The Personal Touch | Page 4

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,
writes thus: "When I was a young child staying with my grandfather,
there came to preach in the village Mr Knill, who had been a
missionary at St Petersburgh, and a mighty preacher of the gospel. He
came to preach for the London Missionary Society, and arrived on the
Saturday at the manse. He was a great soul winner, and he soon spied
out the boy. He said to me, 'where do you sleep? for I want to call you
up in the morning.' I showed him my little room. At six o'clock he
called me up, and we went into the arbour. There, in the sweetest way,

he told me of the love of Jesus and of the blessedness of trusting in
Him and loving Him in our childhood. With many a story he preached
Christ to me, and told me how good God had been to him, and then he
prayed that I might know the Lord and serve Him.
"He knelt down in the arbour and prayed for me with his arms about
my neck. He did not seem content unless I kept with him in the interval
between the services, and he heard my childish talk with patient love.
On Monday morning he did as on the Sabbath, and again on Tuesday.
Three times he taught me and prayed with me, and before he had to
leave, my grandfather had come back from the place where he had gone
to preach, and all the family were gathered to morning prayer. Then, in
the presence of them all, Mr Knill took me on his knee and said, 'This
child will one day preach the gospel, and he will preach it to great
multitudes. I am persuaded that he will preach in the chapel of
Rowland Hill, where (I think he said) I am now the minister.' He spoke
very solemnly, and called upon all present to witness what he said."
D.L. Moody was thus won to Christ. His Sunday School teacher in
Boston was Mr E.D. Kimball. He was not one of the ordinary type of
Sunday School teachers. Mere literal instruction on Sunday did not
satisfy his ideal of the teacher's duty. He knew his boys, and if he knew
them, it was because he studied them, because he became acquainted
with their occupations and aims, visiting them during the week. It was
his custom, moreover, to find opportunity to give to his boys an
opportunity to use his experience in seeking the better things of the
Spirit. The day came when he resolved to speak to young Moody about
Christ, and about his soul.
"I started down to Holton's shoe store," says Mr Kimball. "When I was
nearly there, I began to wonder whether I ought to go just then, during
business hours. And I thought maybe my mission might embarrass the
boy, that when I went away the other clerks might ask who I was, and
when