{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_38950/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_38950","id":"gutenberg_38950","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38950","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - British","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Fletcher, John, 1729-1785"],"text":"Produced by Delphine Lettau, Diane Monico, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFLETCHER OF MADELEY.\n\n\n\n\nMEN WORTH REMEMBERING:\n\n_Price Half-a-Crown each._\n\n\n1. Henry Martyn.\n      By the Rev. Canon C. D. BELL, D.D.\n\n2. William Wilberforce.\n      By the Rev. JOHN STOUGHTON, D.D.\n\n3. Philip Doddridge.\n      By the Rev. CHARLES STANFORD, D.D.\n\n4. Stephen Grellet.\n      By the Rev. WILLIAM GUEST, F.G.S.\n\n5. Robert Hall.\n      By the Rev. E. PAXTON HOOD.\n\n6. Thomas Chalmers, D.D., LL.D.\n      By the Rev. DONALD FRASER, D.D.\n\n7. William Carey.\n      By the Rev. JAMES CULROSS, D.D.\n\n8. Andrew Fuller.\n      By his Son, A. G. FULLER.\n\n9. Alexander Duff, D.D., LL.D.\n      By THOMAS SMITH, D.D.\n\n10. Richard Baxter.\n      By the Very Rev. G. D. BOYLE, M.A., Dean of Salisbury.\n\n11. Samuel Rutherford.\n      By the Rev. ANDREW THOMSON, D.D.\n\n12. John Knox.\n      By WM. M. TAYLOR, LL.D.\n\n13. Fletcher of Madeley.\n      By the Rev. F. W. MACDONALD.\n\n\nLONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, Paternoster Row.\n\n\n\n\nFLETCHER OF MADELEY.\n\n\nBY THE REV.\nFREDERIC W. MACDONALD,\n\n_Theological Tutor, Handsworth College,\nBirmingham._\n\n\nLondon:\nHODDER AND STOUGHTON,\n27, PATERNOSTER ROW.\n\nMDCCCLXXXV.\n\n\n\n\nButler & Tanner,\nThe Selwood Printing Works,\nFrome, and London.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nI have to express my obligations to the Rev. L. Tyerman for the help I\nhave received in writing this little book from his life of Fletcher,\npublished two years ago under the title of \"Wesley's Designated\nSuccessor.\" Mr. Tyerman's labours in the sphere of Methodist history\nand biography are too well known to require any word of commendation\nfrom me. It may be enough to say that he has made it impossible for any\none to study the history of the great movement with which the names of\nWesley, Whitefield, and Fletcher are associated, without having\nrecourse to his volumes. There may be differences of opinion respecting\nMr. Tyerman's judgments upon men and things; there can be none whatever\nas to his patient, laborious research, and perfect honesty in the use\nof his ample materials.\n\nI am also much indebted to my friends the Rev. George Mather, now of\nFalmouth, and Mr. George Stampe, of Great Grimsby, for the opportunity\nof examining a considerable number of Fletcher's manuscripts, hitherto\nunpublished. It was not to be expected that fresh light could be thrown\non Fletcher's character, but these papers have enabled me to supply\nsome links, and add a few details to the story of his life.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n                                                 PAGE\n    CHAPTER I.\n\nINTRODUCTORY                                        1\n\n\n    CHAPTER II.\n\nEARLY LIFE                                         10\n\n\n    CHAPTER III.\n\nSETTLES IN ENGLAND.--HIS CONNEXION\n  WITH WESLEY AND THE METHODISTS                   19\n\n\n    CHAPTER IV.\n\nSPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE                               34\n\n\n    CHAPTER V.\n\nENTERS THE MINISTRY                                44\n\n\n    CHAPTER VI.\n\nFIRST YEARS AT MADELEY.--DIFFICULTIES\n  AND DISCOURAGEMENTS                              56\n\n\n    CHAPTER VII.\n\nCONTROVERSY AND CORRESPONDENCE                     73\n\n\n    CHAPTER VIII.\n\nTREVECCA COLLEGE.--THE CALVINIST CONTROVERSY       95\n\n\n    CHAPTER IX.\n\nWESLEY'S PROPOSAL.--FAILING HEALTH                119\n\n\n    CHAPTER X.\n\nRESIDENCE IN SWITZERLAND                          131\n\n\n    CHAPTER XI.\n\nRETURN TO ENGLAND.--MARRIAGE                      154\n\n\n    CHAPTER XII.\n\nLAST YEARS                                        168\n\n\nAPPENDIX                                          193\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n_INTRODUCTORY._\n\n\nThere is reason to think that the interest felt in the Evangelical\nRevival of the last century, after declining for awhile, is again\nsteadily increasing. It may be said that this quickened interest is but\npart of a larger intellectual movement, of a reaction, in which we have\npassed from undue disparagement of the eighteenth century to an\nexaggerated estimate of its importance and value. Nor is it likely,\nwhen eighteenth century forms of literature, philosophy, and social\nlife are being studied with so much sympathy, that the most prominent\nevent in its religious history would escape attention.\n\nThere is some truth in this, but it is not the whole account of the\nmatter. The fact is, and we are continually being reminded of it, the\nconsequences of the Revival are by no means exhausted. We are not yet\nat the end of its manifestations; and though some of its later forms\nhave new and striking features of their own, their relation to the\noriginal movement is attested both by historic descent and by inward\nresemblances and affinities. So long as this is the case, and the\nRevival, or Reformation, of a century and a half ago is still amongst\nthe living forces that influence society, the interest with which its\nrise and progress are regarded will continue. Active Christian spirits\nwill seek to understand and respond to its newer developments; and\nothers, whether in sympathy with those developments or not, will be\nobliged to take account of them, and assign them, as far as possible,\nto their true succession and order.\n\nIn addition to its direct, historical consequences, moreover, time is\ncontinually discovering or suggesting remoter and more complicated\nresults of the Evangelical Revival, thus rendering the study of the\nwhole question at once more difficult and more attractive. What were\nits real relations, if any, to the teaching of Coleridge, the points of\nagreement and divergence, of attraction and repulsion between it and\nthat original and influential mind, to which so many, who in their turn\nhave influenced the course of religious thought in England, have\nconfessed themselves supremely indebted? What is the connexion,\nrevealed both by resemblances and by contrasts, between the Evangelical\nRevival of the eighteenth century and the Tractarian or Anglo-Catholic\nmovement of the nineteenth, between the Oxford of John and Charles\nWesley and the Oxford of Keble and Pusey and Newman? What has the\nRevival contributed to the gradual but unmistakable change that has\ncome over the theology of the Calvinistic Churches; and, again, to the\nprogress of democracy in Church and State? As regards some at least of\nthese questions, it is too soon to look for precise and final answers;\nbut their relevance will be admitted, and the evidence by which they\nmust be determined accumulates from year to year.\n\nWhile the interest in the Evangelical movement is thus reinforced from\nvarious quarters, time, in the exercise of its kindliest office, has\nremoved a principal hindrance to a fair appreciation of it. Justice is\nnow generally done to the character of its leaders, and the existing\ndifferences of opinion as to the value of their work are, for the most\npart, differences of which there is no need to be ashamed. It is no\nlonger necessary to vindicate their memory from ignoble charges of\nfanaticism, hypocrisy, or ambition. To slander Wesley, or to ridicule\nWhitefield, has ceased to bring profit or to give pleasure to any one.\nHardly a month passes but a monument is erected, a eulogy pronounced, a\ntribute paid to one or other of the men who, a hundred and fifty years\nago, brought new life to the English Church and nation. Their\nreputation is not now a charge upon the loyalty of particular bodies of\nChristians, at once doing battle for themselves and for the character\nof their fathers and founders; they belong to the Churches, which are\nmany, to the Church, which is One, and their names are in the keeping\nof the general company of Christians far and near.\n\nAnd this change from the strife and bitterness of former days has come\nabout, as such changes are wont to come, not so much by valiant\nadvocacy or successful disputation, as by the sure working of God upon\nthe hearts of men, enabling them to \"discern between the righteous and\nthe wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him\nnot.\" Sooner or later this discernment comes, stealing through a\nthousand channels of conviction into the heart and conscience of a\npeople, no one knows precisely when or how; and far more weighty than\nany formal acts of canonization are the verdicts by which the\nconscience of after ages names its benefactors and heroes, often to the\nreversal of the passionate judgments of earlier times. The monument of\nthe Wesleys is in Westminster Abbey; Whitefield's grave is in America;\nFletcher's ashes lie in Madeley churchyard. Each has his record in a\nfitting inscription; but their common epitaph, as men once persecuted\nfor righteousness' sake, but now to be had in everlasting remembrance,\nwas written long before: \"This was he whom we had sometimes in\nderision, and a proverb of reproach; we fools accounted his life\nmadness, and his end to be without honour: how is he to be numbered\namong the children of God, and his lot is among the saints!... The\nrighteous live for evermore; their reward also is with the Lord, and\nthe care of them is with the Most High.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn the minutes of the Methodist Conference which met at Bristol, in\nJuly, 1786, the following entry occurs:\n\n\"_Q._ Who has died this year?\n\n\"_A._ John Fletcher, a pattern of all holiness, scarce to be paralleled\nin a century.\"\n\nSuch is the brief record that marks the passing away of a man whose\nplace in the love and veneration of Wesley and of the Methodists was\nunique. Second only to the great leader himself in his influence, and\nin the special character of that influence leaving even Wesley behind,\nFletcher's loss was the greatest sustained by the Revival from the\ndeath of Whitefield, in 1770, to that of Wesley, in 1791. One word in\nthe short obituary notice reveals the secret of his power; it was\n_holiness_.\n\nThe term saint, in the New Testament extended to all the members of\nChrist, is often used colloquially to describe any one who, in\ncomparison with worldly men or mere formal Christians, is conspicuous\nfor reality and earnestness of spiritual life; but it may be applied to\nFletcher in that last and highest sense, which makes it so rare a\ndesignation even of the best men. He possessed in an exceptional degree\nthe qualities that constitute saintliness: deep humility and\ntransparent purity, absolute unworldliness, with love unfailing, and\npatience that had its perfect work. The impression that he made upon\nthose with whom he came in contact has been renewed upon biographers\nand historians.\n\n\"Fletcher was a saint,\" is the testimony of earlier and later\nwitnesses. To none of his associates in the great Revival, the\ngoodliest company of Christian men the age possessed, is this testimony\nborne in the same sense and with the same entire agreement. He was\nexcelled by them in one respect and another; he could not, for example,\nsustain comparison for a moment with Wesley in the commanding powers,\nintellectual and moral, that have placed him among the greatest\nleaders of the Church Catholic; but for seraphic piety, for sanctity\nthat had no perceptible spot or flaw, Fletcher of Madeley stood alone.\nThis is the deliberate judgment of those who knew him best. Of these\nWesley was the chief. In the funeral sermon which he preached soon\nafter Fletcher's death he said: \"I was intimately acquainted with him\nfor above thirty years. I conversed with him morning, noon, and night,\nwithout the least reserve, during a journey of many hundred miles. And\nin all that time I never heard him speak an improper word, or saw him\ndo an improper action. To conclude: Many exemplary men have I known,\nholy in heart and life, within fourscore years; but one equal to him I\nhave not known, one so inwardly and outwardly devoted to God. So\nunblamable a character in every respect I have not found either in\nEurope or America, and I scarce expect to find another such on this\nside eternity.\"\n\nBenson, for many years the intimate friend of Fletcher, wrote to Wesley\nas follows: \"I have often thought the testimony that Bishop Burnet\nbears of Archbishop Leighton might be borne of him with equal\npropriety: 'After an intimate acquaintance of many years, and after\nbeing with him by night and by day, at home and abroad, in public and\nin private, ... I must say, I never heard an idle word drop from his\nlips, or any conversation which was not to the use of edifying. I never\nsaw him in any temper in which I myself would not have wished to be\nfound at death.' Any one who has been intimately acquainted with Mr.\nFletcher will say the same of him, and they who knew him best will say\nit with the most assurance.\"\n\nAll other contemporary notices of Fletcher are in the same strain. So\nwith the historians and biographers of subsequent times. \"Fletcher in\nany communion would have been a saint,\" says Southey. \"He was a saint,\"\nwrote Isaac Taylor, \"as unearthly a being as could tread the earth at\nall.\" \"Fletcher,\" says Robert Hall, \"is a seraph who burns with the\nardour of Divine love. Spurning the fetters of mortality, he almost\nhabitually seems to have anticipated the rapture of the beatific\nvision.\"\n\nThese testimonies may be closed, though they are not exhausted, by a\npassage from one of the most recent and valuable works on the religious\nlife of the last century:[1] \"If John Wesley was the great leader and\norganiser, Charles Wesley the great poet, and George Whitefield the\ngreat preacher of Methodism, the highest type of saintliness which it\nproduced was unquestionably John Fletcher. Never perhaps since the rise\nof Christianity has the mind which was in Christ Jesus been more\nfaithfully copied than it was in the Vicar of Madeley. To say that he\nwas a good Christian is saying too little. He was more than Christian,\nhe was Christlike.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFletcher's first biographer was John Wesley. In the preface to the\nfuneral sermon preached in London on November 6th, 1785, he says: \"I\nhastily put together some memorials of this great man, intending, if\nGod permit, when I have more leisure and more materials, to write a\nfuller account of his life.\" Twelve months later, being then in the\neighty-fourth year of his age, the following entry appears in his\n\"Journal\": \"_Oct. 25th_, 1786. I now applied myself in earnest to the\nwriting of Mr. Fletcher's life, having procured the best materials I\ncould. To this I dedicated all the time I could spare till November,\nfrom five in the morning till eight at night. These are my studying\nhours; I cannot write longer in a day without hurting my eyes.\" The\nlabour of love was soon completed, and Wesley published \"A Short\nAccount of the Life and Death of the Rev. John Fletcher,\" with the\nmotto, \"Sequor, non passibus aequis.\" That was no conventional\neulogy--Wesley did not deal in them,--but, as we have seen, his heart's\ntribute to the holiest man he had ever known. And if the venerable\nWesley counted himself but as one who followed, and that at a distance,\nthe saintly Vicar of Madeley, he would be a hardy writer who could set\nhimself to portray such a life and character unvisited by misgivings\nand unchastened by the responsibility that comes from the study of high\nexamples of Christian holiness. But for the reader also, if his heart\nis as the writer's, there will be a share alike in the humiliation and\nin the hopes which the study of a holy life may well afford. This brief\nmemoir of Fletcher of Madeley is attempted because no lapse of time or\nchange of circumstances can make it unseasonable to contemplate a\ncharacter like his. Such men do not die:\n\n         \"----a sweet and virtuous soul,\n       Like seasoned timber, never gives;\n     But though the whole world turn to coal,\n           Then chiefly lives.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\n_EARLY LIFE._\n\n(1729-1750.)\n\n\nJohn Fletcher was a Swiss by birth and education. His name was properly\nJean Guillaume de la Flechere. The origin of the anglicized form that\nhe afterwards adopted is thus explained by himself: \"Soon after I came\nto England my English friends, complaining of the length of my Swiss\nname, began to contract it by dropping the French syllables of it. So\nthey called me Fletcher, and by that name I have been known among the\nEnglish ever since.\" He came of an old and respectable family, not\nwithout distinguished connexions. His father had, in early life, held a\ncommission in the French army, but, retiring from the service in order\nto marry, had returned to his native country, where he became a colonel\nin the militia, and _Assesseur Baillival_, or assistant judge, of Nyon.\nHere he resided in a fine old house in the outskirts of the town, not\nrich, but possessing a modest fortune and considerable local influence;\nand here John Fletcher, the youngest of eight children, was born on\nSeptember 12th, 1729.\n\nNyon is an old town dating from Roman times. It is about fifteen miles\nfrom Geneva, on the northern shore of the lake, picturesquely placed\nat the water's edge, with the Jura Mountains rising in the distance\nbehind, and the mountains of Savoy magnificently visible across the\nlake in front. The passion for Swiss scenery had not then become common\nand conventional. Some fifty years later Gibbon mentions it as of\nrecent origin, counting it \"a misfortune rather than a merit that the\nsituation and beauty of the Pays de Vaud ... and the fashion of viewing\nthe mountains and glaciers have opened us on all sides to the\nincursions of foreigners.\" Fletcher was not before his time with regard\nto this most modern of sentiments or susceptibilities. There is little\ntrace of impressions made on him either by the grandeur or the\nloveliness of his native scenery. In a letter written when, at fifty\nyears of age, he was revisiting Nyon, he invites a friend to come to\n\"this delightful country, and share a pleasant apartment, and one of\nthe finest prospects in the world in the house where I was born.... We\nhave a fine, shady wood near the lake, where I can ride in the cool all\nthe day, and enjoy the singing of a multitude of birds.\" And then he\nadds, \"But this, though sweet, does not come up to the singing of my\ndear friends in England.\"\n\nFletcher received his early education at a school in Nyon, and was then\nsent, with his two brothers, to the Academy, now the University, of\nGeneva, where he spent seven years in diligent and successful study. On\nleaving Geneva he spent some time at Lenzburg, chiefly for the sake of\nlearning German. In the scanty records of his youth there is a\nremarkable succession of perils and hairbreadth escapes. Fletcher was\na bold and skilful swimmer, and on at least two occasions his\nadventurousness nearly cost him his life. Once he swam with a companion\nto a small, rocky island, about five miles from the shore of the lake.\nThey found it so steep and smooth that they could not land, and it was\nnot until they were completely exhausted by swimming round it that they\ncame upon a place where they could crawl ashore, and whence they were\nrescued by a passing boat. The other adventure was still more perilous.\nHe was swimming in the Rhine, and was drawn unawares into the\nmid-stream, where, he says, \"the water was extremely rough, and poured\nalong like a galloping horse.\" After a long and desperate struggle with\nthe current, he was carried into a mill-race, and hurled among the\npiles on which the mill stood. A blow on the breast made him senseless,\nand he knew nothing more till he rose on the other side of the mill,\nafter being among the piles for twenty minutes, to find himself five\nmiles from the place where he had started. Another time, when he and\nhis brother were fencing with swords blunted with a kind of button\nfixed upon the point, the button on his brother's weapon broke, and\nFletcher received a desperate thrust in the side that had well-nigh\nkilled him. These incidents have often been referred to as\nillustrations of the Providence that directed his life; but they reveal\nin addition elements of character that should not be overlooked. There\nwas nothing effeminate in him. On this point a mistake may be made. It\nis possible to misinterpret the delicate features, with their rapt\nexpression, the almost excessive modesty, the language fuller charged\nwith emotion than is quite our English wont. But there was strength,\nnot weakness, beneath these often misread indications of character. The\nnatural man in John Fletcher was a soldier and an athlete, and these\nqualities of manhood remained with him to the end, though turned to\nhigher issues and manifest in other forms than in these early years.\n\nFrom childhood Fletcher had a tender conscience and a devout spirit,\nand was exceptionally free from fault. He says, \"I think it was when I\nwas seven years of age that I first began to feel the love of God shed\nabroad in my heart, and that I resolved to give myself up to Him, and\nto the service of His Church, if ever I should be fit for it.\" Years\nafterwards there came for him a time of spiritual conflict, of\nheart-searching, and deep repentance, from which he passed into the\nclear light of reconciliation with God through faith in Christ; but his\nconversion had this in common with Wesley's, that it crowned and\ncompleted the piety of his youth. In both cases conversion was a\nmomentous, unmistakable epoch; but not by reason of any change from\nreckless and ungodly living. It was one of those supreme events in the\nhistory of the soul that has its foundations and beginnings long\nbefore. Its relation to the past is not, outwardly at least, one of\ncontrast, and inwardly it is not wholly so. The continuity of the\nspiritual life is not broken, but rather a stage is reached where the\ndiscipline and endeavours of previous years, having served their end,\npass into a larger liberty and a more abundant life. \"It pleased God to\nreveal His Son in me,\" is the true account, not only of sudden\nconversions, properly so called, but of that last act of grace which\nbrings devout and serious youth to the full knowledge of Him whom they\nhave long sought, and served while yet seeking.\n\nFletcher's student life seems to have been wholly free from the vices\nwhich, both then and now, are too generally counted venial, or even\nnatural and reasonable, in youth. His subsequent self-upbraidings were\ndeep enough, but they must not be misunderstood. When he says, in a\nletter written to his brother in his 26th year, \"My infancy was\nvicious, and my youth still more so,\" the reference is not to open,\nactual sins, but to that ignorance of the true Christian life which,\napprehended in its full significance, appears to the regenerate\nconscience as the one root-evil. His confessions have little in common\nwith those of Augustine, or Bunyan, or John Newton. The most particular\nallusion they contain is the following: \"I formed an acquaintance with\nsome deists, at first with the design of converting them, and\nafterwards with the pretence of thoroughly examining their sentiments.\nBut my heart, like that of Balaam, was not right with God. He abandoned\nme, and I enrolled myself in their party. A considerable change took\nplace in my deportment. Before, I had a form of religion, and now I\nlost it; but as to the state of my heart, it was precisely the same. I\ndid not remain many weeks in this state; the Good Shepherd sought after\nme, a wandering sheep. Again I became professedly a Christian; that\nis, I resumed a regular attendance at church and the communion, and\noffered up frequent prayers in the name of Jesus Christ. There were\nalso in my heart some sparks of true love to God, and some germs of\ngenuine faith; but a connexion with worldly characters, and an undue\nanxiety to promote my secular interests, prevented the growth of these\nChristian graces.\"\n\nIt had been Fletcher's desire as a child to become a Christian\nminister. This object was still kept in view during his studies at\nGeneva, and appears to have been approved by his family; but as he\nentered his twentieth year his views underwent a considerable change,\nthe notion of entering the ministry was abandoned, and he sought a\nmilitary career instead. One or two reasons may be assigned for this\nchange. He feared he was unfit for the ministry. Though outwardly of\nblameless life, he felt, as the time for ordination drew near, his need\nof true faith in Christ and love to God, and shrank from an office for\nwhich these were the first requisites. Further, a doctrinal difficulty\ndisclosed itself. \"I was disgusted by the necessity I should be under\nto subscribe the doctrine of predestination\"; and while thus\nreligiously and doctrinally disturbed, the influence of certain friends\ncombined with his own inclination to suggest that frequent resource of\nthe more adventurous youth of Switzerland, military service in some\nforeign army. Fletcher's father had served the king of France, why\nshould not he take service under the king of Portugal, who was about to\nsend troops to Brazil? Accordingly, disregarding his father's\nremonstrances, but following his example, he made his way to Lisbon,\nraised a company of his countrymen, doubtless by the method embodied in\nthe proverb, \"Pas d'argent, pas de Suisse,\" and received a captain's\ncommission in the Portuguese service. This kind of professional\nsoldiership, for which no patriotism or devotion to a noble cause could\nbe pleaded, did not shock the general conscience in Fletcher's day. It\npresented no difficulty to his own. That such a vocation is in our own\nday generally condemned, being barely tolerated under the most\nextenuating circumstances, is an illustration of progress in morals and\nreligion,--one of many that may be set over against some discouraging\naspects of the times.\n\nMeanwhile Fletcher is waiting in Lisbon for a remittance from home\nwhich does not arrive. His parents disapprove of this\nPortuguese-Brazilian venture, and refuse to send him money. But his\nmind is made up, and with or without money he will go. An unlooked for\nhindrance, however, prevents. A servant waiting upon him at breakfast\nlet fall a kettle of hot water, and so scalded his leg as to lay him\nhelpless in bed. In the meantime the ship sailed for Brazil without\nhim, and was never heard of again.\n\nOn his recovery he returned to Switzerland, there being no further\nprospect of employment in the Portuguese service. But his desire for\nmilitary life was unabated. His uncle and eldest brother were in the\nDutch service, and in a little while he received word that his uncle\nhad procured a commission for him. He at once set out for Flanders, but\nbefore he could join the army the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in\nOctober, 1748, entirely altered the situation. Troops were disbanded or\nsent home, and the uncle on whom his hopes depended left the service,\nand died soon afterwards. With his death Fletcher's hopes were entirely\ndestroyed, and he abandoned all thoughts of becoming a soldier.\n\nThe first well-marked stage of his history was now completed. He had\nreached manhood. He had received the best education that his age and\nhis country afforded. In temperament he was active and ardent, in\nspirit serious and devout; and though he had declined from his early\npiety, he was entirely free from the follies and vices so easily\nlearnt, and so readily condoned, at college and in camp. It was\nimpossible to say how a life with such preparations would open out.\nThat its promise was fair, and even noble, might well be judged; but\nthat it should find at once the supply of its own deepest want, and the\nsphere for the employment of its powers, in a foreign country, and in\nconnexion with a religious movement wholly unknown in Switzerland, and\nunsanctioned either by Church or society in England, was among the\nthings that could not possibly be foreseen. Lives like Fletcher's, when\nthey lie complete before us, are luminous in the linked succession of\ndivinely directed steps; the overruling Providence is so manifest that\nnothing which takes place surprises us; but, followed in their natural\norder, the determining events are unforeseen, they come in unlikely\nforms and from quarters whence they could not be expected. From Swiss\nModeratism Fletcher was to pass into the bosom of English Methodism.\nThe student reared in the school of Calvin and Beza was to be the\napologist of Evangelical Arminianism. He was to become, not\n\n     \"Captain, or colonel, or knight-in-arms\"\n\nin Portugal, Brazil, or Flanders, but \"Vicar of Madeley.\" But of all\nthis he knew nothing;--how could he?\n\n     \"I know that the way of man is not in himself:\n     It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n     \"Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see\n     The distant scene; one step enough for me.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n_SETTLES IN ENGLAND.--HIS CONNEXION WITH\n WESLEY AND THE METHODISTS._\n\n(1750-1755.)\n\n\nBeing now without occupation, or any definite prospect of it, Fletcher\ndetermined to visit England. It does not appear that he had any motive\nfor doing so beyond a desire to travel and to acquire the English\nlanguage. Accordingly, some time in 1749 or 1750--it is impossible to\nfix the date more precisely--he came to London, well supplied\napparently with money, but with the slenderest stock of English. At the\ncustom house he and his companions seem to have been somewhat roughly\ntreated, and their letters of introduction were taken from them on the\nground that all letters must be sent by the post. His first adventure\nin London bade fair to be of the sort that London has often provided\nfor newly arrived and trustful youth. He handed over his purse,\ncontaining some L90, to a stranger, a Jew, who offered to get his money\nchanged for him. To the honour of this unknown Jew, let it be recorded\nthat Fletcher's simplicity was not abused. He returned in due time, and\nbrought the full amount in English coin.\n\nThe first eighteen months of his residence in England Fletcher spent in\nthe house of a Mr. Burchell, who kept a school near Hatfield. Here he\nacquired a good knowledge of English, beside continuing his general\nstudies. On leaving Mr. Burchell, in the year 1752, he received the\nappointment of tutor to the two sons of Mr. Thomas Hill, of Tern Hall,\nin Shropshire. This position he retained for nearly seven years,\ndividing his time between Shropshire and London, according as Mr.\nHill's family accompanied him to town for the sitting of Parliament, or\nremained in the country.