A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity.

This book by Wilberforce comes highly recommended to anyone who has an interest in living a true Christian life. Wilberforce, who was elected to the British Parliament at age 21 and was instrumental in the abolition of slavery in Great Britain, was not called "the wittiest man in England" for nothing. His arguments are clear and logically impeccable; his writing is not obscure, but it is somewhat difficult, with long, involved sequences. The vocabulary is reminiscent of Jane Austen's novels, being not a story but a treatise. As he explains in his Introduction, his purpose is, "not to convince the Sceptic, or to answer the arguments of persons who avowedly oppose the fundamental doctrines of our Religion; but to point out the scanty and erroneous system of the bulk of those who belong to the class of orthodox Christians, and to contrast their defective scheme with a representation of what the Author apprehends to be real Christianity." He does exactly that, deploring the state of Christianity among his fellow middle- and higher-class countrymen, most of whom thought it was enough to go to church and to be called Christians. Nor does he merely bewail the state of things, but carefully explains the thinking of these people and respectfully contrasts their mistaken suppositions with Scripture truth; and although his words are addressed to his countrymen of the 19th century, it is surprising how often they hit home in 21st-century America. You merely have to replace some of the styles and pastimes of 19th-century England with their modern counterparts. Wilberforce was a member of the Anglican Church, and his writing reflects that, but nearly all of the book deals with the principles of Christian living, not with the details of initial salvation. There is a section in the middle of the last chapter addressing those who wish to become true Christians. Though somewhat lengthy, many readers find this book to be challenging, convicting, and helpful. William Wilberforce was brilliant, industrious, compassionate, and rigorously self-examining. He understood the dedication of the life of real Christianity, and he was a great man because of it.