Amazing Grace

Last night our family went to see the movie, Amazing Grace. Usually we go to see movies in Harrisonburg, Virginia because that is the location of the best movie theater closest to us. However, the closest theater showing Amazing Grace was in Charlottesville, a two hour drive from our home in the mountains of Virginia. Seeing this movie was worth every mile we drove, every penny we spent on gas, and the thirty plus dollars it cost for all five of us to see the film. Amazing Grace is, perhaps, the greatest movie I have ever seen.

It is the story of William Wilberforce who lived from 1759-1833 in England. Wilberforce, or Wilber as he was known to friends, was the son of a rich merchant. However, he lost his father at the age of eight and went to live with his uncle and aunt who had been influenced by George Whitefield and the Evangelical Revival in England. Wilber's uncle and aunt were also friends of John Newton, the former slave trader and sailor turned Christian convert, preacher, and author of many great hymns, including Amazing Grace. Newton became a hero to young Wilber, but Wilber's mother, seeing him turned into a fervent Christian, took the lad away again from his uncle and aunt. The mother sought to erase any traces of what she considered fanaticism in the boy by sending him off to boarding school and then to Cambridge University.

Wilberforce was an exact contemporary and close friend of William Pitt, the future prime minister of England. Both were intent on a political career, but it was Wilberforce who was the first to enter the House of Commons at the age of 21 in 1780. Wilber was a charismatic parliamentary speaker; so much so that his contemporaries said his tones of voice were "so distinct and melodious that the most hostile ear hangs on them delighted."

During the winter of 1784-1785 Wilberforce journeyed to the south of France where he underwent a deep, soul-stirring re-conversion to faith in Christ through discussions with a former schoolmaster, Isaac Milner. Immediately Wilber began to feel a conflict in his soul between his political drivenness and the claims of Christ. As a consequence Wilber sought out his old hero, John Newton, for advice. Newton urged him to stay in the political arena, believing that God might have some work for him to do there. Over the course of the next two years, Newton was one of the key people who influenced Wilberforce to take up the abolition of slavery as his life's work. In 1787 Wilber introduced the first bill in parliament calling for the abolition of the slave trade.

The road ahead was not easy. At first Wilberforce had many powerful people opposed to his plan. The strain of the fight induced a serious illness in 1788. The doctors treated Wilber with opium, the drug of choice at that time. The drug weakened his eyesight and increased a natural tendency to indolence which Wilber sought to resist with every fiber of his being.

By 1789 Wilberforce had recovered enough to make his first great speech in parliament against the slave trade. The House of Commons went no further than to appoint an inquiry into the matter.

At one point during his long battle Wilberforce was so discouraged in his efforts that he was tempted to give up. It was at this critical juncture that his elderly friend, John Wesley, heard of Wilberforce's discouragement and from his deathbed Wesley called for pen and paper. With trembling hand, Wesley wrote:

"Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them stronger than God? Oh be not weary of well-doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery shall vanish away before it."

Wesley died six days later, but Wilber fought on. Despite many setbacks, Wilberforce gathered a growing number of political friends who also were ardent Christians. Observers at the time nicknamed them "The Saints". Later historians referred to them as the "Clapham Sect", so named for the village south of London where this group of friends all settled together. Wilberforce lived at first in the home of his cousin and fellow abolitionist, Henry Thornton. After his marriage to Barbara Spooner, Wilber moved to a house close by.

In 1806 William Pitt died. Despite this great loss to the cause of abolition the new political situation in foreign policy (Britain was at war with France) offered a new opportunity to the abolitionists. A bill was introduced in Parliament apparently designed to further the war effort. Parliament voted to no longer protect French ships bearing the American flag which were carrying slaves to the Americas. With the threat of pirate attacks the French were less likely to engage in the slave trade.

Finally, on February 23, 1807, after more than twenty years of hard work on the part of Wilberforce and his friends, the House of Commons voted for the abolition of the slave trade by a margin of 267 votes. Wilberforce expected slavery in the British West Indies to wither away. Unfortunately it did not.

Thus Wilberforce launched a final great crusade calling for the emancipation of those who were already slaves within the British Empire. By this time he was sixty-four years old and so Wilber brought in a younger member of parliament, Thomas Buxton, to assist him in his cause "if I am unable to finish it." That proved to be a wise move. Old and infirm, Wilberforce retired from Parliament in 1825. He lived just long enough to hear that the House of Commons had voted to emancipate all slaves in the British Empire. He died a few days later on August 6, 1833. His body was buried near that of his friend, William Pitt, in Westminster Abbey.

With William Wilberforce in mind, C. S. Lewis once wrote:

"If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither." Mere Christianity, Book III, Chapter 10, paragraph 1.

Though the movie, Amazing Grace, does not show all of these details from the intriguing life journey of William Wilberforce, all the essential aspects of his life and fight against slavery are included. The movie is a soul-stirring testimony to the courage of a great Christian leader. The film moved me to tears on a number of occasions, so much so that I will never listen to that great hymn by John Newton in quite the same way ever again.

Go see Amazing Grace today. Drive two hours or more if you have to. Spend whatever it costs to see it on the large screen. Take all your family and friends with you to see it. And as you watch, ask the Lord what great purpose he may yet have for your life, just as he had for the life of William Wilberforce.

To learn more click here: http://www.amazinggracemovie.com/.