The Letter That Changed William Wilberforce

In the autumn of 1785, William Wilberforce sat in a carriage traveling through the French countryside with Isaac Milner, a Cambridge professor and old friend. Milner had invited Wilberforce to read Philip Doddridge's The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, and somewhere between Nice and Geneva, the young parliamentarian encountered Jesus Christ — not as a cultural fixture of English society, but as the Lamb of God who bears the weight of human sin.

Wilberforce was undone. He wept. He wrestled. He nearly abandoned politics altogether. But then he sought out John Newton — the former slave trader turned pastor who had written "Amazing Grace" — and Newton told him to stay exactly where God had planted him. One man pointed another toward Christ, and that man pointed yet another toward his calling.

This is the chain we see unfolding along the Jordan River in John's Gospel. The Baptist sees Jesus and cannot keep silent: "Behold, the Lamb of God!" Andrew hears, follows, and immediately finds his brother Simon. "We have found the Messiah," he says — and brings him to Jesus. No elaborate argument. No theological treatise. Just one transformed person telling the next.

Milner pointed Wilberforce to the Lamb. Newton confirmed the call. Wilberforce spent the next forty-six years dismantling the slave trade. That is what happens when someone dares to say, "Come and see." Faith moves from one life to the next, not by force, but by witness.