George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

14 GEORGE WHITEFIELD
his resolutions to be outwardly holy have stood a good trial
but he is still asking and seeking.
While in this state of mind Charles Wesley both helped and
hindered him—helped him with his books, and hindered him
by his example, which was that of an honest, anxious mind,
ignorant of the salvation which comes by faith in the Son of
God. The great Methodist, his ' never-to-be-forgotten ' friend,
as Whitefield affectionately calls him, brought him within sight
of the ' fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ,' and then
led him down a by-path, which brought him to the low levels
of Quietism, where he nearly perished. Charles Wesley did
not conduct him thus far, and never intended to set him in
that direction ; it was ' the blind leading the blind.' The
pupil, as we shall presently see, was the first to become a safe
teacher ; he knew ' the liberty of the sons of God,' while the
Wesleys were struggling in chains he had broken.
Shortly after the memorable breakfast, Charles lent him a
little book entitled ' The Life of God in the Soul of Man,' by
the Rev. Henry Scougal, M.A., which created no small wonder
within him by teaching ' that some falsely placed religion in
going to church, doing hurt to no one, being constant in the
duties of the closet, and now and then reaching out their hands
to give alms to their poor neighbours.' The positive teaching
of the book filled him with unspeakable joy. Whenjie.xead
' that
true religion is a union of the soul with God, or Christ
formed within us, a ray of Divine light instantaneously darted in
upon his-soul, and from that moment, but not till then, did he
know that he must be a new creature.' The doctrine of the
new birth, a birth which he had now experienced in his own
soul, became one of the main themes of his preaching to the
end of his life.
Charles Wesley now introduced him 'by degrees to the rest
of the Methodists,' and the introduction led him to adopt the