The Former Slave Trader Who Taught a Young Politician to Listen

In the autumn of 1785, twenty-five-year-old William Wilberforce sat across from John Newton in a London parlor, wrestling with a voice he could not quite place. Wilberforce had recently experienced a profound spiritual awakening, and something kept pressing on his conscience — a restless, persistent stirring he assumed meant he should leave Parliament and enter the ministry.

Newton knew better. The aging pastor — once a captain on slave ships, now the author of Amazing Grace — listened carefully, then offered counsel that changed history. "God has raised you up for the good of the nation," Newton told him. Stay in politics. The voice Wilberforce was hearing was not calling him out of public life. It was calling him into the fight against the slave trade.

Like young Samuel lying in the temple at Shiloh, Wilberforce heard something but misidentified it. He needed an Eli — someone further along in faith — to help him understand what God was actually saying. Without Newton's discernment, Wilberforce might have abandoned the very post where the Almighty intended to use him most.

Samuel ran to Eli three times before the old priest recognized what was happening. Sometimes we need someone who has walked longer with God to say, "This is the Lord. Go back and listen." The call of God is real, but learning to hear it rightly often requires a guide. When Samuel finally responded, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening," it was Eli's wisdom that brought him there.