Peter Böhler once more, and had now no objection to what the Moravian said on the nature of faith; namely, that it isto use the words of the Anglican Church-"a sure trust and confidence which a man hath in God, that through the merits of Christ his sins are forgiven, and he reconciled to the favor of God." Neither could he deny the happiness nor holiness which Böhler described as fruits of this living faith. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God," and, "He that believeth hath the witness in himself,” were texts which fully convinced him of the former, as "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin," and, "Whosoever believeth is born of God," did of the latter. He was staggered, however, for a time, at the Moravian doctrine of an instantaneous change of heart. Desponding under a sense of guilt, he subsequently adds: "Yet I hear a voiceand is it not the voice of God?—saying, 'Believe, and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth is passed from death unto life. God so loved the world that he gave his onlybegotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.' O, let no one deceive us by vain words as if we had already attained this faith-that is, the proper Christian faith. By its fruits we shall know. Do we already feel 'peace with God,' and 'joy in the Holy Ghost? Does 'his Spirit bear witness with our spirit that we are the children of God?' Alas, with mine he does not! O then, Saviour of men, save us from trusting in anything but thee! Draw us after thee! Let us be emptied of ourselves, and then fill us with peace and joy in believing, and let nothing separate us from thy love, in time or in eternity."

The indefatigable Böhler and his humble associates had already been guiding Charles Wesley into "the way of salvation by faith ;" and as Charles was the first of the brothers who received the name of Methodist, so was he the first to learn by experience the saving truth which Methodism was destined to witness to the world. He had conversed with Zinzendorf, and had been in one of the small Moravian as

semblies, where, he says, "I thought myself in a choir of angels."6 He was entertained during a period of sickness at the house of a pious mechanic, by the name of Bray, who was an attendant of the London "Societies," and who, he says, "is now to supply Peter Böhler's place," as the latter had left England. This devoted artisan read the Scriptures to him, and was able, from his own experimental knowledge of them, to direct his troubled mind. "God sent," he says, "Mr. Bray, a poor, ignorant mechanic, who knows nothing but Christ; yet, by knowing him, knows and discerns all things." A Christian woman of the family conversed with him on the nature of faith. "Has God bestowed faith on you?" he asked. "Yes, he has." "Why, have you peace with God?" "Yes, perfect peace.” · "And do you love Christ above all things?" "I do, above all things incomparably." "Then, are you willing to die?" “I am, and would be glad to die this moment; for I know all my sins are blotted out; the handwriting that was against me is taken out of the way, and nailed to the cross. He has saved me by his death. He has washed me by his blood. He has hid me in his wounds. I have peace in him, and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Her answers to the most searching questions he could ask were so full, that he had no doubt of her having received the atonement, and waited for it himself with a more assured hope.

On May 21, 1738, he inserts a remarkable passage in his Journal: "I waked in hope and expectation of His coming. At night my brother and some friends came and sang a hymn to the Holy Ghost. My comfort and hope were hereby increased. In about half an hour they went. I betook myself to prayer, the substance as follows: 'O, Jesus, thou hast said, I will come unto you. Thou hast said, I will send the Comforter unto you. Thou hast said, My Father

• Jackson's Life of Charles Wesley, chapter iv. I cannot too strongly commend this work. It has been our best history of Methodism. It is to be regretted that the American edition omits many of its best specimens of Charles Wesley's poetry. The English edition is a mosaic set with the gems of his genius.

