Amazing Grace

~ Amazing Grace ~ How sweet the sound ~ That save a wretch like me ~

Many people should be very familiar with this hymn "Amazing Grace" written by John Newton. Today I just watch a film produced in 2006, entitled "Amazing Grace" directed by Michael Apted. It is about a true story of William Wilberforce and his 20-years courageous fight to abolish the British slave trade. Along the way Wilberforce meets intense opposition from the members of Parliament but his old preacher, John Newton, a reformed slave ship captain, urges him to see the cause through. Although he failed once and having severe chronic colitis, but with the strength from God he succeed in the abolition of slave trade in British.

The synopsis of the film:

The film begins with Wilberforce severely ill and taking a holiday in Bath, Somerset, with his cousin, Henry Thornton. It is here that he is introduced to his future wife, Barbara Spooner. Although he at first resists, she convinces him to tell her about his life. The story flashes back 15 years to 1782, and William recounts the events that led him to where he is now. Beginning as an ambitious and popular Member of Parliament (MP), William was persuaded by his friends William Pitt, Thomas Clarkson, Hannah More and others to take on the dangerous issue of the British slave trade which led him to become highly unpopular in the House of Commons amongst the Members of Parliament representing vested interests of the trade in the cities of London, Bristol, and Liverpool.

Exhausted, and frustrated that he was unable to change anything in the government, William becomes physically ill (in the film he is depicted as suffering from chronic colitis), which brings the story back to the present day. Having virtually given up hope, William considers leaving politics forever. Barbara convinces him to keep fighting because if he does not, no one else is capable of doing so. A few days afterward, William and Barbara marry; and William, with a renewed hope for success, picks up the fight where he had previously left off, aided by Thornton, Clarkson and James Stephen. In time, after many attempts to bring legislation forward over twenty years, he is eventually responsible for a bill being passed through Parliament in 1807, which abolishes the slave trade in the British empire forever.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Grace_(2006_film)

I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13)