For Such a Time as This

The legacy of William Wilberforce and the Clapham Circle.
Kevin Belmonte | posted 3/11/2010

"With courage to attempt, with patience to endure, and with the power of conscience …." These words were written by William Wilberforce in 1797, 10 years into the 20-year struggle to secure the abolition of the British slave trade. Wilberforce wrote these words when describing the traits that Christians should manifest as they work to create the good society. They were a centerpiece of his manifesto—the classic work we know as A Practical View of Christianity—a work for which the dying Edmund Burke sent a heartfelt word of gratitude.

But these words could well have been the credo for Wilberforce and his colleagues among the Clapham Circle, those talented men and women who worked together for so many years to foster an astounding array of reforms that forever changed life in Britain and beyond.

Two hundred years on, the list of their achievements is stirring. They established soup kitchens, lending libraries, and schools for the poor, the deaf, and the blind. They championed small-pox vaccinations and worked to secure shorter working hours and better conditions in factories. They went into prisons, funded and established hospitals, and purchased the release of those imprisoned for debt. They helped found the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the National Gallery of Art. They wrote books and magazines and distributed the Scriptures around the world. They sought more humane treatment for Native Americans and the people of India. Supremely, it should be remembered that without them, the slave trade—and later, slavery throughout the British Empire—would not have ended.

Costly Grace

The lives of those in the Clapham Circle are a testament to the notion of costly grace—that to whom much is given, much is required. Wilberforce's life is a prime example of this. His life is a profile in courage. Often faced with bitter and violent opposition, he was physically assaulted, the target of death threats, and once challenged to a duel by a slave-ship captain whose murder of a slave girl Wilberforce had denounced in the House of Commons. He refused this challenge on the basis of Christian principle.

The lives of those in the Clapham Circle are a testament to the notion of costly grace—that to whom much is given, much is required.

Wilberforce understood only too well that despite his or anyone else's best efforts, others would misunderstand his motives or bring wild, hurtful accusations against him. One political cartoon was a hit job that rivals anything we might see today: It showed Wilberforce smoking opium with a topless slave woman in a brothel. It was a case in point of what a dirty business politics can be.

Yet Wilberforce's faith greatly helped him put things in perspective. "Calumnies and misconceptions will gradually die away," he wrote, "overborne by the general course and conduct of my life." He also affirmed that "our character and conduct must be both our defenders and advocates."

Wilberforce drew great consolation from the knowledge that one could only do his best with the light he had been given. "Act from a pure principle," he concluded, "and leave the event to God."

A Bulwark Against the Headwinds

If one supreme lesson flows from the example of Wilberforce and the Clapham Circle, it is this: People can discover God's good purposes and leading as a result of prayerful fellowship and living in community under biblical pastoral ministry. In such a setting, God's people may live in troubled times, but troubled times need not overwhelm them.

Few parishioners were more fortunate than those in the Clapham Circle. They were blessed with a pastor of great spiritual discernment, wisdom, and gifts of communication: the Reverend John Venn, the rector of Holy Trinity Church in London.

Holy Trinity was the spiritual center of the Clapham Circle's life and sense of purpose. Under Venn's ministry, parishioners were grounded in a biblical worldview and guided in the study of Scripture and the practice of prayer. During Venn's ministry, Holy Trinity, which seats 1,400 people, was jammed to the rafters, balcony included. As Canon David Isherwood, Holy Trinity's current pastor, has said, "You couldn't shoehorn any more people in."

Holy Trinity was a vibrant, vital center of ministry that flowed into myriad streams of philanthropy. "Love to God and love to man" was a phrase Wilberforce used often to describe the atmosphere there—a spiritual impulse that had a ripple effect throughout Britain in the 50 years before Queen Victoria ascended the throne.

Venn was one of the great ornaments of the evangelical tradition within the Anglican Church. In one of his sermons, he declared, "We never live rationally till our life here is rendered wholly subservient to that which is to come" (see Sermons by the Rev. John Venn, vol. 3). In other words, our lives are not our own. Stewardship was at the heart of his message. All that we possess—our talents, time, and opportunities—are to be seen as things for which we, as an act of love, make a grateful return to God.

Wilberforce provided a complementary thought when he spoke of "the generous and wakeful spirit of Christian benevolence, seeking and finding everywhere occasions for its exercise." This was but a paraphrase of words spoken by the Lord Jesus: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16, KJV). This is an ancient word yet ever new—and one still gloriously able to transform lives.

Another and Nobler Title

It is deeply significant that, as historian G. M. Trevelyan has noted, Wilberforce "could not have done what he did if he had desired [high] office. With his talents and position he would probably have been Pitt's successor as Prime Minister if he had preferred party to mankind. His sacrifice of one kind of fame and power gave him another and a nobler title to remembrance."

Following his death, Wilberforce was praised by his countrymen in ways the world has rarely seen. At the request of politicians of all parties, he was interred in Westminster Abbey. This tribute attests to the power of principled politics. Wilberforce had also been willing to be thought a fool for what many derided as his "perennial resolution" during the 20-year fight to abolish the slave trade. Like George Washington and others among the Founding Fathers, he had been willing to sacrifice his "sacred honor," in as much as it referred to a choice between reputation and duty to his fellow man.

Indeed, one of the most powerful aspects of Wilberforce's legacy is that he did not consider his reputation something his work created. His reputation was a byproduct of faithfulness to the path he felt called to follow. Love for his fellow-creatures, as he called them, informed by the Golden Rule, was the guiding principle of his life. "I ought to do," he said, "as I would be done by."