\n\nThrough all this time there is no sign of any wish on Fletcher's part\nto return to Switzerland; and it is at first sight a little perplexing\nthat his visit to England should have developed into something very\nlike a permanent residence, when as yet he had no definite calling, and\nthe powerful influences of a great spiritual change had not come into\nexistence. But there is a reasonable explanation to be found in the\nstate of things in his native country, where a gentleman's younger son,\ndisinclined for the ministry and disappointed of a commission in the\narmy, had no great choice of a career. On this matter we have the\ntestimony of an exceptionally keen and competent observer. The early\nyears of Fletcher's residence in England correspond very closely with\nthose of Gibbon's first period of residence in Switzerland. From 1753\nto 1758, years spent by Fletcher in the family of Mr. Hill, the\nyouthful Gibbon was living under the roof of M. Pavilliard, a Calvinist\nminister at Lausanne. It was about the close of this period that he\nwrote, for the benefit of a Swiss friend, a short paper upon political\nand social life in Switzerland, an essay that is doubly worth reading,\nfor its own sake, and as exhibiting the powers and the promise in early\nmanhood of the future historian. An extract or two will show some\naspects of the society that Fletcher had so lately left, and to which\nhe never really returned, and will suggest the explanation of that\nreadiness to \"forget his own people and his father's house,\" which has\nperplexed some of his critics and biographers:\n\n     \"Even to the present day, a secret inquisition still reigns\n     at Lausanne, where the names of Arminian and Socinian are\n     often mentioned in the letters written by very honest people\n     to their patrons of Berne; and offices are often given or\n     withheld according to the reports made of the religious\n     tenets of the candidates.... In aristocratical republics the\n     citizens of one town are not contented with being sovereigns\n     collectively, unless they individually appropriate all\n     offices of honour or emolument. In the canton of Berne\n     talents and information are not of the smallest use to any\n     one who is not born in the capital; and in another sense they\n     are useless to those born there, because they _must_ make\n     their way without them. Their subjects in the Pays de Vaud\n     are condemned, by the circumstances of their birth, to a\n     condition of shameful obscurity. They naturally become\n     therefore a prey to despair, and neglecting to cultivate\n     talents which they can never enjoy an opportunity to display,\n     those who had capacities for becoming great men are\n     contented with making themselves agreeable companions.\n     Should I propose that the subjects obtained a right to hold\n     the lucrative employments of _baillis_, or governors of\n     districts, the aristocratical families of Berne would think\n     me guilty of a crime little less than sacrilege. 'The\n     emoluments of these offices form the patrimony of the State;\n     and we are the State.' It is true that you in the Pays de\n     Vaud may be deputies to the _baillis_; but the advantages\n     belonging to that subordinate magistracy are obtained on\n     certain conditions, which, unless the holder of the office\n     lives a certain number of years, renders his bargain a very\n     bad one for his family.\n\n     \"What encouragement is then left for the gentlemen of the\n     Pays de Vaud? That of foreign service. But to them even this\n     road to preferment is extremely difficult, and to attain the\n     higher ranks is impossible.... In his own district every\n     _bailli_ is at the head of religion, of the law, the army,\n     and the finances. As judge, he decides without appeal all\n     causes to the amount of a hundred francs--a sum of little\n     importance to a gentleman, but which often makes the whole\n     fortune of a peasant; and he decides alone, for the voices of\n     his assessors have not any weight in the scale. He confers,\n     or rather he sells, all the employments in his district.\"\n\nIt is unnecessary further to multiply extracts from this letter. The\nrelevancy to Fletcher's personal history of those just cited will be\nobvious. He belonged, not to the aristocracy of Berne, but to the\nsubordinate gentry of the Pays de Vaud. The office held by his father\nwas not that of _bailli_, with its great emoluments and privileges, but\nthe very inferior office of _assesseur_. Fletcher was one of those to\nwhom little remained but foreign service, and we have seen how eagerly\nhe sought it, and by what circumstances his hopes were frustrated. And\nso it was, we take it, that, having come to England, he scarcely knew\nwhy, the quiet life of a scholar and tutor satisfied him till such time\nas, in the possession of a new religious life and an absorbing\nvocation, he found \"foreign service\" in the highest and holiest\nwarfare. It was while living in Mr. Hill's family that Fletcher came\nunder the influences which determined his whole future course. He now\nfirst became acquainted with the Methodists.\n\nSome fifteen years had elapsed since Wesley formed the first Methodist\nsociety, and Whitefield, shut out from the churches, had begun to\npreach the gospel to the wondering crowds on Kingswood Hill and\nKennington Common. Wesley's own ungarnished account fixes the exact\ndate of one of the most significant events in modern Church history. It\nis as follows: \"In the latter end of the year 1739 eight or ten persons\ncame to me in London, who appeared to be deeply convinced of sin, and\nearnestly groaning for redemption. They desired I would spend some time\nwith them in prayer, and advise them how to flee from the wrath to\ncome. That we might have more time for this great work, I appointed a\nday when they might all come together, which from thenceforward they\ndid every Thursday in the evening. To these, and as many more as\ndesired to join with them (for the number increased daily), I gave\nthose advices from time to time which I judged most needful for them;\nand we always concluded our meeting with prayer suited to their several\nnecessities. This was the rise of the United Society, first in London,\nand then in other places.\"\n\nIt was not however to the members of this society that the name of\nMethodist was first applied, still less was it a designation adopted by\nthe society itself. It originated, some years earlier, in Oxford, as a\nnickname for the Wesleys and a few other university men, who used to\nmeet together to read the Scriptures, and endeavoured generally to\norder their lives with a religious precision rare enough in the Oxford\nof those days. To quote Wesley's words again: \"The exact regularity of\ntheir lives, as well as studies, occasioned a young gentleman of Christ\nChurch to say, 'Here is a new set of Methodists sprung up,' alluding to\nsome ancient physicians who were so called. The name was new and\nquaint, so it took immediately, and the Methodists were known all over\nthe university.\"\n\nBut this first, or Oxford, Methodism was now a thing of the past. The\nMethodism that Fletcher found in England was really another and very\ndifferent thing, though called by the same name. It was separated from\nthe former, not only by a score or so of years, but by spiritual\nchanges and developments of the most important character. The first\nMethodists were, above all things, students and Churchmen. They revived\nthe observance of long neglected canons and rubrics; they moulded\ntheir lives on ascetic models, fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, and\neating no flesh during Lent except on Saturdays and Sundays. They\nthought and spoke much of Christian antiquity, and, like the Oxford\nleaders of a century later, sought in that venerable past a rule and an\nauthority co-ordinate with Scripture. They read Thomas a Kempis and\nBishop Taylor and the great High Church mystic of their own day,\nWilliam Law. This Oxford Methodism, with its almost monastic rigours,\nits living by rule, its canonical hours of prayer, is a fair and noble\nphase of the many-sided life of the Church of England, and, with all\nits defects and limitations, claims our deep respect. But it was not\nthe instrument by which the Church and nation were to be revived; it\nhad no message for the world, no secret of power with which to move and\nquicken the masses. To do this it must become other than it was. It\nmust die, in order to bring forth much fruit. And this death and rising\nagain were accomplished in the spiritual change wrought in John Wesley,\nthe leader of the earlier and of the later Methodism. What was that\nchange?\n\nIn the year 1738, on his return from Georgia, Wesley writes: \"It is now\ntwo years and almost four months since I left my native country, in\norder to teach the Georgian Indians the nature of Christianity. But\nwhat have I learned myself meantime? Why, what I the least of all\nsuspected: that I, who went to America to convert others, was never\nmyself converted to God.\"\n\nNow it may be urged, with some show of reason, as indeed his own\nlanguage in later life implies, that Wesley was not, in the full sense\nof the term, an unconverted man during the whole of his Oxford life and\nof his residence in Georgia. But nothing is more certain than the\nreality and importance of the change through which he now passed. His\napprehension of salvation by faith in Christ had been hitherto obscure\nand imperfect. He found no rest for his soul. He longed to be at peace\nwith God. \"The faith which I want is a sure trust and confidence in God\nthat, through the merits of Christ, my sins are forgiven, and I\nreconciled to the favour of God, ... that faith which enables every one\nthat hath it to cry out, 'I live not, but Christ liveth in me; and the\nlife which I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me,\nand gave Himself for me.'\" It is not necessary to repeat here the\noft-told story of Wesley's acquaintance with the Moravians, and more\nparticularly with Peter Boehler, by whose teaching and testimony he was\nconvinced that the one thing wanting to him was a living faith in\nChrist, together with that assurance of forgiveness and power over sin\nthat are its fruits. How much had to be surrendered before a man of\nWesley's training and attainments could submit himself to the\nconception of saving faith that was now presented to him, may be learnt\nfrom his own statements. It is enough to say that he found that way of\nfaith in Christ which is the open secret of the gospel, at once \"hidden\nfrom the wise and prudent, and revealed unto babes.\" He received the\nreconciliation and rejoiced in God. \"I felt I did trust in Christ,\nChrist alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had\ntaken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and\ndeath.\" This was Wesley's \"conversion.\" Whether rightly so called or\nnot, there is no doubt as to the change itself, and its results.\nHenceforth he was a new man, ready for a new work. Instead of directing\nthe religious life of a handful of devout university men, he traversed\nthe land in every direction, preaching to the multitudes and organizing\nsocieties for Christian fellowship. Religion was no longer a painful\nquest, a high endeavour, a discipline, but a life bright with the\nDivine favour and filled with unspeakable blessings, offered to all men\nthrough faith in Christ. Peace with God, the witness and fruit of the\nSpirit, the blessings of sonship and sanctification,--these were not\nthe rewards of fidelity and endurance, the privilege of the few; they\nwere included in the common salvation. Every sinner might seek them,\nevery believer would find them. There is no mistaking the difference\nbetween this gospel, soon to be preached in every town and village of\nEngland, and the teaching that nourished the austere piety of the\nOxford Methodists. As an able writer has put it, \"The birthday of a\nChristian was shifted from his baptism to his conversion, and in that\nchange the partition line of two great systems is crossed.\" Some will\nreckon this change a grave error, and all that came of it to be but a\nfalling away from a high beginning. They will find in the ascetic,\nchurchly pietists of the earlier time their true Wesley and their ideal\nMethodism; but time and history have borne a testimony from which there\nis, practically, no appeal. The Methodism that revived the Church and\nawakened the nation was not that of the \"Holy Club\" at Oxford. It\ndiffered from it as Wesley after \"conversion\" differed from his former\nself. Its spirit, its methods, its watchwords were altered. Something\nmay have been lost when Methodism moved from its academic birthplace\ninto the work-day world, but more was gained. It had found what it had\nlong sought. It knew now what salvation meant. \"I waited patiently for\nthe Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He ... set my feet\nupon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in\nmy mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and\nshall trust in the Lord.\"\n\nBy the time that Fletcher became acquainted with Methodism it had\npassed through some important stages of its history. It had reached its\nhighest point in the favour of a small section of the aristocracy, and\nhad encountered its strongest opposition among the people. Never in\nsubsequent years were so many persons of rank associated with Methodism\nas in its first two or three decades; and never in later times have its\nfollowers endured afflictions like those which the first Methodists\nsuffered in Staffordshire, in Yorkshire, and in Cornwall. It had now\nsecured something like peace for its persecuted people; its travelling\npreachers crossed and recrossed the entire country; its societies\ncontained many thousands of members, won for the most part from\nignorance and irreligion; and with restless yet disciplined activity it\nwas appreciably influencing the national life. Religion, which had\nseemed to \"stand on tiptoe in our land,\" turned again to its ancient\nseats, and to the home it had well-nigh forsaken. There was hope for\nChristianity among us yet.\n\nIt was during one of Fletcher's journeys to London with Mr. Hill's\nfamily that he first met with the people called Methodists. The story\nis told by Wesley: \"While they stopped at St. Albans, he walked out\ninto the town, and did not return till they were set out for London. A\nhorse being left for him, he rode after, and overtook them in the\nevening. Mr. Hill asked him why he stayed behind. He said, 'As I was\nwalking I met with a poor old woman, who talked so sweetly of Jesus\nChrist, that I knew not how the time passed away.' 'I shall wonder,'\nsaid Mrs. Hill, 'if our tutor does not turn Methodist by-and-by.'\n'Methodist, madam,' said he; 'pray, what is that?' She replied, 'Why,\nthe Methodists are a people that do nothing but pray; they are praying\nall day and all night.' 'Are they?' said he; 'then, by the help of God,\nI will find them out, if they be above ground.' He did find them out\nnot long after, and was admitted into the society.\"\n\nAmongst the Methodists Fletcher learnt what Wesley had learnt from the\nMoravians, that there was something in religion to which he was yet a\nstranger. Like so many others of fine moral nature and virtuous habits,\nhe was much perplexed as to the nature of saving faith. \"Is it\npossible,\" he writes, \"that I, who have always been accounted so\nreligious, who have made divinity my study, and received the Premiums\nof Piety (so called) from the university for my writings on Divine\nsubjects,--is it possible that I should yet be so ignorant as not to\nknow what faith is?\" He came to the conclusion that this was so. His\npast life, so free from outward sin, appeared to him to be sinful\nbeyond expression. It had no foundation in Christ. He had lived to\nhimself. His righteousness was self-righteousness, it was as filthy\nrags. He now heard sermons, but was only the more convinced that he was\nan unbeliever; he wrote out a confession of his sins, misery, and\nhelplessness, but had no heart to finish it. He feared he did not even\nyet mourn enough for his sins; \"but I found relief in Mr. Wesley's\n'Journal,' where I learned that we should not build on what we feel,\nbut that we should go to Christ with all our sins and hardness of\nheart.\" Deliverance however was at hand. The salvation that he longed\nfor drew near. He trusted in Christ, and found rest to his soul. His\nbonds were broken. He was filled with joy and peace through believing.\nHenceforth, \"the life that he lived in the flesh, he lived by the faith\nof the Son of God.\"\n\nIt is surely worthy of remark that the chief leaders of the Evangelical\nRevival were converted in mature life, not after a wild and reckless,\nbut after a more than commonly religious youth. Among the associates\nsoon to be gathered around them a very different type of spiritual\nhistory may be discerned. Many of these had been notoriously sinful,\nand their conversion had all the dramatic completeness which belongs to\na sudden transformation of conduct and character. But of the Wesleys\nand Whitefield at Oxford, and subsequently of Fletcher, it might be\nsaid that they were \"touching the righteousness which is in the law,\nblameless.\" They fasted and prayed, and frequented the sacrament; they\nread religious books; they visited the sick and taught the ignorant;\nthey eschewed all self-indulgence, were scrupulous in respect of duty,\nand consistently devout in spirit and manner. And yet the change\nwrought in them when they obtained a saving faith in Christ could not\nhave been really greater if there had been a previous life of sin and\nfolly to escape from. When a man passes from a righteousness of his own\n\"which is of the law,\" to \"that which is through faith in Christ,\" it\nis as truly a birth from above as when he is turned from sin to\nrighteousness. The inner power and significance of conversion are the\nsame in both cases. But this is widely misunderstood. That the wicked\nshould be, if possible, converted, is generally held to be desirable.\nSociety, even when most cynical and worldly, does, in a manner, hold\nthat it behoves evil doers, especially among the lower orders, to\nrepent of their sins and mend their ways; but that good people should\ncall themselves sinners, that scholars and gentlemen of excellent\ncharacter--whose only fault indeed was that of being righteous\novermuch--should be anxious about their souls, and make other\nrespectable people as uneasy as themselves, caused much irritation and\nperplexity.\n\nIt was, however, not the least of God's mercies to the Church and\nnation that the Revival began as it did with the conversion of good\nmen, that its first witnesses and workers were not reclaimed\nprofligates, but representatives of all that was best in the existing\nsocial order. If the gospel was to awaken the conviction of sin in such\nmen as these, if it was to disclose to them deep spiritual needs, and\nset them asking what they must do to be saved, then society had\nmisunderstood the whole matter,--which indeed was pretty nearly the\ncase. Society's discernment of evil when it takes the form of crime is\nsufficiently acute; concerning vice also it has convictions more or\nless emphatic: but of _sin, as sin_, its notions are feeble and\nconfused. And that confusion and inadequacy of view are shared by the\nChurch when men's need of Christ and His salvation is measured by the\nmore or less of their outward good behaviour; as though conversion were\nnecessary for wicked and worthless members of the community, while\nthose of a better sort can see the kingdom of God without being born\nfrom above. The history and experience of its leaders, humanly\nspeaking, preserved the Revival from this error, and from the first\nguarded the doctrine of the new birth from one of its most common and\npractical perversions. The notion that while there are some people too\nbad to be converted there are others too good to require it, was doubly\ndisproved. The early Methodist preachers moved joyously and confidently\nthrough the land, proclaiming a salvation which the worst might obtain,\nand which the best must not refuse or neglect.\n\nFrom the time of his conversion to the close of his life Fletcher was a\nMethodist. The exact date when he joined the society cannot be\ndetermined, but in the year 1756 he was a member of a class in London,\nof which a Mr. Richard Edwards was the leader. His \"class ticket,\"\nbearing the name \"John Fletcher,\" and the date \"Feb., 1757,\" lies\nbefore us as we write.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\n_SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE._\n\n\nIt was in the beginning of the year 1755, when Fletcher was in the\ntwenty-sixth year of his age, that he passed through the great change\ndescribed in the last chapter. For nearly five years he continued to\nlive in Mr. Hill's family, dividing his time, as before, between\nShropshire and London. Towards the close of that period, however, new\nduties and engagements were opening out before him, and in 1760, when\nhis pupils entered the University of Cambridge, Fletcher's tutorship\nwas at an end.\n\nHis residence at Tern Hall was in many respects a happy one for\nFletcher. His duties were comparatively light, and his situation was\nfavourable to that life of meditation, prayer, study, and\nself-discipline to which he was so powerfully drawn. On Sundays he\nattended the parish church of Atcham, a village near Shrewsbury. When\nthe service was over he usually walked home alone by the Severn side.\nAfter a while these walks were shared by a pious man named Vaughan,\nthen in Mr. Hill's service, who, in after years, gave the following\naccount of them to Mr. Wesley:\n\n     \"It was our ordinary custom, when the church service was\n     over, to retire into the most lonely fields or meadows, where\n     we frequently either kneeled down or prostrated ourselves on\n     the ground. At those happy seasons I was a witness of such\n     pleadings and wrestlings with God, such exercises of faith\n     and love, as I have not known in any one ever since. The\n     consolations which we then received from God induced us to\n     appoint two or three nights in a week, when we duly met,\n     after his pupils were asleep. We met also constantly on\n     Sunday between four and five in the morning. Sometimes I\n     stepped into his study on other days. I rarely saw any book\n     before him, besides the Bible and the 'Christian Pattern.'\"\n\nAnother, who knew him at that time, says that when there was company to\ndinner at Mr. Hill's, Fletcher would often get himself excused from\nbeing present, and retire into the garden, to dine on a piece of bread\nand a little fruit. There are many testimonies to his lifelong\nabstemiousness, but at this period it reached a point of asceticism,\nconcerning which Wesley has recorded his judgment: \"None can doubt if\nthese austerities were well intended; but it seems they were not well\njudged. It is probable they gave the first wound to an excellent\nconstitution, and laid the foundation of many infirmities, which\nnothing but death could cure.\" Again, referring to his manner of life\nat Madeley, several years after, Wesley says: \"He did not allow himself\nsuch food as was necessary to sustain nature. He seldom took any\nregular meals except he had company; otherwise, twice or thrice in\nfour-and-twenty hours he ate some bread and cheese, or fruit. Instead\nof this he sometimes took a draught of milk, and then wrote on again.\"\n\nThat all this was unwise, and brought its own punishment, will be\nreadily admitted; but it is well to note that Fletcher's ascetic\npractice was not the result of an ascetic theology. Beyond most holy\nmen Fletcher apprehended and rejoiced in the freedom of the children of\nGod. The last touch of the spirit of bondage disappeared at his\nconversion, and henceforth he was no more a servant but a son, walking\nin the clearest light, and possessing the strongest witness to his\nadoption. His rigid self-denial, his almost unearthly indifference to\nthe common comforts and recreations of human life, his carefully\nordered devotions, were not the travail of a soul going about to\nestablish its own righteousness, nor the half-expiatory sacrifices of\none who seeks to pacify his conscience or appease his restless\nlongings. Beneath his ascetic practice was evangelical doctrine, and a\nliving faith. He did not fast, and give whole days to study and whole\nnights to prayer, because he was in doubt or distress concerning his\nsoul, but from his very joy in God, and delight in all that lifted him\nfrom things beneath to things above. His was the asceticism of love,\nand not of bondage or of fear.\n\nBy the help of manuscripts carefully preserved, though not hitherto\nmade public, it is possible to draw very near to the devotional life of\nFletcher at this period of his history. A document which affords\npathetic insight into the depth and thoroughness of his consecration\nof himself to God now lies before us. It is a solemn covenant, drawn up\nin Latin, and covers the two sides of a parchment some nine inches by\nfive in size. It is exquisitely written in a round, legible hand. The\nopening sentence, which is in Greek, reads thus: \"In the name of God,\nthe Creator of heaven and earth, Amen. O most high Jehovah, only God,\nFather, Son, and Holy Ghost, I, the vilest of the vile, worst of the\nsons of Adam, an apostate spirit, a man utterly undone, ... resolve to\nconsecrate myself to Thee, my Creator Redeemer, Sanctifier.\" In the\nhumblest strain of penitential confession, he proceeds to offer and\npresent himself to God through the merits of Jesus Christ. The\nrecurring phrase of consecration is, \"Do, reddo, dico, dedico\" (I give,\nrestore, devote, dedicate); and all that he has, or is, or may be, is\nbrought within this form of dedication. The formula of supplication is,\n\"Peto, rogo, posco, flagito\" (I ask, entreat, implore, importune); and\nin these terms he prays for pardon, grace, guidance, and final\ndeliverance. There is reason to think that the signature, now almost\nillegible, was written with his own blood. After the manner of the\nearlier nonconformists, among whom the practice of drawing up solemn\nforms of covenant with God prevailed, Fletcher kept by him through life\nthis sign and memorial of deliberate consecration to God, and renewed\nfrom time to time both its general vow and its detailed promises. It is\ndated August 24th, 1754.\n\nSome two years later he prepared for his own use a little manual of\ndevotions, which is perhaps the most _vital_ of all the Fletcher relics\nstill preserved, as revealing more directly than any other his interior\nlife, and the spirit and method of his daily devotions. It is a small,\nsquare book, strongly bound in leather, containing about two hundred\nclosely written pages.\n\nMore than half of its contents are passages from the Greek Testament,\ncarefully arranged under various headings, _Faith_, _Promises_, _The\nHeavenly Life_. To these are added selections from Charles Wesley's\nhymns, then recently published, now, and for a long time past, known\nand prized by the devout of every communion.\n\nBut the most personal and characteristic portions of the book are\nFletcher's own meditations, resolutions, and precepts. They are\nwritten, for the most part, in Latin and in French. Some specimens of\nthese will be found in the appendix to this volume. Here it must\nsuffice to translate a few of the rules by which he disciplined his\ndaily life.\n\nUnder the date January 15th, 1757, is written, in French,--\n\n     \"Pray on my knees as often as possible.\n\n     Sing frequently penitential hymns.\n\n     Eat slowly, and upon my knees, three times a day only, and\n     never more.\n\n     Always speak gently.\n\n     Neglect no outward duty.\n\n     Beware of a fire that thou kindlest thyself.\n\n     The fire that God kindles is bright, mild, constant, and\n     burns night and day.\n\n     Think always of death, and the Cross, the hardness of thy\n     heart and the blood of Christ.\n\n     Beware of relaxing, and of impatience; God is faithful, but\n     He owes thee nothing.\n\n     Speak only when necessary.\n\n     Do not surrender thyself to any joy.\n\n     Rise in the morning without yielding to sloth.\n\n     Follow always thy first motion.\n\n     Be a true son of affliction.\n\n     Write down every evening whether thou hast kept these\n     rules.\"\n\nAmong the Latin meditations is one headed \"Deus mihi amandus est quid\":\n\"God is to be loved because--\" And then follow various grounds for\ngratitude and love:\n\n     \"Because He created me,\n     Of sound body and mind,\n     In a middle station of life, and in the bosom of His Church;\n     Preserves me alive and well;\n     Has not given me over to the power of the devil;\n     Gives all things necessary for life;\n     In various ways, and wonderfully, has delivered me from death;\n     Raised up for me good parents, teachers, friends;\n     Gives me food, shelter, books, good health,\n     clothing, friends, and a not dishonourable name;\n     Has mercifully withheld hurtful things when I asked them;\n     Before the foundations of the world determined to give His Son\n       for me,\n     And gave Him in time to flesh, infirmities, scorn, sorrows,\n       poverty, and death;\n     Imparts Him to me in the word, and in the holy supper.\"\n\nAmong the \"rules for a holy life,\" written in English, the following\nmay be quoted:\n\n     \"Mortify thy five senses till crucified with Christ;\n\n     Sit at Christ's feet; cast away thy own will; consult His at\n     every word, morsel, motion; ask His leave even in lawful\n     actions.\n\n     Renounce thyself in all that can hinder thy union with God.\n     Desire nought but His love.\n\n     Mortify all affection toward inward, sensible, spiritual\n     delights in grace; they rather please and comfort than\n     sanctify.\n\n     The life of God consists not in high knowledge, but profound\n     meekness, holy simplicity, and ardent love to God.\n\n     Receive afflictions as the best guides to perfection.\n\n     Remember always the presence of God.\n\n     Rejoice always in the will of God.\n\n     Direct all to the glory of God.\"\n\nThe little book from which these extracts are taken was Fletcher's\ncompanion in his hours of private prayer and communion with God. It was\nwritten, not for others, but for himself. For a century past it has\nbeen in safe and reverent keeping, and is now as he left it. Its pages\nare worn by his touch. With these hymns and meditations he nourished\nhis soul in secret. With these rules he loved to bind his free\nChristian spirit. Like other saintly men, he found that the impulses,\neven of the regenerate life, may not be left to themselves with entire\nconfidence in their sufficient working. He sought to strengthen them by\nmeditation, to sustain them by spiritual exercises and discipline; he\nfurnished them with tests and standards, and made self-examination\ndefinite and precise. He sought perfection at once in supreme love to\nGod, and in the minutest details of character and conduct. Let this be\nborne in mind in connexion with the fact that Fletcher was a leader of\nthe Evangelical Revival, and a founder and father of Methodism.\nEvangelical religion has been charged with indifference to painstaking\nspiritual culture. Its doctrine of salvation by faith has been thought\nto carry with it self-confidence, familiar ways with God, and easy\ndealing with one's own soul. It is supposed to compensate for its\ninsistence upon conversion, by sanctioning subsequent laxity in the\nmatter of prayer and fasting. It is charged with spiritual shallowness,\nand asked why, with all its innumerable activities, it fails to produce\nthe deeper and more disciplined devoutness of which Thomas a Kempis in\nthe Roman, and Andrewes and Keble in the Anglican, communities are\ngreat examples.\n\nA proper discussion of this question would require, amongst other\nthings, an examination of the terms in which it is stated. They would\nbe found to contain, with some truth, assumptions utterly false and\nmisleading. Amongst these is the assumption that sanctity is not such,\nunless it have a certain form, diverging not too widely from an\naccepted type. The Roman controversialist objects to the Church of\nEngland that it does not exhibit notes of sanctity, \"that it has no\nsaints.\" As Dr. Mozley has said, \"He refuses, in a certain case, to see\nand recognise the Christian type, because it does not come before him\nin the Latin shape, and with the accompaniments of intellectual grace\nand refinement, which it has incorporated on its European area.