Introduction
Ed. Michael D. McMullen produces for the Church an intimate and serious devotion portrayed in the life and journaling of William Wilberforce. How easy and often we are apt to remember the accomplishments of saints in times past without little recognition of their real-time experience of the human condition. McMullen has provided readership with an extensive look into Wilberforce’s real-time struggles with sin and God’s graciousness toward human weakness. Of anyone who has not peered into published diaries/spiritual journals from past saints, Wilberforce’s common attention and vernacular may at first be shocking. I remember reading published spiritual journals of David Brainerd some fifteen-years ago, they hit me with such shock and inspirational awe. I mean, even fifteen-twenty-years ago, few men were journaling their deepest thoughts unto God. However, God used Brainerd as such an example, maybe God will use Wilberforce (by the collection and work of McMullen) to steer men and women’s thoughts toward a deep desire to know God intimately. Brainerd’s concerns and desires to know God and to make God known inspired me to keep my own spiritual journals between 2007-2012 (I decisively, by personal conviction transitioned away from spiritual journaling). What lies upon these pages may run the risk of excessive self-deprecation. My encouragement is to look beyond what may come across as a perpetual cycle of self-criticism, rather, through such self-examination of oneself, look upon the glory of Christ in a person who desires desperately to be wholly free from the curse of sin, alive to Christ. Wilberforce, like many Evangelicals of his day, sought to present themselves worthy of God’s free gift of mercy and grace. I am speaking of sanctification and the pursuit of holiness, not merit based salvation. His seemingly harsh self-criticisms are balanced and present a great case study for God’s powerful grace to sustain weak humans in His love. In this reflective book review readers will engage a short biographical sketch, Wilberforce’s wrestle of grace and obedience, then, conclude with some thoughts on the impact of spiritual journaling.
Biographical Sketch
Is there anyone within the Western church who has not heard of William Wilberforce? Wilberforce is that tenacious impetus which could not be moved by none other than the will of God; namely, for more than twenty-years, in the face of fierce political and social opposition, determined by the grace of God, to put an end of slavery from the shores of his homeland, England. Many individuals tucked their tails between their legs to move on to another purpose; except Wilberforce and his comrades.[1] William was born August 24, 1759, at Hull.[2] He was schooled at Hull Grammar School (1767-8), attended Chalmer’s School at Putney (1768-71), then Pocklington School (1771-76), and finally, Cambridge University in 1776.[3] Tragically, his father died when he was 9,[4] sending him to live with an uncle and aunt for some time. Wilberforce’s experience with his uncle and aunt, William and Hannah, were meaningful,[5] and it is here Wilberforce was first positively affected by Evangelicalism.[6] William’s mother, and especially his grandfather did not approve of the “radical views and influence” of Evangelicalism, thereby, his grandfather threatened to withhold William’s inheritance, thus giving cause for his mother to bring William back to Yorkshire.[7] In time William would see the providence of God in moving home, namely, his future in politics.[8]
Wilberforce’s conversion came after much deliberation from friend Joseph Milner and by William’s calling upon John Newton. Milner and Newton helped usher Wilberforce toward his effectual salvation in 1785.[9] To bring this into perspective, Wilberforce was elected member of parliament for Hull on September 11, 1780; elected member of parliament for Yorkshire in 1784; he converted to an Evangelical faith in Christ in 1785; then, in 1787, he names and commits himself to two “Great Objectives” which will dominate his motivation and purpose for the remainder of his life.[10] Therefore, Wilberforce will mature in politics and spirituality simultaneously. On May 12, 1789 Wilberforce gave his first Abolition speech before the House, which ran approximately 3.5 hours.[11] Between 1791-1805 Wilberforce Introduces and Moves the Abolition Bill eight times, and is defeated eight times. Then in 1806 General resolution for Abolition passes both Houses; Abolition Act receives Royal Assent on March 25, 1807, which makes slave trading illegal; and in 1833 the 3rd reading of Slavery Bill passes, thus making it illegal to own slaves within the British empire.[12] Wilberforce’ contribution required a lifelong perseverance in faith in Christ to empower him to stand before parliament time and time again, never wavering, always dependent upon the grace of God for strength.
