. . . Quand Dieu, dans sa bonté, nous accorde des moyens d'instruction aussi abondants pour ce que nous sommes le plus désireux de savoir, combien grande doit être la culpabilité, et combien terrible le châtiment, de l'ignorance volontaire !
WILLIAM WILBERFORCE (1759-1833)
MEMBRE DU PARLEMENT BRITANNIQUE, ABOLITIONNISTE ET LEADER ÉVANGÉLIQUE UNE VISION PRATIQUE
VIEW OF THE PREVAILING RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF PROFESSED CHRISTIANS, 1797
The truth is, their opinions on the subject of religion are not formed from the perusal of the Word of God. The Bible lies on the shelf unopened; and they would be wholly ignorant of its contents, except for what they hear occasionally at church, or for the faint traces which their memories may still retain of the lessons of their earliest infancy.
. . . When God of His goodness hath vouchsafed to grant us such abundant means of instruction in that which we are most concerned to know, how great must be the guilt, and how awful the punishment, of voluntary ignorance!
WILLIAM WILBERFORCE (1759–1833)
BRITISH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, ABOLITIONIST AND EVANGELICAL LEADER A PRACTICAL
VIEW OF THE PREVAILING RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF PROFESSED CHRISTIANS, 1797