The Conversion of John Wesley.
I left my native country in order to teach the Georgian Indians the nature of Christianity—but what have I learned myself in the meantime? That I, who went to America to convert others, was never myself converted to God!
I am not mad, though I thus speak, but I speak the words of truth and soberness, if haply some of those who still dream may awake and see that as I am so are they.
Are they read in philosophy? So was I. In ancient or modern tongues? So was I also. Are they versed in the science of divinity? I, too, have studied it many years.
Can they talk fluently upon spiritual things? The very same could I do. Are they plenteous in alms? Behold, I gave all my goods to feed the poor. Do they give of their labor as well as of their substance? I have labored more abundantly than they all.
Are they willing to suffer for their brethren? I have thrown up my friends, reputation, ease, country; I have put my life into my hand, wandering into strange lands; I have given my body to be devoured by toil and weariness.. But does all this (be it more or less, it matters not) make me acceptable to God? Does all I ever did or can know, say, give, do, or suffer justify me in His sight...?
Or that I am, as touching outward moral righteousness, blameless: Or, to come closer yet, the having a rational conviction of all the truths of Christianity? Does all this give me a claim to the holy, heavenly, divine character of a Christian? By no means.
This, then, have I learned in the ends of the earth—that I am fallen short of the glory of God; that my whole heart is altogether corrupt and abominable:... that, alienated as I am from the life of God, I am a child of wrath, and heir of Hell; that my own works, my own sufferings, my own righteousness, are so far from making any atonement for the least of those sins, which are more in number than the heirs of my head; that the best of people need atonement themselves, or they cannot abide His righteous judgment; that, having the sentence of death in my heart, and having nothing in or of myself to plead, I have no hope but that of being justified freely through the redemption that is in Jesus.
If it be said that I have faith... I answer, so have the devils a sort of faith, but still are strangers to the covenant of promise. The faith I want is a sure trust and confidence in God, that through the merits of the blood of Christ my sins are forgiven, and I reconciled to God.
While sitting listening to one reading Martin Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans, while Luther was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, John Wesley trusted in Christ and was saved.