William’s family life appears to full of life and happiness. Which is often not the case, unfortunately, found in many Christian biographies. He married Barbara Spooner in May 1797, who gave birth to six children over ten years. McMullen notes of his great devotion toward Barbara and their children, writing, “’What a blessing,’ Wilberforce would say later to a houseguest when all one could hear were his children shouting and playing, ‘…to have these dear children! Only think what a relief, amidst other hurries, to hear their voices and know they are well.’”[13] As his children grew older, he wrote them extensively concerning spiritual matters.[14] Of his marriage with Barbara, William wrote, “’thirty-five years of undiluted happiness.’”[15] His journals reveal a man who delighted in his family as a gift from God, and his prayers to this end were for God’s mercy and grace to keep them and prosper them in their endeavors.[16] Sadly, William outlived two of children, daughters.[17]
It should be noted as well, Wilberforce dealt with health issues throughout his life. William suffered often with debilitating pain, of which McMullen notes, conveying, “Today his condition would probably be diagnosed as Ulcerative Colitis, a very painful Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD) that causes inflammation and ulcers in the digestive tract.”[18]Laudanum (opium alkaloids, etc), was a primary pain reliever of his era. Laudanum is most remembered in American pop-culture by depictions of the wild west during the nineteenth century, i.e., Celia Ann “Mattie” Blaylock, who was famous lawman Wyatt Earp’s second wife. Obviously, with medical advances pain relieving medicine has matured. Nevertheless, like effects of oxycontin-a pain reliver prescribed to cancer patients-one’s overall sense are affected greatly. I imagine William felt like a shell of himself, which adds all the more measure for one to peer into the grace of God to persevere a man with such health difficulties and adverse side-effects caused by medicine. Furthermore, it is evident from his journals, William not only loathed the painful experience, he pitied the hindrances of his limitations, namely, his limitations hindered him from accomplishing more for God.[19] Nevertheless, he writes in 1795,
“’It has pleased God of His great mercy to raise me up again when on Monday, I was attacked with Bowel Complaint which threatened much-I then thought death pretty near. O that I might now better employ the time it has pleased God to allow me. May I be enlightened and purified and quickened and having sadly wasted my precious faculties ever since my thinking more seriously, may I now more constantly act as an accountable creature who may suddenly be called away to His Reckoning. God for Christ’ Sake Sanctify me by His Spirit, and may they dwell in me.’”[20]
One may observe in Wilberforce a life challenged by physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual warfare from nearly every front. It is a wonder he accomplished anything. His body, even by many sufferings, does the church a great service for observing the nature of sanctification, as it relates to our ever-decaying bodies and sufferings of all types.
William Wilberforce retired from parliament in 1825, serving nearly forty-five years. His work to put an end to the slave trade came full circle, just three-days before his death in 1833, when on July 26th the Slavery Bill passed, thereby abolishing slavery within the British empire. To read Wilberforce’s journal’s is to be brought into a weak man’s God-given ambition. He does not come across as the quintessential evangelical disciple the church aims for in today’s world. His drinking of wine, “questionable” over-indulgence of food (especially desserts), his dependency on Laudanum for pain relief. However, he was a faithful husband, a faithful father, and a man who was anguished by his sin, who yearned for holiness and communion with God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. By no means do we pull a false-grace card to enable some of his lessor habits; we do insist, rather, these peculiar lines not be reason to dismiss His faith and live in the Triune God.
Of Grace and Obedience
In continuation with the above, it is here we briefly examine in William Wilberforce, a man marked by God for a purpose. Kevin Belmonte, in the introduction to this work gives us a word which best summarizes life in context to God’s grace and human obedience; namely, “Pertinacity…[which] expresses the virtue of one who is tenacious, resolute, and capable of holding fast to a purpose or design.”[21] Wilberforce, while facing painful health issues, also was challenged by much political opposition and persecution. McMullen notes, “’Wilberforce was physically assaulted by an irate sea captain, received numerous serious death threats, received a challenge to a dual; and survived at least two actual assassination attempts. As a direct consequence of how things were rapidly developing, he traveled with an armed bodyguard. He was also mercilessly attacked in the newspapers.”[22] McMullen also conveys Wilberforce “was actually very naïve concerning what that pursuit would involve. From various sources one discovers that Wilberforce had little doubt Abolition would be achieved relatively quickly.”[23] One may imagine a man so utterly convinced of such a glorious purpose-no thought imaginable would perceive under such spiritual enthusiasm that this endeavor be a lifelong work. Nevertheless, God had given him a grace, a pertinacity for perseverance by the enabling of the Holy Spirit. Notice the brevity of determination in Wilberforces commitment: “So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did that trade’s wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would; I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had affected its abolition.”[24]
