The fall of the Bastille in 1789 had heralded the people's revolution in France.

By 1792 all idealism had vanished.
The September massacres loosed a tide of bloodshed as the mob and the guillotine ruled France.

Fears of a similar revolt abounded in England until any type of public agitation for reform was suspiciously labeled "Jacobinic," after the radicals who had fanned the flames of France's Reign of Terror.

Sensing the shift in the public mood, the House of Commons rejected Wilberforce's motion.

Weary with grief and frustration, Wilberforce wondered whether he should abandon his seemingly hopeless campaign.

One night as he sat at his desk, flipping through his Bible, a letter fluttered from between the pages.

The writer was John Wesley.

Wilberforce had read it dozens of times, but never had he needed its message as much as he did now.

“Unless God has raised you up .... you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils, but if God be for you, who can be against you ? Oh, be not weary of well-doing”

Wesley wrote.

Wilberforce's resolution returned …

Preface
Charles Colson