again in England, and writing in his diary: "This, then, have I learned in the ends of the earth-that I 'am fallen short of the glory of God;' that my whole heart is altogether corrupt and abominable,' and, consequently, my whole life-seeing it cannot be that an 'evil tree' should 'bring forth good fruit;' that, 6 alienated' as I am from 'the life of God,' I am a 'child of wrath,' an heir of hell; that my own works, my own sufferings, my own righteousness, are so far from reconciling me to an offended God, so far from making any atonement for the least of those sins which are more in number than the hairs of my head,' that the most specious of them need an atone ment themselves, or they cannot abide his righteous judgment; that 'having the sentence of death' in my heart, and having nothing in or of myself to plead, I have no hope but that of being justified freely, through the redemption that is in Jesus;' I have no hope, but that if I seek, I shall find Christ, and 'be found in him, not having my own righteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.""

Again he writes, "It is now two years and almost four months since I left my native country, in order to teach the Georgian Indians the nature of Christianity. But what have I learned myself, meantime ? Why, what I the least of all suspected, that I, who went to America to convert others, was never myself

converted to God. I am not mad, though I thus speak, but I speak the words of truth and soberness, if, haply, some of those who still dream may awake, and see that as I am so are they." Were they read in philosophy he continues with eloquent earnestness, and in language which would cover boastfulness itself with shame; were they read in philosophy? so was he. In ancient or modern tongues? he was also. Were they versed in the science of divinity? he too had studied it many years. Could they talk fluently upon spiritual things? the very same could he do. Were they plenteous in alms? behold, he gave all his goods to feed the poor. Did they give of their labor as well as their substance? he had labored more abundantly. Were they willing to suffer for their brethren? he had thrown away his friends, reputation, ease, country; he had put his life in his hands, wandering into strange lands; he had given his body to be devoured by the deep, parched up with heat, consumed by toil and weariness, or whatsoever God should please to bring upon him. But, he continues, does all this, be it more or less it matters not, make him acceptable to God? Does all he ever did, or can, know, say, give, do, or suffer, justify him in His sight ? If the oracles of God are true, if we are still to abide by the law and testimony, all these things, though when cnnobled by faith in Christ they are holy, and just, and good, yet without it are dung and dross. He refuses

to be comforted by ambiguous hopes. "If," he adds, "it be said that I have faith, for many such things have I heard from many miserable comforters, I answer, so have the devils a sort of faith; but still they are strangers to the covenant of promise. The faith I want is a sure trust and confidence in God, that, through the merits of Christ, my sins are forgiven, and I reconciled to the favor of God."

Methodism is indebted to Moravianism for not only some of the most important features of its moral discipline, but for the personal "conversion" of both the Wesleys. On returning to London they found representatives of that community conducting certain social religious assemblies, which met weekly. To these they resorted, especially to one held in Fetter Lane, for they found there a better exposition of Christianity than at St. Paul's or Westminster Abbey, more responsive at least to those religious solicitudes which were quickening their souls into regenerated life. Peter Böhler, afterward a Moravian bishop, became now the daily companion and counselor of the two inquirers. Charles Wesley was the first to emerge, under his guidance, out of the mists which had so long hung about them, into the true light and peace of the Gospel, but not without much hesitancy, and certain theological fallacies which would seem incredible to the better instruction which Methodism has afforded to our age. He was dan

gerously ill, and Böhler came to sympathize with him. After praying at his bedside, the good Moravian took his hand and asked, "Do you hope to be saved?" "I answered, Yes." "For what reason do you hope to be saved?" "Because I have used my best endeavors to serve God." He shook his head and said no more. I thought him very uncharitable, saying in my heart, What, are not my endeavors a sufficient ground of hope? Would he rob me of my endeavors ? I have nothing else to trust to." Some time after this interview, while still uncertain of his life, the great truth of justification by faith dawned clearly upon his vision, he believed, and "entered into rest." "I now," he writes, "found myself at peace with God." His brother still cleaves to Böhler, "not losing an opportunity of conversing with him." They go to Oxford and converse in Latin on divine themes, in the University cloisters and adjacent groves. After one of these walks, Wesley records, "By him, in the hand of the great God, I was on Sunday [March 5th, 1738] clearly convinced of unbelief, of the want of that faith whereby alone we can be saved." Böhler has himself left an account of these interviews, and says that Wesley "wept bitterly while I was talking upon this subject, and afterward asked me to pray with him. I can freely affirm, that he is a poor broken-hearted sinner, hungering after a better righeousness than that which he has hitherto had,

even the righteousness of Christ. In the evening he preached from the words, 'We preach Christ crucified,' etc. He had more than four thousand hearers, and spoke in such a way that all were amazedmany souls were awakened."

On the evening of the 24th of May, 1738, Wesley attended one of the social religious assemblies of the Moravians, where he says "one was reading Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans." It was this original protest of the Reformation, in behalf of the doctrine of justification by faith, that led Wesley into the personal experience of that great truth and kindled it on all the altars of Methodism. The venerable document has never been cited by any of the historians of the denomination or biographers of Wesley,* yet it deserves attention not only for its historical connection with the denomination, but for its clear, bold, and genuinely Lutheran statement of the doctrine. "Faith alone,” it says, "justifies, and it alone fulfills the law. For faith, through the merits of Christ, obtains the Holy Spirit. This blessed Spirit renews, exhilarates, excites, and inflames the heart, so that it spontaneously performs what the law requires. And then, at length, from the faith thus efficaciously working and living in the heart, freely fluunt, proceed those works which are truly good. The apostle

* It is inserted in the Appendix of Jackson's "Centenary of Wesleyan Methodism."