At the precocious age of 21, William Wilberforce was elected to Parliament in 1780. Over the next several years, his meteoritic rise would only continue. Wilberforce’s close friend William Pitt became prime minister of Great Britain in 1783. Ascending to that office at 24 years of age, Pitt remains to this day the youngest prime minister in the long history of the British Isles! And Wilberforce – also 24 years old – was Pitt’s primary political ally in the House of Commons. We must remember that Great Britain at this time was the superpower of the world. Her navies dominated the oceans. Yes, she had lost her colonies in America, but Britannia continued to grow and thrive. From Canada in the west to Australia in the East, the sun indeed never set on the British Empire. The ambition of William Wilberforce had brought him into the highest circles of British society. He had joined no less than five exclusive London clubs where the social elite dined, drank and gambled. Having inherited substantial fortunes from his grandfather and uncle, Wilberforce was an exceedingly rich young man. In just a few years, his powerful oratorical skills were already renowned in Parliament. His own name was whispered as a potential future prime minister. William Wilberforce had scaled dizzying heights far beyond his own dreams and expectations. What more could his wish for? Little did Wilberforce realize that God would soon intervene in his life.
In the fall of 1784, Wilberforce planned a vacation with his mother and sister to the French Riviera. They would cross the English channel and then head south by carriage. This would be a lengthy journey and Wilberforce wanted to invite along a travel companion. As providence would have it, Wilberforce had recently bumped into Isaac Milner, his old friend and tutor from his grammar school days. Isaac Milner was himself an exceptional figure. To begin with, he was a man of huge stature. Some contemporary accounts describe him as the largest person they had ever seen. We get the sense Isaac Milner might have played left tackle in the NFL had he lived in our day. But Milner was not just a physical giant, he was an intellectual giant as well. Milner had been so impressive at Cambridge University that the faculty had declared him incomparable to any other student. Milner would go on hold the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge – perhaps the most prestigious academic post in the world. This position had previously been held by Sir Isaac Newton and in more recent times by Stephen Hawking!
Unbeknownst to Wilberforce, Isaac Milner was a committed evangelical Christian. Wilberforce had invited Milner on his travels because of his amazing intelligence, witty conversation and strong sense of humor. Wilberforce would later say, “I knew not that he had any deeper principles.” Just before departing, Wilberforce and Milner were discussed a local clergyman of known methodist sentiments. Wilberforce opined that this particular clergyman was “a good man, but one who carried things too far.” Milner immediately replied, “Not a bit too far!” This brief interaction was Wilberforce’s first indication of Milner’s serious religious convictions. They agreed that they would have a full discussion of the merits of Christianity during their journey.
And discuss they did! As they traversed the long miles over the European continent, Wilberforce plied Isaac Milner with his questions, difficulties and doubts. They read together an influential book entitled The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul by Philip Doddridge, which advocated for the truth of the Christian faith. Later, Wilberforce and Milner would directly study the Greek New Testament. Milner was a brilliant man who could explain and defend the doctrines of orthodox Christianity with clarity, rationality, and passion. As the months of travel went by, these conversations clearly made a deep impact upon Wilberforce. The truth of Christianity was dawning upon him.
Crucially, Wilberforce came to understand that the truth claims of Jesus would have dramatic consequences for his life. If God had raised Jesus from the dead, then Jesus really was the Messiah, the world’s true Lord and King. Wilberforce saw that Jesus demands the allegiance of each and every person. As he reflected upon his past life of vanity and selfish ambition, Wilberforce realized that his attitudes would require radical change. He could no longer regard his time and his money as his own. These resources were now to be regarded as gifts from God – gifts that should be allocated to the furtherance of God’s Kingdom. Wilberforce could no longer ignore or sneer at the plight of the poor. He must acknowledge every person as a creature of God, made in God’s image and precious in God’s sight. Wilberforce soon grasped the wide chasm between the man he was and the man that God called him to become. “As I reflected seriously upon these subjects the deep guilt and black ingratitude of my past life forced itself upon me in the strongest colours.”
Thus it came about that – like Paul on the road to Damascus – Jesus had arrested Wilberforce, stopped him in his tracks, and sent him off in a dramatically different direction. About the apostle Paul, God had said, “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” The very same could be said of William Wilberforce. God had called Wilberforce to himself and forgiven his sins. But like each and every follower of Christ, Wilberforce would be repurposed for a new task. He was now enrolled as a servant of the suffering King. In the year of our Lord 1785, William Wilberforce gave his loyal submission to Jesus the Christ. He would later aptly refer to this as “The Great Change.”
Wilberforce strongly suspected that his loyalty to Jesus would require him to leave his career in politics. British politics was a rough-and-tumble world of corruption and patronage. How could a serious Christian exist in such a world? The question weighed heavily upon Wilberforce. He needed wise council and decided to turn to an old childhood friend – none other than John Newton, the ex-slave trader. Newton had left the small village of Olney and now pastored a church in London. He was at this time perhaps the most well-known evangelical Christian in the capital. Like Nicodemus visiting Jesus by night, Wilberforce arranged to meet secretly with Newton. Wilberforce was a high profile figure in the British government and did not yet wish the public to know that he was associating with a methodist!
The reunion of William Wilberforce and John Newton was a happy one. Newton had for many years hoped that God would be at work in the heart of little William and now indeed Wilberforce had returned to the fold. Newton surprised Wilberforce by encouraging him to remain in Parliament. Newton wisely saw that – like Queen Esther – God could use Wilberforce’s position in government to accomplish his purposes. Newton would later say, “I hope the Lord will make him a blessing both as a Christian and a statesman. How seldom do these characters coincide! But they are not incompatible.”
Wilberforce had crossed an important threshold. He had resolved to serve God in the public sphere through his political influence. Knowing that he could no longer hide his light under a bushel, Wilberforce would reveal his Christian commitment to the world. In early 1786, he began meeting quite openly with John Newton. One of the leading men of Parliament was associating with religious fanatics! It did not take long before Wilberforce’s activities began making tongues wag and heads turn. Wilberforce would poignantly write, “Expect to hear myself now universally given out to be a Methodist. May God grant it may be said in truth.”
Wilberforce was now 27 years old. He had determined to be a committed Christian and a statesman. He wrote, “I hope to live more than heretofore to God’s glory and my fellow creatures good.” But what exactly would this entail? Neither Wilberforce nor Newton could foresee precisely what lay ahead. Yet they both sensed that God’s mighty hand was at work in all these things, preparing Wilberforce to achieve his plan and purpose. Newton soon after penned a letter to Wilberforce: “It is hoped and believed that the Lord has raised you up for the good of his church and for the good of the nation.” Wilberforce would come to fully embrace this notion as well. “It would merit no better name than desertion…to fly from the post where providence has placed me.” As it turns out, it would not take long for God to make his intentions clear.
