William
Wilberforce
A
Christian Man of Action
William
Wilberforce was born into a wealthy family of privilege. If there was anyone
that could have sat back to soak it all in it was him. Also he was one of
continual bad health and he could have easily used that as an excuse to evade
his Christian duty. Although having every earthly privilege to enjoy,
Wilberforce chose not to keep it all for himself, but to lay down his life in
the cause of the weak and defenseless.
William
Wilberforce came into politics at an early age, and at first did much to simply
serve himself. His family had done everything they could to keep him from the
true Christian movement at the time which was the Methodists. They strongly
felt that true born again Christianity would ruin this rising political star.
In spite of all his family’s efforts Wilberforce came in contact with Isaac
Milner. Wilberforce had lots of questions for Isaac Milner who was an
evangelical Christian. Milner became Wilberforce’s traveling companion and they
had many discussions as they traveled across the continent. Wilberforce was
impressed and slowly began to see that he as lacking something in his faith.
There was
not any instant change for Wilberforce but as he learned more and accepted more
for himself personally, the changes became evident. Later he wrote “Expect to
hear myself now universally given out to be a Methodist, may God grant that it
may be said with truth.” After committing his life to Christ there was no
turning back. Wilberforce wanted to go whole heartedly into the ministry. He
even wanted to give up politics completely and be a minister, but God had other
plans. He was convinced by a childhood mentor John Newton to stay in politics
and fight for the cause of the oppressed. That he did. Around that time he
wrote in his journal: “God Almighty
has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the
reformation of manners.” The reformation of manners was referring to the
reforming of society and its evils at that time.
The work for Wilberforce on abolishing
the slave trade took the majority of his life. He never saw the complete emancipation
of all slaves, even though he did a majority of the work for that to happen. He
did see the end of the slave trade which stopped the exportation of thousands
into slavery. Even though abolishing the slave trade was a great achievement that
require much of him, it was in truth one of the many accomplishments of William Wilberforce. He fought the East
India Company to open the door for missionaries to go to India. As well as seeing to the end of such
cruel traditions such as Suttee (the burning of a widow with her deceased
husband) and female infanticide. He also did much to improve the conditions of
the poor in England, who were suffering greatly at that time.
It did not matter whether one was
black or white, male or female, young or old if you were downtrodden Wilberforce
was there to fight for you. Wilberforce was not just a Christian in name only,
but he was a Christian man of action. He truly believed and lived the words of Christ
when he said in Matthew 10:8: “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the
dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.” Wilberforce was a man of God and the champion
of the lost causes of this world. He truly walked in the steps of his Savior
who said of his ministry, “The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me, because he
hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable
year of the Lord.”
These are some of the thoughts I
had after reading the tremendous book “Amazing Grace” by Eric Metaxas. I heartily
recommend this book as a great read and study into the amazing life of
William Wilberforce. Eric Metaxas does a phenomenal job in his representation of
Wilberforce’s life and times.
