Wilberforce Contra Mundum
John Wesley wrote to a young William Wilberforce to encourage him in his campaign against the slave trade.
1791
King George III 1760-1820
John Wesley wrote to a young William Wilberforce to encourage him in his campaign against the slave trade.
1791
King George III 1760-1820
A few days before he died on on March 2nd, 1791, at the age of 87, John Wesley wrote to a young MP, fellow ‘methodist’ William Wilberforce. While these were not Wesley’s last recorded words (which were ‘The best of all is, God is with us’) his letter has the air of a departing Elijah wishing upon Elisha a double share of his spirit.
MY dear Sir, Unless the Divine Power has raised you up to be an Athanasius against the world,* I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. 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?*
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, the vilest that ever saw the sun, shall vanish away before it. That He Who has guided you from your youth up may continue to strengthen you in this and in all good things is the prayer of, dear Sir, your affectionate servant, John Wesley.
St Athanasius (?296-373), Patriarch of Alexandria, was nicknamed Athanasius contra mundum, Athanasius ‘against the world’, for his resistance to the Arian heresy, a resistance which saw the Bishop exiled five times. Arianism held that the Son of God was neither God nor an eternal being, but the first of God’s creations. John Wesley clearly felt an affinity both with Athanasius and with Wilberforce, having spent his life contending with error, secularism and indifference in the Church of England, much of which he traced to Calvinism.
See Romans 8:31.
See Galatians 6:9 and 2 Thessalonians 3:13.
See Ephesians 6:10.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why did John Wesley write to William Wilberforce in 1791?
To enoucrage his fledgling campagn against slavery.