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But through it all, Wilberforce persisted. The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, passed March 25, 1807, is a vivid fulfillment of Paul's promise to the Galatians, "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not" (Gal. 6:9; KJV).

No less impressive—though less easy to quantify—were the results of Wilberforce's efforts on behalf of the working classes and the destitute. Some historians believe that these efforts helped avert the kind of revolutionary uprising in England that ravaged France. Many also see the voluntary charitable societies he and his circle pioneered, which soon numbered in the hundreds, as lifting Britain from the moral decay of the Regency era (the time of Wilberforce's youth) to the public-spiritedness of the Victorian era (beginning just after his death).

Kevin Belmonte, author of the recently released Hero for Humanity: A Biography of William Wilberforce (Navpress, 2002), draws a parallel between today's world and the world in which Wilberforce slogged through his long campaigns for the slaves and the poor. In a recent letter to Christian History, Belmonte said,

Wilberforce's most productive years as a reformer were those in which Britain was fighting for her national survival in the world war against Napoleon's France that endured from 1793-1815 (save for a brief peace in 1801). The abolition of the slave trade, educational and prison reforms, public health initiatives, legislation to better the lives of the poor and efforts to improve working conditions in factories—all these and more were pursued against the backdrop of war.

The reforms pursued by Wilberforce and his colleagues among the Clapham circle provide the most sterling of models for us as we find ourselves living in the midst of a new and frightening kind of war. Yet amidst the uncertainty of such a scenario is the wonderful reality that we can serve God, honor him through our callings and be blessed of him—this though the way may be hard and at times deeply discouraging. I find this tremendously heartening, and I suspect that your readers may as well.

Injustices such as those Wilberforce fought are always with us—in wartime as in peacetime. They are, in this fallen word, sadly ordinary. But as we seek to play our own parts against them, the grace of the "ordinary saints" is always available to us, too—if we will take the time to get to know them.

Chris Armstrong is managing editor of Christian History magazine.

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

More Christian History, including a list of events that occurred this week in the church's past, is available at ChristianHistory.net. Subscriptions to the quarterly print magazine are also available.

For more on Wilberforce, see Christian History issue #53, "William Wilberforce and the Abolition of the Slave Trade."

For more on Oswald Chambers's wisdom about life in wartime, see J. I. Packer's excellent Christianity Today article, Wisdom in a Time of War.

Christian History Corner appears every Friday at ChristianityToday.com. Previous editions include:

Just War, Just Nation? | World War II preacher points America back to the nation's soul. (Nov. 1, 2002)

No Sex (Before Marriage), Please … We're Christian | Miss America preaches a 2000-year-old message. (Oct. 25, 2002)

The King Is Coming, Eventually | What if you announced the rapture, but God didn't show up? (Oct. 18, 2002)

Timeline of the Spirit-Gifted | Before Moody, Finney, Edwards, and Mather came a long line of Catholic and Orthodox believers reputed to enjoy "the promise of the Father." (Oct. 11, 2002)

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November (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46