\"[2] By\na very slight alteration in the wording of this sentence, it would\ndescribe with equal accuracy the attitude of those who cannot recognise\nsanctity which does not come before them in the Anglican shape; and by\na second and a third alteration, it would describe the inability, here\nand there existing, to discern any sanctity but that of an accepted\ntype or favoured school. Much of the disparagement of \"Evangelical\"\npiety is plainly of this kind; and the truth needs to be spoken with\nregard to all these narrow and sectarian gauges of Christian character.\nAmid the \"diversities of ministrations and diversities of workings,\"\nthere is no essential distinction as to the so called \"note of\nsanctity\"; Eastern or Western, Anglican or Puritan, holiness is always\nand essentially the same, rebuking every attempt to fasten it to a\nparticular type, or ignore it apart from a particular succession.\n\nFletcher was an Evangelical of Evangelicals, teaching conversion, the\nwitness of the Spirit, and the entire sanctification of believers. He\nprofoundly influenced the theology and general religious spirit and\ncharacter of Methodism. What then is the bearing of his spiritual life\nand the influence of his example upon these latter? It is this: that\nwhile holiness is, in its truest, deepest aspect, the gift of God,--it\nis God who sanctifies as surely as it is God who justifies,--yet, alike\nin the pursuit and possession of holiness, the Christian is called to\nwork together with God, in watchfulness and prayer, in self-examination\nand self-denial, in reading and meditation, \"exercising himself unto\ngodliness\" in the many ways which Scripture enjoins and which insight\nand experience will suggest.\n\nIf at any time the Methodists, or Evangelical Christians generally,\nshould let slip either of these truths; if holiness be thought of, on\nthe one hand, as a human attainment and not a Divine gift, or, on the\nother, as a gift of God having no relation to personal discipline and\nculture,--they will at least be breaking with their best traditions,\nand have against them both the teaching and the example of their\nfathers.\n\nThis little manual of devotion, written by his own hand, and worn by\nlong and frequent use, reveals much of the way in which Fletcher's\ninmost life was cultivated. Knowing that life as it was manifested in\nhis character and conduct, we regard with deep interest the means by\nwhich it was nurtured in secret. The lovely growth of goodness had at\nthe root of it the patient discipline here portrayed. We might have\nguessed as much, but here we see that it was so.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\n_ENTERS THE MINISTRY._\n\n\nFrom this brief glance at Fletcher's habits of devotion we return to\nthe history of his life. He was not destined to be a religious recluse,\ncultivating in quiet places \"a fugitive and cloistered virtue.\" His\nthirst for communion with God was equalled by his passion for winning\nsouls. If the one drove him to retirement, the other thrust him into\nsociety. He longed for others to possess the salvation that he had\nfound. On such a matter he could not be silent, and he became a\npreacher almost before he knew it. Both in personal intercourse and in\naddressing assemblies, his foreign accent and a certain winning\nsimplicity of manner proved very attractive; but the hours spent alone\nwith God and his own soul were the secret of a power to appeal and\npersuade that was well-nigh irresistible.\n\nNaturally it was taken for granted that his proper vocation was the\nministry. He was pressed by one and another, and particularly by Mr.\nHill, to enter holy orders; but his mind was not yet made up. His\nformer shrinking from an office for which he felt himself unfit was not\nwholly removed. He thought it might be better to serve God in a\nprivate and less responsible way of life; and yet, from time to time,\nthe work of the ministry attracted and exercised his thoughts in a\nmanner that might be taken to indicate God's will.\n\nIn his perplexity he sought counsel from Wesley. It is not known when,\nor under what circumstances, he had become personally known to him, but\nthe letter in which he asks his advice is probably the first he ever\nwrote to Wesley, and the tone of it suggests that personal\nacquaintance, if it had begun, was as yet very slight.\n\n                                                  \"TERN,\n                                             _Nov. 24th, 1756._\n\n     REV. SIR,--\n\n     \"As I look upon you as my spiritual guide, and cannot doubt\n     of your patience to hear, and your experience to answer, a\n     serious question proposed by any of your people, I freely\n     lay my case before you.\"\n\n     [After giving an account of his early history, and more\n     recent experience, he tells Wesley that he had been offered\n     a title to orders, and asks,--]\n\n     \"Now, sir, the question which I beg you to decide is,\n     whether I must and can make use of that title to get into\n     orders. For, with respect to the living, were it vacant, I\n     have no mind to it, because I think I could preach with more\n     fruit in my own country and in my own tongue.\n\n     \"I am in suspense. On one side my heart tells me I must try,\n     and it tells me so whenever I feel any degree of the love of\n     God and man; but on the other, when I examine whether I am\n     fit for it, I so plainly see my want of gifts, and\n     especially of that _soul_ of all the labours of a minister\n     of the gospel, _love_, _continual_, _universal_, _flaming\n     love_, that my confidence disappears, I accuse myself of\n     pride to dare to entertain the desire of supporting the ark\n     of the Lord. As I am in both these frames successively, I\n     must own, sir, I do not see plainly which of the two ways\n     before me I can take with safety, and I shall be glad to be\n     ruled by you.... I know how precious is your time; I desire\n     no long answer; _persist_ or _forbear_ will satisfy and\n     influence, sir,\n\n                                    Your unworthy servant,\n\n                                             J. FLETCHER.\"\n\nNo reply to this letter has been preserved, but there can be no doubt\nas to the nature of Wesley's advice. He recommended Fletcher's being\nordained; he probably dissuaded him from returning to Switzerland, and\nhe discouraged the notion of his settling in a parish. He greatly\ndesired to see Fletcher in the itinerant work in which he himself was\nengaged, the more so as his brother Charles was now withdrawing from\nit.\n\nOn Sunday, March 6th, 1757, Fletcher received deacon's orders from the\nBishop of Hereford, and on the following Sunday he was ordained priest\nby the Bishop of Bangor, at the request of the Bishop of Hereford. The\nday after receiving priest's orders he was licensed \"to perform the\noffice of curate in the parish church of Madeley, in the county of\nSalop,\" and \"a yearly salary of twenty-five pounds, to be paid\nquarterly, for serving the same,\" was assigned to him.\n\nThis license to the curacy must not be confounded with his appointment,\nmore than three years afterwards, to the vicarage of Madeley. Fletcher\nhas no history as curate of Madeley. The appointment was in fact a\nnominal one, for it is tolerably certain that he exercised no spiritual\nfunction whatever in Madeley for at least two years after his\nordination. The title to orders was probably given to him by the Rev.\nRowland Chambre, then Vicar of Madeley, at Mr. Hill's request, with the\nunderstanding that the curacy should be only nominal. The position of\nchaplain and tutor in Mr. Hill's family, though not furnishing a legal\ntitle to orders, would be considered equivalent to a cure of souls. The\nfact that he was ordained deacon and priest on two consecutive Sundays,\nthe customary interval of a year being dispensed with, may be ascribed\neither to the influence of Mr. Hill, or of Wesley himself; or it may be\ntaken as proof that his character was admittedly high, and that in his\nexamination or interviews with the bishop, he had shown himself\nexceptionally well qualified, both intellectually and morally.\n\nHis connexion with Mr. Hill's family drew to its close. It did not\nafford him the sphere for Christian work that he desired, ind involved\nhim in occasional embarrassments and difficulties. Mr. Hill was\nuniformly kind, but he feared that the scandal of Methodism attaching\nto his tutor would injure him at the next election. The neighbouring\nclergy for the most part fought shy of Fletcher, so that he had few\nopportunities of preaching in their churches. But the one compensation\nfor these restrictions was found in the devout retirement he loved so\nwell. He writes to Wesley: \"The will of God be done: I am in His hands;\nand if He does not call me to so much public duty, I have the more time\nfor study, prayer, and praise.\" He seems to have been conscious that it\nwas a time of discipline and preparation with him, and until the\nindications of God's will were plain, he would not seek release from a\nposition where the providence of God had placed him.\n\nMeanwhile, as his tutorship became less and less satisfactory as a\nvocation, his connexion with the Methodists opened up to him new\nlabours and new friendships. Immediately upon his ordination Fletcher\nwas drawn into the full stream of the Revival, and brought into active\nassociation with its leaders. His very first ministerial act, on the\nday that he was ordained priest, was to assist Wesley in the\nadministration of the Lord's supper at Snowsfields chapel; and from\nthat time he frequently read prayers and preached in the Methodist\nchapels in London. He made the acquaintance of Charles Wesley and\nWhitefield, of the Countess of Huntingdon, of Berridge, Vicar of\nEverton, of Thomas Walsh, and of some of the devout women who were not\nleast among the glories of early Methodism, including Mary Bosanquet,\nwho, many years afterwards, became his wife. By these and others\nFletcher was received with no common welcome. Wesley himself wrote in\nhis \"Journal,\" \"When my bodily strength failed, and none in England\nwere able and willing to assist me, He sent me help from the mountains\nof Switzerland, and a helpmeet for me in every respect; where could I\nfind such another?\" A little later the Countess of Huntingdon wrote to\na friend: \"I have seen Mr. Fletcher, and was both pleased and refreshed\nby the interview. He was accompanied by Mr. Wesley, who had frequently\nmentioned him in terms of high commendation, as had Mr. Whitefield, Mr.\nCharles Wesley, and others, so that I was anxious to become acquainted\nwith one so devoted, and who appears to glory in nothing, save in the\nCross of our Divine Lord and Master.\"\n\nAnother testimony referring to this time, though written many years\nlater, is that of a Mrs. Crosby, well-known amongst the first\nMethodists: \"I heard this heavenly-minded servant of the Lord preach\nhis first sermon in West Street chapel. I think his text was, 'Repent:\nfor the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' His spirit appeared in his whole\nattitude and action. He could not well find words in the English\nlanguage to express himself, but he supplied that defect by offering up\nprayers, tears, and sighs.\"\n\nOf all those with whom Fletcher was now brought into close and happy\nrelations, Charles Wesley seems to have most completely won his heart.\nTowards the elder Wesley he showed affectionate reverence, and a\nloyalty that had its trials, and gave its proofs in many ways. He\nundoubtedly looked upon him as the chief of living men. Of Thomas\nWalsh, whose life, Southey says, \"might almost convince a Catholic that\nsaints are to be found in other communions, as well as in the Church\nof Rome,\"--of Walsh, Fletcher, impressed with his deep, stern, mystic\nsanctity, wrote, \"I wish I could attend him everywhere, as Elisha\nattended Elijah.\" But it was in Charles Wesley that he found his\ndearest and most intimate friend, to whom for years he turned for\nsolace, for counsel, and for confidential intercourse.\n\nWe have seen the terms in which Lady Huntingdon speaks of Fletcher\nafter her first interview with him. On his part, Fletcher was\nprofoundly impressed with the countess's manifold excellences, and\nwrote to Charles Wesley that he had \"passed three hours with a modern\nprodigy--_a humble and pious countess_.\" Lady Huntingdon has perhaps\nsuffered in the modern estimate of her character and work from the\noverstrained and even fulsome language concerning her which it was the\ncustom of many of her friends and followers to employ. Appreciation of\nher ladyship's rank so mingled with esteem for her piety as to produce\nan unhappy effect upon the phraseology of her admirers. The countess's\nbiographer continues, in a later age, a style which, barely endurable\nwhen a century old, is intolerable when repeated and renewed. He speaks\nof \"the elegant and pious persons to whom Mr. Fletcher was invited to\npreach and administer the sacrament\"! But we must not allow the\neffusive language of her contemporaries, or the fine writing of her\nbiographer, to conceal from us the true worth of a very able and most\ndevoted Christian woman. If that language seem to us occasionally\nwanting in manliness, in proper self-respect, and in Christian\nsimplicity, it bears witness to the ascendency exercised by a\nremarkable character over all but the very strongest of those who came\nunder its influence; and if it was dangerous to be the subject of so\nmuch eulogy, it should be remembered that Lady Huntingdon never shrank\nfrom running counter to the prejudices of the class to which she\nbelonged, and endured, for the sake of Christ and His cause, ridicule\nfrom those of her own order, which most people would find harder to\nbear than actual persecution.\n\nFletcher was added to the number of Lady Huntingdon's chaplains. It is\nalmost unnecessary to say that this was not an \"appointment\" in the\nstrict sense of the word, but that he preached from time to time to the\nfashionable congregations that assembled at Lady Huntingdon's house at\nChelsea. These assemblies have often been described. They included the\nmost distinguished men and women of the day. Chesterfield, Bolingbroke,\nHorace Walpole and others, bear witness to the fashion which prevailed.\nTo listen to Whitefield in Lady Huntingdon's drawing-room became a\nrecognised diversion for society, and the most cynical and worldly were\nfound side by side with the serious and devout. Undoubtedly some \"who\ncame to scoff remained to pray.\" Amongst the women of rank who heard\nthe gospel in this way several were converted, and became earnest and\nfaithful witnesses for Christ; but the hindrances to deep and lasting\nresults were very great, and we are inclined to think that this\nparticular phase of the Evangelical Revival was by no means among its\nmost fruitful or important developments. The ignorance and brutality of\nthe crowds to whom Wesley and Whitefield preached, presented no such\nresistance to the gospel as the vanity and finished worldliness of the\ndrawing-room congregations. An instance will suffice. A lady who had\nbeen invited by Lady Huntingdon replied in the following terms: \"I\nthank your ladyship for the information concerning the Methodist\npreachers. Their doctrines are most repulsive, and strongly tinctured\nwith impertinence and disrespect towards their superiors, in\nperpetually endeavouring to level all ranks and do away with all\ndistinctions. It is monstrous to be told you have a heart as sinful as\nthe common wretches that crawl on the earth. This is highly offensive\nand insulting, and I cannot but wonder that your ladyship should relish\nany sentiments so much at variance with high rank and good\nbreeding.\"[3]\n\nThere is no record of the impression made by Fletcher upon these\nfashionable congregations. Meanwhile he was engaged in a work probably\nmore congenial to him, viz. preaching to the French prisoners, a number\nof whom were settled at Tunbridge. After a few months this came to an\nend; he was forbidden by the Bishop of London to continue his\nministrations. There was something \"irregular\" in them, it would\nappear. Wesley wrote afterwards, \"If I had known this at the time, King\nGeorge should have known it; and I believe he would have given the\nbishop little thanks.\"\n\nThe following extracts from his letters belong to this period:\n\n            TO THE REV. CHARLES WESLEY.\n\n                                             \"_Mar. 22nd, 1759._\n\n     \"Since your departure I have lived more than ever like a\n     hermit. It seems to me that I am an unprofitable weight upon\n     the earth. I want to hide myself from all. I tremble when\n     the Lord favours me with a sight of myself. I tremble to\n     think of preaching only to dishonour God. To-morrow I preach\n     at West Street, with all the feelings of Jonah. Oh! would to\n     God I might be attended with success! If the Lord shall in\n     any degree sustain my weakness, I shall consider myself as\n     indebted to your prayers.\n\n     \"A proposal has lately been made to me to accompany Mr.\n     Nathanael Gilbert to the West Indies. I have weighed the\n     matter; but, on the one hand, I feel that I have neither\n     zeal nor grace nor talents to expose myself to the\n     temptations and labours of a mission to the West Indies;\n     and, on the other, I believe that if God call me thither the\n     time is not yet come.... Pray let me know what you think of\n     this business; if you condemn me to put the sea between us,\n     the command would be a hard one, but I might possibly\n     prevail on myself to give you that proof of the deference I\n     pay to your judicious advice. Give me some account of Mrs.\n     Wesley, and of the godfather she designs for your little\n     Charles; and, that she may not labour under a deception,\n     tell her how greatly I want wisdom, and add that I have no\n     more grace than wisdom. If, after all, she will not reject\n     so unworthy a sponsor, remember that I have taken you for a\n     father and adviser, and that the charge will in the end\n     devolve upon you. Adieu!\"\n\n\n            TO THE SAME.\n\n                                             \"_April, 1759._\n\n     \"I have lately seen so much weakness in my heart, both as a\n     minister and a Christian, that I know not which is most to\n     be pitied, the man, the believer, or the preacher. Could I\n     at last be truly humbled, and continue so always, I should\n     esteem myself happy in making this discovery. I preach\n     merely to keep the chapel open until God shall send a\n     workman after His own heart. _Nos numeri sumus_--this is\n     almost all I can say of myself.\"\n\n\n            TO THE SAME.\n\n                                             _\"Nov. 15th, 1759._\n\n     \"The countess proposed to me something of what you hinted to\n     me in your garden, namely, to celebrate the Communion\n     sometimes at her house in a morning, and to preach when\n     occasion offered; in such a manner however as not to\n     restrain my liberty, nor to prevent my assisting you, or\n     preaching to the French refugees; and that only till\n     Providence should clearly point out the path in which I\n     should go. Charity, politeness, and reason accompanied her\n     offer, and I confess, in spite of the resolution which I had\n     almost absolutely formed, to fly the houses of the great,\n     without even the exception of the countess's, I found myself\n     so greatly changed that I should have accepted on the spot a\n     proposal which I should have declined from any other mouth;\n     but my engagement with you withheld me, and, thanking the\n     countess, I told her, when I had reflected on her obliging\n     offer, I would do myself the honour of waiting upon her\n     again.\n\n     \"Nevertheless, two difficulties stand in my way. Will it be\n     consistent with that poverty of spirit which I seek? Can I\n     accept an office for which I have such small talents? And\n     shall I not dishonour the cause of God by stammering out the\n     mysteries of the gospel in a place where the most approved\n     ministers of the Lord have preached with so much power and\n     so much success? I suspect that my own vanity gives more\n     weight to this second objection than it deserves to have:\n     what think you? You are an indulgent father to me, and the\n     name of son suits me better than that of brother.\"[4]\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n_FIRST YEARS AT MADELEY.--DIFFICULTIES AND DISCOURAGEMENTS._\n\n(1760-1767.)\n\n\nFletcher had now completed his thirty-first year, and had been three\nyears and a half in orders. Ten years had elapsed since his coming to\nEngland, and he had no thought of returning to Switzerland. The\nanglicised form of his name was significant of the change that had\ntaken place in his sentiments and sympathies. In these he had become an\nEnglishman, although--and it is necessary to mark the distinction--his\n_temperament_ was never naturalised, but remained that of a foreigner\nto the last. The yearning for his native land, which is supposed to\ncharacterise the Swiss, was wholly wanting in him. Spiritual affections\nand aspirations seemed to leave little room for love of country, and,\nfor a time at least, to dissolve the ties of family and home. On this\nsubject Charles Wesley, as we gather from a letter of Fletcher's,\nadministered a mild reproof, to which he replies, with the utmost\nsimplicity, that he had often thought \"that the particular fault of the\nSwiss is to be without natural affection.\" It should be added that\nlater years showed that he had no need to seek shelter under any such\ndoubtful generalization, or charge himself with so grievous a moral\ndeficiency.\n\nMeanwhile, his position needed defining to himself, and to others. He\nwas not adequately or satisfactorily employed. His labours in connexion\nwith the Wesleys and Lady Huntingdon, broken off and resumed from time\nto time, according as he lived in London or in Shropshire, were but\npreparatory to some more definite and continuous vocation. What that\nshould be he knew not. It was however soon to be determined.\n\nHis friend Mr. Hill, desirous of doing something for the tutor of his\nsons, offered him the living of Dunham, in Cheshire. \"The parish,\" said\nhe, \"is small, the duty light, the income good (L400 per annum), and it\nis situated in a fine, healthy, sporting country.\" \"Alas!\" replied\nFletcher, \"Dunham will not suit me; there is too much money and too\nlittle labour.\" All that Mr. Hill could say to this unexpected\ndifficulty was, \"Few clergymen make such objections,\" and to tell him\nthat it was a pity to decline such a living, as he did not know where\nhe could find him another. What was to be done? Mr. Hill suggested\nMadeley; \"Would you like that?\" \"That, sir,\" said Fletcher, \"would be\nthe very place for me.\" \"My object,\" answered Mr. Hill, \"is to make you\ncomfortable in your own way. If you prefer Madeley, I shall find no\ndifficulty in persuading Mr. Chambre to exchange it for Dunham, which\nis worth more than twice as much as Madeley.\" A nephew of Mr. Hill was\npatron of Madeley, and the uncle and nephew meeting soon after at\nShrewsbury races, the exchange of livings was negotiated then and\nthere, and the result communicated to Fletcher. On his part there were\nstill a few doubts and heart-searchings, and one powerful influence was\nopposed to his accepting this or any other living: Wesley wanted him\nfor itinerant work, and told him, \"Others may do well in a living; you\ncannot, it is not your calling.\" \"I tell him,\" says Fletcher, \"I\nreadily own that I am not fit to plant or water any part of the Lord's\nvineyard; but that _if_ I am called at all, I am called to preach at\nMadeley, where I was first sent into the ministry, and where a chain of\nprovidences I could not break has again fastened me.\"\n\nWith these convictions the matter was soon settled. His induction to\n\"the vicarage of the parish church of Madeley\" was signed by the Bishop\nof Hereford, on October 4th, 1760. Henceforth Fletcher is Vicar of\nMadeley. He has found the sphere of labour where he was to spend the\nremainder of his days, and received the designation by which he will\never be remembered.[5]\n\nAmong the country parishes of England are many whose remoteness from\ntoil and din, and tranquil beauty of church and parsonage, of hall and\ncottage, have made them meet homes for gentle-spirited men. George\nHerbert at Bemerton, Augustus Hare at Alton, John Keble at Hursley,\nrepresent an element in the historic Church of England, which is to its\nmore imposing aspects what the pastoral scenery amid which they lived,\nis to the mountains of Westmorland or Wales. Had the providence which\nshaped Fletcher's course guided him to some such retirement, and made\nhim shepherd of a simple, docile flock, no man would have trodden with\ngreater meekness and fidelity the quiet ways of the country parson; but\nhe was called to another and more arduous service. Few scenes of labour\ncould be less attractive, considered in itself, than that upon which he\nwas now entering. The parish of Madeley, including Coalbrookdale and\nMadeley Wood, was large and populous. The inhabitants were principally\ncolliers and ironworkers, ignorant, rough, and brutal. Their condition\nis not to be wondered at. Little or nothing had been done to raise and\nimprove them. The well-organized, well-worked parish of modern times,\nwas not yet in existence. The non-residence of the clergy, which lasted\nthroughout the century, as may be seen by the language of Bishop Burnet\nat its beginning and of Bishop Horsley at its close, was a fruitful\nsource of many evils, and a chief hindrance in the way of a higher\nstandard of parochial duty. Another twenty years was to elapse before\nany serious attempt was made to establish Sunday schools. Public\ncatechizing had fallen into disuse. Day schools were few and\ninefficient. Voluntary associations for Christian work were all but\nunknown. The district visitor, the tract distributer, the Bible-woman,\nthe home missionary, the many organizations of Christian piety and zeal\nwith which the land is now covered, had not yet arisen. The Revival was\nto produce them in due course, but meanwhile the mass of the people was\nuntouched by any effectual Christian influences, save where the\nMethodist clergy, or Wesley's itinerants, brought the gospel home to\nthem. What could be expected of a rough collier population but hard\ndrinking, profane swearing, and cruel sports? These were common\npractices everywhere, and were not likely to be found in their mildest\nforms among the people of Madeley and the neighbouring villages.\n\nIn his letters to Charles Wesley and the Countess of Huntingdon,\nFletcher gives some particulars respecting his parish and the work he\nhad undertaken.\n\n\n                                             \"_Oct. 28th, 1760._\n\n     \"I preached last Sunday for the first time in my church,\n     and shall continue to do so, though I propose staying with\n     Mr. Hill till he leaves the country, which will be, I\n     suppose, in a fortnight, partly to comply with him to the\n     last, partly to avoid falling out with my predecessor, who\n     is still at Madeley, but who will remove about the same\n     time.\"\n\n\n                                             \"_Nov. 19th, 1760._\n\n     \"I have hitherto wrote my sermons, but am carried so far\n     beyond my notes when in the pulpit that I purpose preaching\n     with only my sermon-case in my hand next Friday, when I\n     shall venture on an evening lecture for the first time. I\n     question whether I shall have above half a dozen hearers, as\n     the god of a busy world is doubly the god of this part of\n     the world, but I am resolved to try. The weather and the\n     roads are so bad that the way to the church is almost\n     impracticable; nevertheless all the seats were full last\n     Sunday. I cannot yet discern any deep work, or indeed\n     anything but what will always attend the crying down man's\n     righteousness, and insisting upon Christ's,--I mean a\n     general liking among the poor, and offence, ridicule, and\n     opposition among the 'reputable' and 'wise' people. Should\n     the Lord vouchsafe to plant the gospel in this country, my\n     parish seems to be the best spot for the centre of a work,\n     as it lies just among the most populous, profane, and\n     ignorant.\"\n\n                                             _\"Jan. 6th, 1761._\n\n     \"As to my parish, all that I see hitherto in it is nothing\n     but what one may expect from speaking plainly and with some\n     degree of earnestness: a crying out, 'He's a Methodist, a\n     downright Methodist'; while some of the poorer sort say,\n     'nay, but he speaketh the truth.' Some of the best farmers\n     and most respectable tradesmen talk often among themselves\n     (as I am told) about turning me out of my living as a\n     Methodist or a Baptist.... My Friday lecture took better\n     than I expected, and I propose to continue it till the\n     congregation desert me.... The number of communicants is\n     increased from thirty to above a hundred; and a few seem to\n     seek grace in the means.\"\n\n\n                                             \"_April 27th, 1761._\n\n     \"Last Sunday I had the pleasure of seeing some in the\n     churchyard who could not get into the church. I began a few\n     Sundays ago to preach in the afternoon, after catechising\n     the children, but I do not preach my own sermons. Twice I\n     read a sermon of Archbishop Ussher, and last Sunday one of\n     the homilies, taking the liberty to make some observations\n     on such passages as confirmed what I advanced in the\n     morning; and by this means I stopped the mouths of many\n     adversaries.... You will do well to engage your colliers at\n     Kingswood to pray for their poor brethren at Madeley. May\n     those at Madeley one day equal them _in faith_, as they _now\n     do_ in that wickedness for which they (the Kingswood\n     colliers) were famous before you went among them.\"\n\n\n                                             \"_Aug. 12th, 1761._\n\n     \"I know not what to say to you of the state of my soul. I\n     daily struggle in the Slough of Despond, and I endeavour\n     every day to climb the hill Difficulty. I need wisdom,\n     mildness, and courage: and no man has less of them than I. O\n     Jesus, my Saviour, draw me strongly to Him who giveth wisdom\n     to all who ask it, and upbraideth them not! As to the state\n     of my parish, the prospect is yet discouraging. New scandals\n     succeed those that wear away. But offences must come. Happy\n     shall I be if the offence cometh not by me! My churchwardens\n     speak of hindering strangers from coming to the church, and\n     of repelling them from the Lord's table; but on these points\n     I am determined to make head against them. A club of eighty\n     workmen in a neighbouring parish, being offended at their\n     minister, determined to come in procession to my church, and\n     requested me to preach a sermon for them; but I thought\n     proper to decline it, and have thereby a little regained the\n     good graces of the minister, at least for a time.\"\n\n\n                                             \"_Oct. 12th, 1761._\n\n     \"Discouragements follow one after another with very little\n     intermission. Those which are of an inward nature are\n     sufficiently known to you; but some others are peculiar to\n     myself, especially those I have had for eight days past,\n     during Madeley wake. Seeing that I could not suppress these\n     bacchanals, I did all in my power to moderate their madness;\n     but my endeavours have had little or no effect. You cannot\n     well imagine how much the animosity of my parishioners is\n     heightened, and with what boldness it discovers itself\n     against me, because I preached against drunkenness, shows,\n     and bull-baiting. The publicans and maltmen will not forgive\n     me; they think that to preach against drunkenness and to\n     cut their purse is the same thing.