The 'Aldersgate Flame' sculpture features a relief of the passage from John Wesley's diary where he describes his Christian conversion in 1738 inside of an abstract depiction of a flame.
The image of a flame is a potent symbol of reason, ideas, spirit of God, or of enlightenment, or of light into darkness. All these meanings are part of the subject matter of this sculpture, and are reflected in the writings of John Wesley in his diary about his conversion.
The sculpture is installed outside of the Museum of London, near or at the spot of Wesley's conversion.
The sculpture's inscription reads as follows:
"Wednesday, May 24. 1738.
What occur’d on Wedn. 24, I think best to relate at large, after promising. What may make it the better understood. Let him that cannot receive it. Ask of the Father Of Lights, that he would give more Light both to him and me.
I think it was about five this Morning, that I opened my testament on those words. [Greek verse] “There are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises, even that he should be Partakers of the divine Nature. 2 Pet. I 4.. Just as I went out, I open’d it again on those words, “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” In the afternoon I was ask’d to go to St. Paul's. The anthem was, “Out of the deep have I call’d unto Thee, O Lord; O Lord, hear my Voice. O let thine Ears confider well the Voice of my Complaint. If thou, Lord, wilt the extreme to mark what is done amiss, who may abide it? But there is Mercy with Thee; therefore, thou shalt be feared. O Israel, trust in the Lord: for with the Lord. There is Mercy, and with him is plenteous Redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his Sins.”
14. In evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the Change which God works in the Heart thro’ Faith in Christ, I felt my Heart strangely warm’d. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for 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.
JOHN WESLEY."
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"Description:
Just outside the Museum of London, in what was once Aldersgate, is a bronze memorial, commemorating the conversion of John Wesley, on May 24th 1738. John Wesley's evangelical conversion took place in a now-demolished Moravian Church believed to have been on this site. On the plaque is inscribed the passage from Wesley's diary that day."