The Force of One Man By Reverend Bob Greer
William Wilberforce, who devoted his life to the abolition of slavery, proved that one individual’s effort—with the assistance of the Almighty—can be enough to help eliminate an institutional evil.
“Those who have never been told of Him shall see, and those who have never heard of Him shall understand.”
(Romans 13:21)
Through the ages, the Christian experience has inspired a multitude
of artistic expressions of our faith. Many of these expressions
touch us inwardly in ways that are difficult to explain. Thus
my definition of art is “communication in the sublime.”
This month our mountain home will again host the Endless Mountain
Music Festival, with fifteen concerts that began July 28 and will
run until August 12. This year’s theme is “Beethoven
Meets the Blues,” and what a marvelous example and experience
of spiritual richness this theme offers to all who would come
and taste and see.
Many of our churches will be venues for festival presentations,
and, although it’s not on the EMMF calendar of events, four
festival musicians will join Episcopal Bishop Nathan Baxter in
celebrating the life and witness of William Wilberforce on Sunday
morning, July 29 at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Eagles Mere.
Wilberforce is the subject of the movie Amazing Grace, which was
released this spring.
Of course, we would hope that all worshippers would join us
at First Presbyterian in Wellsboro, but for those who like second
best, you may want to visit Eagles Mere.
Wilberforce’s life and passion illustrate the passion that
imbued many in Tioga County to fight against slavery during the
Civil War. They knew few if any blacks who were slaves, yet they
were sacrificially driven by the principle of “freedom for
all.”
Although their lives and circumstances were quite different,
both Wilberforce (1759-1833) and Beethoven (1770-1827) are marvelous
examples of how one’s life can make a difference for the
sake of others and in the service of God. Most of Beethoven’s
great works were composed when he was deaf. Much of his music
he never heard although he played and conducted it for others.
And Wilberforce, like those Tioga Countians who fought slavery,
had very little contact with the slave trade, but its abolition
animated his life and gave it real purpose. Just as Beethoven
did not need to hear his music to understand its greatness, Wilberforce
did not have to witness slavery firsthand to understand its evil.
Wilberforce was born into great wealth. As a child he was sickly,
puny of frame, with poor eyesight, but he was exceptionally brilliant
and charming. He was the fashionable young buck of his time, a
heavy drinker and big gambler. He was a friend to many of Britain’s
prominent leaders and even enjoyed the company of Benjamin Franklin
on his visits to London.
Bored by the fashionable world, he was elected to Parliament
in 1780 at the age of twenty-one. He admits to buying his seat,
as he paid two guineas to anyone who would vote for him. He found
Parliament boring, so he took an extensive tour of Europe with
Isaac Milner, a Christian friend from Cambridge. Milner was an
exponent of “Muscular Christianity,” which was a militant
form more concerned with fighting evil than with intoning pieties.
Wilberforce converted to Milner’s style of Christianity.
He even planned to resign his seat in Parliament and enter the
ministry. Both the Reverend John Newton, the author of “Amazing
Grace,” and Britain’s Prime Minister William Pitt
persuaded him to stay on in Parliament, arguing that he could
accomplish more good as a politician than as a clergyman. He went
on to prove that a politician can be a saintly Christian dedicated
to the service of others.
Wilberforce became the nation’s social conscience at a
time when nations weren’t concerned about the plight of
the needy. Ending the slave trade and abolishing slavery became
his life’s burden, passion, and vision for the British Empire.
At each new session of Parliament, he introduced motions against
the slave trade and called for the elimination of slavery.
As we’ve noted, Wilberforce knew very few people who were
slaves. He admittedly never peered into the hold of a slave ship
nor had he observed the brutality of plantation slavery. But he
envisioned the slaves’ suffering, terror, and abuse. He
had the capacity to put himself inside their skins and he could
see that what was happening to them was wrong. It was dehumanizing
to those who were oppressed and to those who were oppressing.
Finally, in 1807, the bill abolishing the trading of slaves
throughout the British Empire was passed in both the House of
Commons and the House of Lords. Wilberforce collapsed in his chair
weeping, and the records show he received one of the greatest
ovations ever heard in Parliament.
Wilberforce continued to fight as fiercely against slavery in
Britain’s colonies as he had fought against the slave trade.
He once said wearily, “I am sick of battle, but I’ll
not leave the poor slaves in the lurch.” Wealthy opponents
who were against slavery’s abolition ran against him for
his seat in Parliament. The poor workers marching to the polls
to vote for him chanted, “Wilberforce to a man.”
He retired from Parliament in 1825 after forty-five years of
service. He died in 1833, just a month before Parliament passed
a bill to abolish slavery in all the British possessions. This
was thirty years before Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.
When Wilberforce died, he was acclaimed a national hero and was
buried in Westminster Abby with full honors.
Many marveled at the great good that one life accomplished in
such a short period of time. His work was indeed an artistic expression
of the faith, and he was responsible for elevating the spirits
of many in communion with the sublime.
In his time, Wilberforce was called, “The shrimp who made
a whale of a difference.”
Reverend Greer is the pastor at First Presbyterian Church in
Wellsboro. You can contact him at awakenings@mountainhomemag.com.
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