salvation ; preaching was fiery and focused on saving the sinner from temptation and backsliding.

Religion was stripped of ornament and ceremony, and made as plain and simple as possible ; sermons and songs often used repetition to get across to a rural population of poor and mostly uneducated people the necessity of turning away from sin.

Witnessing and testifying became an integral component to these meetings, where a congregation member or even a stranger would rise and recount his turn from a sinful life to one of piety and peace.

" Amazing Grace " was one of many hymns that punctuated fervent sermons, although the contemporary style used a refrain, borrowed from other hymns, that employed simplicity and repetition such as: