that the secret of salvation lies, or can lie, within the circle of
purely human effort. Wesley later describes Peter Bohler as 'One whom
God prepared for me.' But God in the toilsome and humiliating
experiences of Georgia, was preparing Wesley for Peter Bohler."

Bohler described Wesley as "a man of good principles, who did not
properly believe on the Saviour, and was willing to be taught." Later
on, in the city of London, where Wesley had been intimately associated
with Peter Bohler and had come directly under his influence, he one
night attended a religious service in Aldersgate Street, where the one
conducting the service was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to
the Romans. The effect of that service upon Wesley is best told in his
own words.

"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 my
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 special manner
despitefully used me and persecuted me. I then testified openly to all
there what I now first felt in my heart. 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 that
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."

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, in speaking of his own early experiences,