6. Blog to offer both converting and comforting grace to your reader.

“Oh, that my heart may take fire as I write! Surely I am in my better judgment persuaded, that life is not worth a desire, but as affording opportunity to spread the savor of his name, to set him forth in my ministry, for the comfort of his people and the salvation of poor sinners” (6:153–154).

7. Make it your constant aim to blog with the intent of prospering your reader in God.

“The hour is approaching, and, at my time of life, cannot be very distant, when my heart, my pen, and my tongue, will no longer be able to move in their service. But I trust, while my heart continues to beat, it will feel a warm desire for the prosperity of souls; and while my hand can write, and my tongue speak, it will be the business and the pleasure of my life, to aim at promoting their growth and establishment in the grace of our God and Savior” (3:304–305).

8. Be extra careful when handling controversy on your blog, and if you do engage it, know that it carries with it extra responsibilities, first in the tone of how you write, secondly in requiring you to sincerely pray for your opponent(s) before you engage them, and thirdly in requiring that you address your opponent as one who has an eternal soul, and who will either be lost forever, or as one that will be your brother or sister in heaven for all eternity.

“I shall, however, keep you particularly in my eye while I write, that a just sense of the candor and affection with which you have always treated me, may regulate my pen, and preserve me (if possible) from that harsh and angry spirit, into which writers upon controversial points are too often betrayed” (5:3). “As to your opponent, I wish, that, before you set pen to paper against him, and during the whole time you are preparing your answer, you may commend him by earnest prayer to the Lord’s teaching and blessing” (1:268–269).

9. Bloggers should aim to write from personal experience.

“To be affecting and useful, they [essays] must be dictated rather by the heart than by the head; and are most likely to influence others, when they are the fruits and transcripts of our own experience” (2:17).

10. Bloggers should also write from their observations of others. “The knowledge I have of what passes there, I have gained more from observation than from actual experience” (1:226).

15 Tips for blogging from John Newton – Part 1

15 Tips for blogging from John Newton – Part 3

By Tony Reinke