The Influence of Hannah Thornton Wilberforce – Part Two

Billy was hastily brought home, much to the dismay of nephew and aunt. When Grandfather Wilberforce caught wind of the threat, his consternation was so great, he threatened, “If Billy goes Methodist, he will see no sixpence of mine.” Aunt Hannah begged her sister-in-law to change her mind, no doubt sensing (and correctly so) the purging of faith that would begin when Billy came home. To these pleas, Mrs. Wilberforce sarcastically replied, “If it is indeed a work of grace, it cannot be undone.”

For a time, Billy stoutly clung to his teaching, writing secret letters full of heartache and affection for his uncle and aunt. Nonetheless, the incessant pressure of his mother and grandfather to engage in lasciviousness, which seeks to prey on the youth of every generation, and his own natural bent toward gaiety, eventually corroded his resolve. Removed by two centuries, it is difficult for us to realize this era of British society as being as corrupted – if not more so – than our own. This was the era when Parliament legislated, in a drunken stupor, that gin was the “drug” that numbed the unspeakable miseries of the peasant class, brothels set up shop outside most theaters, and the sons of the Royal family had the moral restraint of dogs. Religion, in high Church of England style, was a decorative button one adorned for its respectability, not a work of God that manifested itself in a relationship with Christ and a purified heart.

Thus embroiled in this atmosphere, the petals fell from William’s childhood profession, seemingly all but dead. Years flew by. Just weeks after his twenty-first birthday, the young man was elected to Parliament. At 24, William inherited the Wimbledon villa and the very home in which he had spent the best years of his childhood.

But like the kurinji flowers, the Word of God planted by his praying aunt would not be lost forever. In several divinely-orchestrated events, the carefree young man became so sinsick, he reached an all-time low of seeking one of the scorned evangelicals for spiritual guidance: his childhood pastor, John Newton. Strikingly similar to Nicodemus, the statesman met the old pastor under sworn secrecy. Without a slight hint of offence, the elderly man gave invaluable counsel to the prodigal, both spiritual and practical, for it would be John Newton who advised him to remain in politics for the good he could do there – counsel that would, in later years, save millions of African lives.

The end result of William Wilberforce’s seeking was a total change of heart. His time, wealth, reputation, and winsome charm, which he had previously spent on advancing himself, would become even more devoted to advancing the “great object” God would place before him: abolishing the slave trade. Though all seemed barren on the slopes of his heart, like the Indian blue bell flowers, the bloom of faith was not gone forever. And while Aunt Hannah would depart this earth before her Billy began his 20-year battle against the slave trade, there can be no doubt that she would have cried that her years of waiting had been worth every moment.

Kenzi Knapp is a follower of Christ, homeschool graduate and student of history. A fourth generation Missourian she enjoys writing about daily life enrolled in Gods great course of faith and His story throughout the ages at her blog, Honey Rock Hills.