ley, was the daughter of Rev. Dr. Annesley, an Independent minister of marked ability. She was a woman of strong intellect, fine culture, deep piety, and rare domestic qualities. Few such women have ever graced our earth. She was the mother of nineteen children, nine of whom died in their infancy, and though by scanty means, she was compelled personally to attend to household duties, yet she diligently superintended the education of her children. She had regular school hours, opened with prayer, and in addition she conversed privately with each one every week on a personal religious life, closing the interview with appropriate prayer. With all this, she read the best religious works, and maintained a correspondence with her sons when absent at the university. When John, her sixth son, was seven years of age the parsonage was destroyed by fire, and he was barely rescued. In her journal she writes, "I do intend to be more particularly careful of the soul of this child, that Thou hast so mercifully provided for, than ever I have been." She began to teach him, as she did her other children, at five years of age. Under her tuition he made remarkable progress, and was early distinguished for demanding a reason for every thing, and an unwillingness to yield his convictions unless such reason was given.

In his eleventh year, through the kindness of the Duke of Buckingham, he was admitted into the

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Charter House School, in London, and enjoyed the tuition of able instructors. In his seventeenth year he was elected a student in Christ College, Oxford, where he continued until after his ordination as a minister, at the age of twenty-four. In the year following he was elected a fellow of Lincoln College. For several years he acted as tutor, and pursued his studies in divinity. He was early recognized as one of the foremost students in the university, and was distinguished for his pure classical taste. He was exceedingly methodical and logical in all his performances. He gathered around him a number of thoughtful and earnest young men, among whom was his brother Charles, the subsequent poet of Methodism, and the eloquent and untiring George Whitefield. They read the Greek Testament daily, conversed upon religious topics, formed plans for mutual improvement, and engaged in works of mercy and benevolence. They systematically visited the prisoners in the jails, and the poor in the lanes and alleys of the town, instructing and relieving them according to their means.

After this, for a short period Mr. Wesley acted as curate for his father, but was unwilling to bind himself to assume the active duties of a parish. As if in anticipation of his future, his heart then yearned for a larger sphere of usefulness. In 1735 the infant colony of Georgia having been founded by a number

of gentlemen, among whom was Governor Oglethorpe, Wesley was requested to become a missionary to the colonists and to the Indians. After prayerful consideration, hoping to be useful to both classes, he accepted the invitation. During his passage he was ceaselessly active in doing good, carefully instructing all who came within his influence, not neglecting a little colored cabin-boy, to whom he gave a number of lessons. In the colony he held services not only in English, but also occasionally read prayers in German and French. His strictness of religious life, and especially his severity of religious discipline, excited against him the opposition of leading families, and becoming embarrassed by them in his ministry, in about two years he returned to England.

During his voyage to America, Wesley became acquainted with some Moravians who were fellowpassengers. On one occasion, during a severe storm, when death seemed to be imminent, they manifested so much tranquillity, and even joy, that it produced a powerful impression on his mind, and he felt that he had not attained to their religious experience. Subsequently, in Georgia, one of their ministers said to him, "Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God?" The question troubled him, and he could not answer with confidence. He frequently attended their

services, witnessed the daily life and devotion of their ministers, and admired their apostolic simplicity and purity. Dissatisfied with his own comparative lack of faith, we find in his journal, on his return to England, this record: "I went to America to convert the Indians; but O, who shall convert me!... I have a fair, summer religion; I can talk well; nay, and believe myself, while no danger is near: but let death look me in the face, and my spirit is troubled, nor can I say, 'To die is gain.'

On his return to London he attended the social meetings of the Moravians, and both he and his. brother formed the acquaintance of Peter Boehler, a leading Moravian, and subsequently a bishop. They greatly enjoyed his society and conversation, and were profited by his experience. John's brother Charles first attained that clear religious assurance which both sought. Possibly owing to his logical cast of mind, and his determination not to be satisfied without the fullest evidence, the doubts and anxieties of John were not so soon removed. While, however, seeking and praying for clearer light, and for full assurance, he was so earnest in his ministry that thousands attended his services, many of whom were awakened. One evening in May, 1738, he attended a meeting of the Moravians. While one of them was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans, and while he was listening to the de

scription of the change which God works in the penitent heart, he says: "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 there what I now first felt in my heart." He was then nearly thirtyfive years of age, an accomplished scholar, an acute theologian, and an able writer. Then properly commenced that wonderful career which closed only with his death, at the advanced period of eightyeight years.

That summer he visited the continent of Europe, extending his journey to Herrnhut, that he might witness the discipline and order of the Moravians. and converse with their leading men. He carefully examined into their usages and institutions, and the agencies which they employed, both for their own spiritual benefit and for the spread of the truth. He also became acquainted with Count Zinzendorf, and other able ministers. He visited Halle to see the devoted Francke, and to inspect his Orphan House, his religious publications, and his general plans of usefulness. That visit, probably, influenced his subsequent course, and shaped, to some extent,