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFletcher's difficulties during these earlier years at Madeley were,\nindeed, very numerous. In his letters he passes lightly over the\nviolence of the more ignorant and brutal of his flock. Though from time\nto time dangerous enough, it did not daunt or distress him so much as\nsome other kinds of opposition. While fearlessly reproving their vices,\nhe was full of tenderness and pity for the poor sinful wretches who\ncursed and insulted him to his face. He sought them separately,\nliterally pursuing those who tried to hide themselves from him, and\nentreated them to turn from their sins. He would break in upon their\nassemblies, where drunkenness and obscenity had scarcely any limits,\nand reprove them with an earnestness that touched the consciences of\nsome, while it roused others to resentment and revenge. On one occasion\nat least he had a narrow escape for his life. One Sunday evening when\nhe was expected at Madeley Wood, a number of colliers, who were baiting\na bull, maddened with drink and excitement, agreed _to bait the\nparson_. Some of them undertook to pull him off his horse as soon as he\nappeared, while the rest were to set the dogs upon him. But the\nprovidence of God prevented this crime, and protected the faithful\nminister. Just as he was about to set out for Madeley Wood he was\nunexpectedly sent for to bury a child, and so was detained until it was\ntoo late to go to the Wood; and the drunken colliers, who were cursing\ntheir ill luck, had nothing for it but to return to the public-house\nand solace themselves after their manner.\n\nFrom among the very worst of these despisers of his ministry some,\nhowever, were converted to God, and became his joy and consolation.\n\nOn a certain Sunday, after reading prayers at Madeley, he says that his\nmind became so confused that he could not recollect his text or any\npart of his sermon. Under these circumstances he began to explain and\napply the first lesson, which was the third chapter of the Book of\nDaniel, containing the account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being\ncast into the fiery furnace. The remainder of the story may be told in\nFletcher's own words. \"I found in doing this such extraordinary\nassistance from God, and such a peculiar enlargement of heart, that I\nsupposed there must be some peculiar cause for it. I therefore desired,\nif any of the congregation found anything particular, they would\nacquaint me with it in the ensuing week. In consequence of this, the\nWednesday after a woman came and gave the following account:\n\n     \"'I have been for some time much concerned about my soul. I\n     have attended church at all opportunities, and have spent\n     much time in private prayer. At this my husband, who is a\n     butcher, has been exceedingly enraged, and has threatened me\n     severely as to what he would do to me if I did not leave off\n     going to John Fletcher's church; yea, if I dared to go again\n     to any religious meetings whatever. When I told him I could\n     not in conscience refrain from going, at least to the\n     parish church, he became outrageous, and swore dreadfully,\n     and said if I went again he would cut my throat as soon as I\n     came back. This made me cry to God that He would support me;\n     and though I did not feel any great degree of comfort, yet,\n     having a sure confidence in God, I determined to do my duty,\n     and leave the event to Him. Last Sunday, after many\n     struggles with the devil and my own heart, I came downstairs\n     ready for church. My husband said he should not cut my\n     throat, as he had intended, but he would heat the oven, and\n     throw me into it the moment I came home. Notwithstanding\n     this threat, which he enforced with many bitter oaths, I\n     went to church, praying all the way that God would\n     strengthen me to suffer whatever might befall me. While you\n     were speaking of the three children whom Nebuchadnezzar cast\n     into the burning, fiery furnace, I found all you said\n     belonged to me. God applied every word to my heart; and when\n     the sermon was ended I thought if I had a thousand lives I\n     could lay them all down for Him. I felt so filled with His\n     love that I hastened home, fully determined to give myself\n     to whatsoever God pleased, nothing doubting that He either\n     would take me to heaven, if He suffered me to be burnt to\n     death, or that He would in some way deliver me, as He did\n     His three servants that trusted in Him. When I got to my own\n     door I saw flames issuing from the oven, and I expected to\n     be thrown into it immediately. I felt my heart rejoice that\n     if it were so the will of the Lord would be done. I opened\n     the door, and to my astonishment saw my husband upon his\n     knees, praying for the forgiveness of his sins. He caught me\n     in his arms, earnestly begged my pardon, and has continued\n     diligently seeking God ever since.'\"\n\nBut there was opposition, as has been said, that weighed more heavily\nupon Fletcher's spirit than that of the poor and ignorant, who knew not\nwhat they did. Now it was a \"new convert, whom the devil had by fifty\nvisions set on the pinnacle of the temple. I have had more trouble with\nher visions than with her unbelief.\" Then he writes: \"A daughter of one\nof my most substantial parishioners, giving place to Satan by pride and\nimpatience, is driven in her conviction into a kind of madness. Judge\nhow our adversaries rejoiced!\"\n\nAnother incident caused him almost to despair of any good. A constable\nwas sent to his house upon information that a cry of murder had been\nheard there on Christmas Day. The report arose from the cries from a\nyoung woman, who used to fall into convulsions, sometimes in the church\nand sometimes in the private meetings. He writes: \"Her constitution is\nconsiderably weakened as well as her understanding. What to do in this\ncase I know not; for those who are tempted in this manner pay as little\nregard to reason as the miserable people in Bedlam.\" He adds, \"And for\nmy part I was tempted to forsake my ministry and take to my heels.\"\n\nA further affliction was the ill-will of the neighbouring clergy and\ngentry. At the archdeacon's visitation a sermon was preached against\nwhat were called the \"doctrines of Methodism,\" and after the sermon\nFletcher was triumphantly asked what answer he could make. A young\nclergyman, living in Madeley Wood, fastened a paper to the door of the\nparish church charging him with \"rebellion, schism, and being a\ndisturber of the public peace.\" He had opened a room for religious\nservices in a small house built upon the rock in Madeley Wood. Hence it\nwas known as the Rock Church. It was determined to put the Conventicle\nAct in force against him. A poor widow who lived in the house, Mary\nMatthews by name, and a young man who used to take part in the services\nheld there, were arrested and taken before the justice. Mary Matthews\nwas fined L20, and the justice proposed to grant a warrant for the\napprehension of Fletcher. The other justices thinking it a matter\nbeyond their jurisdiction, the warrant was not issued. His\nchurchwardens talked loudly of putting him in the spiritual court for\nholding meetings in houses, and, Fletcher adds, \"what is worse than\nall, three false witnesses offer to prove upon oath that I am a liar;\nand some of '_my followers_' (as they are called) have dishonoured\ntheir profession, to the great joy of our adversaries.\"\n\nNo wonder he was from time to time greatly cast down. His health was\ndelicate, he lived alone, and, between deliberate fasting and\nunconscious neglect of himself, his body suffered and his spirits were\ndepressed. He writes to Charles Wesley: \"I preach, I exhort, I pray,\netc., but as yet I seem to have cast the net on the wrong side of the\nship. Lord Jesus, come Thyself and furnish me with a Divine commission!\nFor some months past I have laboured under an insufferable drowsiness.\nI could sleep day and night, and the hours which I ought to employ with\nChrist on the mountain I spend like Peter in the garden.\"\n\nThe drowsiness of which he complains was probably connected with what\nWesley says was his invariable rule; viz. to sit up two whole nights in\na week, and devote the time to reading, meditation, and prayer. We have\nseen that Wesley disapproved these austerities as \"well intended but\nnot well judged.\" It would be easy, but ungracious, to expand into\ncensure what Wesley so gently touched upon. It will be pleasanter to\nlook for a moment upon the solitary vicar at his frugal meal, as\nportrayed by one who never forgot her girlish visit to the vicarage.\n\n     \"Mr. Fletcher sometimes visited a boarding school at\n     Madeley. One morning he came in just as the girls had sat\n     down to breakfast. He said but little while the meal lasted,\n     but when it was finished he spoke to each girl separately,\n     and concluded by saying to the whole, 'I have waited some\n     time on you this morning, that I might see you eat your\n     breakfast; and I hope you will visit me to-morrow morning\n     and see how I eat mine.' He told them his breakfast hour was\n     seven o'clock, and obtained a promise that they would visit\n     him. Next morning they went at the time appointed, and\n     seated themselves in the kitchen. Mr. Fletcher came in,\n     quite rejoiced to see them. On the table stood a small basin\n     of milk and sops of bread. Mr. Fletcher took the basin\n     across the kitchen, and sat down on an old bench. He then\n     took out his watch, laid it before him, and said: 'My dear\n     girls, yesterday morning I waited on you a full hour while\n     you were at breakfast. I shall take as much time this\n     morning in eating my breakfast as I usually do, if not\n     rather more. Look at my watch! and he immediately began to\n     eat and continued in conversation with them. When he had\n     finished he asked them how long he had been at breakfast.\n     They said, 'Just a minute and a half, sir.' 'Now, my dear\n     girls,' said he, 'we have fifty-eight minutes of the hour\n     left'; and he began to  sing--\n\n             'Our life is a dream;\n             Our time as a stream\n             Glides swiftly away,\n     And the fugitive moment refuses to stay.'\"\n\nAfter this he gave them a lecture on the value of time, and the worth\nof the soul. They then all knelt down in prayer, after which he\ndismissed them with impressions on the mind the narrator never ceased\nto remember.[6]\n\nIn following Fletcher through the earlier years of his ministry at\nMadeley the thought will present itself to most persons that a good\nwife would have been an incalculable blessing to him. In a letter to\nMr. Perronet, written in November, 1765, he says, \"I live alone in my\nhouse, having neither wife, child, nor servant.\" Surely this is a\nsomewhat forlorn view of the Vicar of Madeley, which not all his gentle\ncheerfulness can effectually brighten. A wife's ministering would have\nbeen as good for his health and comfort as her sympathy and counsel\nwould have been helpful in the peculiar difficulties of his pastorate.\nGeorge Herbert, in his \"Country Parson,\" though he shows a sufficient\nleaning towards the celibacy of the clergy, yet qualifies his verdict:\n\"The country parson, considering that virginity is a higher state than\nmatrimony, and that the ministry requires the best and highest thing,\nis rather unmarried than married. But yet, ... as the temper of his\nparish may be, where he may have occasion to converse with women, and\nthat amongst suspicious men, and other like circumstances considered,\nhe is rather married than unmarried.\" Fletcher was never suspected of\nlevity or indiscretion. It was hardly within the power, either of the\nfoolish or the malicious, to fasten scandal upon one so transparently\npure in spirit and demeanour. But, as it has been seen, the religious\nfears and fancies, and morbid or fanatical conditions of certain women\ncaused him much trouble, and almost made him despair of his work. In\nthese matters the aid of such a wife as Fletcher would have married--as\nmany years afterwards he did marry--would have been invaluable. It is\nthe more to be regretted that he did not marry, as it appears that his\nheart was already drawn towards Miss Bosanquet, his future wife. But\nher fortune he regarded as an almost insuperable obstacle. Juvenal's\nsarcasm, _Veniunt a dote sagittae_, recurred to him, and he shrank from\nthe notion of becoming the suitor of a wealthy woman. Charles Wesley\nthought it would be better for him to marry; but he repelled the\nsuggestion, and wrote him several \"reasons against matrimony,\" which,\nto say the truth, are a very laboured piece of writing, and are never\nlikely to convince any human being whose mind is not already made up.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n_CONTROVERSY AND CORRESPONDENCE._\n\n\nAlmost from the beginning of his ministry Fletcher's pen was active in\nthe service of religion. From various causes much, if not the greater\npart, of his writings was controversial, and to this fact may be\nassigned, in part at least, their immediate popularity and subsequent\nneglect. But the spirit of controversy never got the better of the\nspirit of devotion. Whatever view may be taken of the Calvinist\ncontroversy, in which he took a leading part, few will dissent from\nSouthey's judgment: \"If ever true Christian charity was manifested in\npolemical writing, it was by Fletcher of Madeley. Even theological\ncontroversy never in the slightest degree irritated his heavenly\ntemper.\" Some extracts from his earlier writings will show the spirit\nin which he entered upon this part of his labours.\n\nIn reply to the visitation sermon attacking the \"doctrines of\nMethodism,\" he wrote, in July, 1761, a short \"Defence of Experimental\nReligion,\" which may be classed amongst the best apologies of the\nperiod. He had now acquired an easy, pleasant English style, tending\nsomewhat to the florid and diffuse, but generally stopping short of\nexcess, and often forcible and persuasive in a high degree. He had no\ndifficulty in showing that to represent virtue and morality as the way\nto salvation is neither agreeable to the Scripture nor to the doctrine\nof the Church of England. The true nature of justification, and of the\nfaith that justifies, he illustrates from the Articles and Homilies.\nThe necessity of God's grace to turn the will, as against the\nsuperficial notion that a man is as free to do good as to do evil, is\nshown from Article X., from the baptismal office, and the collect for\nAsh Wednesday.\n\nIt was inevitable in the state of religion in England, and considering\nthe chief intellectual influences then in the ascendant, that to preach\nsalvation as a present blessing to be possessed and enjoyed, was to\nincur the charge of enthusiasm. The high and moderate clergy never felt\nsurer of themselves than when exposing the folly and presumption of\n\"feelings\" and \"experiences\" in religion. Fletcher distinguishes\nbetween what is true and what is false on this subject:\n\n     \"To set up impulses as the standard of our faith or rule of\n     our conduct; to take the thrilling of weak nerves, sinking\n     of the animal spirits, or flights of a heated imagination,\n     for the workings of God's Spirit; to pretend to miraculous\n     gifts, and those fruits of the Spirit which are not offered\n     and promised to believers in all ages, or to boast of the\n     graces which that Spirit produces in the heart of every\n     child of God, when the fruits of the flesh appear in our\n     life--this is downright enthusiasm: I detest it as well as\n     you, sir, and I heartily wish you good luck whenever you\n     shall attack such monstrous delusions.\n\n     \"But is it consistent with the doctrines of our Church to\n     condemn and set aside all _feelings_ in religion, and rank\n     them with unaccountable _impulses_? Give me leave, sir, to\n     tell you that either you or the compilers of our Liturgy,\n     Articles, and Homilies must be mistaken, if I did not\n     mistake you.... They bid us pray (office for the sick) that\n     every sick person may know and feel that there is no saving\n     name or power but that of Jesus Christ. In the seventeenth\n     of our Articles they speak of godly persons, and such as\n     _feel_ in themselves the workings of God's Spirit. And in\n     the third part of the homily for rogation week, they declare\n     that when after contrition we _feel_ our consciences at\n     peace with God through the remission of our sin, it is God\n     that worketh this miracle in us. (Compare this with Rom. v.\n     1.) They are so far therefore from attributing such\n     _feelings_ to the weakness of good people's nerves, or to a\n     spirit of pride and delusion, that they affirm it is God\n     that worketh them in their hearts....\n\n     \"You seemed, sir, to discountenance _feelings_ as not\n     agreeable to sober, rational worship; but, if I am not\n     mistaken, reason by no means clashes with feelings of\n     various sorts in religion. I am willing to let any man of\n     reason judge whether feeling sorrow for sin, hunger and\n     thirst after righteousness, peace of conscience, serenity of\n     mind, consolation in prayer, thankfulness at the Lord's\n     table, hatred of sin, zeal for God, love to Jesus and all\n     men, compassion for the distressed, etc., or feeling\n     nothing at all of this, is matter of mere indifference: yea,\n     sir, take for a judge a heathen poet, if you please, and you\n     will hear him say of a young man who, by his blushes,\n     betrayed the shame he felt for having told an\n     untruth,--_Erubuit, salva res est_....\n\n     \"If a man may feel sorrow when he sees himself stript of\n     all, and left naked upon a desert coast, why should not a\n     penitent sinner, whom God has delivered from blindness of\n     heart, be allowed to feel sorrow upon seeing himself robbed\n     of his title to heaven, and left in the wilderness of this\n     world destitute of original righteousness? Again, if it is\n     not absurd to say that a rebel, condemned to death, feels\n     joy upon his being reprieved and received into his prince's\n     favour, why should it be thought absurd to affirm that a\n     Christian, who, being justified by faith, has peace with\n     God, and rejoices in hope of the glory to come, feels joy\n     and happiness in his inmost soul on that account? On the\n     contrary, sir, to affirm that such a one feels nothing (if I\n     am not mistaken) is no less repugnant to reason than to\n     religion....\n\n     \"But if, because your text was taken out of St. Paul's\n     epistle, you choose, sir, to let him decide whether feelings\n     ought to have place in sound religion, or not, I am willing\n     to stand at the bar before so great a judge, and promise to\n     find no fault with his sentence.... Where does he exclaim\n     against feeling the power of God, or the powerful operations\n     of His Spirit on the heart? Is it where he says that the\n     kingdom of God is 'not in word, but in power'; that this\n     kingdom within us (if we are believers), this true, inward\n     religion consists in peace, righteousness, and joy in the\n     Holy Ghost; that Christians rejoice in tribulation, because\n     the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy\n     Ghost given unto them? Is it where he says, he is 'not\n     ashamed of the gospel of Christ, because it is the power of\n     God to the salvation of every one that believeth'; that he\n     desired to 'know nothing but Jesus and the power of His\n     resurrection'? (2 Cor. ii. 24.) Or is it when he calls the\n     exerting of this power in him his life; saying, 'I live not,\n     but Christ lives in me; and the life that I now live in the\n     flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me\n     and gave Himself for me'?\n\n     \"Can we suppose that he discountenances feelings in\n     religion, when he prays that 'the God of hope' would fill\n     the Romans (xv. 13) 'with all joy and peace in believing,\n     that they might abound in hope through the power of the Holy\n     Ghost'; when he says that 'they had not received again the\n     spirit of bondage to fear, but the spirit of adoption,\n     crying, Abba, Father, and witnessing to their spirits that\n     they were the children of God,' agreeable to that of St.\n     John, 'He that believeth hath the witness in himself'?\n\n     \"One more argument on this subject, and I shall conclude the\n     whole. If good nature, affability, and morality, with a\n     round of outward duties, will fit a man for heaven, without\n     any feeling of the workings of the Spirit of God in the\n     heart, or without peace, righteousness, and joy in the Holy\n     Ghost; if such a professor of godliness is really in that\n     narrow way to the kingdom which few people find, why did our\n     Lord puzzle honest Nicodemus with the strange doctrine of a\n     new birth?... why did He trouble the religious centurion\n     with sending for Peter, that the Holy Ghost might fall upon\n     him and all that heard the word, while the apostle preached\n     to them remission of sins, through faith in Jesus?\n\n     \"But, above all, if inward feelings are nothing in sound\n     religion, if they rather border upon enthusiasm, why did not\n     our Lord caution the woman who came behind him in Simon's\n     house, who wept at his feet, and kissed and wiped them with\n     her hair? Why did He not take this opportunity to preach her\n     and us a lecture on enthusiasm? Why did He not advise her to\n     take something to help the weakness of her nerves, and\n     prevent the ferment of her spirits? Why did He not tell her\n     she went too far, she would run mad in the end? Why did He\n     not bid her (as people do in our days) go into company a\n     little, and divert her melancholy? Nay, more; why did He\n     prefer her with all her behaviour to good-natured, virtuous,\n     religious, undisturbed Simon?\n\n     \"... However, do not mistake me, sir; I am far from\n     supposing that the sincerity of people's devotion must be\n     judged of by the emotion they feel in their bodies.... But\n     as I read that God will have the heart or nothing, so I know\n     that when He has the heart, He has the affections, of\n     course. Fear and hope, sorrow and joy, desire and love act\n     upon their proper objects, God's attributes. They often\n     launch out, and, as it were, lose themselves in His\n     immensity, and, at times, several of these passions acting\n     together in the soul, the noble disorder they cause cannot\n     but affect the animal spirits, and communicate itself more\n     or less to the body. Hence came the floods of tears shed by\n     David, Jeremiah, Mary, Peter, Paul, etc.; hence came the\n     sighs, tears, strong cries, and groans unutterable of our\n     Saviour Himself.\"\n\nThe \"Defence,\" from which these extracts are made, fairly exhibits the\nmind of early Methodism, and of the Evangelical Revival generally, upon\nthe questions discussed. The discrimination between religious feeling\narising from the quickened apprehension of Divine truth, and that which\nis little more than natural emotion unnaturally stimulated, is not\npeculiar to Fletcher. He did but share it with the other leaders of the\nnew reformation. The teaching of Wesley, the master mind of the whole\nmovement, is, as regards this matter, as much marked by strong sense as\nby Evangelical fervour.\n\nThe comment, perhaps, of most readers of this \"Defence of Experimental\nReligion\" will be that the points contended for are obvious and\nindisputable, that they would be so readily admitted as to render much\nof the argument superfluous. That this should appear so is one of the\nmany illustrations of the extent to which the results of the great\nRevival have passed into the religious life of the nation, and become a\ncommon heritage.\n\nThe private letters written at this period of Fletcher's life contain\nvery little biographic material, and indeed record few incidents of\nany kind. Written, for the most part, to persons like-minded with\nhimself, they consist mainly of the outpourings of praise and holy\naspiration, mingled with exhortations and counsels. To the\nspiritually-minded who may read them they will continue to interpret\nand justify themselves, but it must be admitted that they do not belong\nto the rare and precious class of writings that rank among the\npermanent treasures of the Christian Church. The distinction between\nthat which is \"for an age,\" and that which is \"for all time,\" is\nnowhere more marked than in religious literature. Fletcher's letters\nnourished the spiritual life of his friends and correspondents, and\nwere much read by Methodists for a generation or two; but they have\nfailed to win a place among the books that do not grow old, those\ncompanions of the spiritual life whose ministry is from generation to\ngeneration. So few indeed are the books of this class that there is no\nneed to apologise for Fletcher because he has not added to their\nnumber.[7]\n\nA few extracts from his correspondence may be given.\n\n\n     TO THE REV. CHARLES WESLEY.\n\n                                             \"_Sept. 20th, 1762._\n\n     \"The 'crede quod habes et habes' is not very different from\n     those words of Christ, 'What things soever ye desire, when\n     ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have\n     them.' The humble reason of the believer and the irrational\n     presumption of the enthusiast draw this doctrine to the\n     right hand or to the left. But to split the hair, here lies\n     the difficulty.... Truly you are a pleasant casuist. What!\n     'It hath pleased Thee to regenerate this infant with Thy\n     Holy Spirit, to receive him for Thine own child by adoption,\n     and to incorporate him into Thy holy Church'--does all this\n     signify nothing more than 'being taken into the visible\n     Church'?\n\n     \"How came you to think of my going to leave Madeley? I have\n     indeed had my scruples about the above passage, and some in\n     the burial service; but you may dismiss your fears, and be\n     assured I will neither marry nor leave my Church without\n     advising you.\"\n\n\n     TO MISS HATTON.\n\n                                             \"_Nov. 1st, 1762._\n\n     \"That there is a seal of pardon and an earnest of our\n     inheritance above, to which you are as yet a stranger, seems\n     clear from the tenor of your letter; but had I been in the\n     place of the gentleman you name, I would have endeavoured to\n     lay it before you as 'the fruit of faith,' and a most\n     glorious privilege, rather than as 'the root of faith,' and\n     a thing absolutely necessary to the being of it.... Hold\n     fast your confidence, but do not trust nor rest in it; trust\n     in Christ, and remember He says, 'I am the way'; not for you\n     to stop, but to run on in Him. Rejoice to hear that there is\n     a full assurance of faith to be obtained by the seal of\n     God's Spirit, and go on from faith to faith until you are\n     possessed of it. But remember this, and let this double\n     advice prevent your straying to the right or left: first,\n     that you will have reason to suspect the sincerity of your\n     zeal if you lie down easy without the seal of your pardon,\n     and the full assurance of your faith; secondly, while you\n     wait for that seal in all the means of grace, beware of\n     being unthankful for the least degree of faith and\n     confidence in Jesus, beware of burying one talent, because\n     you have not five, beware of despising the grain of mustard\n     seed because it is not yet a tree.\n\n     \"With respect to myself: in many conflicts and troubles of\n     soul I have consulted many masters of the spiritual life;\n     but Divine mercy did not, does not, suffer me to rest upon\n     the word of a fellow creature. The best advices have often\n     increased my perplexities; and the end was to make me cease\n     from human dependence, and wait upon God from the dust of\n     self-despair. To Him therefore I desire to point you and\n     myself, in the person of Jesus Christ. This incarnate God\n     receives weary, perplexed sinners still, and gives them\n     solid rest. He teaches as no man ever taught; His words have\n     spirit and life; nor can He possibly mistake our case.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFletcher's correspondence with Miss Hatton continued, at intervals, for\nsome years. She was much afflicted in body, and, as it would seem,\nharassed and burdened in spirit, and his letters afforded her\nconsolation and guidance until the close of her life, to which he thus\nrefers: \"Poor Miss Hatton died last Sunday fortnight full of serenity,\nfaith, and love. The four last hours of her life were better than all\nher sickness. When the pangs of death were upon her, the comforts of\nthe Almighty bore her triumphantly through, and some of her last words\nwere: \"Grieve not at my happiness.... I wish I could tell you half of\nwhat I feel and see. I am going to keep an everlasting sabbath....\nThanks be to God, who giveth me the victory!\"\n\nHis care for his people found expression in many ways that watchful\nlove suggested, or their necessities seemed to call for. During his\noccasional absences from home he addressed pastoral letters to his\nflock filled with Christian exhortations and counsels. The following\nare extracts:\n\n\n                                             \"_Oct., 1765._\n\n     \"I beg you will not neglect the assembling of yourselves\n     together, and when you meet in society, be neither backward\n     nor forward to speak. Let every one esteem himself the\n     meanest in the company, and be glad to sit at the feet of\n     the lowest.... I had not time to finish this letter\n     yesterday, being called upon to preach in a market town in\n     the neighbourhood.... A gentleman churchwarden would hinder\n     my getting into the pulpit, and, in order to do this, cursed\n     and swore, and took another gentleman by the collar in the\n     middle of the church. Notwithstanding his rage, I preached.\n     May the Lord raise in power what was sown in weakness!\"\n\n\n                                             \"_Sept., 1766._\n\n     \"When I was in London I endeavoured to make the most of my\n     time, that is to say, to hear, receive, and practise the\n     word. Accordingly I went to Mr. Whitefield's tabernacle, and\n     heard him give his society a most excellent exhortation\n     upon love. He began by observing, that 'when St. John was\n     old, and past walking and preaching, he would not forsake\n     the assembling himself with the brethren, as the manner of\n     too many is, upon little or no pretence at all. On the\n     contrary, he got himself carried to their meeting, and, with\n     his last thread of voice, preached to them his final sermon,\n     consisting of this one sentence, \"My little children, love\n     one another.\"' I wish, I pray, I earnestly beseech you to\n     follow that evangelical, apostolical advice.... Bear with\n     one another's infirmities, and do not easily cast off any\n     one; no, not for sin, except it be obstinately persisted\n     in.\"\n\nFrom unpublished manuscripts of Fletcher we find that in the latter\npart of the year 1764 he was engaged in a somewhat remarkable\ncontroversy within his own parish. His opponent was a Mrs. Anne Darby,\na member of the Society of Friends, and the subjects discussed included\nthe Athanasian Creed, the doctrine of the Trinity, the Sacraments, and\nthe Christian Ministry. His account of its origin is as follows:\n\n     \"On Thursday, November 22nd, 1764, Mrs. Darby, a female\n     teacher among the people called Quakers, came into a house\n     where the Vicar of Madeley was instructing his parishioners.\n     He had given previous notice of his design to answer the\n     objections made by dissenters and infidels against the\n     Church of England; and he happened at her coming to defend\n     the doctrine of the blessed Trinity, as contained in\n     Athanasius's Creed.