John Wesley and the Aldersgate Awakening
On May 24, 1738 John Wesley felt his heart 'strangely warmed' at a Moravian society meeting on Aldersgate Street — the spark of the Methodist movement.
John Wesley (1703–1791) was an Anglican priest, Oxford fellow, and failed missionary to the colony of Georgia. Returning to London in disillusionment in 1738, he came under the influence of Moravian Christians, including Peter Böhler.
On the evening of May 24, 1738, Wesley reluctantly attended a Moravian society meeting in Aldersgate Street. Someone was reading aloud from Luther's preface to Romans. As Wesley later wrote in his journal: "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 salvation."
Wesley spent the next fifty years on horseback across Britain — preaching outdoors when pulpits were closed to him, organising "societies", and ordaining preachers. By his death in 1791 the movement he led counted over 70,000 members in Britain alone and had begun the explosive growth that would make Methodism the largest Protestant family in 19th-century America.