So convinced of God’s commission to “effect its abolition,” one finds in Wilberforce motivational discipline. Wilberforce’s pertinacity is not one undisciplined. As though eight defeated attempts were because he was unprepared wholly to the pursuit. No! Rather, with the belief of God’s commission and that His’ grace is sufficient, disciplined himself with rules to meet this end. These rules were not legalism in nature, rather, they were worship-based in their endeavors. We know this not by his perfection of such self-governing rules, rather, it is by his inability to keep his own rules, and subsequently, his faith in the grace of God to sustain him which reveals the grace of God, not legalism.[25]This, to me, is the most remarkable testimony! Why read a man’s journal’s, loaded with seemingly hypocritical inferences? Would this not do damage to the remembrance of a man of God? I do not think so. Sanctification is a means worked out over the course of one’s lifetime. Furthermore, without permitting license to sin, the Christian road to holiness is paved with the blood Christ, which secures for us by the Spirit a righteousness not our own-a righteousness not of our own merit-a righteousness obtained on by faith in in the only One righteous enough to blot out our sins. Thus, we are not condoning the gratificational works of his flesh, rather, recognizing Wilberforce as a man who loved God despite himself. Wilberforce, influenced by John Owen, writes often of the enabling grace of God which empowers the mortification of sin:
“’…with the deepest humiliation I look up for mercy, through Christ, to that God whose past mercies I have so often abused. I resolve by God’s help to mortify the flesh with the affections and lusts, so far as my infirm health will permit me, and to labor more and more to live the life I now live in the flesh, in the faith of the Son of God…Oh may I from this time cultivate heavenly affections by mortifying the flesh, and living much in the view of unseen things, and may the Spirit of the Lord sanctify me wholly!’”[26]
Wilberforce’s paradigm for love and service to God could be summed in this saying, “’You can give pleasure to God, or grieve him.’” His journals are an exposition of one’s struggle to live life in the former; to bring pleasure to God. Wilberforce’s relentless pertinacity, often ignored, is a work of God’s grace in the face of human weakness. The Apostle Paul is not hesitant to rebuke those who would turn thorns and sufferings of all kinds as some means to disqualify them from the work. He writes in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10:
“’Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.’”[27]
To be sure, we’re not talking about qualifications for elders and pastors, we are talking about one’s individual life made righteous in Christ through faith. And of limitations and shortcomings. It is safe to say, the human condition, in faith to Christ is not one marked by perfection. It is rather Christ’ perfection which gives holy zeal for a life in pursuit of holiness. And the fruit of human weakness empowered by God’s grace to strengthen and sustain the faith of a believer is the most beautiful thing in all human existence; next to God Himself. Wilberforce was a weak man with many limitations and shortcomings; and Wilberforce was a man sustained and sanctified by the Spirit of God in Christ Jesus. God used this weak little man to mortify the British Empire of its grotesque slave trade. Many strong men of God owned and supported the slave trade contemporary to Wilberforce. Is not Wilberforce a portrayal of 1 Corinthians 1:27, which reads, “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.”[28]
Conclusion: The Impact of Spiritual Journaling
Our world is a world of injustice and conflict. Every passing year seems to intensify. From global riots and revolutions to racial injustice and the oppression of the poor, Wilberforce is a force to reckon with. McMullen exemplifies through his presentation of Wilberforce’s journals a fuller picture of the man behind the abolition of the slave trade in Britain. Modern depictions, even Amazing Grace (though I do watch about twice a decade), have not portrayed Wilberforce to the extent which his journals, themselves, present. To gaze into his most intimate writings, one’s not written for the eyes of man, but God, one glimpses the true self in the life of faith. Wilberforce glorifies God and God makes Wilberforce’s weak life an unconquerable mountain. To tread is set out on a quest for the grace of God in the struggles of humankind. Like Brainerd, Wilberforce has to be read with eyes who have tasted the glory of God’s infinite glory, mercy and grace. His is not a life of perfection, rather, his is a life marked by God’s goodness to save to the uttermost. A life marred by the imperfection of the flesh, yet communion with God proved enough. Wilberforce, fresh under the fires of new faith was given an ambition to abolish slavery, and on the journey, he found pleasure in his union with Christ.
Today’s challenges require godly devoted persons who not only seek to demonstrate truth and justice in the outward declaration; further still, let truth and justice row down the mountains of communion with God. Yes, Wilberforce represents pertinacity in political fervor, however, let not his legacy die with earthly accomplishments (even though they are great), let his legacy be remembered, namely, through the lens of the God of Grace who accomplishes great things by the weak and foolish things of the world. We need more than a reformation of justice; we need a reformation of biblical justice. Biblical justice begins and ends with mortifying the flesh through communion with God. Therefore, we are indebted to Wilberforce, those who preserved his journals and made them available, and to Ed. Michael D. McMullen (who will likely be too humble to receive a loud applause), who gave much blood, sweat and tears, I am sure, in providing a concise, easy to read, navigation through choice journal entries of Wilberforce. In a world marked by an overbearing amount of media content, let us not neglect the private intimacy with God found in spiritual journaling.
