fervor that
he was excluded from pulpit after pulpit. He preached to the criminals
in the jails. He visited, under the superintendence of Boehler, some
persons who professed to have undergone the instantaneous and
supernatural illumination. He addressed the passengers whom he met on
the roads or at the public tables in the inns. On one occasion, at
Birmingham, he abstained from doing so, and he relates, with his usual
imperturbable confidence, that a heavy hailstorm which he afterward
encountered was a divine judgment sent to punish him for his neglect.

This condition could not last long. At length, on May 24th, a day which
he ever after looked back upon as the most momentous in his life--the
cloud was dispelled. Early in the morning, according to his usual
custom, he opened the Bible at random, seeking for a divine guidance,
and his eye lighted on the words, "There are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises, even that we would be partakers of the
divine nature." Before he left the house he again consulted the oracle,
and the first words he read were, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of
God." In the afternoon he attended service in St. Paul's Cathedral, and
the anthem, to his highly wrought imagination, seemed a repetition of
the same hope. The sequel may be told in his own words: "In the evening
I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was
reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter
before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the
heart through faith in Christ, I felt 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. I began to pray with all my might for those
who had in a more especial manner despitefully used me and persecuted
me. I then testified openly to all what I now first felt in my heart."

Pictures of this kind are not uncommon in the lives of religious
enthusiasts, but they usually have a very limited interest and
importance. It is, however, scarcely an exaggeration to say that the
scene which took place at that humble meeting in Aldersgate Street forms
an epoch in English history. The conviction which then flashed upon one
of the most powerful and most active intellects in England is the true
source of English Methodism. Shortly before this, Charles Wesley, who
ha