Isaac Milner (11 January 1750 – 1 April 1820) was a mathematician, an inventor, the President of Queens’ College, Cambridge and Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. The Lucasian Professor was one of the most prestigious academic posts in the world. Its holders include not only Isaac Milner but also Isaac Newton, Joseph Larmor, Charles Babbage, George Stokes, Paul Dirac and Stephen Hawking.
When one of Milner’s former students William Wilberforce asked him to be his conversation partner during summer travels around Europe, Milner agreed. Wilberforce regarded Milner as “very much a man of the world in his manners,” one who would help advance his political career—not knowing that Milner had a gift for winsomely articulating “the intellectual heart of Christianity.”
At the time, Wilberforce was a 21-year-old MP (Member of Parliament), a friend of Prime Minister William Pitt, and was given to spending his time in “shapeless idleness.” But that was about to change—because of Milner’s influence.
Casual Conversation and Good Books
As they traveled together across France, Milner’s views on religion emerged. Milner had been influenced by the preaching of John Wesley and had, as the historians described it, “certain evangelical leanings.” Teacher and student grew to be friends as they engaged in many discussions about faith and the truth of Scripture. They studied together a popular evangelical book The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul by Philip Doddridge. They also took turns reading from the Greek New Testament.
As C.S. Lewis had commented regarding himself, “A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading . . . All the books were beginning to turn against me.”
When Wilberforce returned to London in the fall of 1785, he was in the midst of what he would later describe as his “Great Change,” or his embrace of evangelical Christianity. His friend and mentor had “wrecked” his life. Caught in a dilemma, Wilberforce couldn’t decide whether he could or should serve God in politics. Fortunately, Milner, John Newton and others suggested he could do both–serve God and be an MP.
Captivating Visions
Arising out of the Great Change in his new life in Christ, Wilberforce became captive to a compelling vision for his life. Two years after his conversion, Wilberforce wrote in his journal,
“God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners.”
When Wilberforce began to work for the abolition of the slave trade, his teacher, mentor and friend, Isaac Milner steeled him for the 20 year political battle ahead: If you carry this point in your life, that life will be better spent than in being prime minister of many years.
In the last letter he ever wrote, the evangelist John Wesley encouraged Wilberforce with these words.
Balam, February 24, 1791
Dear Sir:
Unless the divine power has raised you up to be as Athanasius contra mundum, I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God before you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it. . . .
That he who has guided you from youth up may continue to strengthen you in this and all things, is the prayer of, dear sir,
Your affectionate servant,
John Wesley
As Abraham Lincoln was a young man in the 1830s, he wrote that the name of Wilberforce was on everybody’s lips.
And the rest is history.
Eric Metaxas’ award winning biography of Wilberforce, Amazing Grace, is not to be missed. Milner’s influence comes out so clearly in the chapter on Wilberforce’s Great Change. As I read it, I couldn’t help but think of the influence we have as faculty. We too can help change the world.
Wilberforce proposed two questions that we as Christ-followers should hear:
First, am I using my time, money, body, and mental powers so I can give a joyful account of my life to God?
Second, am I putting into practice my beliefs about God in all things and proving, as a servant of Christ, that I am moved to serve others by the principle of love that grants freedom from the obsession with fame, ambition, and greediness?
Jay Lorenzen