and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature.” On leaving home, he opened on the text, “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” In the afternoon, he went to St. Paul’s Cathedral, where the anthem was full of comfort. At night, he went to a society-meeting in Aldersgate Street, where a person read Luther’s preface to the epistle to the Romans, in which Luther teaches what faith is, and also that faith alone justifies. Possessed of it, the heart is “cheered, elevated, excited, and transported with sweet affections towards God.” Receiving the Holy Ghost, through faith, the man “is renewed and made spiritual,” and he is impelled to fulfil the law “by the vital energy in himself.” While this preface was being read, Wesley experienced an amazing change. He writes: “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; and I then testified openly to all there, what I now first felt in my heart.” Towards ten o’clock, a troop of friends took him to his brother; they sang a hymn with joy; and then parted with a prayer.[240] To add to this would be folly. The questions proposed have been answered from Wesley’s own writings. For ten years he had believed in Christ, but never believed as he did now. He had been intensely pious; but now he possessed power over himself and sin which he had not possessed before. He had practised religion; but now he experienced its bliss. According to his own sermon, written nearly half a century subsequent to this, he was, as a _servant_ of God, _accepted_, and was _safe_; but now he _knew_ it, and was _happy_ as well as _safe_. There was sunshine in his soul, which lit up his face, and which turned the severe ascetic, for a season at least, into a joyful saint. Having given, as briefly and as clearly as we can, an account of the way in which Wesley, after ten years of earnest prayer, rigorous fasting, and self-sacrificing piety, was brought into the blissful enjoyment of a conscious salvation, this may be a fitting place to notice the man, by whose instrumentality he was taught the nature and fruits of saving faith.