The Better Hour

I just finished reading William Wilberforce's book A Practical View of Christianity. It is a remarkable book. I am hoping to excerpt some quotes here in the future. A documentary on Wilberforce is scheduled to be on PBS beginning this weekend. You may have to set your record button for the below KCPT times.

Sunday, March 2, 6:00pm
Monday, March 3, 3:00am
Friday, March 7, 10:00pm

I came to Wilberforce looking for an example of a "Good Confession" in the public realm. What I received in the main from this book was a deep challenge to the nominalism of my own faith. The book is a pounding call to live out your faith in all of life. One can only imagine how moving it must have been to hear Wilberforce speak in Parliament. In the book, his rhetorical skill is constantly on display.

This book is amazingly relevant. His call to the church of his day is also a call to ours.

Here are a couple of quotes from his concluding thoughts.

"Let true Christians then, with becoming earnestness, strive in all things to recommend their profession, and to put to silence the vain scoffs of ignorant objectors. Let them boldly assert the cause of Christ in an age when so many, who bear the name of Christians are ashamed of Him: and let them consider as devolved on them the important duty of suspending for a while the fall of their country, and, perhaps, of performing a still more extensive service to society at large; not by busy interference in politics, in which it cannot but be confessed there is much uncertainty, but rather by that sure and radical benefit of restoring the influence of Religion, and of raising the standard of morality." A Practical View of Christianity, Wilberforce, Page 273

"to the decline of Religion and morality our national difficulties must both directly and indirectly be chiefly ascribed; and that the only solid hopes for the well-being of my country depend not so much on her fleets and armies, not so much on the wisdom of her rulers or the spirit of her people, as on the persuasion that she still contains many, who, in a degenerate age, love and obey the Gospel of Christ, on the humble trust that the intercession of these may still be prevalent, that for the sake of these, Heaven may still look upon us with an eye of favor." Page 274