Wilberforce believed that the abolition of the slave trade was one of “the great objects” set before him by God. He also knew there was no guarantee of success. Still, despite failure year after year, he persevered. Thus, his public life also epitomized another phrase, one which Chuck Colson kept on a sign on his desk: “Faithfulness, not success.” 

In 1787, British abolitionist Thomas Clarkson enlisted a young parliamentarian named William Wilberforce into the cause. After his conversion to Christ three years earlier, Wilberforce had become friends with John Newton, a former slave trader turned pastor and abolitionist. Convinced of the evils of slavery, Wilberforce agreed to fight it in Parliament. 

Illness kept Wilberforce from introducing his anti-slavery bills until 1789. Unsurprisingly, his opponents put up procedural hurdles which prevented a vote. Wilberforce persisted and, year after year, continued to reintroduce bills to abolish the slave trade. He and a network of other abolitionists also launched a massive campaign to build public support for the cause, and in the process pioneered almost every tactic still used in campaigns today, including boycotts, posters, slogans, petitions, and cameos, the eighteenth century equivalent of bumper stickers. 

In 1796, after six years of failure, it looked as if Wilberforce and his allies could have the votes to pass the bill, but it came up short, 74 to 70. Because his opponents bought tickets for a comic opera and gave them to lukewarm supporters of the bill, they were not present for the vote. Facing both dirty tricks of the opposition as well as so-called supporters who chose a show over human lives was infuriating and demoralizing.  

In response, Wilberforce reintroduced the bill the following year. It failed again. … And again, the year after that. … And again, the year after that. … And again, the year after that. 

Wilberforce’s efforts epitomize a phrase coined by, of all people, Friedrich Nietzsche, the nineteenth century atheist who proclaimed the death of God. Eugene Peterson, the Christian devotional writer, later reclaimed and redeemed the phrase, proving that all truth ultimately belongs to God, even if uttered by an atheist in a terribly dangerous book. In Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche wrote…

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