History of the Church II: Week 12

The Church in Society  What is the role of the Church in society?  In England where Wesley and Whitefield had been so successful in winning souls, there grew a passion to take Christian service to the community in the 19 th century.  The Age of Industry had changed life so rapidly that most did not know how to handle it.  Christians, both the Anglican and the several other minority denominations, believed they could affect change not only in their communities but also taking the good news overseas. 

The Church in Society  Christians in England started forming societies for specific purposes.  There were societies created for distributions of Bibles or taking care of the needy.  These societies sprang up because of the evangelical movements which emphasized intense personal piety and its aggressive concern for Christian service in the world.  The themes of the 18 th century revival were: God’s love revealed in Christ, the necessity of salvation through faith and the new birth experience wrought by the Holy Spirit. 

The Church in Society  No where was this spirit of church involvement in the community more evident than in the Clapham village just four miles from London.  This small village was alive in the early 19 th century with Christians who lived out their beliefs on a daily basis.  This group of wealthy evangelicals knew how to practice “saintliness in daily life” while living with eternity in view.  The villagers who lived here were the elite of British society but the most famous of them was William Wilberforce.

The Church in Society  Wilberforce was saved at the age of 25 while reading the book Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul.  Like most Christians he struggled with whether he should go into full time ministry or remain in his current job which was as a congressman in the House of Commons.  His famous quote was “My walk is a public one: my business is in the world and I must mix in the assemblies of men or quit the part which Providence seems to have assigned me.”  A man of extraordinary talents Prime Minster William Pitt said:

The Church in Society  “Wilberforce had the greatest natural eloquence he had ever known.” Others called him “the nightingale of the House of Commons.”  In 1789, Wilberforce made his first speech in the House of Commons against the slave trade.  He knew that speeches alone would not win over his colleagues.  At Clapham, the members of the community would gather together for meetings which were called “Cabinet Councils”.  It was there they would talk how to right the wrongs of social injustice.

The Church in Society  Two years later after conferring and prayer within the Cabinet Councils, Wilberforce introduced a bill to ban the slave trade.  He knew that the bill needed support beyond Parliament.  “It is on the feeling of a nation we must rely so let the flame be fanned.”  Clapham had learned two important lessons about politics in a democracy: how to create public opinion and how to bring that pressure of opinion on the government.  Through petitions, letters public forums and billboards they “fanned the flames”.

The Church in Society  Twenty years after making his first speech, the slave trade was abolished in the British Empire on Feb. 23,  Wilberforce wasn’t done, he wanted to end slavery altogether.  For another 26 years he petitioned the House of Commons to ban slavery.  Finally on July 25, 1833 just four days before he passed away, Parliament let go of a shout that threatened to blow the roof off of the building.  By using his talents for God, William Wilberforce gave us an example of how to live our Christian faith.