\n\n     \"It was not long before the lady began the attack, and\n     having given us a scriptural account of the Trinity, she\n     blamed us for two things:\n\n     \"1st. For dwelling upon that point rather than enforcing\n     practical duties.\n\n     \"2nd. For admitting St. Athanasius's Creed, as in her\n     opinion it is full of gross misrepresentations of the\n     Godhead.\"\n\nA verbal discussion followed, which is carefully recorded. Mrs. Darby\nafterwards brought the six following questions, and put them to the\nvicar, who, in turn, furnishes a written reply.\n\n     \"1_st Query_. Dost thou believe that thy Church, or as it is\n     called, the Church of England, is the Church of Christ?\n\n     \"2_nd Query_. Dost thou believe that thou art a minister of\n     Christ?\n\n     \"3_rd Query_. But Christ's ministers had all their trade.\n     Was not Paul a tentmaker? And is thy maintenance such as\n     suits a minister of the gospel?\n\n     \"4_th Query_. The ministers of Christ preach the gospel\n     freely. '_Freely ye have received, freely give_,' says\n     Christ. Dost thou do so?\n\n     \"5_th Query_. Is the baptism thou baptizest with, the\n     baptism of Him who baptized with the Holy Ghost?\n\n     \"_6th Query_. Dost thou believe that the supper thou\n     celebratest is the supper of which Christ said, '_I stand at\n     the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open, I\n     will come in, and sup with him, and he with Me_'?\"\n\nIn discussing these queries Fletcher took great pains. He deals with\nno less than fifteen \"objections\" under one of them. Instead of\nasserting his authority, or that of the Church, he set himself to\nanswer every reasonable question, including some that would hardly be\nconsidered such, to give satisfaction, if possible, to his opponents,\nand protect his people from what appeared to him serious perversions of\ntruth. The labour involved would have sufficed to produce a book, but\nhe had no literary aim in the matter. His manuscript was submitted to\nMrs. Darby, and then, bound in a stout leathern cover, circulated among\nhis parishioners. As we have quoted its opening passage, we will give\nan extract from its close, in which the Vicar of Madeley and Mrs. Darby\ntake leave of one another.\n\n     \"I hope the reader by this time laments with me the _bad_\n     use that Mrs. Darby makes of a _good_ understanding. How\n     much better were it for her, and us all, if, instead of\n     quibbling and wresting the Scriptures, as these sheets show\n     she hath done, she would second the endeavours of the vicar\n     in promoting a reformation of _essentials_ in the parish\n     with respect to principles and manners!\n\n     \"But if she is still _moved by the spirit of contention_ to\n     make fresh assaults upon us, and to obtrude George Fox's\n     peculiar tenets, to the disparagement of St. Paul's\n     doctrines, we cannot but wish she may have a _better memory_\n     to _remember_ our answers, and _more candour_ to do our\n     arguments _justice_.\n\n     \"In the meantime if the Vicar hath avoided the force of any\n     of her objections, or omitted answering any, and if he has\n     mistaken her in anything, he is ready to acknowledge it, as\n     soon as she hath made it appear; and he hopes that if she\n     acts by him as he hath assured her by words of mouth he\n     would do by her, she will recall the copies of her partial\n     manuscript, and correct them, according to the mistakes I\n     have pointed out therein, before she makes them circulate\n     any further.\"\n\nTo this is appended in Mrs. Darby's writing:\n\n     \"Being called upon for this manuscript before I had\n     considered it all over properly, I therefore have got it\n     copied; and after examination (if worth notice) shall\n     communicate my sentiments hereupon to John Fletcher and\n     sober people. A. Darby.\"\n\nWhat further came of this controversy, whether anything further came of\nit, we cannot tell. With Mrs. Darby's postscript before us it would not\nbe safe to conclude that the last word had been spoken.\n\nAmong the labours belonging to this period was the organization of a\n\"Society of Ministers of the Gospel,\" for which Fletcher drew up rules\nand regulations. Although, as we have seen, at the beginning of his\nwork in Madeley he had met with a good deal of opposition from\nneighbouring clergy, he found it possible a few years later to form a\nclerical association for the promotion of spiritual life and\nministerial efficiency. The society was to meet at Worcester, in the\nprivate house of some reputable person, twice in the year, on the\nTuesday and Wednesday next before the full of the moon, in the months\nof May and September. The meeting was to begin at ten o'clock, dinner\nat two; the expense to be defrayed by an equal contribution of the\nwhole society, \"_absentees not excepted_.\" The topics for conversation\nand inquiry are set forth in considerable detail. They include \"public\npreaching, the case of religious societies, the catechizing of children\nand instruction of youth, the case of personal inspection and personal\nvisiting of the flock, the case of ruling their own houses well, the\ncase of visiting the sick, the case of their own particular experiences\nand personal conduct.\"\n\nEvery member of the society was \"recommended to take down brief minutes\nof the business transacted by the society, for his future recollection\nof it and meditation upon it.\"\n\nThe following are Fletcher's notes of the meeting held on May 12th,\n1767:\n\n     \"1. How far is it proper to preach against particular sins,\n     and to enforce particular duties, and how to do this in a\n     gospel-like manner.\n\n     \"_Answer._ Very proper to stated congregations. Many\n     convinced of sin by it; many kept decent by it. Believers\n     themselves made watchful. Preach so as not to encourage\n     pharisees.\n\n     \"2. Whether we are to preach the law, and morality, and why?\n\n     \"_Answer._ Yes: three reasons. (1) To inform believers; (2)\n     To convince false moralists; (3) To stop the mouth of the\n     adversaries, and confound antinomians.\n\n     \"3. How far is it proper to mention and improve particular\n     cases, and the experience of particular people, in funeral\n     sermons and other discourses, to try to awaken the\n     careless?\n\n     \"_Answer._ Extraordinary cases known to all may be\n     improved--with tenderness, wisdom, avoiding the appearance\n     of sentencing any one, and saying what we say of them in\n     Scripture words, and with suppositions.\n\n     \"4. (Digression.) Whether charity and duty oblige us to say\n     over all the dead, 'we hope they rest in Christ.' (Settled.)\n     (A hardship) and may be omitted because not insisted on as\n     absolutely indispensable.\n\n     \"6. What's the proper length of a sermon for hearers and\n     speaker?\n\n     \"_Answer._ A stranger may be heard for an hour; a stated\n     minister from 30 to 50 minutes.\n\n     \"7. What to do to keep within these bounds?\n\n     \"_Answer._ Pray, digest the point, have few heads, be not\n     long upon them. If you have been too full upon the first, be\n     less so upon the last.\n\n     \"8. When a minister hath studied a subject with design to\n     preach on it, and is shut up in his heart and clouded in his\n     mind at preaching time, and another text presents itself,\n     and liberty is offered to speak from it, is it enthusiasm to\n     do it?\n\n     \"_Answer._ Trial may be made, and if the preacher finds\n     freedom and the people edification, the matter was from\n     above.\n\n     \"9. Whether we may allegorize Scripture, and how far?\n\n     \"_Answer._ So far as the Holy Ghost hath allegorized we may\n     safely do the same; but we must be very sparing of anything\n     that exceeds Scripture warrant. Avoid taking historical\n     allegorical texts to raise doctrines upon. Such texts may\n     be brought by way of comparison or illustration of some\n     other weighty passages which contain the doctrine plainly.\n\n     \"10. Societies.\n\n     \"_Disadvantages._ They raise a jealousy in those who do not\n     belong to them, increase their prejudice, make them think\n     the minister partial, and watch over the society for evil.\n\n     \"_Advantages._ They are scriptural, comfortable, profitable,\n     the only means of keeping up some discipline.\"\n\nSuch were the questions discussed, and the opinions expressed in the\n\"Society of Ministers of the Gospel,\" organized, and probably founded,\nby Fletcher. The society was one of those innumerable results of the\nRevival, by which its spirit and principles were widely diffused\nthrough the Church. A generation later such associations were common\namongst the Evangelical clergy. Of these the Eclectic Society, founded\nby John Newton and Richard Cecil in 1783, is well-known to us through\nthe \"Notes,\" extending from 1798 to 1814, published by Archdeacon\nPratt.[8]\n\nAt the close of his first seven years at Madeley, Fletcher's chief\ndifficulties had either disappeared, or were greatly diminished. Though\nhe still lamented the comparative unfruitfulness of his labours, he\nhad, in truth, much to rejoice over. Many of the ungodly had been\nconverted through his ministry, some of whom were now walking worthy of\nChrist, while others had died in the Lord. He was now generally\nesteemed, and by the better part of his flock greatly beloved. He had\ngained experience in the administration of his parish and the direction\nof souls. In preaching, catechizing, visiting, and holding religious\nmeetings he was indefatigable, and spared no pains to guard his people\nfrom doctrinal error or spiritual decline. The organization that\ngradually rose under his hand was not of the modern parochial type, but\nwell suited to the circumstances of the people and of the time. He\nestablished regular preaching-places, not only in his own parish, but\neight, ten, or more miles away, and formed societies for Christian\ninstruction and fellowship. From time to time his hands were\nstrengthened and his heart encouraged by visits from his friends and\nfellow labourers. Wesley's first visit was in July, 1764, and is thus\nreferred to in his \"Journal\":\n\n     \"I rode to Bilbrook, near Wolverhampton, and preached at\n     between two and three. Thence we went on to Madeley, an\n     exceedingly pleasant village, encompassed with trees and\n     hills. It was a great comfort to me to converse once more\n     with a Methodist of the old type, denying himself, taking up\n     his cross, and resolved to be altogether a Christian.\n\n     \"_Sunday, July 22nd._ At ten Mr. Fletcher read prayers, and\n     I preached on those words in the gospel, 'I am the Good\n     Shepherd: the Good Shepherd layeth down His life for the\n     sheep.' The church would nothing near contain the\n     congregation; but a window near the pulpit being taken down,\n     those who could not come in stood in the churchyard, and I\n     believe all could hear. The congregation, they said, used to\n     be much smaller in the afternoon than in the morning; but I\n     could not discern the least difference, either in number or\n     seriousness. I found employment enough for the intermediate\n     hours in praying with the various companies who hung about\n     the house, insatiably hungering and thirsting after the good\n     word. Mr. Grimshaw, at his first coming to Haworth, had not\n     such a prospect as this. There are many adversaries indeed,\n     but yet they cannot shut the open and effectual door.\"\n\nWesley's itinerant preachers were welcomed by Fletcher when their\nrounds brought them to his parish. To Alexander Mather, a brave and\ndevoted Methodist preacher, he wrote to say that an occasional\nexhortation from him or his colleague to the societies he had formed\nwould be esteemed a favour, and expressed at the same time a\nwillingness, if it were not deemed an encroachment, to go, as\nProvidence might direct, to any of Mr. Mather's preaching-places.\n\nAnd as Fletcher rejoiced in the evangelistic labours of others in his\nown neighbourhood, so he willingly engaged in similar labours himself\nin various parts of the country. In the year 1765 we find him\nexchanging pulpits for a while with Mr. Sellon, curate of Breedon, in\nLeicestershire, and preaching to the crowds who filled the church, and\nclambered to the windows to see and hear.\n\nTwo years later, having secured the services of an acceptable curate to\nserve the parish in his absence, he spent some weeks in Yorkshire with\nthe Countess of Huntingdon and Mr. Venn, the Vicar of Huddersfield.\nThey were joined by a number of earnest clergy from different parts of\nthe country, Mr. Madan from London, Dr. Conyers, Rector of Helmsley,\nMr. Burnet, Vicar of Elland, and several others, by whom the gospel was\npreached to multitudes in town and country. In such companionship and\nin such labours Fletcher rejoiced greatly, and returned to his parish\nwith renewed strength. The sense of loneliness was relieved. The\ndifficulties of his work at Madeley seemed no longer exceptional.\nCheered by the success vouchsafed to his labours and those of his\nfriends, he came back to his people \"in the fulness of the blessing of\nChrist.\" Modern experience has shown how a parish or a congregation may\nbe benefited by the coming of a mission preacher, and how a minister\nmay be enlarged in heart and utterance by special labours away from his\nown flock. Missions based upon the recognition of these truths are now\nfamiliar to us all; but in this matter, as in so much of the quickened\nlife of the Church, the men of the Revival led the way.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\n_TREVECCA COLLEGE.--THE CALVINIST CONTROVERSY._\n\n\nIn the summer of 1768 Fletcher undertook an office which greatly\nincreased his labours and responsibilities. The religious movement\ndirected by the Countess of Huntingdon continuing to develop, a\nconsiderable number of chapels had, by this time, been built or hired\nin various parts of the country. The pulpits were generally supplied by\nclergymen of the Established Church, procured by the countess's\npersonal influence. But such arrangements became increasingly difficult\nto make. Their 'irregularity' was disapproved in high quarters. Lady\nHuntingdon's chaplains were, in fact, as 'irregular' in their labours\nas Wesley's itinerant preachers. The system that found no place for the\none could not long sanction the other; whilst her ladyship's\necclesiastical authority was a still greater anomaly than that of\nWesley.\n\nIt became necessary therefore to meet the demand for earnest,\nevangelical preachers in some other way than by the services of the\nregular clergy. Meanwhile, the expulsion of six students from the\nUniversity of Oxford for \"being attached to the sect called Methodists,\nand holding their doctrines,\" showed that the university was hardly\nlikely to be the nursing mother of such men as were required.\n\nIn these circumstances the countess resolved to found a school or\ncollege for the training of godly young men for the work of the\nministry. She proposed to admit such as were truly converted to God and\ngave evidence of being called to preach the gospel, and to give them\nthe advantage of three years' residence and instruction, at the close\nof which they might enter the ministry, either in the Church of\nEngland, or among Protestants of any other denomination. After taking\ncounsel with Whitefield, Romaine, Venn, Fletcher, and others, Lady\nHuntingdon established the institution on which her heart was set.\n\nFletcher appears to have been in thorough sympathy with the countess's\naims from the first. Being consulted as to the selection of books for\nthe college, he writes: \"Having studied abroad, and used rather foreign\nthan English books with my pupils, I am not acquainted with the books\nGreat Britain affords well enough to select the best and most concise.\nBesides, a plan of studies must be fixed upon first, before proper\nbooks can be chosen. Grammar, logic, rhetoric, with ecclesiastical\nhistory, and a little natural philosophy, and geography, with a great\ndeal of practical divinity, will be enough for those who do not care to\ndive into languages. Mr. Townsend and Charles Wesley might, by spending\nan hour together, make a proper choice; and I would recommend them not\nto forget Watts's 'Logic,' and his 'History of the Bible by Questions\nand Answers,' which seem to me excellent books of the kind for\nclearness and order. Mr. Wesley's 'Natural Philosophy' contains as much\nas is wanted, or more. Mason's 'Essay on Pronunciation' will be worth\ntheir attention. Henry and Gill on the Bible, with four volumes of\nBaxter's 'Practical Works,' Keach's 'Metaphors,' Taylor on the Types,\nGurnal's 'Christian Armour,' Edwards on Preaching, Johnson's English\ndictionary, and Mr. Wesley's Christian Library, may make part of the\nlittle library. The book of Baxter I mention I shall take care to send\nto Trevecca, as a mite towards the collection, together with Usher's\n'Body of Divinity,' Scapula's Greek lexicon, and Lyttleton's Latin\ndictionary.\"\n\nBut while Lady Huntingdon received counsel and assistance from many\nquarters, and from Fletcher amongst the rest, there was one service for\nwhich she looked to him alone. Would Fletcher allow himself to be\nplaced at the head of her college? Would he accept the presidency,\nvisiting Trevecca as often as he conveniently could, to direct the\nstudies and discipline of the place, and test the character and\nqualifications of the students? From his profound esteem for the\ncountess, and in the hope of assisting in the good work of raising up\nan earnest ministry, Fletcher accepted the office, and, without fee or\nreward of any kind, threw himself heartily into its duties.\n\nAn old mansion, known as Trevecca House, in the parish of Talgarth,\nSouth Wales, was altered and adapted to the requirements of a college;\ntutors were procured, and the house was soon filled with students, the\nfirst of whom was a young man from Madeley, converted under Fletcher's\nministry. Lady Huntingdon herself took up her residence there, and by\nher presence stimulated the zeal of the household. Much of the time of\nthe students was employed in evangelistic work. On foot or on horseback\nthey visited the towns and villages for twenty or thirty miles round,\npreaching in chapels and houses, in field and market-places, as\nopportunity allowed. The pious founder soon saw a revival and extension\nof the work of God which filled her heart with joy, and assured her\nthat the undertaking, concerning which some of her best friends had\ntheir misgivings, was approved by God. At the dedication of the college\nand chapel, on August 24th, 1768, Lady Huntingdon's birthday,\nWhitefield was the preacher, and large numbers of people came together\nfrom all parts of the country. The following year, the anniversary was\nthe occasion of a still more remarkable gathering, and of a series of\nreligious services marked by great manifestations of spiritual power.\nThe most eminent ministers that Lady Huntingdon's summons could\nassemble were present. The congregations, too large for the chapel,\nassembled in the court. Day by day, and almost all day long, for a week\ntogether, vast crowds were moved to tears, to rapture, and to awe under\nthe preaching of the gospel. Howel Harris, Howel Davies, and Daniel\nRowlands, men whose names are household words in Wales to-day, preached\nin Welsh; and Wesley, Fletcher, and Shirley in English. Thousands of\nvoices rose in hymns of praise, and joined in fervent responses and\ncries of prayer. On the Saturday and Sunday, and again on the following\nThursday, the Lord's supper was administered, and Fletcher addressed\nthe communicants with an earnestness and pathos that it seemed\nimpossible to withstand. Many were awakened and converted. \"Truly God\nwas in the midst of us,\" said Lady Huntingdon, \"and many felt Him\neminently nigh. The gracious influences of His Spirit seemed to rest on\nevery soul.... Words fail to describe the holy triumph with which the\ngreat congregation sang--\n\n     'Captain of Thine enlisted host,\n     Display Thy glorious banner high.'\"\n\nAfter a week of never to be forgotten blessings, the great crowds\nslowly dispersed, and the tireless evangelists took horse and rode\naway, each to his work, with strength renewed, and spirit refreshed as\nfrom the presence of the Lord.\n\nAlthough Fletcher did not reside at the college, his connexion with it\nwas by no means a nominal one. His journeys to Trevecca were frequent,\ninvolving fatigue and privations, which his feeble frame could ill\nendure, though he counted them less than nothing. As to the character\nof his visits, and the influence that accompanied him, the testimony of\nMr. Benson, the headmaster, himself a man of exceptional intelligence\nand sanctity, is well known, but is too important to be omitted here:\n\n     \"Mr. Fletcher visited them frequently, and was received as\n     an angel of God. It is not possible for me to describe the\n     veneration in which we all held him. Like Elijah in the\n     schools of the prophets, he was revered, he was loved, he\n     was almost adored; and that, not only by every student, but\n     by every member of the family. And indeed he was worthy. The\n     reader will pardon me if he think I exceed. My heart kindles\n     while I write. Here it was that I saw, shall I say an angel\n     in human flesh? I should not far exceed the truth if I said\n     so. But here I saw a descendant of fallen Adam so fully\n     raised above the ruins of the fall, that though by the body\n     he was tied down to earth, yet was his whole conversation in\n     heaven, yet was his life, from day to day, hid with Christ\n     in God. Prayer, praise, love, and zeal, all ardent, elevated\n     above what one would think attainable in this state of\n     frailty, were the element in which he continually lived. And\n     as to others, his one employment was to call, entreat, and\n     urge them to ascend with him to the glorious Source of being\n     and blessedness. He had leisure comparatively for nothing\n     else. Languages, arts, sciences, grammar, rhetoric, logic,\n     even divinity itself, as it is called, were all laid aside\n     when he appeared in the schoolroom among the students. His\n     full heart would not suffer him to be silent. He must speak,\n     and they were readier to hearken to this servant and\n     minister of Jesus Christ than to attend to Sallust, Virgil,\n     Cicero, or any Latin or Greek historian, poet, or\n     philosopher, they had been engaged in reading. And they\n     seldom hearkened long before they were all in tears, and\n     every heart catched fire from the flame which burned in his\n     soul.\n\n     \"These seasons generally terminated in this. Being convinced\n     that to be filled with the Holy Ghost was a better\n     qualification for the ministry of the gospel than any\n     classical learning (although that too be useful in its\n     place), after speaking awhile in the schoolroom, he used\n     frequently to say, 'As many of you as are athirst for this\n     fulness of the Spirit, follow me into my room.' On this many\n     of us have instantly followed him, and there continued for\n     two or three hours, wrestling like Jacob for the blessing,\n     praying one after another, till we could bear to kneel no\n     longer.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n     \"Such was the ordinary employment of this man of God while\n     he remained at Trevecca. He preached the word of life to the\n     students and family, and as many of the neighbours as\n     desired to be present. He was 'instant in season, and out of\n     season'; he 'reproved, rebuked, exhorted, with all\n     longsuffering.' He was always employed, either in\n     illustrating some important truth, or exhorting to some\n     neglected duty, or administering some needful comfort, or\n     relating some useful anecdote, or making some profitable\n     remark or observation upon some occurrence. And his devout\n     soul, always burning with love and zeal, led him to\n     intermingle prayer with all he uttered. Meanwhile his manner\n     was so solemn, and at the same time so mild and insinuating,\n     that it was hardly possible for any one who had the\n     happiness of being in his company not to be struck with awe\n     and charmed with love, as if in the presence of an angel or\n     departed spirit. Indeed, I frequently thought, while\n     attending to his heavenly discourse and Divine spirit, that\n     he was so different from, and superior to, the generality of\n     mankind, as to look more like Moses or Elijah, or some\n     prophet or apostle, come again from the dead, than a mortal\n     man, dwelling in a house of clay. It is true, his weak and\n     long-afflicted body proclaimed him to be human; but the\n     graces which so eminently filled and adorned his soul\n     manifested him to be Divine: and long before his happy\n     spirit returned to God who gave it, that which was human\n     seemed in a great measure to be 'swallowed up of life.'\"\n\nBenson was not alone in the impressions he received of Fletcher's\ncharacter, and of the influence he exercised at Trevecca. The\nreferences of others are in the same strain; and although his connexion\nwith the college came to an abrupt end, and was followed by a period of\npainful controversy, we hear no disparagement of his piety, or\nsuggestion of anything unworthy of his reputation for Christian\nmeekness and purity.\n\nBut why did Fletcher so soon withdraw from the presidency of the\ncollege? To use the words of Mr. Benson: \"Why did he give up an office\nfor which he was perfectly well qualified, which he executed so\nentirely to the satisfaction of all the parties concerned, and in which\nit pleased God to give so manifest a blessing to his labours?\" The\nanswer is, that it was one of the first results of a controversy which,\nfor intensity, for duration, and for the strifes and divisions to which\nit gave rise, is unhappily memorable in the history of the Revival.\nIts very name--the Calvinistic controversy--will suggest to the\nexperienced reader the range of questions involved, and the\nimprobability of agreement being arrived at, however prolonged might be\nthe discussion.\n\nIt should be borne in mind that, from its very beginning, the Revival\nhad advanced along two different lines, in connexion with certain\nwell-marked doctrinal distinctions. Whilst the work and the workers in\nthe two spheres were, in the best and deepest sense, one, they were\ndivided upon those questions concerning predestination and free will,\nwhich, since the time of Augustine, have given rise to two distinct\ntypes of doctrine, each susceptible of modifications and developments\nof its own. This difference was represented, first in the little band\nof Oxford Methodists, and then in the more evangelical and expansive\nMethodism that succeeded it. Wesley was an Arminian, and Whitefield a\nCalvinist. Harmonious co-operation between them was at times difficult;\nbut mutual love and largeness of heart prevailed upon the whole.\n\nUnder Wesley's leadership, Arminian Methodism developed in organic\nform, and is still found in all parts of the world in visible,\norganized Churches. Calvinistic Methodism spread with similar, if not\nequal, rapidity, but without unity of administration, and failed to\ndevelop any principles of Church life. It revived the Calvinistic\nnonconformity of England, and may almost be said to have taken\npossession of Wales; but the main current of its strength flowed into\nthe Church of England, and is to be traced in the rise and progress of\nthe Evangelical or Low Church party. There may be difference of opinion\nas to which development has been on the whole of greater service to the\nChristian Church, but few persons will deny to either a high place in\nthe order of Providence.\n\nAt the period we have now reached in Fletcher's history, a certain\nuneasiness may be discovered in the relations of Arminian and\nCalvinistic Methodism, not incompatible however with such union and\nbrotherliness as were seen at the great gathering at Trevecca. But\nWesley was observing with concern the spread of a practical\nantinomianism, which on every possible ground he hated and feared. The\nopenly wicked were hopeful and comparatively harmless compared with\npersons who talked fluently of being justified and sanctified, while\nthey were guilty of drunkenness, uncleanness, and dishonesty. This\nstate of things he could not and would not endure, if it was to be\nprevented by plainness of doctrine or rigour of discipline. He knew\nthat while such abuses were not the necessary accompaniment of the\nScriptural doctrine of faith, they arose from a perversion to which\nthat doctrine will always be exposed, and against which it will be\nneedful to guard, as long as human nature is what it is. Any language\ntherefore that tended to weaken the sense of moral responsibility, or\nlower the standard of Christian duty, was doubly dangerous in presence\nof a tendency to dwell upon the Divine sovereignty in redemption, to\nthe neglect of the Divine requirements, as they are revealed to man in\nthe gospel. In Wesley's judgment, his preachers were in danger of\nencouraging, or at least giving opportunity to, antinomian error by\nusing expressions that had received a kind of general sanction, and\nrefraining from certain others which were thought too legal and\nunevangelic. But what had this to do with Calvinism? Some writers, more\njealous for the character of Wesley's societies than he was, will have\nit that the abuses referred to were mainly or entirely to be found\namongst the Calvinists. But that is not the case. As Mr. Watson has\nwell said: \"To show however that antinomianism can graft itself upon\nother stocks besides that of the Calvinistic decrees, it was found also\namong the Moravians, and the Methodists did not escape.... In fact,\nthere is no such exclusive connexion between the more sober Calvinistic\ntheories of predestination and this great error, as some have\nsupposed.\" With this statement Wesley would, we think, have agreed; but\nhe undoubtedly held that antinomianism was a much more natural and\nlikely result of Calvinistic than of Arminian principles.\n\nIn the one case the principles must be violated, in the other they had\nonly to be developed and applied to produce the evils referred to.\nMoreover Calvinism, as popularly understood, had lost what safeguards\nit possessed, and had little in common with that of Owen, and Leighton,\nand Matthew Henry. Spiritual pride and carnal indulgence flourished\nalong with a crude and coarse belief in unconditional election and\nimputed righteousness. With Calvinism in its purely theological and\nphilosophical aspects Wesley felt no call to deal. It was wholly a\npractical question with him. He saw, or thought he saw, that its\nprinciples were doing actual mischief, and that, amongst other things,\nthe every-day language of religion was being corrupted by phrases and\ncatchwords that encouraged serious error. A quarter of a century ago,\nat the first Methodist Conference, the question was asked, \"Have we not\nunawares leaned too much to Calvinism? _Answer:_ We are afraid we\nhave.\" Might it not be time to ask this question again, and answer it\nin a less uncertain manner? Wesley judged it was. Accordingly, the\n\"Minutes of Conference\" for 1770 contain the following statement:\n\n     \"We said, in 1744, 'We have leaned too much toward\n     Calvinism.' Wherein?\n\n     \"1. With regard to _man's faithfulness_. Our Lord Himself\n     taught us to use the expression. And we ought never to be\n     ashamed of it. We ought steadily to assert, on His\n     authority, that if a man is not 'faithful in the unrighteous\n     mammon,' God will not give him '_the true riches_.'