Thou

and I will come unto you and make our abode with you. art God, who canst not lie. I wholly rely upon thy most true promise. Accomplish it in thy time and manner." Having thus prayed he was composing himself to sleep in quietness and peace, when he heard some one say, "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, arise, and believe, and thou shalt be healed of all thy infirmities." The words were so appropriate to his state of mind that they "struck him to the heart." He said within himself, “O that Christ would but speak thus to me!" and lay "musing and trembling for some time." Then ringing the bell for an attendant he sent to ascertain who had uttered the words, feeling in the mean time "a strange palpitation of heart," and saying, yet fearing to say, I believe, I believe. The devout woman who had before given him so positive a testimony respecting the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins, came to him and said: "It was I, a weak, sinful creature, that spoke; but the words were Christ's. He commanded me to say them, and so constrained me that I could not forbear." He sent for his pious host, and asked him whether it would be right for him to dare to presume that he now had faith? Bray answered, that he ought not to doubt of it; and proposed that they should pray together. "But first," said he, "I will read what I have casually opened upon: 'Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.' Still," says Wesley, "I felt a violent opposition and reluctance to believe; yet the Spirit of God strove with my own and the evil spirit, till, by degrees, he chased away the darkness of my unbelief. I found myself convinced, I knew not how nor when, and immediately fell to intercession. I now found myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ. My temper was for the rest of the day mistrust of my own great but unknown weakness. I saw that by faith I stood, and the continual support of faith kept me from falling, though of myself I am

ever sinking into sin. I went to bed still sensible of my own weakness; I humbly hope to be more and more so, yet confident of Christ's protection."

Three days after Charles had thus attained "rest to his soul," John also found it. He records that he continued to seek it, though with strange indifference, dullness, and coldness, and unusually frequent relapses into sin, till Wednesday, May 24. About five o'clock on the morning of that day he opened his Testament on these words: "There are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, even that ye should be partakers of the divine nature." 2 Peter i, 4. Just as he went out he opened it again on the passage, “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." In the evening he went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate-street, where a layman was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans; about a quarter before nine, while listening to Luther's description of the change which the Spirit works in the heart through faith in Christ, "I felt," he writes, 'my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. But it was not long before the enemy suggested, 'This cannot be faith, for where is thy joy? Then was I taught that peace and victory over sin are essential to faith in the Captain of our salvation; but that, as to the transports of joy which usually attend the beginning of it, especially in those who have mourned deeply, God sometimes giveth, sometimes withholdeth them, according to the counsels of his own will. After my return home I was much buffeted with temptations, but cried out and they fled away. They returned again and again; I as often lifted up my eyes, and He sent me help from his holy place. And herein I found the difference between this and my former state chiefly consisted. I was striving, yea fighting with all my might under the law as well as under grace. But then I was sometimes, if not often, conquered; now I was always conqueror." Thus had the feet of both the

brothers been directed into the path of life by the instrumentality of the London Moravians.

8

Wesley's mother, who was residing in London, was still his guide and counselor. He read to her a paper recording his late religious experience. She strongly approved it, and said "she heartily blessed God who had brought him to so just a way of thinking." Thus, in the thirty-fifth year of his age, after twenty-five years, as he elsewhere informs us,3 of religious solicitude and struggles, did he, by a clearer apprehension of the doctrine of justification by faith, find rest to his soul, and feel himself at last authorized to preach that blessing to all contrite men, from his own experimental proof of its reality. But had he not faith before? Doubtless he had; at another time he declared that he had, but that it was "the faith of a servant " rather than "of a child." The animadversions of Southey and Coleridge on his present experience are conclusively met by the direct question whether that experience was in accordance with the Scriptures or not. Was his previous state of inward struggle and desolation, or his present one of settled trust and peace, most in harmony with the Scriptural description of a regenerated soul, which has "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," having "not received the spirit of bondage unto fear, but the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father?" Any further question than this on the subject, is not one of Christian experience, but of Christianity itself.

The interest which these and previous events had given him for the Moravians, induced him to visit Herrnhut. In about a fortnight he set out on the journey, accompanied by his friend, Ingham, and six others. At Marienborn they saw Zinzendorf, who had organized there a brotherhood of about fifty disciples from various countries. "I continually met," says Wesley, "with what I sought for, living proofs of the power of faith; persons saved from inward as

* Compare his Journal, June 8, 1738, with June 13, 1739. These references effectually correct Southey's misrepresentations of her opinion on the subject. • Smith's History of Methodism, II, 1.