1. To this incident we are indebted for Wesley’s long continued record of the events and exercises of his daily life. In the preface to his first journal, dated September 20, 1740, he states, that about fifteen years ago (1725), in pursuance of an advice given by Bishop Taylor in his “Rules for Holy Living and Dying,” he began to take a more exact account than he had done before of the manner wherein he spent his time, writing down how he had employed every hour. The practice thus begun was uninterruptedly continued until his death, and issued in giving to the world one of the most interesting works in the English language; a work not only containing the best history of the great reformer, and of the rise and growth of the Methodist movement, but sparkling with the most racy remarks respecting men, books, places, science, witches, ghosts, and almost everything with which the writer came in contact. 2. Another, and far more important result of reading Kempis and Taylor, was an entire change of life. He writes respecting Kempis’s “Pattern:” “When I met with it in 1726,[32] the nature and extent of inward religion, the religion of the heart, now appeared to me in a stronger light than ever it had done before. I saw that giving even all my life to God (supposing it possible to do this, and go no further) would profit me nothing, unless I gave my heart, yea, all my heart, to Him. I saw that simplicity of intention, and purity of affection, one design in all we speak and do, and one desire ruling all our tempers, are indeed the wings of the soul, without which she can never ascend to God. I sought after this from that hour.”[33] Again, in reference to Taylor’s “Holy Living and Dying,” he observes: “In reading several parts of this book, I was exceedingly affected; that part in particular which relates to purity of intention. Instantly I resolved to dedicate all my life to God,—all my thoughts, and words, and actions,—being thoroughly convinced there was no medium; but that every part of my life (not some only) must either be a sacrifice to God, or myself, that is, in effect, the devil.”[34] Here, then, we have the turning-point in Wesley’s history. It was not until thirteen years after this, that he received the consciousness of being saved through faith in Christ; but from this time, his whole aim was to serve God and his fellowmen, and to get safe to heaven. No man could be more sincere, earnest, devout, diligent, and self-denying; and yet, during this lengthened period, he lived and laboured in a mist.