\n\n     \"2. With regard to _working for life_. This also our Lord\n     has expressly commanded us. 'Labour ([Greek: ergazesthe],\n     literally, 'work') for the meat that endureth to everlasting\n     life.' And, in fact, every believer, till he comes to glory,\n     works _for_ as well as _from_ life.\n\n     \"3. We have received it as a maxim that 'a man is to do\n     nothing in order to justification.' Nothing can be more\n     false. Whoever desires to find favour with God, should\n     'cease from evil, and learn to do well.' Whoever repents\n     should do 'works meet for repentance.' And if this is not\n     _in order_ to find favour, what does he do them for?\n\n     \"Review the whole affair.\n\n     \"1. Who of us is _now_ accepted of God?\n\n     \"He that now believes in Christ, with a loving and obedient\n     heart.\n\n     \"2. But who among those that never heard of Christ?\n\n     \"He that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, according\n     to the light he has.\n\n     \"3. Is this the same with 'he that is sincere'?\n\n     \"Nearly, if not quite.\n\n     \"4. Is not this 'salvation by works'?\n\n     \"Not by the _merit_ of works, but by works as a _condition_.\n\n     \"5. What have we then been disputing about for these thirty\n     years?\n\n     \"I am afraid, _about words_.\n\n     \"6. As to _merit_ itself, of which we have been so\n     dreadfully afraid: we are rewarded 'according to our works,'\n     yea, 'because of our works.' How does this differ from _for\n     the sake of our works_? And how differs this from _secundum\n     merita operum_? As our works _deserve_.\n\n     \"Can you split this hair?\n\n     \"I doubt I cannot.\"[9]\n\n\nThe reader, who has, it may be, glanced rapidly over the preceding\nparagraphs, without perceiving in them anything very portentous, will\nbe surprised to learn that their publication gave rise to the longest\nand sharpest controversy in the history of Methodism. An ancient\ncontroversy has this in common with an extinct volcano, that after\ngenerations may walk all unconscious over the cold ashes of what was\nonce a glowing lava torrent. To Wesley's contemporaries these \"Minutes\"\nwere full of meaning; every allusion was recognised, every phrase\ntouched some active belief or disbelief. Amongst the Calvinists\ngenerally, and more particularly in Lady Huntingdon's circle, they\ncaused the utmost indignation and alarm. Wesley was denounced as a\nheretic, an apostate, a papist unmasked. Lady Huntingdon wept over\nthem, called them \"horrible and abominable,\" and declared that\n\"whosoever did not fully, and without any evasion, disavow them should\nnot stay in her college.\" Lady Glenorchy \"must bear her feeble\ntestimony against the sentiments contained in them.... She has always\ncountenanced Mr. Wesley's preachers, but now she finds this cannot be\ndone by her any longer.\" Mr. Shirley pronounced them \"dreadful heresy,\"\n\"injurious to the very fundamental principles of Christianity,\" and\nsaid publicly that he deemed \"peace in such a case a shameful\nindolence, and silence no less than treachery.\" Active measures were\ntaken for the vindication of outraged orthodoxy. Every Arminian must\nquit the college. Mr. Benson, the headmaster, declined to disavow the\nsentiments of the \"Minutes,\" and was consequently dismissed. Fletcher\nfelt compelled to write: \"Mr. Benson made a very just defence when he\nsaid he held with me the possibility of salvation for all men; that\nmercy is offered to all, and yet may be received or rejected. If this\nbe what your ladyship calls Mr. Wesley's opinion, free-will, and\nArminianism, and if 'every Arminian must quit the college,' I am\nactually discharged also.\" In the hope of mediating between Wesley and\nthe countess, Fletcher went to Trevecca. He tried to soften matters,\nbut in vain. He then absolutely resigned his office, advised Lady\nHuntingdon to choose a moderate Calvinist in his place, and recommended\nRowland Hill. His letter to Wesley (first published by Mr.\nTyerman[10]), giving an account of his interview with Lady Huntingdon,\nand beseeching his venerated friend to believe \"that the college and\nits foundress mean well, and give them all the satisfaction you can,\"\nis in his finest vein of good sense, elevated and illumined by\nChristian feeling.\n\nBut, unhappily, no private and friendly understanding was arrived at.\nAs the time for Wesley's next Conference drew near, a circular letter,\nsigned \"Walter Shirley,\" was sent round among the friends of the\nEvangelical movement, proposing that those who disapproved the\nobnoxious minutes \"should go in a body to the said Conference, and\ninsist upon a formal recantation of the said minutes, and in case of a\nrefusal sign and publish their protest against them.\" This proposed\ndemonstration however, from various causes, dwindled down to a small\ndeputation, which presented itself, meekly enough, at the Conference at\nBristol, and was received by Wesley and the preachers in a friendly\nmanner. The spirit of conciliation was in the ascendant. Wesley and all\nhis preachers present, except one, signed a declaration admitting that\nthe minutes were not sufficiently guarded in the way they were\nexpressed, and repudiating the meaning which had been put upon them,\nviz. that of justification by works. Mr. Shirley, in return, wrote a\nmemorandum to the effect that \"the declaration agreed to in Conference,\nAugust 8th, 1771, had convinced him that he had mistaken the meaning of\nthe doctrinal points in the 'Minutes of the Conference, held in London,\nAugust 7th, 1770'; and he hereby wished to testify the full\nsatisfaction he had in the said declaration, and his hearty concurrence\nand agreement with the same.\"\n\nWhy did not the matter end here? Might not such explanations and\nconcessions have secured peace? Was a seven years war absolutely\nnecessary? To this question we have met with no really satisfactory\nreply. But it must now be mentioned that, prior to the assembling of\nthe Conference at Bristol, Fletcher had written a \"Vindication\" of the\nmuch discussed minutes in the form of \"Five Letters\" to Mr. Shirley.\nThe manuscript of this \"Vindication\" was in Wesley's hands, and was, in\nfact, being set up in type at the very time that Shirley and his\nfriends were having their interview with Wesley and the Conference. The\nquestion is, whether the publication should have been proceeded with in\nthe turn that things had taken. Shirley, hearing that Fletcher's\n\"Letters\" were in the press, not unnaturally requested that the issue\nmight be stopped. Fletcher himself wrote to his friend Mr. Ireland: \"I\nfeel for poor dear Mr. Shirley, whom I have (considering the present\ncircumstances) treated too severely in my 'Vindication of the Minutes.'\nMy dear sir, what must be done? I am ready to defray, by selling to my\nlast shirt, the expense of the printing of my 'Vindication,' and\nsuppress it. Direct me, dear sir. Consult with Mr. Shirley and Mr.\nWesley about the matter. Be persuaded I am ready to do everything that\nwill be brotherly in this unhappy affair.\" But in Wesley's judgment\nnothing that had taken place required the suppression of so admirable a\n\"tract for the times,\" and accordingly it was published. Opinions will\nbe divided as to the wisdom and propriety of the step. It may be said:\n\"The merely personal aspect of the question was now disposed of. But\nthe evils which had led to the recording of the 'minutes' were real\nevils, and were not to be got rid of by an interchange of courtesies\nbetween Wesley and the Conference on the one hand, and Lady Huntingdon\nand Mr. Shirley on the other. Circumstances, or rather Providence, had\ndiscovered--nay, raised up--in Fletcher the very man for the present\nneed. What could be better, in the interest of true religion, than to\nsend forth broadcast, not merely a 'Vindication of the Minutes,' and of\nWesley's action, but a powerful defence of the gospel itself against\nthe chief and most dangerous error of the day?\" There could be no\nmistake as to the value of what Fletcher had written. His argument was\nclear in outline, and convincing in detail. The gospel way of salvation\nwas defended on the right hand and on the left. Popular errors were\nexposed, paradoxes explained, and misunderstanding removed, with a\nknowledge of the Scriptures and a skill in reasoning that astonished\nevery one. The meek Vicar of Madeley was a master of controversy. He\nhad learning and logic for scholars, with imagination, wit, and pathos\nto charm the common people. The style was genial and easy, abounding in\nlively comparisons and illustrations, while a gentle vein of humour,\nstopping short of bitterness on the one hand, and burlesque on the\nother, mingled, not unbecomingly, with passages of the most exalted\ndevotion. \"Those letters,\" wrote Wesley, \"could not be suppressed,\nwithout betraying the honour of our Lord.\" This decided his action.\n\nOf course Fletcher's letters had their reply from Mr. Shirley, and\nthat, in turn, required to be answered. Then Richard Hill entered the\nfield, and him also Fletcher encountered, and as the controversy grew\nit spread out over the wide area of questions speculative and practical\nwhich the term Calvinism covers or suggests, and called fresh\ncombatants into the field. We have no heart to pursue the details of\nthis history. It is complicated and unremunerative in the last degree.\nIt deepened into bitterness and scurrility, till its baser literature\nbecomes unreadable for very shame; it separated brethren; it turned\nallies into adversaries; it offered to a sceptical and ungodly age the\nspectacle of good men \"smiting one another _un_friendly,\" and consumed\ntime and strength that were wanted, and more than wanted, for the\nChristianising of the country.\n\nThrough all this strife and confusion we can at least follow Fletcher\nwithout shame, if not without regret. We have already quoted Southey's\neulogy on him. It is not excessive. He kept his temper through seven\nyears of trying controversy. He lived and wrote \"as ever in his great\nTaskmaster's eye.\" Love to God is manifest in every page, and only\nsecond to it is love for those with whom he must needs contend, a\nveritable \"longing after them in the bowels of Jesus Christ.\"\n\nFletcher's \"Checks\" were the best thing born of the controversy. They\ndid not,--need it be said?--finally dispose of the problems respecting\nGod's foreknowledge and sovereignty, and the free agency and\nresponsibility of man. These problems are perhaps much where they were\nwhen first confronted. If they are less discussed in our own day than\nformerly, it is not that the difficulties they present have been\nsolved, but that a juster estimate of the limits of our powers,\ntogether with a deeper sense of the antinomies of Divine law, has in a\ngreat measure withdrawn the Christian mind from these questions to more\nremunerative ones. That the doctrines commonly called Calvinistic\nlogically lead either to presumption or despair, may perhaps fairly be\nurged; that they do so as matter of fact, and on any wide scale, would\nbe difficult to prove. But whether the vulgar antinomianism of\nFletcher's day had or had not its roots in Calvinistic doctrine, his\nhandling of it as a practical matter is vigorous and effective in the\nhighest degree. He pursues it in all its forms. He exposes and refutes\nthose one-sided reasonings which \"make for _un_righteousness\"; he sets\nforth law in gospel, and gospel in law, with admirable balance and\nproportion; he exhibits Christian holiness as the sum of duty and the\ncrown of privilege, and breathes throughout a heavenly spirit, which\nthe warmth of controversy seldom, if ever, disturbs.\n\nMay we say then, as some one has said, \"it was worth while to have the\nCalvinistic controversy, if it were only for the sake of Fletcher's\ncontribution to it\"? Our answer is, most emphatically, No. We have too\ndeep a sense of the evils of a long and embittered strife between good\nmen to pass any such judgment. Nor can we suppose that such a\ncontroversy furnished the only, or even the most favourable, conditions\nfor the exercise of Fletcher's gifts. We should have preferred for\nhim--can we doubt that he would have preferred for himself?--the\nopportunity of writing books \"touching the King\" without the necessity\nfor splitting hairs with Shirley, and for winnowing the coarse abuse of\nToplady, and the extravagances of Rowland and Richard Hill.\n\nBut while we regard the controversy as both an error and an evil, we\nare far from denying that it had its compensations, for which we are\nindebted almost exclusively to Fletcher. His writings undoubtedly\nserved to fasten deep discredit upon that imperfect gospel--\"another\ngospel, which is not another,\"--which permits its followers \"to\ncontinue in sin that grace may abound.\" Without lowering or lessening\nthe doctrine of justification by faith, Fletcher gave new emphasis and\nclearer setting to the doctrine of Christian holiness, and rescued\nChristian ethics from disparagement and neglect. Without taking away\nfrom the virtue of the atonement in its relation to the whole standing\nof the believer, he enforced that great practical end of redemption,\n\"the righteousness of the law, fulfilled in men walking not after the\nflesh, but after the Spirit.\" Towards the close of the year 1774 Wesley\nwrote, \"If we could once bring all our preachers, itinerant and local,\nuniformly and steadily to insist on those two points, 'Christ dying for\nus,' and 'Christ reigning in us,' we should shake the trembling gates\nof hell. I think most of them are now exceeding clear herein, and the\nrest come nearer, especially since they have read Mr. Fletcher's\n'Checks,' which have removed many difficulties out of the way.\"\n\nFletcher's \"Checks to Antinomianism\" at once took a foremost place in\nthe literature of Methodism. Wesley recommended them to his followers\nwith all the weight of his authority. The interest awakened by the\ncontroversy, the popular style in which they were written, and the\nelevation and fervour of piety manifest throughout, carried them into\nevery Methodist household. They were studied by the preachers, and read\nfor spiritual edification by all the more earnest members of the\nSociety. They did much to nourish the spiritual life of such men and\nwomen as Bramwell, and Carvosso, and Hester Ann Rogers, names that\nadorn and interpret the Methodist doctrine of \"Entire Sanctification.\"\nIt is not too much to say that for many years they were not least among\nthe instruments employed in connexion with the ever-extending Revival,\n\"for the perfecting of the saints, ... for the edifying of the body of\nChrist.\"\n\nIn more recent times the influence of this, Fletcher's principal work,\nis indirect rather than direct. It fills the atmosphere of the\nMethodist Churches with a kind of after-glow. Its light and heat linger\nin the air, and are reflected from the regions where its first full\nstrength was felt. Should these writings come, in course of time, to be\nentirely neglected, that influence would still be felt, for it has\npassed beyond recall into the theology and devotional literature of\nMethodism all the world over. Two of the most competent historians of\nMethodism, Dr. Stevens and Mr. Tyerman, give it as their opinion that\nFletcher's \"Checks\" are as much read to-day as they were a hundred\nyears ago. From this opinion we are constrained to dissent, and should\nbe content to refer the matter to the Methodist publishing houses for\ndecision. We believe, on the contrary, that they are very little read;\nbut none the less are we persuaded that the results of Fletcher's\ncontroversial labours are, in many respects, permanent; and, in\naddition to those that have been referred to, we would instance the\nfact that Calvinistic doctrine has come to be better guarded against\nthe perversions of antinomianism, and that disputes arising out of it\nhave become less frequent and more moderate, to the great advantage of\nthe Christian Church.\n\nIn passing from this subject we cannot refrain from quoting a few\nparagraphs from his \"First Check,\" in which Fletcher reveals his love\nand reverence for Wesley:\n\n     \"A gray-headed minister of Christ, an old general in the\n     armies of Emmanuel, a father who has children capable of\n     instructing even masters in Israel; and one whom God made\n     the first and principal instrument of the late Revival of\n     internal religion in our Church.... One word more about Mr.\n     Wesley, and I have done. Of the two greatest and most useful\n     ministers I ever knew, one is no more. The other, after\n     amazing labours, flies still with unwearied diligence\n     through the three kingdoms, calling sinners to repentance,\n     and to the healing fountain of Jesus' blood. Though\n     oppressed with the weight of near seventy years and the care\n     of near 30,000 souls, he shames still, by his unabated zeal\n     and immense labours, all the young ministers in England,\n     perhaps in Christendom. He has generally blown the gospel\n     trump, and rode twenty miles, before most of the professors\n     who despise his labours have left their downy pillow. As he\n     begins the day, the week, the year, so he concludes them,\n     still intent upon extensive services for the glory of the\n     Redeemer and the good of souls. And shall we lightly lift up\n     our pens, our tongues, our hands against him? No; let them\n     rather forget their cunning! If we _will_ quarrel, can we\n     find nobody to fall out with, but the minister upon whom God\n     puts the greatest honour?\n\n     \"Our Elijah has lately been translated to heaven.[11]\n     Gray-headed Elisha is yet awhile continued upon earth. And\n     shall we make a hurry and noise, to bring in railing\n     accusations against him with more success?... Shall the sons\n     of the prophets, shall even children in grace and knowledge,\n     openly traduce the venerable seer, and his abundant\n     labours?\"\n\nThis description of Wesley may serve to introduce an incident showing\nWesley's opinion of Fletcher.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\n_WESLEY'S PROPOSAL.--FAILING HEALTH._\n\n\nWesley's estimate of Fletcher's character and abilities had been, from\nthe first, uniformly high, but the circumstances connected with the\nCalvinist controversy raised it still higher. Every one knew of\nFletcher's gentleness and simplicity, but no one was prepared for the\nstrength, the firmness, the mental vigour and versatility that he now\nexhibited. If this was something of a surprise to Wesley, it was matter\nof unfeigned rejoicing. He saw, or thought he saw, in Fletcher a man\nfitted for a greater work than that of being Vicar of Madeley. It was\nnatural perhaps that Wesley should never quite appreciate the position\nof a parochial minister. His belief in itinerancy had its roots in his\ntemperament, as well as in his judgment. He said of himself, that if he\nwere confined to one spot, he should preach himself and his whole\ncongregation to sleep in a twelvemonth. He always grudged Fletcher to\nhis obscure parish, and the feeling grew with every fresh manifestation\nof Fletcher's powers. The conviction began to take shape in his mind\nthat Fletcher was the proper man to succeed him in the direction of the\nMethodist preachers and societies. He was now nearly seventy years of\nage, and his health was apparently failing. In the course of things he\nmust shortly lay down his work. Who was there to take it up? It could\nnot be that God would suffer it to fall to pieces for want of one to\ncontrol and guide it; and who was there that could compare in fitness\nwith Fletcher? Wesley determined therefore not to leave this matter to\nthe last, but to communicate with him while there was yet time.\nAccordingly, in January, 1773, he wrote to him as follows:\n\n\n     \"DEAR SIR,--\n\n     \"What an amazing work has God wrought in these kingdoms in\n     less than forty years! And it not only continues, but\n     increases, throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland; nay,\n     it has lately spread into New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia,\n     Maryland, and Carolina. But the wise men of the world say,\n     'When Mr. Wesley drops, then all this is at an end!' And so\n     it surely will, unless, before God calls him hence, one is\n     found to stand in his place. I see more and more, unless\n     there be one [Greek: proestos], the work can never be\n     carried on. The body of the preachers are not united, nor\n     will any part of them submit to the rest; so that either\n     there must be one to preside over all, or the work will\n     indeed come to an end.\n\n     \"But who is sufficient for these things? qualified to\n     preside both over the preachers and people? He must be a man\n     of faith and love, and one that has a single eye to the\n     advancement of the kingdom of God. He must have a clear\n     understanding; a knowledge of men and things, particularly\n     of the Methodist doctrine and discipline; a ready utterance;\n     diligence and activity, with a tolerable share of health.\n     There must be added to these favour with the people, with\n     the Methodists in general; for, unless God turn their eyes\n     and their hearts towards him, he will be quite incapable of\n     the work. He must likewise have some degree of learning,\n     because there are many adversaries, learned as well as\n     unlearned, whose mouths must be stopped. But this cannot be\n     done unless he be able to meet them on their own ground.\n\n     \"But has God provided one so qualified? Who is he? Thou art\n     the man! God has given you a measure of loving faith, and a\n     single eye to His glory. He has given you some knowledge of\n     men and things, particularly of the old plan of Methodism.\n     You are blessed with some health, activity, and diligence,\n     together with a degree of learning. And to these He has\n     lately added, by a way none could have foreseen, favour both\n     with the preachers and the whole people. Come out in the\n     name of God! Come to the help of the Lord against the\n     mighty! Come while I am alive and capable of labour;\n\n         '_Dum superest Lachesi quod torqueat, et pedibus me\n         Porto meis, nullo dextram subeunte bacillo._'\n\n     Come while I am able, God assisting, to build you up in\n     faith, to ripen your gifts, and to introduce you to the\n     people. _Nil tanti._ What possible employment can you have,\n     which is of so great importance?\"\n\nWhen Wesley wrote this letter it was far from his thoughts that he had\nyet eighteen years of work before him, and would survive Fletcher by\nsix years.\n\nIn his reply Fletcher says: \"Should Providence call you first, I shall\ndo my best, by the Lord's assistance, to help your brother to gather\nthe wreck, and keep together those who are not absolutely bent to throw\naway the Methodist doctrine and discipline....\n\n\"In the meantime you sometimes need an assistant to serve tables, and\noccasionally to fill up a gap. Providence visibly appointed _me_ to\nthat office many years ago. And though it no less evidently called me\nhither, yet have I not been without doubt, especially for some years\npast, whether it would not be expedient that I should resume my office\nas your deacon; not with any view of presiding over the Methodists\nafter you, but to ease you in your old age, and to be in the way of\nrecovery, and perhaps doing more good....\n\n\"Nevertheless, I would not leave this place, without a fuller\npersuasion that the time is quite come.\"\n\nNothing further appears to have been said on the subject, and before\nlong the increasing feebleness of Fletcher's health put the matter\nbeyond discussion.\n\nTwo and a half years later Wesley was taken seriously ill while\ntravelling in Ireland. His friends in London were hourly expecting to\nhear of his death. Charles Wesley, full of distress, wrote to\nFletcher, apparently requesting him to come to London. This Fletcher\ngently but decidedly declined to do:\n\n     \"Should your brother fail on earth, you are called, not only\n     to bear up under the loss of so near a relative, but, for\n     the sake of your common children in the Lord, you should\n     endeavour to fill up the gap according to your strength. The\n     Methodists will not expect from you your brother's labours;\n     but they have, I think, a right to expect that you will\n     preside over them while God spares you in the land of the\n     living.... And if at any time you should want my mite of\n     assistance, I hope I shall throw it into the treasury with\n     the simplicity and readiness of the poor widow.\"\n\nBut Wesley recovered, and the call for Fletcher's services never came.\nWesley's opinion however remained unaltered, that it would have been\nbetter in every way for Fletcher to have joined him in itinerating.\nYears afterwards, when Fletcher was dead, he wrote:\n\n     \"I can never believe it was the will of God that such a\n     burning and shining light should be hid under a bushel. No;\n     instead of being confined to a country village, it ought to\n     have shone in every corner of our land. He was full as much\n     called to sound an alarm through all the nation as Mr.\n     Whitefield himself; nay, abundantly more so, seeing he was\n     far better qualified for that important work. He had a more\n     striking person, equally good breeding, an equally winning\n     address, together with a richer flow of fancy, a stronger\n     understanding, a far greater treasure of learning, both in\n     languages, philosophy, philology, and divinity; and, above\n     all (which I can speak with fuller assurance, because I had\n     a thorough knowledge both of one and the other), a more deep\n     and constant communion with the Father and with the Son\n     Jesus Christ.\n\n     \"And yet let not any one imagine that I depreciate Mr.\n     Whitefield, or undervalue the grace of God and the\n     extraordinary gifts which his great Master vouchsafed unto\n     him. I believe he was highly favoured of God; yea, that he\n     was one of the most eminent ministers that has appeared in\n     England, or perhaps in the world, during the present\n     century. Yet I must own I have known many fully equal to Mr.\n     Whitefield, both in holy tempers and holiness of\n     conversation; but one equal herein to Mr. Fletcher I have\n     not known, no, not in a life of fourscore years.\"\n\nIt was, further, Wesley's belief that an itinerant life would improve\nFletcher's health, which was now seriously affected. His letters had\nfor some time contained allusions to frequent infirmities. To one\ncorrespondent he says: \"My throat is not formed for the labours of\npreaching. When I have preached three or four times together, it\ninflames and fills up; and the efforts which I am then obliged to make\nheat my blood.\"\n\nTo the same, a few months later: \"Oh, how life goes! I walked, now I\ngallop into eternity. The bowl of life goes rapidly down the steep hill\nof time.\" To Charles Wesley he writes: \"Old age comes faster upon me\nthan upon you. I am already so gray-headed, that I wrote to my brother\nto know if I am not fifty-six instead of forty-six.... I have had for\nsome days the symptoms of an inward consumptive decay, spitting blood,\netc. Thank God! I look at our last enemy with great calmness.\" Wesley\nconfidently recommended a remedy of which he had more experience than\nany man then living in England, viz. a long journey on horseback. He\nproposed that Fletcher should accompany him on a journey of some\nmonths, telling him, \"When you are tired, or like it best, you may come\ninto my carriage; but remember that riding on horseback is the best of\nall exercises for you, so far as your strength will permit.\" Fletcher\nwillingly accepted the proposal, and travelled with Wesley nearly 1200\nmiles. But after a while certain friends (\"kind, but injudicious,\"\nWesley calls them) persuaded him to remain at Stoke Newington, that he\nmight be properly nursed, and have the best medical aid that could be\nprocured. Wesley characteristically remarks, \"I verily believe, if he\nhad travelled with me, partly in the chaise and partly on horseback,\nonly a few months longer, he would have quite recovered his health.\" We\nare constrained to think that Fletcher was not in a condition to profit\nby his friend's heroic remedies. He was indeed very ill. Earnest\nprayers for his recovery were offered at Madeley and elsewhere. A hymn\nwhich was composed for the occasion, and sung with deep feeling in\nMadeley church, contains the following lines:\n\n     \"Restore him, sinking to the grave;\n     Stretch out Thy arm, make haste to save;\n     Back to our hopes and wishes give,\n     And bid our friend and father live.\"\n\nFor several months he was under the care of his faithful friends Mr.\nand Mrs. Greenwood, of Stoke Newington. Rest and silence were enjoined,\nbut it was found impossible to restrain him altogether from speaking.\nOne who was much with him says: \"The fire which continually burned in\nhis heart many waters could not quench. It often burst out unawares.\nAnd then how did we wonder (like those who formerly heard his Lord) 'at\nthe gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.' ...\n\n\"It was in these favoured moments of converse that we found, in a\nparticular manner, the reward which is annexed to receiving a prophet\nin the name of a prophet. And in some of these lie mentioned\ncircumstances which, as none knew them but himself, would otherwise\nhave been buried in oblivion.\n\n\"One of these remarkable passages was, 'In the beginning,' said he, 'of\nmy spiritual course, I heard the voice of God, in an articulate, but\ninexpressibly awful, sound, go through my soul in those words: \"_If any\nman will be My disciple, let him deny himself._\"' He mentioned another\npeculiar manifestation of a later date, 'in which,' said he, 'I was\nfavoured, like Moses, with a supernatural discovery of the glory of\nGod, in an ineffable converse with Him, face to face; so that, whether\nI was in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell.'\n\n\"At another time he said, 'About the time of my entering into the\nministry, I one evening wandered into a wood, musing on the importance\nof the office I was going to undertake. I then began to pour out my\nsoul in prayer; when such a sense of the justice of God fell upon me,\nand such a sense of His displeasure at sin, as absorbed all my powers,\nand filled my soul with the agony of prayer for poor, lost sinners. I\ncontinued therein till the dawn of day; and I considered this as\ndesigned of God to impress upon me more deeply the meaning of those\nsolemn words, Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade\nmen.'\"\n\nThroughout the whole of his long illness Fletcher's spirit was, not\nonly calm and tranquil, but attuned to an ardour and heavenliness that\ndeeply impressed all who saw him. His frail body seemed to be the abode\nof a spirit purified and perfected till every trace of earthly\ncorruption was lost.\n\nDuring the months of enforced absence from his parish his heart was\nstill with his people. In a pastoral letter, which is dated Newington,\nDecember 28th, 1776, he writes:\n\n     \"I hoped to have spent the Christmas holidays with you, and\n     to have ministered to you in holy things; but the weakness\n     of my body confining me here, I humbly submit to the Divine\n     dispensation.... The sum of all I have preached to you is\n     contained in four propositions. _First_, heartily repent of\n     your sins, original and actual. _Secondly_, believe the\n     gospel of Christ in sincerity and truth. _Thirdly_, in the\n     power which true faith gives, run the way of God's\n     commandments before God and men. _Fourthly_, by continuing\n     to take up your cross, and to receive the pure milk of\n     God's word, grow in grace, and in the knowledge of Jesus\n     Christ....