WILLIAM WILBERFORCE:
His Unpublished Spiritual Journals.
By Michael McMullen
Christian Focus. 464 pages. £22.99
ISBN 978 1 527 106 932
‘It is the view of this writer, that it was Wilberforce’s spirituality which drove him to pursue all he did.’ For Wilberforce’s life, one can read William Hague’s excellent biography, but for his inner life, MacMullen is unsurpassed, with much on his spiritual disciplines and the influences thereon.
For example, ‘Much affected by Doddridge’s directions for spending time, and hope to conform to them to some degree’, or ‘I walked out with Owen on spiritual mindedness and Newton on Communion with God.’ In the midst of endless public business, he would set aside days for ‘secret Prayer and Exercises.’
