The Night a Theologian Finally Believed

On May 24, 1738, John Wesley — an ordained Anglican priest, Oxford scholar, and former missionary — walked reluctantly to a small gathering on Aldersgate Street in London. He had preached hundreds of sermons. He had sailed across the Atlantic to evangelize Native Americans in Georgia. He had fasted, prayed, studied, and served the poor with tireless discipline. And yet, by his own admission, he did not possess saving faith.…