\n\n     \"The more nearly I consider death and the grave, judgment\n     and eternity, the more I feel that I have preached to you\n     the truth, and that the truth is solid as the Rock of ages.\n     Although I hope to see much more of the goodness of the Lord\n     in the land of the living than I do see, yet, blessed be the\n     Divine mercy! I see enough to keep my mind at all times\n     unruffled, and to make me willing calmly to resign my soul\n     into the hands of my faithful Creator, my loving Redeemer,\n     and my sanctifying Comforter, _this moment_, or _the next_,\n     if He calls for it.\"\n\nFletcher's almsgiving was proportionate with his prayers. He was in\nreceipt of an income from his little property in Switzerland of about\nL100 a year. He generally gave it all away. His money, his clothes, his\nfurniture were alike at the service of the poor and suffering. At one\ntime he sends back L80 to Switzerland for distribution among the poor,\nsaying, \"As money is rather higher there than here the mite will go\nfurther abroad than it would in my parish.\" At another time he\ndeposited L105 with a friend, but the whole was drawn for charitable\npurposes in a few months, the balance, which was L24, going to complete\nthe preaching-house he had built at Madeley Wood. During his illness he\nwrites to one of the poor Methodists at Coalbrookdale: \"Let none of\nyour little companies want. If any do, you are welcome to my house.\nTake any part of the furniture there, and make use of it for their\nrelief. And this shall be your full title for so doing. Witness my\nhand, JOHN FLETCHER.\"\n\nLeaving Stoke Newington in the beginning of May, 1777, Fletcher went to\nBristol, to the hospitable home of his old friend Mr. Ireland, for\nchange of air, and for what benefit might be found in drinking the\nwaters. Here he spent several months in feeble health, but in unbroken\ntranquillity and elevation of spirit. \"Far gone in a consumptive\ndisorder, and ripening fast for glory,\" was the judgment of those who\nsaw him at this time. He had many visitors, devout persons of all\nclasses, to whom his conversation, his prayers, his very presence, were\nmeans of grace. Mr. Venn, who had been on the opposite side to Fletcher\nin the recent controversy, spent some weeks with him under Mr.\nIreland's roof. \"Oh that I might be like him!\" was his testimony in\nafter years. \"I have known all the great men for these fifty years, but\nI have known none like him.... I never heard him say a single word\nwhich was not proper to be spoken, and which had not a tendency to\nminister grace to the hearers; ... not a single unbecoming word of\nhimself, or of his antagonists, or of his friends. All his conversation\ntended to excite to greater love and thankfulness for the benefits of\nredemption; whilst his whole deportment breathed humility and love.\"\n\nIn the month of July Wesley and his preachers met in Bristol to hold\ntheir annual conference. One morning during its session a visit from\nFletcher was announced. As he entered what was then called the New\nRoom--now the old chapel in Broadmead--leaning on Mr. Ireland's arm,\nthe whole assembly, by a common impulse, stood up. Wesley rose and\nadvanced to receive him. He seemed like a visitor from another world.\nHis worn features shone as with the light of heaven. All present were\nprofoundly moved at the sight. He had scarcely begun to speak before\nevery one was in tears. \"His appearance, his exhortations, and his\nprayers,\" says Benson, \"broke most of our hearts.\" It was such a scene\nas the oldest person present had never witnessed before, as the\nyoungest could not expect to witness again. It was brought to a close\nby Wesley, who suddenly fell upon his knees at Fletcher's side, the\nwhole company of preachers kneeling with him, and offered an earnest\nprayer for Fletcher's restoration to health and to his labours in the\ncause of Christ. He finished his prayer by pronouncing \"in his peculiar\nmanner, and with a confidence and emphasis which seemed to thrill\nthrough every heart, 'He shall not die, but live, and declare the works\nof the Lord.'\"\n\nDuring the eight remaining years of Fletcher's life, it was believed\namongst the Methodists that God had spared him in answer to their\nprayers.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\n_RESIDENCE IN SWITZERLAND._\n\n\nAfter spending some months at Bristol, with little, if any, improvement\nin his health, Fletcher was strongly urged to spend the winter abroad.\nThe south of France, and Spain were both suggested, and his brothers\nand sisters in Switzerland sent him a pressing invitation to revisit\nhis home, and breathe once more his native air. He yielded at last to\nthe advice of physicians and friends, and made the necessary\narrangements for a long absence from Madeley. His curate, Mr. Greaves,\nwho had supplied his place for some months, was to remain in charge of\nthe parish. The vicar's income was assigned, part to Mr. Greaves, and\nthe rest to the maintenance of various good works in and around\nMadeley.\n\nBefore setting out on his journey he addressed a pastoral letter \"To\nthe Brethren who hear the Word of God in the Parish Church of Madeley.\"\nIt was full of affectionate counsels and exhortations. In bidding them\nfarewell, he writes: \"I hope to see you again in the flesh; but my\nsweetest and firmest hope is to meet you where there are no parting\nseas, no interposing mountains, no sickness, no death, no fear of\nloving too much, no shame for loving too little.\"\n\nOn December 4th, 1777, after being delayed at Dover for a day or two by\nbad weather, Fletcher crossed the Channel with Mr. Ireland and his two\ndaughters, who were desirous of spending the winter in the south, and\nof ministering to the comfort of their loved and honoured friend.\n\nHe remained abroad for nearly three years and a half. This period of\nseclusion and comparative inactivity is full of interest to the student\nof Fletcher's history. It is true we lose sight of him for months\ntogether, and find it difficult to weave into a consistent story the\nreferences to persons and places which are to be found in his letters,\nand in sundry narratives that have come down to us; but the change of\nscene and circumstance gives additional charm to the portraiture of his\ngentle life. It must not be forgotten that Fletcher, though almost more\nEnglish than the English themselves in his attachment to the\ninstitutions of this country, was a Swiss, and we cannot desire that\nthe Swiss in him should be suppressed; we would not have him \"forget\nhis own people and his father's house.\" Away from Madeley, from the\nChurch of England, from Methodism, he moves amid moral and social\nsurroundings which were, after all, native to him, and amongst which\nhis character could not but reveal some aspects not similarly brought\nout by his life in England. These years spent in France and Switzerland\nadd to the moral picturesqueness of his course as a whole.\n\nThe route taken by Fletcher and his friends was by Calais, Abbeville,\netc., to Dijon and Lyons, and thence to Aix in Provence, where they\nremained for some time. They afterwards visited Montpellier,\nMarseilles, and Hyeres, though in what order it is difficult to\ndetermine, and in the spring of 1778 Fletcher reached Nyon, where he\nwas to spend the next three years. This outline of his journeyings may\nnow be supplemented by extracts from his letters and those of his\ncompanions.\n\n     \"When we departed from Calais,\" writes Mr. Ireland, \"the\n     north wind was very high, and penetrated us even in the\n     chaise. We put up in Breteuil, and the next day got to\n     Abbeville, whence we were forced, by the miserable\n     accommodation we met with, to set out, though it was Sunday.\n     Hitherto Mr. Fletcher and I had led the way, but now the\n     other chaises got before us. Nine miles from Abbeville our\n     axletree gave way through the hard frost, and we were left\n     to the piercing cold on the side of a hill without shelter.\n     After waiting an hour and a half, we sent the axletree and\n     wheels back to be repaired; and, leaving the body of the\n     chaise under a guard, procured another to carry us to the\n     next town. On the 15th our chaise arrived in good repair.\n     The country was covered with snow, but travelling steadily\n     forward, we reached Dijon on the 27th. During the whole\n     journey Mr. Fletcher showed marks of recovery. He bore both\n     the fatigue and cold as well as the best of us. On the 31st\n     we put up at Lyons, and solemnly closed the year, bowing our\n     knees before the throne, which indeed we did all together\n     every day. January 4th, 1778, we left Lyons, and came on the\n     9th to Aix. Here we rest, the weather being exceedingly fine\n     and warm. Mr. Fletcher walks out daily. He is now able to\n     read and pray with us every morning and evening. He has no\n     remains of his cough nor of the weakness in his breast. His\n     natural colour is restored, and the sallowness is quite\n     gone. His appetite is good, and he takes a little wine.\"\n\nIn another letter, written from Aix, he says: \"Soon after our arrival\nhere, I rode out most days with my dear and valued friend. Now and then\nhe complained of the uneasiness of the horse, and there were some\nremains of soreness in his breast, but this soon went off. The\nbeginning of February was warm, and the warmth, when he walked in the\nfields, relaxed him; but when the wind got north or east, he was braced\nagain. His appetite is good, his complexion as healthy as it was eleven\nyears ago. As his strength increases he increases the length of his\nrides. Last Tuesday he set out on a journey of a hundred and twelve\nmiles. The first day he travelled forty miles without feeling any\nfatigue, and the third day fifty-five. He bore the journey as well as I\ndid, and was as well and as active at the end of it as at the\nbeginning. During the day he cried out, 'Help me to praise the Lord for\nHis goodness; I never expected to see this day.' He accepted a pressing\ninvitation to preach to the Protestants here; and he fulfilled his\nengagement on Sunday morning, taking as his text, 'Examine yourselves,\nwhether ye be in the faith.' Both the French and English were greatly\naffected; the word went to the hearts of both saints and sinners. His\nvoice is now as good as ever it was, and he has an earnest invitation\nto preach near Montpellier, where we are going. You would be\nastonished at the entreaties of pastors as well as people. He has\nreceived a letter from a minister in the Levine Mountains, who intends\nto come to Montpellier, sixty miles, to press him to go and preach to\nhis flock. He purposes to spend the next summer in his own country, and\nthe following winter in these parts.\"\n\nFrom Montpellier Fletcher wrote to his curate, Mr. Greaves: \"Please\nGod, I shall set out next week from this place, where the winter has\nbeen uncommonly rainy and windy. We had over half an inch of snow last\nweek, but it was gone long before noon. The climate has, nevertheless,\nagreed with me better than England, and as a proof of it, I need only\ntell you that I rode last Friday from Hyeres, the orange gardens of\nFrance, hither, which is near fifty miles, and was well enough to\npreach last Sunday, in French, at the Protestant chapel.... At the\nfirst convenient opportunity, please to read the following note in the\nchurch: John Fletcher sends his best Christian love to the congregation\nthat worships God in the parish church at Madeley. He begs the\ncontinuance of their prayers for strength of body and mind, that he may\nbe able (if it be the will of God) to serve them again in the gospel.\nHe desires them to return Almighty God thanks for having enabled him to\nspeak again in public last Sunday, without having had a return of his\nspitting of blood, which he considers as a token that his life may be\nspared a little, to exhort them to grow in grace, in the knowledge of\nour Lord Jesus Christ, and in brotherly love;--the best marks that we\nknow God, and are in the faith of Christ.\"\n\nEarly in May he reached Nyon, having travelled under the care of his\nbrother from Montpellier. He was received by the members of his family\nwith the utmost affection and respect.\n\nOne of the most important letters which he wrote during his absence\nfrom England was addressed to \"The Rev. Messrs. John and Charles\nWesley.\" It is dated from Macon in Burgundy, May 17th, 1778. The\nfollowing extracts will show Fletcher's judgment concerning the state\nof morals and religion in France ten years before the Revolution:\n\n     \"Gambling and dress, sinful pleasure and love of money,\n     unbelief and false philosophy, lightness of spirit, fear of\n     man, and love of the world, are the principal sins by which\n     Satan binds his captives in these parts. Materialism is not\n     rare; deism and Socinianism are very common; and a set of\n     freethinkers, great admirers of Voltaire and Rousseau, Bayle\n     and Mirabeau, seem bent upon destroying Christianity and\n     government. If we believe them, the world is the dupe of\n     kings and priests; religion is fanaticism and superstition;\n     subordination is slavery; Christian morality is absurd,\n     unnatural, and impracticable; and Christianity the most\n     bloody religion that ever was. And here it is certain, that\n     by the example of Christians _so called_, and by our\n     continual disputes, they have a great advantage, and do the\n     truth immense mischief. _Popery will certainly fall in\n     France, in this or the next century_; and I have no doubt\n     God will use those vain men to bring about a reformation\n     here, as he used Henry the Eighth to do that work in\n     England; so the madness of His enemies shall, at last, turn\n     to His praise, and to the furtherance of His kingdom....\n\n     \"If you ask, what system these men adopt, I answer, Some\n     build on deism a morality founded on _self-preservation_,\n     _self-interest_, and _self-honour_; others laugh at all\n     morality, except that which being neglected _violently_\n     disturbs society. And external order is the decent covering\n     of fatalism, while materialism is their system.\n\n     \"Oh! dear sirs, let me entreat you, in these dangerous days,\n     to use your wide influence, with unabated zeal, against the\n     scheme of these modern Celsuses, Porphyries, and Julians, by\n     calling all professors to think and speak the same things,\n     to love and embrace one another, and to firmly resist those\n     daring men, many of whom are already in England, headed by\n     the admirers of Mr. Hume and Mr. Hobbes. But it is needless\n     to say this to those who have made, and continue to make,\n     such a stand for vital Christianity, so that I have nothing\n     to do but pray that the Lord may abundantly support and\n     strengthen you, and make you a continued comfort to His\n     enlightened people, loving reprovers of those who mix light\n     with darkness, and a terror to the perverse.\"\n\nWhile residing at Nyon Fletcher was visited by his friend and former\nmedical adviser, William Perronet, son of the venerable Vicar of\nShoreham. The Perronet family was of Swiss origin, and about this time\nit came to the knowledge of Mr. Perronet that he had some claim to a\nproperty situated at Chateau d'Oex, a small town in a mountain\nvalley, about twenty miles from the north-eastern shore of the Lake of\nGeneva, and nearly sixty from Nyon. Fletcher assisted his friends by\nmaking inquiries and obtaining legal advice, and it was thought\nnecessary that William Perronet should go over to press the claim in\nperson. This he accordingly did, and, it may be said here, with\ncomplete success, though he did not live to enjoy the possession, as he\nwas taken ill on his way home, and died before reaching England.\n\nFletcher wrote, inviting him to be his guest: \"This is a delightful\ncountry. If you come to see it, and to claim the estate, bring all the\npapers and letters you can collect; and share a pleasant apartment, and\none of the finest prospects in the world, in the house where I was\nborn.\"\n\nSoon after Mr. Perronet's arrival, it was thought necessary that he\nshould visit Chateau d'Oex, and although it was now December,\nFletcher accompanied him. The journey was not without danger, more\nespecially for one in such a feeble state of health. It is described,\ntogether with many interesting details of Fletcher's life at Nyon, in\nMr. Perronet's letters.\n\n     \"On Friday, the 11th, I reached Nyon, where I had the\n     pleasure of finding our dear friend in pretty good health\n     and spirits. Mr. Fletcher's house is a fine, large building,\n     agreeably situated. It is in the form of a castle, and is\n     supposed to have been built five hundred years ago....\n\n     \"His chief delight seems to be in the meeting of his little\n     society of children; and as he is exceedingly fond of them,\n     they appear to be altogether as fond of him. He seldom\n     either walks abroad or rides out, but some of them follow\n     him, singing the hymns they have learned, and conversing\n     with him by the way. But you must not suppose that he is\n     permitted to enjoy this happiness unmolested. Not only the\n     drunkards make songs upon him and his little companions, but\n     many of the clergy loudly complain of such irregular\n     proceedings.\"\n\nMr. Perronet was much impressed with the incidents of their journey to\nChateau d'Oex. The rugged heights, the precipices, the torrents, the\ndeep snow, rising many feet above their heads as they toiled through\nnarrow passes that had been cut through it,--all are new to him, and\nare described with much vivacity. Part of the distance they rode upon a\nsledge, and in some places they were obliged to go on foot. Whilst\ndoing so they got a fall on the ice, when Fletcher received a severe\nblow on the back of his head, and his companion sprained his wrist.\nThough they only spent two days at Chateau d'Oex, Fletcher was\nconstrained to preach the gospel to the people. He was visited by some\nof the principal inhabitants, who stood round him in deep attention for\nnearly an hour while he exhorted and prayed.\n\nAs his strength permitted, Fletcher laboured, not only in Nyon, but,\ntrue to the Methodist principles he had learnt in England, made\njourneys in various directions, that he might scatter the good seed.\nAmongst the Jura Mountains he found industrious and thriving\npopulations. In one village they told him they had the best singing,\nand the best preacher in the country. But when he asked if any sinners\nwere converted under his ministry, they stared, and asked what he\nmeant. When he had explained himself, they could only say, \"We do not\nlive in the time of miracles.\" Having crossed into French territory, he\nwas much interested on coming upon a great gathering of people who were\nassembled to hear some itinerant mission preachers, Roman Catholic\nclergymen. They were, it appears, three brothers, and they had already\nspent some days in the place, preaching morning and evening. Fletcher\nheard one of them preach upon the judgment. \"Before the sermon, all\nthose who, for the press, could kneel, did, and sang a French hymn to\nbeg a blessing on the word; and indeed it was blessed. An awful\nattention was visible upon most, and, during a good part of the\ndiscourse, the voice of the preacher was almost lost in the cries and\nbitter wailings of the audience.\" The preacher urged them to know their\nday, and slight the mercy of God and the blood of Christ no longer; and\nFletcher adds, \"I have seen but once or twice congregations so much\naffected in England.\"\n\nDevout and earnest Roman Catholics were much more to his mind than\nformal, lifeless Protestants. On Good Friday, which was not observed\namongst the Calvinists of Nyon, Fletcher and Mr. Perronet crossed the\nlake into Savoy to hear a celebrated Capuchin preacher. Fletcher was\nmuch pleased with his discourse, and spent two or three hours with him\nand his brethren in serious and friendly conversation.\n\nTo many of the Swiss ministers his \"irregularities\" were as distasteful\nas such things were to the \"high\" or \"moderate\" clergy in England. His\nearnestness and popularity perplexed them. The people crowded the\nchurches where he preached, multitudes who could not gain admittance\nremaining outside, while others placed ladders against the windows, and\nclimbed to places whence they might hear, even if they could not see\nhim. Pulpits to which he had been at first invited were closed against\nhim. It was represented to the authorities that he preached doctrines\nsubversive of morality and social order, and that on this account he\nhad been banished from England. At a visitation held in Nyon strong\ncomplaints were made against him, the ministers of the town, however,\ntaking his part, while those of Geneva and Lausanne were opposed to\nhim. He was forbidden to hold meetings in private houses, and\nhouseholders were warned that they would be liable to penalties if they\npermitted such meetings to be held. This roused the spirit of his\nbrother, who wrote to the _Bailli_ saying that he would give up neither\nhis civil nor religious liberty, and would open his house for the word\nof God. But the climax was reached when Fletcher was summoned before\nthe _Bailli_, who sharply reprimanded him for preaching against\nSabbath-breaking and stage plays. The former, he said, implied a\ncensure on the magistrates in general, as if they neglected their duty;\nand the latter he considered as a personal reflection on himself, he\nhaving just invited a company of French comedians to Nyon. Accordingly,\nhe forbade him any longer to exercise any of the functions of a\nminister in the country. Fletcher, however, still found means to\ncatechize the children and to hold meetings in private. At the same\ntime he was informed that if he would renounce his ordination, and\nobtain Presbyterian orders, he would be allowed to preach, and on those\nterms a minister in Nyon offered him what might be called a curacy.\n\nThe following extracts from his letters, written while at Nyon, will\nthrow light both upon the state of things there, and upon his\noccupations and sentiments at this time.\n\n     _July 15th, 1778._--\"The day I preached, I met with some\n     children in my wood, walking or gathering strawberries. I\n     spoke to them about our Father, our common Father. They said\n     they would sing to their Father as well as the birds, and\n     followed me, attempting to make such melody as you know is\n     commonly made in these parts. I outrode them, but some of\n     them had the patience to follow me home, and said they would\n     speak with me; but the people of the house stopped them,\n     saying, I could not be troubled with children. They cried,\n     and said they were sure I would not say so, for I was their\n     good brother. The next day, when I heard it, I inquired\n     after them, and invited them to come to me, which they have\n     done every day since. I make them little hymns which they\n     sing.... Last Sunday I met them in the wood: there were a\n     hundred of them, and as many adults. Our first pastor has\n     since desired me to desist from preaching in the wood, ...\n     and I have complied, from a concurrence of circumstances\n     which are not worth mentioning. I therefore meet them in my\n     father's yard.\"\n\n     _Sept. 17th, 1778._--\"One of our ministers being ill, I\n     ventured a second time into the pulpit last Sunday; and the\n     Sunday before I preached six miles off to two thousand\n     people in a jail-yard, where they were come to see a poor\n     murderer two days before his execution. I was a little\n     abused by the Bailiff on the occasion, and refused the\n     liberty of attending the poor man on the scaffold, where he\n     was to be broken on the wheel. I hope he died penitent.\"\n\n     _Feb. 2nd, 1779._--\"I am better, thank God! and ride out\n     every day when the slippery roads will permit me to venture\n     without the risk of breaking my horse's legs, and my own\n     neck. You will ask me how I have spent my time. I pray, have\n     patience, rejoice, and write when I can. I saw wood in the\n     house when I cannot go out, and eat grapes, of which I have\n     always a basket by me....\n\n     \"The truths I chiefly insist upon, when I talk to the people\n     who will hear me, are those which I feed upon myself, as my\n     daily bread: God, our Maker and Preserver, though invisible,\n     is here and everywhere. He is our chief good, because all\n     beauty and all goodness centres in and flows from Him. He is\n     especially love: and love in us, being His image, is the sum\n     and substance of all moral and spiritual excellence,--of all\n     true and lasting bliss. In Adam we are all estranged from\n     love and from God; but the second Adam, Jesus, Emmanuel,\n     God with us, is come to make us know and enjoy again our God\n     as the God of love and the chief good. All who receive Jesus\n     receive power to become the sons of God, etc., etc.\"\n\n     _March 7th, 1780._--\"I am sorry the building has come to so\n     much more than I intended; but as the mischief is done, it\n     is a matter to exercise patience, resignation, and\n     self-denial; and it will be a caution in future. I am going\n     to sell part of my little estate here to discharge the debt.\n     I had laid by L50 to print a small work, which I wanted to\n     distribute here; but, as I must be just before I presume to\n     offer that mite to the God of truth, I lay by the design,\n     and shall send that sum to Mr. York. Money is so scarce here\n     at this time that I shall sell at very great loss; but\n     necessity and justice are two great laws which must be\n     obeyed. As I design on my return to England to pinch until I\n     have got rid of this debt, I may go and live in one of the\n     cottages belonging to the vicar, if we could let the\n     vicarage for a few pounds.\"\n\n     _Sept. 15th, 1780._--\"There is little genuine piety in these\n     parts: nevertheless, there is yet some of the form of it; so\n     far as to go to the Lord's table regularly four times a\n     year. There meet the adulterers, the drunkards, the\n     swearers, the infidels, and even the materialists. They have\n     no idea of the double damnation that awaits hypocrites. They\n     look upon partaking that sacrament as a ceremony enjoined by\n     the magistrate.\"\n\n     _Feb. 14th, 1781._--\"My friend Ireland invites me to join\n     him in the south of France, and I long to see whether I\n     could not have more liberty to preach the word among Papists\n     than among Protestants. But it is so little that I can do,\n     that I doubt much whether it is worth while going so far\n     upon so little a chance. If I were stronger, and had more\n     time, the fear of being hanged should not detain me.\"\n\nIt had occurred to Fletcher during his residence in Nyon that he might\nserve the cause of religion in Switzerland with his pen, seeing that\nthe state of his health, and the opposition of persons in authority,\nmade it impossible for him to preach the gospel, as it was in his heart\nto do. To awaken the clergy, to rouse them from their worldliness and\nscepticism, and bring them to some acquaintance with true religion,\nseemed of all things the most desirable. Humanly speaking, there was\nlittle hope for the Church in Switzerland until there was, at least,\nthe leaven of an earnest ministry. To his friend and curate at Madeley,\nMr. Greaves, he wrote: \"There is occasion and great need to bear a\ntestimony against the faults of the clergy here; and if I cannot do it\nfrom the pulpit, I must try to do it from the press. Their canons,\nwhich were composed by two hundred and thirty pastors at the time of\nthe Reformation, are so spiritual and apostolic that I design to\ntranslate them into English, if I am spared.\"\n\nIt does not appear that this design was carried out, but meanwhile\nFletcher was preparing a practical treatise on the \"Pastoral\nCharacter,\" which he hoped to publish before leaving the country. It\ngrew upon his hands into a lengthy and elaborate work. His plan was to\nexhibit at one view the character of the primitive Christian, and of\nthe apostolic minister, as exemplified in the Apostle Paul. It was\nwritten in French, but was still unfinished when he returned to\nEngland, and the manuscript was laid aside, with the intention of\ntranslating and preparing it for the press when circumstances should\nallow. The convenient season, however, did not come, and it was not\nuntil after his death that the manuscript was found--portions of it\nfrom time to time,--obviously needing revision at the author's hand.\nThe task of translating and editing was performed by the Rev. Joshua\nGilpin, and his version of \"The Portrait of St. Paul\" is the only one\nthat has ever appeared. No mode of publication could well be more\ndisadvantageous to a writer, and this should be borne in mind in\nestimating its value. Mr. Gilpin remarks that \"the manuscript was so\nincorrect and confused as frequently to stagger the resolution of the\ntranslator\"; and as his object was rather to produce an edifying work\nthan to edit with precision Fletcher's literary remains, it is probable\nthat he filled up the gaps and elaborated the hints which he found in\nFletcher's papers. This would in part account for the diffuseness which\ncharacterises \"The Portrait of St. Paul.\" The tendency, so frequently\ndiscernible in Fletcher's writings, is here most conspicuous. In the\nfirst division of the work the moral character of St. Paul is\ndelineated under no less than forty \"Traits,\" each one having a chapter\nto itself, the chapters being numbered successively TRAIT 1, TRAIT 2,\nand so on, to forty. Had Fletcher completed this treatise, and\npublished it himself, it is reasonable to believe that his own literary\nexperience or the advice of his friends would have led him to group\nthese numerous details under fewer heads, and in other ways give\ngreater unity to the whole. There is hardly a chapter that does not\nshow the writer's spiritual insight and experience, and may not be read\nwith profit, even by those who are acquainted with the best works of\npastoral theology; but the cataloguing of moral features is carried to\na fatiguing length, and the portrait which it was intended to exhibit\nis in danger of disappearing in the process of linked and long-drawn\ndescription.\n\nEven in its present form it is not difficult to see that the \"Portrait\nof St. Paul\" was written by one who had Swiss readers in view. The\nauthors most frequently quoted are Ostervald, professor and pastor at\nNeufchatel, whose \"Exercice du Ministere Sacre\" was published in 1739,\nand Roques, formerly minister of the French congregation at Basle,\nwhose \"Pasteur Evangelique,\" published in 1723, was still a popular\nwork. It was an advantage for Fletcher to be able to appeal to \"such\nexcellent and learned divines as Mons. Ostervald and Mons. Roques\" in\nsetting forth the character and calling of the Christian minister.\n\nThe third and concluding portion of the work is \"An Essay on the\nConnexion of Doctrines and Morality.\" It might almost be considered a\nseparate and independent work. Its object is to show the insufficiency\nof natural religion and philosophy to produce true goodness. We are\nreminded on every page that it was written in the country of\nRousseau's birth and of Voltaire's adoption, at a time when the wit of\nthe one, the sentiment of the other, and the principles of both these\nphilosophers and men of letters, were of paramount influence in\nSwitzerland. Voltaire and Rousseau died in the year 1778, while\nFletcher was residing at Nyon, and he had ample opportunity of\nobserving the extent to which both clergy and laity had come under\ntheir spell. That influence was, in Fletcher's judgment, the cause of\ngrievous injury to religion and morals. A loose, easy-going, yet\nconfident deism seemed almost to have superseded Christianity. Even\namongst the clergy the truth of revelation was denied, or its\nimportance disparaged. The doctrines of revealed religion were\nridiculed as mysterious and incredible, or rejected as having no\npractical bearing. The religion of nature had a showy and pretentious\nside for those who aspired to the dignity of philosophers, and was\neasily reconcilable with selfishness, vanity, and licentiousness alike\nin its more, and in its less, illustrious professors.