This guiding principle and the legacy that flowed from it touched the lives of many who sought to carry on projects Wilberforce had started or pursue new philanthropic initiatives of a kindred nature. That Wilberforce was a source of inspiration to people such as Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Harriet Beecher Stowe says much about the "abiding eloquence of a Christian life," as Lord Macaulay once said of Wilberforce.

It was ultimately Wilberforce's dedication to serving something larger than self that merits his being remembered as "the Washington of humanity." The idea of service to something larger than self, and great sacrifice in service to that ideal—these things serve as beacons for we who are the heirs of their legacies. These things, as Wilberforce said, should be "the great sea marks, the polar stars, to direct [our] course."

A Group Unlike any Other

So who were Wilberforce's cohorts? The Clapham Circle comprised several friends living near one another in Clapham, as well as some who were non-residents. Along with Wilberforce and John Venn in Clapham were Henry Thornton, James Stephen, John Shore (Lord Teignmouth), Charles Grant, and Zachary Macaulay. Non-resident coworkers were Thomas Babington, Thomas Gisborne, Hannah More, Granville Sharp, and Charles Simeon. Others who collaborated with the Clapham Circle were Thomas Clarkson, Isaac Milner, and John Newton.

Many in the Clapham Circle were members of Parliament. Henry Thornton's home, Battersea Rise, was often the meeting place for their "cabinet councils." They met in a beautiful oval library designed by Prime Minister William Pitt, but they were often in and out of one another's homes. Fellowship was a cherished aspect of Clapham. Life there was described fondly as "a meeting that never adjourned."

It all started with Wilberforce and Thornton, who moved to Clapham in 1792, and as bachelors, decided to set up a "chummery." They wanted to consult and encourage one another as often as they wished. Over time, their friends joined them, prompted by the same goals. From this time until Wilberforce's death in 1833, the Clapham Circle pursued their good works, even though some, including Wilberforce himself, later moved away.

Concerts of Benevolence

The Clapham Circle is remarkable for the ways in which its members complemented one another. Each person possessed different kinds of talent and training. Each might well have made a mark for themselves had any chosen to act alone. But because they acted in concert, they exercised a powerful influence and achieved a lasting legacy.

But while all this was true, and although they were close, the Clapham Circle did not act in lockstep. Sometimes they disagreed. But they always did so civilly. Indeed, they welcomed the constructive conversation that flows when people of different views come together out of desire to seek truth and the common good. We need to understand this today, in a time when differences deeply divide and too often preclude opportunities to work together, even if only on one issue or project.

The abolition of the slave trade is a case in point. To achieve final victory, Wilberforce and his friends assembled a broad coalition of politicians from all parties. They persevered despite threats of violence and vitriolic attacks in the press. Ultimately they succeeded, and the reason for their success—perseverance, bridge-building, and concerted effort—is as important as their great abolition victory.

The work of the Clapham Circle points the way to a public philosophy that is distinguished by civility, principled politics, and desire to seek the common good. Their legacy is one of living in community, encouraging and strengthening one another, and constantly exploring how, with God's grace and leading, we might, as Wilberforce wrote, "boldly assert the cause of Christ in an age when so many who bear the name of Christians are ashamed of him."

One passage in A Practical View of Christianity shines with a luster that two centuries have not dimmed. These words are a legacy that we who are the heirs to what Wilberforce and the Clapham Circle worked for can carry forward:

"Christianity is always represented in Scripture as the grand, the unparalleled instance of God's bounty to mankind … [Upon the coming of our Lord] a multitude of the heavenly host hailed its introduction, and proclaimed its character: 'Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will towards men.' It is everywhere represented in Scripture by such figures as may most deeply impress on us a sense of its value; it is spoken of as 'light from darkness, as release from prison, as deliverance from captivity, as life from death.'"

Kevin Belmonte served as the lead historical consultant for the motion picture Amazing Grace, and is author of William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity, which received the prestigious John Pollock Award for Christian Biography. It has for the past two years been taught as part of a course on leadership and character formation at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Belmonte holds a B.A. in English literature from Gordon College, an M.A. in church history from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and an M.A. in American and New England studies from the University of Southern Maine (Portland).

Books by Belmonte

William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity (Zondervan/HarperCollins, 2007)
Now in its fourth printing, the revised edition of this award-winning biography was published to coincide with the release of the acclaimed film Amazing Grace. Belmonte worked on the film for six years as lead historical consultant.

Belmonte has also authored two books that are a part of Thomas Nelson's new Christian Encounters Series (ThomasNelson.com). John Bunyan explores the life of a man who lived in a turbulent age of regicide, civil war, and revolution. Against this backdrop emerged a man whose matchless literary gifts were burnished amid suffering. Bunyan profoundly influenced Western culture. This is the life story you've never heard—how, amid the crucible of repeated imprisonments, civil war, and violent persecution, Bunyan crafted The Pilgrim's Progress, a testament unlike any other to the triumph of the human spirit.

D. L. Moody This is the story of a true American original. From the crushing loss and poverty of his youth to the slums of Chicago, the battlefields of the Civil War and dramatic escapes from death at sea and the great Chicago fire, Moody's life unfolded on an epic scale. Moody could regale prime ministers with a Twain-like sense of humor or elicit a poignant speech from Abraham Lincoln. The greatest evangelist of the 19th century, Moody was vibrantly alive, a herald of the Gilded Age whose "profound belief in the goodness and love of God" was heard by over 100 million people in the age before radio.