Abolition

A giant figure among English evangelicals at the end of the 18th century went to sea to serve on his first ship at the tender age of 11.  He later became captain of slave ships that hauled hundreds of slaves in hideous conditions from the west coast of Africa across the Atlantic, to plantations where they were sold and often worked to death.

But this man, John Newton, deeply repented of that life and changed course by the grace of God.  He became a parson and probably influenced the course of civilization - by becoming a father figure/friend to William Wilberforce.

Wilberforce was the leader in parliament who took on the cause of abolition (of the slave trade) while still in his twenties and never let go throughout years and years of parliamentary battle.  If you wonder, as I did, who could oppose abolition?  Eric Metaxas in his book, Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, explains that the answer to that question is, lots of people.

Listen to Newton's song, "Amazing Grace," and his gratitude to God for radical change.  The song is more than 200 years old and it still moves us.