I received an answer to yesterday's post via a rather roundabout route.

I was awakened before 5:30 this morning by a dream in which I was holding my younger daughter when she started choking on a plastic cup-like thing she'd been playing with. I don't know if the Heimlich worked, since I woke up, but as I thought about it, I don't think it would have.

I suppose I could derive lessons from that relative to my whining yesterday, but that's not what I'm here about.

So, anyway, I got up and went down to check my email. Townhall's batch of articles for today included one with the intriguing title of "Walden's Big Idea," by conservative media critic Brent Bozell. "Walden" evokes images of Thoreau's idyllic retreat and his wonderful writings, and I wanted to see what sort of big idea could come from there - and why it would inspire Bozell - so I clicked on it.

That brought me to the Amazing Grace Movie website. But the big trailer was taking quite a while to download, so I looked up Amazing Grace and William Wilburforce at WikiPedia. After I read those and the material on the movie website, the trailer finally played. I'm afraid I found a tear in my eye at the end of it.

So I was inspired to look for more about John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace, and Wilberforce. The best thing I found on Newton was this article which has some great links. The Wikipedia article was as good as anything I could find on Wilberforce. And the answer I found was in this article The Amazing Wilberforce, by Drew Dyck. Though, it looks like it's presented in greater detail in a book by a local Baptist minister, John Piper, Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce. I may just go down there and buy it from him personally.

It doesn't look to me like he's just piggybacking on the hype from the movie. Here's a recent blog entry from his organization's website. They sell the book for $5.49, but you can download it free as well.

A testiment to their seriousness.

But the message I got from The Amazing Wilberforce can be gleaned from his conclusion:

We are not all called to conventional ministry. But we are all called to be salt and light where God places us. When we are faithful in heeding that call, God always does His part. And suddenly, like Wilberforce did, we see the world begin to change.

Of course the evils to fight that I see in the world are all caused by overweaning government. The most direct dangers to my children are either caused by the government itself, or by those who emulate it or those who rebel against it's injustices and reject society's morality along the injustices committed by misquided legislators, bureaucrats and law enforcers. But the solution is still to live by - persuade everyone else to live by - "the Laws of Nature and Nature's God."

Update: I just found another article on WW.

And here is a part of Real Christianity, an updated version of WW's book. Which was originally titled A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middle Classes in This Country Contrasted with Real Christianity.