The Parliamentarian Who Almost Left

In the autumn of 1785, William Wilberforce sat across from John Newton in a London parlor, convinced he needed to leave Parliament and enter the clergy. Wilberforce was twenty-six, freshly converted, and burning with desire to serve God. Surely that meant ordination. Surely that meant a pulpit. Newton — the old sailor, the former slave trader, the man who had penned Amazing Grace — listened carefully.…