The life of William Wilberforce / by his sons, Robert Isaac Wilberforce and Samuel Wilberforce ; abridged from the London edition by Caspar Morris.
- Robert Isaac Wilberforce
- Date:
- 1839
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The life of William Wilberforce / by his sons, Robert Isaac Wilberforce and Samuel Wilberforce ; abridged from the London edition by Caspar Morris. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![on the Continent, or the poor inmates of the London jail, his alacrity and diligence in doing good were alike worthy to be commended and imitated. There was a holy energy of character and singleness ot purpose about him, which will always enable its possessor to accom- plish great things. Regarding habitually every faculty he possessed as a talent bestowed upon him for the proper use of which he was responsible, his labours were unceasing that he might be enabled to render an account with joy. He fulfilled closely the directions of one whose friendship was a source of delight to him, believing as one who knew that his salvation depended on faith, and labouring to adorn that faith as though it weie to be found in return for the merit of his works. To be admitted to the freedom of unreserved intercourse with such a man—to hear him pour forth from the treasure of his heart the secret thoughts which gushed from its hidden fountains—to enter with him to the inner chambers of reflection, and join with him in the consultations from which his mighty acts resulted, would have been esteemed an inestimable privilege; and to this his sons have admitted us. From the period at which he was converted, a change which he himself describes as being as great as that which trans- formed the persecutor of the primitive church into the apostle of the Gentiles, he kept regular records of the daily events of his life and the changing feelings of his heart. What proportion of these have been published by his sons none but themselves know. It has been enough, however, to place his character on the most exalted platform of human excellence. Having adopted for his standard the highest possible model, the example of the incarnate Son of God, and continually comparing himself, not with himself and other equally fallible men, but with this supreme pattern of excellence, his Diary will be found to abound with those humble confessions of unworthiness and guilt which properly result from such self-exami- nation, whilst the testimony of those who, without witnessing, or being privy to the struggles by which the inbred corruption of the heart was kept in subjection, saw only the precious fruit which re- sulted from his self-denying labours, exhibits the impression made by his example on all by whom he was surrounded. It is not, how- ever, to be supposed that his lot was exempt from those cruel mockings, and that shame, and that malignant blackening calumny, the influence of which he has himself so feelino-]v j picted. These are declared by the unerring wisdom of Him wh needed not that any should tell him, for he knew what was in rnn° to be the unavoidable portion of his followers. In the memoir w find traces of them enough to indicate that he partook of a We nor tion of that evil speaking which will follow good works But fo all he possessed a sovereign balm of which he continually availS himself in that spirit of prayer which formed the most marked trait of his character. Whether oppressed by the care of empires or thl trifling anxieties of life, he still sought that wisdom which God hath promised to bestow liberally on all who seek it; and that he realize the fulfilment of the promise, his whole career, which was most trulv like that of the light which shineth more and more unto the ner feet day, affords manifest demonstration. His votes in the Houi of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21163959_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
