	A Soul Inspired and Ablaze
	William Wilberforce (1759-1833) lived through the time of the French Revolution and its aftermath. Boris Pasternak, the author of Dr. Zhivago, after witnessing the Russian revolution of 1917, wrote this: It is not revolutions and upheavals that clear the road to new and better days, but someone’s soul inspired and ablaze. Wilberforce was certainly someone like that. On 23rd February, 1807 Wilberforce achieved the first great milestone in his drive to get slavery abolished. Parliament agreed by a landslide majority to outlaw this trade in areas of the world under British control. Wilberforce had been fighting for 20 years to reach this point. During each of those years British ships had carried 40,000 slaves across the Atlantic from Africa (a small proportion of the total number shipped by all countries). It was to be another 20 years before the effects of the abolition were fully felt by the slaves themselves. What was significant about the British involvement in all this was that the British Navy effectively policed most of the seas of the world, so the Bill passed in Parliament had some force. Wilberforce had been heavily criticised as a misguided do-gooder (to use today’s language) and derided as a traitorous fanatic. Now suddenly MPs were fighting to pay tribute to that exalted and benevolent individual. They clapped and cheered him. Wilberforce sat through it all in tears. It had been an emotional journey for him, and his health had almost been wrecked in the process. As he came home to celebrate with his friends, he asked one of them jokingly, Well, Henry, what shall we abolish next? The Victorian era portrayed him as dull, whereas in fact he had a great sense of fun, a childlike sense of joy and eyes that sparkled. He had a wicked wit – though he realised that he had to control it - and would sometimes do satirical impressions of people. He was not a one-issue politician. He was an evangelical Christian who longed to see the Gospel spread throughout the world and the moral life of the nation improved.	He had his faults, for example his policies sometimes involved getting penniless workers put in prison for selling tracts arguing for democracy, and he opposed extending the vote to Roman Catholics (though he later changed his mind on that), but his achievements far outweighed his faults. His Christian faith enabled him to remain an incorruptible politician in an age of endemic corruption. If Wilberforce were alive today, he would probably be appalled to know how many people in the world are still slaves, or live in conditions of virtual slavery, because of appallingly low wages and long hours of work. He had an achievable object – to get slavery outlawed in areas of the world under British rule. Today’s task of reducing poverty in the world is much more difficult, but not impossible, to achieve. Probably when you read this, I shall be in one of the world’s poorest cities, Calcutta (or Kolkata, as we should call it today.) However, there are other tasks that are achievable, such as improving the conditions of workers from whom we buy goods. Can we really be happy when we know that the cheap clothes we buy in our shops are only cheap because the people who make them live in conditions of virtual slavery? We can at least try to find out about the policies of the stores from which we buy goods, and, if appropriate, demand that they change those policies. Prayer: Father God, help us to open our eyes to injustice around us. Help us to believe that you want us to work to change things in your world. We thank you for the inspiration of Wilberforce and others who enable us to hope that things can change for the better in our world. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Martin Collins For more information about the abolition of the slave trade, see the current CMS (Church Mission Society) magazine, which is available in the rack in the Legh Room, or visit the CMS Website. The key anti-slavery campaigners were also founding members of CMS.
	Norbury Parish Church, Hazel Grove, Stockport, Cheshire. Telephone: 0161-483 6325

A Soul Inspired and Ablaze

William Wilberforce (1759-1833) lived through the time of the French Revolution and its aftermath. Boris Pasternak, the author of Dr. Zhivago, after witnessing the Russian revolution of 1917, wrote this: It is not revolutions and upheavals that clear the road to new and better days, but someone’s soul inspired and ablaze. Wilberforce was certainly someone like that.

On 23rd February, 1807 Wilberforce achieved the first great milestone in his drive to get slavery abolished. Parliament agreed by a landslide majority to outlaw this trade in areas of the world under British control. Wilberforce had been fighting for 20 years to reach this point. During each of those years British ships had carried 40,000 slaves across the Atlantic from Africa (a small proportion of the total number shipped by all countries). It was to be another 20 years before the effects of the abolition were fully felt by the slaves themselves. What was significant about the British involvement in all this was that the British Navy effectively policed most of the seas of the world, so the Bill passed in Parliament had some force.

Wilberforce had been heavily criticised as a misguided do-gooder (to use today’s language) and derided as a traitorous fanatic. Now suddenly MPs were fighting to pay tribute to that exalted and benevolent individual. They clapped and cheered him. Wilberforce sat through it all in tears. It had been an emotional journey for him, and his health had almost been wrecked in the process.

As he came home to celebrate with his friends, he asked one of them jokingly, Well, Henry, what shall we abolish next? The Victorian era portrayed him as dull, whereas in fact he had a great sense of fun, a childlike sense of joy and eyes that sparkled. He had a wicked wit – though he realised that he had to control it - and would sometimes do satirical impressions of people.

He was not a one-issue politician. He was an evangelical Christian who longed to see the Gospel spread throughout the world and the moral life of the nation improved.

He had his faults, for example his policies sometimes involved getting penniless workers put in prison for selling tracts arguing for democracy, and he opposed extending the vote to Roman Catholics (though he later changed his mind on that), but his achievements far outweighed his faults. His Christian faith enabled him to remain an incorruptible politician in an age of endemic corruption.

If Wilberforce were alive today, he would probably be appalled to know how many people in the world are still slaves, or live in conditions of virtual slavery, because of appallingly low wages and long hours of work. He had an achievable object – to get slavery outlawed in areas of the world under British rule. Today’s task of reducing poverty in the world is much more difficult, but not impossible, to achieve. Probably when you read this, I shall be in one of the world’s poorest cities, Calcutta (or Kolkata, as we should call it today.)

However, there are other tasks that are achievable, such as improving the conditions of workers from whom we buy goods. Can we really be happy when we know that the cheap clothes we buy in our shops are only cheap because the people who make them live in conditions of virtual slavery? We can at least try to find out about the policies of the stores from which we buy goods, and, if appropriate, demand that they change those policies.

Prayer: Father God, help us to open our eyes to injustice around us. Help us to believe that you want us to work to change things in your world. We thank you for the inspiration of Wilberforce and others who enable us to hope that things can change for the better in our world. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Martin Collins

For more information about the abolition of the slave trade, see the current CMS (Church Mission Society) magazine, which is available in the rack in the Legh Room, or visit the CMS Website. The key anti-slavery campaigners were also founding members of CMS.

A Soul Inspired and Ablaze

Norbury Parish Church, Hazel Grove, Stockport, Cheshire. Telephone: 0161-483 6325