Grab your copy here:
https://www.amazon.com/William-Wilberforce-Unpublished-Spiritual-Biography/dp/1527106934/ref=sr_1_1?crid=T0PIPSRDBF48&keywords=william+wilberforce+his+unpublished+spiritual+journals&qid=1651182377&sprefix=William+wilberforce+%2Caps%2C92&sr=8-1
[1]“For twenty years, 1787-1807, he led the parliamentary struggle to abolish the British slave trade, during which time he was threatened with murder, had to travel for a time with an armed bodyguard, and suffered what appears to have been two nervous breakdowns” (Ed. Michael D. McMullen. William Wilberforce: His Unpublished Spiritual Journals. Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications Ltd, 2021. P. 15. Print).
[2]Ibid., McMullen. P. 419.
[3]Ibid., McMullen. P. 21.
[4]Ibid., McMullen. P. 21.
[5]“’I very deeply felt the parting from my uncle and aunt, whom I loved as if they had been my parents; indeed, I have scarcely ever felt more pain of mind from this separation’” (Ibid., McMullen. P. 46).
[6]“So much so that his letters and occasional visits home caused real alarm to the Yorkshire Wilberforces, confirming their worst fears…’my friends in Yorkshire became alarmed with the idea that I was in danger of becoming a Methodist’” (Ibid., McMullen. P. 46).
[7]Ed. Michael D. McMullen. William Wilberforce: His Unpublished Spiritual Journals. Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications Ltd, 2021. P. 46. Print.
[8]Ibid., McMullen. P. 47. Print.
[9]To be sure, Wilberforce’s conversion came at much meditation on his sin and unworthiness of the free gift of grace (Ibid., McMullen. P. 58).
[10]Two Great Objectives: “the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of Manners” (Ibid., McMullen. P. 73).
[11]Ibid., McMullen. P. 21. “I laid the whole case before the House in a Long speech, in which I stated the Injustice & cruelty with all the various horrors of the Trade in Africa” (Ibid., McMullen. P. 429).
[12]Ibid., McMullen. P. 21.
[13]Ed. Michael D. McMullen. William Wilberforce: His Unpublished Spiritual Journals. Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications Ltd, 2021. P. 141. Print.
[14]Ibid., McMullen. P. 141.
[15]Ibid., McMullen. P. 140.
[16]Ibid., McMullen. P. 141-144. On page 141, McMullen references a book comprised of William’s letters to his children, called, Amazing Dad: Letters from Wilberforce to His Children.
[17]Ibid., McMullen. P. 141. Daughters: Barbara, 1821; and Elizabeth, 1832 (Ibid., McMullen. P. 21).
[18]Ibid., McMullen. P. 142.
[19]Ed. Michael D. McMullen. William Wilberforce: His Unpublished Spiritual Journals. Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications Ltd, 2021. P. 142. Print. During a bout with dental pain, he writes, “How cowardly am I with regard to my apprehensions of bodily pain…Think what Christ suffered-what His people have suffered-what strength He can give-and support in pain…” (ibid., McMullen. P. 142).
[20]Ibid., McMullen. P. 142.
[21]Ed. Michael D. McMullen. William Wilberforce: His Unpublished Spiritual Journals. Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications Ltd, 2021. P. 15. Print.
[22]Ibid., McMullen. P. 74, 75.
[23]Ibid., McMullen. P. 75.
[24]Ed. Michael D. McMullen. William Wilberforce: His Unpublished Spiritual Journals. Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications Ltd, 2021. P. 81. Print.
[25]Ibid., McMullen. P. 103. Wilberforce writes, undated, 1790: “I have been thinking too much of one particular failing, that of self-indulgence, whilst I have too little aimed at general reformation. It is when we desire to love God with all our hearts, and in all things to devote ourselves to his service, that we find our continual need of his help, and such incessant proofs of our own weakness, that we are kept watchful and sober, and may hope by degrees to be renewed in the spirit of our minds” (Ibid., McMullen. P. 103).
[26]Ed. Michael D. McMullen. William Wilberforce: His Unpublished Spiritual Journals. Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications Ltd, 2021. P. 102, 103. Print.
[27]ESV. English Standard Version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway, 2001. Print.
[28]ESV. English Standard Version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway, 2001. Print.