With the close of March, I end my
study of the famed abolitionist William Wilberforce. However, I almost feel as
if I cheated him a bit. The first 3 months of 2015 were crazy busy from getting
married, to making a decision on a law school, to finding a new place to live
for my wife and I, and starting a new job. As such, I found it difficult to
engage Wilberforce and his life as much as I had hoped to, but there is still
much to glean from his life and example that I will attempt to sum up here. If
I had to pick three qualities of Wilberforce that I admired most, I would
choose his courage in the face of adversity and opposition, his passion for
those less fortunate, and his patience/perseverance in the face of failure and
discouragement.
First, his courage. It’s safe to
say that Wilberforce was ahead of his time morally.
Slavery had, at that point, been so widely accepted that people thought nothing
of it. They didn’t consider the fact that Africans are just as human as anyone
else, and experience all the same emotions, hopes, fears, etc. as every other
human. Slavery was simply something that had always been. The fact that
Wilberforce saw through this façade and realized that slavery is a gross crime
against humanity is evidence of God’s grace. He was one of a very few voices
who stood up against the slave trade, and as a result he received countless
death threats and oppressive persecution. But he never faltered. He never
backed down or eased up on his work, but instead he worked all the more for
God’s glory.
Secondly, Wilberforce exuded a
passion for the poor and downtrodden beyond any other I’ve known. He is of
course, most well-known for his passion to end the slave trade, and he was
extremely passionate for their cause. After abolition passed in Great Britain,
Wilberforce and the abolitionists set their sights on complete emancipation of
the African slaves. However, the French Revolution and subsequent war with
France was simultaneously occurring making emancipation nearly impossible. The
British were primarily concerned with ending the war with France. A peace
treaty was established, but the French requested they abolish the trade within
5 years. When the English envoys returned from France, they were greeted in
Parliament with applause and praise from all except one; Wilberforce. Regarding
the peace treaty, Wilberforce stood up and declared, “I cannot but conceive
that in my noble friend’s hands I behold the death-warrant of a multitude of
innocent victims, men women, and children… When I consider the miseries we are
about to renew, is it possible to regard them without the deepest emotions of
sorrow?” When Wilberforce sat down, he was on the verge of weeping.
Wilberforce’s passion for the slaves stemmed from his recognition that they
were his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and his love for them shone
bright in the midst of the darkness and hatred. Much less known to people,
Wilberforce’s second passion was to reform “manners”. He was cognizant of the
depravity of man, and devoted work to numerous causes such as: the Society for
the Suppression of Vice, British missionary work in India, the creation of a
free colony in Sierra Leone, the foundation of the Church Mission Society, and
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It’s difficult to fathom
the outreach and influence Wilberforce had in so many areas of social justice.
Lastly, Wilberforce exhibited true
patience in the face of failure and disappointment. When so many times, he had
come so close to abolition, he finally achieved the goal after 20 years of
fighting. He presented bills every year without fail despite the discouragement
he received from others. Furthermore, God blessed Wilberforce to be able to
witness the complete emancipation of British slaves in 1833 just one day before
his death. And all the while, he never lost hope or faith in God Almighty. He
certainly struggled with frustration, but never did he give up. It is this kind
of patience that only comes from knowing God, and trusting that His plan will
always succeed. It is a patience and perseverance I hope and pray God develops
in me that I may serve him as faithfully as Wilberforce did.
It’s funny… as I was reading the epilogue of the
book, Metaxas expresses a strange feeling one gets when one reads biographies. While
spending many hours reading about the individual, it’s almost as if he came to
life again and we became close friends. And despite the fact that I knew
Wilberforce’s inevitable death, I still mourned while reading it. It was almost
as if I had hoped or expected that he would still be alive even though I know
that’s ridiculous. However, I am yet encouraged by the truth that this was not
his final home. I am encouraged as Wilberforce once was when, on the deathbed
of one of his closest friends, he reminded himself, “Why seek ye the living
among the dead? He is not here. He is risen.”