\n\nFletcher set himself to show the relation between principles and\nconduct, and particularly between the doctrines of the gospel and a\npure morality, instituting comparisons between Christianity and the\ncurrent deism in respect of their ethical force and direction. His\nreferences to Rousseau are frequent, as might be expected, and it was\nnot difficult for so expert a controversialist to give a good account\nof the author of _Emile_. The \"Confessions\" of Rousseau were not\npublished until 1782, four years after his death; but Fletcher lived\nin a country where Rousseau's history and character were well known.\nThe most direct allusion, however, to his personal qualities occurs in\nthe following passage, taken from the close of the treatise:\n\n     \"If it be asked, what secret vice it was that would not\n     suffer so honest a man as J. J. Rousseau to embrace the\n     gospel, without searching into the anecdotes of his life, we\n     may rest satisfied with the discovery he has made of his own\n     heart in this single sentence: 'What can be more\n     transporting to a noble soul than the pride of virtue!' Such\n     was the pride which made him vainly presume that he had\n     power sufficient to conquer himself, without invoking the\n     assistance of God; and by which he was encouraged to assert\n     that the doctrines of the gospel were such as 'no sensible\n     man could either conceive or admit.'\n\n     \"There is no species of pride more insolent than that which\n     gives rise to the following language: 'It is asserted that\n     \"God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son,\n     that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have\n     everlasting life.\" These tidings, whether they be true or\n     false, are highly acceptable to many; but for my own part, I\n     openly declare that I reject with contempt the idea of such\n     a favour. I read with attention those writings which tend to\n     unfold the mysteries of nature, but resolve never to turn\n     over those authors who vainly attempt to establish the truth\n     of the gospel. This subject, though it has occupied the\n     thoughts and engaged the pens of inquiring students for\n     these seventeen hundred years, I shall ever regard as\n     unworthy my attention. I leave it to the vulgar, who are\n     easily persuaded of its importance. My virtues are\n     sufficient to expiate my crimes, and on these I will\n     resolutely depend, as my sole mediators before God.' ...\n\n     \"The deists of Socrates' time must have been far less\n     culpable than those of the present day. The former,\n     conscious of the uncertainty with which they were\n     encompassed, made use of every help they could procure in\n     the pursuit of truth with unwearied assiduity. The latter,\n     presuming upon their own sufficiency, decide against\n     doctrines of the utmost importance without impartially\n     considering the evidence produced in their favour. The\n     former, by carefully examining every system of morality\n     proposed to their deliberation, discovered a candour and\n     liberality becoming those who were anxiously 'feeling after\n     God, if haply they might find Him.' The latter, by\n     condemning revelation without calmly attending to the\n     arguments of its advocates, manifest a degree of prejudice\n     that would be unpardonable in a judge, but which becomes\n     inexcusable in a criminal, who is pressed by the strongest\n     reasons to search out the truth.\"\n\nOn his return to England, Fletcher brought this unfinished treatise\nwith him, and, as we have said, never found time to complete it. One\nwork he published while in Switzerland, a poem entitled \"La Louange,\"\nafterwards enlarged and republished in England under the title, \"La\nGrace et La Nature.\" The Swiss edition required, and received, the\nlicense of the official censor at Lausanne, who was good enough to\ngive his imprimatur in the following terms: \"I have read this work,\nwhich, in my judgment, everywhere breathes Piety, Faith, and Christian\nCharity.\"--DE BONS, _Censeur_. The English edition was dedicated, by\npermission, to Queen Charlotte.\n\nOne incident connected with Fletcher's residence at Nyon remains to be\ntold. A certain nephew of his, lately an officer in the Sardinian army,\nhad been compelled to leave the service under discreditable\ncircumstances. To rid themselves of his company, his brother officers\nagreed to challenge him in succession. After fighting two or three\nduels, he was obliged to resign his commission and leave the country.\nHe returned to Switzerland, to become a terror and a distress to his\nrelatives. Having squandered his money in various evil ways, and come\nto the end of his resources, he resorted to a desperate expedient. He\nasked for a private interview with his uncle, General de Gons, and when\nthey were alone, suddenly presented a loaded pistol, and said, \"Uncle\nde Gons, if you do not give me a draft on your banker for five hundred\ncrowns, I will shoot you.\" His uncle, finding himself in the power of a\ndesperado capable of any mischief, and, possibly, having no heart to\nresist the violence of one who was all but a son, complied with his\ndemand. His nephew then extracted a promise from him that he would not,\non his honour as a gentleman and a soldier, take any steps to recover\nthe draft, or bring him to justice; after which he rode off triumphant\nwith his ill-gotten gains.\n\nAs he passed the door of his uncle Fletcher, the fancy took him to call\nand pay him a visit, and he began at once to tell him of the kindness\nof his uncle De Gons, who had just given him five hundred crowns,\nadding, as he held out the draft, \"If you don't believe me, see the\nproof under his own hand.\" Fletcher felt that there was something\nwrong. He took the draft, and looked first at it, and then at the young\nman. \"It is, indeed, my brother's writing,\" said he, \"and I am\nastonished to see it, for he is not rich, and I know that he so much\ndisapproves your conduct that you are the last of the family to whom he\nwould make such a present.\" Then folding the paper, and putting it into\nhis pocket, he added, \"It strikes me, young man, that you have come by\nthis by some improper means, and I cannot, in honesty, return it to you\nbut with my brother's knowledge and approbation.\" Out came the young\nruffian's pistol once more, and putting it to Fletcher's breast, he\nswore he would have his life if he did not immediately return him the\ndraft. \"My life,\" replied Fletcher, \"is secure in the hands of God.\"\nThe young man still sought to terrify him into compliance. \"Do you\nthink,\" said Fletcher, \"that I have been twenty-five years the minister\nof the Lord of life, to be afraid of death now? It is for you to fear\ndeath, who have every reason to fear it. You are a gambler and a cheat,\nyet call yourself a gentleman! You are a seducer, and a duellist, and\ncall yourself a man of honour! Look there, sir; look there! The eye of\nGod is upon us. Tremble in the presence of your Maker, who can in a\nmoment kill your body, and for ever punish your soul in hell.\"\n\nThe young man was powerless. He stormed and trembled alternately. He\nwithdrew his pistol, and again presented it. He argued, entreated,\nthreatened, but Fletcher remained calm and fearless. By-and-by he\nexpostulated with him. \"I cannot,\" said he, \"return my brother's draft;\nyet I am sorry for you, and will do what I can to help you. General de\nGons will, at my request, I am sure, give you a hundred crowns. I will\ndo the same. Perhaps my brother Henry will do as much; and perhaps the\nother members of the family will make up the sum amongst them.\" He then\nknelt down, and prayed for his unhappy nephew. The matter was arranged,\nby Fletcher's influence, in the way he had suggested, and an\nopportunity was afforded to a foolish and wicked young man for\nrepentance and reformation of life.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\n_RETURN TO ENGLAND.--MARRIAGE._\n\n\nFletcher returned to England in the spring of 1781, after an absence of\nnearly three years and a half. His health was considerably improved by\nthe long rest and retirement; the worst symptoms had disappeared, but\nhe remained, at best, a frail and delicate man.\n\nAlmost his first act on reaching London was to preach in the new chapel\nin City Road, which had been erected during his absence. Wesley was\naway in the midland counties, preaching and visiting the societies;\nfrom thence he passed into Wales, and next to the Isle of Man, so that\nsome months elapsed before he and Fletcher met. After a few days in\nLondon Fletcher went to Bristol, where he received the warmest welcome\nfrom Mr. Ireland and his other friends. Soon after his arrival, Mr.\nRankin, a Methodist preacher then stationed in Bristol, had an\ninterview with him, \"which,\" he says, \"I shall never forget in time or\neternity.\" Fletcher had many inquiries to make concerning the progress\nof religion in England and in America, where Mr. Rankin had laboured\nfor five years. They walked to and fro in Mr. Ireland's garden, and as\nhe listened to Mr. Rankin's account of the triumphs of the gospel at\nhome and in the colonies, Fletcher broke forth again and again into\nprayer and praise.\n\nIn almost every reference to him at this period of his life, and onward\nto its close, there is mention of a something almost unearthly in his\nspirit, and even in his appearance and manner. With the utmost\naffectionateness and freedom of intercourse there was a certain\nraptness of devotion, a mingled simplicity and elevation of thought and\nfeeling, peculiarly his own. The impression he produced, as shown in\nthe letters and journals of his contemporaries, is unmistakable. There\nis nothing quite like it in the case of any other member of the group\nto which Fletcher belongs. Alike in converse with individuals, and in\nhis public addresses, he gave the impression of one whose links with\nearth were few and slender compared with those that united him with the\nheavenly world. After describing the interview just referred to, Mr.\nRankin goes on to say: \"He preached in the evening from 'God hath from\nthe beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the\nSpirit and belief of the truth.' The whole congregation was dissolved\nin tears. He spoke like one who had just left the converse of God and\nangels, and not like a human being. The different conversations I had\nwith him, his prayers and preaching during the few days which he stayed\nat Bristol and Brislington, left such an impression on my mind, and\nwere attended with such salutary effects, that for several months\nafterwards not a cloud intervened between God and my soul,--not for\none hour. Of all the men I ever knew, I never saw such love to God and\nman, such deadness to the world, such entire consecratedness to Jesus,\nas in him. It often appeared to me that his every breath was prayer and\npraise. He lived more like a disembodied spirit than a human being.\"\n\nNo one rejoiced at Fletcher's return to England more than his old\nfriend and former colleague at Trevecca, Mr. Benson. In a hitherto\nunpublished letter, dated from the \"Preaching House, Leeds,\" June 12th,\n1781, he wrote to him as follows:\n\n     \"It gave me great pleasure to hear of your safe arrival in\n     England after so long an absence, and that your health was\n     considerably better than when you went abroad; and more\n     especially, as I understand from Miss Bosanquet, that you\n     have some thought of visiting Yorkshire, where, I am sure,\n     thousands will be glad to see you, and none more so than\n     myself, who once had the honour of being your intimate\n     friend, and whose one motive for troubling you at this time\n     is a desire to renew that friendship, formerly so beneficial\n     to my soul.\n\n     \"Mr. Fletcher, no length of time, no distance of place, can\n     ever erase your memory from my mind, nor shall I, while I\n     breathe, cease to respect you above all men upon earth, and\n     that for one _only_ reason, because the Lord Jesus Christ\n     has in a great measure drawn His likeness upon you.\"\n\nAlthough he returned to Madeley soon after reaching England, it was\nsome time before Fletcher really took up his residence and resumed his\nwork there. He determined to attend the approaching Methodist\nConference, to be held in Leeds in the beginning of August. Four years\nhad elapsed since his memorable visit to the Conference at Bristol,\nwhen Wesley had said concerning him, \"He shall not die, but live.\" He\nnow wished to meet once more the brethren to whom he was bound by so\nmany ties. Wesley moreover wanted his presence and counsel, and for\nthis, and for another reason that will be explained, he left Madeley\nand went to Yorkshire.\n\nSeventy preachers met at the Conference. On the Sunday before it began,\nthe Methodists had a high day at the parish church of Leeds. Wesley\npreached to a vast congregation. Seventeen clergymen, including\nFletcher and Coke, assisted him in administering the Lord's supper to\neleven hundred communicants. During the Conference Wesley desired\nFletcher, Coke, and four others to meet him each evening to consult\nwith him on any difficulty that might occur. Fletcher preached at five\no'clock in the morning to at least two thousand persons, who listened\nto him with the deepest attention. Wesley's comment was, \"I do not\nwonder he should be so popular; not only because he preaches with all\nhis might, but because the power of God attends both his preaching and\nprayer.\" \"I had the happiness to hear that venerable servant of God,\nMr. Fletcher,\" wrote one of the preachers to his wife. \"Never did I see\nany man more like what I suppose the ancient apostles to have been....\nI think I never heard a sermon to be compared with it. I wish I could\ntell you every word. I had also the happiness to receive from his hand\nthe bread in the sacrament of the Lord's supper.\"\n\nThe Conference was over in a week, but Fletcher still remained in the\nneighbourhood of Leeds. Another, and to him a still more important,\nmatter was occupying his thoughts. It had reference to Miss Bosanquet,\nthe lady named in Mr. Benson's letter. A very brief account of one who\ndeserves, and has received, ample biographic honours, must here\nsuffice. Mary Bosanquet was a lady of good family and considerable\nfortune, to whom belongs an eminence among the godly women of\nMethodism, analogous to that of Fletcher among his associates. At a\nvery early age, and partly through the influence of a maidservant, she\nbecame an earnest Christian. As she grew up she passed through much\nconflict and sorrow from the opposition of her parents. They were\nwell-meaning but worldly people, and were disappointed and annoyed at\ntheir daughter's distaste for balls and theatres, and at her generally\nimpracticable religious convictions. They endeavoured to secure her\npromise that she would never, either then or thereafter, attempt to\nmake her brothers \"what she called Christians.\" Upon her saying that\nshe dared not consent to that, her father replied, \"Then you force me\nto put you out of my house.\" A kind of agreement was soon afterwards\ncome to, that she should take lodgings in Hoxton, and visit her parents\nfrom time to time; and at twenty-one years of age, accompanied by her\nmaid, she left her home, literally for Christ's sake. A year or two\nlater she removed to Leytonstone, to a house of her own, not far from\nher father's residence. Here she gathered around her a family of poor\nwomen and orphan children, who were supported at her expense, and\ntaught, trained, and employed according to their capacity. It was her\ndesire to form a household in which the glory of God should be the\nsupreme end and aim, and for many years her efforts were crowned with\nsuccess. Peace, piety, and simple order ruled the little community.\nWesley was particularly interested in her plan, and delighted with its\nresults. It reminded him of what he had seen many years before in the\norphan house at Halle, and among the brethren at Herrnhut. It was akin\nto his own endeavour at Kingswood. In his \"Journal\" he refers to it in\nthe following terms: \"It is exactly _Pietas Hallensis_ in miniature....\nI rode over to Leytonstone, and found one truly Christian family: that\nis, what that at Kingswood should be, and would, if it had such\ngovernors.... I preached at Leytonstone. Oh what a house of God is\nhere! not only for decency and order, but for the life and power of\nreligion! I am afraid there are very few such to be found in all the\nking's dominions.\"\n\nIn addition to the guidance of her household, Miss Bosanquet held\nservices in her kitchen, at which she read and expounded the Scriptures\nto such of her poor neighbours as were willing to come. A Methodist\nclass-meeting was formed, and from time to time an itinerant preacher\nwould come and minister to the little flock. From early morning till\nnight there was nothing but hard and homely toil, frugal meals,\nfrequent religious meetings, and ever-recurring prayer and praise. Thus\ndevoting her time, her strength, her fortune to Christ and to the poor,\n\n     \"She filled her odorous lamp with deeds of light,\n     And hope that reaps not shame.\"\n\nThere was no lack of hindrances and discouragements, however, from\nwithin and from without. Many of the children suffered from painful\ndiseases, the result of poverty and neglect. Others distressed her with\nthe evil habits they had brought with them. Her relatives spoke of her\nas of one who was out of her right mind. Some of her critics declared\nthat she was bringing up the children for nuns; others said her plans\nsavoured too much of carnal wisdom; while others again charged her with\nidleness. Persons well-disposed and ill-disposed poured upon her their\nconflicting counsels and reproofs; and, as if the brave, lonely woman\nhad not enough to bear, a crowd of rough men and boys would collect at\nthe gate, when nights were dark, to throw dirt at the people as they\nwent out from the meetings, and would afterwards come into the yard,\nand, putting their faces to a window which had no shutters, would roar\nand howl like wild beasts.\n\nFrom Leytonstone Miss Bosanquet removed into Yorkshire, and settled at\nGildersome, a village near Leeds, where she bought land and built a\nhouse. Here she continued for many years her self-denying labours and\nlet the steady light of a holy life shine, to the comfort and\nedification of many. It is not necessary to tell the story in detail;\nit may be enough to say that while thus living for others, her fortune\nwas melting away, partly through injudicious generosity, and partly\nthrough the blunders of those who helped and advised her in the\nmanagement of her affairs. From these causes, to which might be added\nthe unconscionable demands of some whom she assisted, she was brought\nto financial embarrassment and great anxiety. At the time of Fletcher's\nreturn to England her difficulties seemed to be coming to a crisis. She\nsaw nothing for it but to sell her Yorkshire property for what it would\nfetch, and with the proceeds pay off her debts as far as possible, and\nmeet the remainder from the small income still coming to her from\nLeytonstone. It was at this juncture that she received an offer of\nmarriage from Fletcher.\n\nHe was now fifty-two years of age, and Miss Bosanquet ten years\nyounger. They had known one another for five-and-twenty years, though\nfor the greater part of that time there was no direct intercourse\nbetween them. From their first acquaintance they had been attracted to\none another. Fletcher had confessed to Charles Wesley that \"Miss\nBosanquet's image at one time pursued him,\" and that he should perhaps\nhave lost his peace of mind if he had not betaken himself to prayer,\nand to a serious consideration of the reasons against matrimony. In\nspite of the victory thus gained, there is little doubt that her image\npursued him through the following years. She, on her part, confides to\nher diary that a feeling \"that she might be called to marry Mr.\nFletcher\" would now and again come to her mind. She found much help\nand comfort in his writings. In her troubles she thought of him as \"one\nwho might perhaps be sent to her aid.\" She dwelt upon \"some little acts\nof friendship in our first acquaintance,\" and then put the pleasant\nthoughts away, lest they should be a snare to her. She resolved \"never\nto do the least thing towards a renewal of their correspondence.\" And\nso for fifteen years they never met, each of them meanwhile passing\nthrough much affliction, and needing the very help which the other\ncould have supplied.\n\nTo Fletcher's scrupulous sense of honour, Miss Bosanquet's fortune was\nan effectual barrier between them. That the possession of wealth should\nattract unworthy suitors is nothing unusual,--it is a constantly\nrecurring source of danger to well-dowered women; but the danger of its\nrepelling the worthy suitor, and so keeping those apart who are best\nfitted for each other, although much rarer, is perhaps even more\ndifficult to deal with. In such cases some sort of mediation seems\ndesirable, though it is generally impracticable. What was wanted in\nthis instance was, in our judgment, that some one--say Wesley, or his\nbrother Charles--should have said to Fletcher and to Miss Bosanquet the\nhalf dozen words explanatory of each other's sentiments that would have\nremoved all difficulty, and given them twenty years of happy married\nlife instead of four.\n\nIt is remarkable that when Fletcher made his offer of marriage to Miss\nBosanquet he had not seen her for fifteen years. There was no previous\nrenewal of the acquaintance, no gradual growth of intimacy and\naffection, no preliminaries of any kind. His proposal came unheralded\nand unexpected, and was at once accepted. It is clear that the needful\npreparation had been made on both sides long ago. There was the sudden\nremoval of hindrances, real or imagined: that was all.\n\nOne of his letters to Miss Bosanquet, written during their engagement,\nhas lately been published by Mr. Tyerman.[12] It is a true love-letter,\nand in no way unworthy of its writer. Others lie before us now. They\nare written with the utmost freedom and simplicity, and show a warm and\ntender affection, with a chivalrous admiration for the woman soon to\nbecome his wife. The gentle-spirited, lonely man rejoices in his\nnew-found happiness. \"Surely,\" he writes to her, \"a human creature\n_alone_ is but _half_ himself. And yet how many, for want of having\nmade the comparison, glory in their loss! I will do so no more.\" This\nis a touch of nature that the reader will appreciate; more particularly\nif he has been at the trouble of reading the \"reasons against\nmatrimony\" that have been alluded to. But we refrain from further\nquotation. On the whole, we think it right to respect the privacy of\nFletcher's love-letters. They were written for one reader, and for one\nonly. By her they were sacredly preserved through the thirty years of\nher widowhood, and then, chiefly, we imagine, because she could not\nbring herself to destroy them, they passed into the keeping of a dear\nand trusted friend. To remain in the keeping of friends, and not to be\npublished to the world is, in our judgment, their proper destiny.\n\nWe are, however, much indebted to Mr. Tyerman for bringing to light the\nletter in which Fletcher asked the consent of Miss Bosanquet's uncle\nand trustee, Mr. Claudius Bosanquet, to his marriage with his niece. It\nis a most important piece of autobiography. We have so far availed\nourselves of it in the course of this narrative that the whole need not\nbe given here. But the following will be read with interest:\n\n     \"It was soon after my ordination that I saw Miss Mary\n     Bosanquet, your pious niece. I had resolved not to marry;\n     but the sweetness of her temper, and her devotedness to God,\n     made me think that if ever I broke through my resolution, it\n     would be to cast my lot with one like her.\n\n     \"Not long after, at Mr. Hill's request, his nephew, Mr.\n     Kinaston, member for Montgomery, presented me with the\n     living of Madeley, a little market town in the county of\n     Salop, worth about L100 _per annum_; and here I have chiefly\n     lived, sequestered from the world, as your amiable niece has\n     done at Leyton and at Cross Hall.\n\n     \"After having corresponded some years with her on various\n     subjects, last spring, on my return from a journey to the\n     continent, I ventured to mention to her my first thoughts\n     about a closer union with her, thoughts which I had kept to\n     myself for nearly twenty-five years. After maturely\n     discussing the point, your pious niece has given me room to\n     hope she will give me her hand, if you, sir, whom she\n     honours as a father, give your consent to our union. I\n     earnestly ask it, sir; and beg you will share the pleasure\n     of uniting two persons who, from a remarkable agreement of\n     taste, sentiments, and pursuits, as well as from a\n     particular sympathy, seem formed for each other by the God\n     of nature and of grace.\n\n     \"I wish, sir, I had a fortune equal to Miss Bosanquet's\n     deserts; but I hope I have one suitable to her piety, and to\n     the moderate wishes of that godliness which, together with\n     contentment, is a great gain. I have only about L1500 worth\n     of property in my native country, and about L400 or L500\n     more in my parish, besides the income of my living, and a\n     house much better than those with which most country\n     clergymen are obliged to put up.\n\n     \"Whatever be your pious niece's fortune, I assure you, sir,\n     I seek her person, not her property; and to convince you of\n     it, I request before she gives me her hand, her whole\n     fortune may be secured to her by a proper settlement.\"\n\nThe same day he wrote to Miss Bosanquet's brother:\n\n     \"Among the reasons which hindered me from making my\n     addresses to your amiable sister, when first I felt that\n     sympathy which binds my soul to hers, the superiority of her\n     fortune was not the least. Since that time, debts, which\n     unforeseen circumstances led her to contract, have\n     considerably lessened that difficulty, and the prudent fear\n     of contracting new ones seems to make it expedient for her\n     to get into a state where she may, without difficulty and\n     with propriety, bring her expensive housekeeping within\n     narrower bounds. That end will at once be attained if she\n     favours me with her hand.\"\n\nThe consent of Miss Bosanquet's relatives was readily and cordially\ngiven. There was indeed no such disparity in the position and\ncircumstances of the two as could well be a ground of objection. Their\nMethodist friends regarded their union as a peculiarly suitable one.\nWesley wrote to a friend at the time, \"I should not have been willing\nthat Miss Bosanquet should have been joined to any other person than\nMr. Fletcher\"; and later he said, \"Miss Bosanquet was the only person\nin England whom I judged to have been worthy of Mr. Fletcher.\" They\nwere married in Batley church, on November 12th, 1781. For nearly two\nmonths after their marriage they continued to reside at Cross Hall. It\nwas desirable that Mrs. Fletcher's affairs should be settled before her\nremoval to Madeley, so an arrangement was made with Mr. Crosse, the\nVicar of Bradford, that he and Fletcher should exchange duty for a\nwhile. The former went to Madeley, and Fletcher took charge of Mr.\nCrosse's parish. On January 1st, 1782, he wrote to a friend in London:\n\"Strangely restored to health and strength (considering my years), I\nhave ventured to preach of late as often as I did formerly; and after\nhaving read prayers and preached twice on Christmas Day, I did last\nSunday what I had never done, I continued doing duty from ten o'clock\nin the morning till after four in the afternoon. This was owing to\nchristenings, churchings, and the sacrament, which I administered to a\nchurch full of people, so that I was obliged to go from the communion\ntable to begin the evening service, and then to visit some sick. This\nhas brought back upon me one of my old, dangerous symptoms; so I have\nflattered myself in vain that I should be able to do the whole duty of\nmy own parish. My dear wife is nursing me with the tenderest care,\ngives me up to God with the greatest resignation, and helps me to\nrejoice that life and death, health and sickness, work for our good,\nand are all _ours_, as blessed means to forward us in our journey to\nheaven.\"\n\nThe following day Fletcher and his wife set out for Madeley.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\n_LAST YEARS._\n\n\nOn the first Sunday after bringing his wife to her new home, Fletcher\ntook her into the kitchen, where, according to hospitable custom, a\nnumber of poor people were taking dinner between the morning and\nafternoon services, and introduced her to them, saying, \"I have not\nmarried a wife for myself only, but for your sakes also.\" This was\ntrue, both in his intention and in the result.\n\nIn marrying Miss Bosanquet, and bringing her to Madeley, Fletcher\nconferred upon his parish a benefit second only to that of his own\nlife-devotion to its welfare. During the remainder of his ministry he\nwas sustained and supplemented in his labours by one whose\nqualifications were, in their sphere, little inferior to his own. She\nhad been accustomed for many years to the direction of a large\nhousehold, to the training of children and young people, to ministering\nto the sick and suffering. She understood the wants and ways of the\npoor. In these and similar respects she was exceptionally fitted to be\nthe wife of a clergyman. The vicarage was no longer a hermitage; it was\na home, a centre to which many came for help and guidance, spiritual\nand temporal, and from which innumerable ministries of kindness flowed\nout on every side. But it was in the very highest aspects of her\nhusband's work that Mrs. Fletcher's co-operation was at once the most\ncomplete and the most valuable. Her ministry could not confine itself\nto the bodily and temporal welfare of the people. She too had a deep\nand passionate longing for the salvation of souls. To lead her poor and\nsuffering to Christ was the one philanthropy, to which all other\ncharities were as nothing. Toward all kinds of need her heart was full\nof pity, and her hand quick in bounty; but it was for the soul in each,\nthe soul redeemed by the infinite love of God, and called to the\npossession of an unspeakably glorious salvation in Christ, that she was\nmost profoundly moved. Sin was the one evil; salvation the one\nblessing; Christ the one Saviour. This conviction, burning with a pure,\nsteady light and heat, ruled her work from first to last. Fletcher\nfound in her, not only a loving wife, but a kindred spirit. They viewed\npersonal religion under the same aspects; they were likeminded in their\nbelief concerning the \"salvation to the uttermost\" that is procured by\nChrist, and administered by the Holy Spirit. The instinct that speaks\nof \"the saintly Fletcher\" gives the same designation to his wife. With\nher, as with him, Christian perfection--a term which many theological\nsystems will not admit, and the majority of Christians persistently\nshun--was a chosen watchword. Their letters, journals, and devotional\nwritings, and the lives they were enabled to live, show that for them\n\"death unto sin and life unto God in Jesus Christ\" was, not merely\n\"forensic,\" an \"imputation,\" with nothing corresponding to it in the\nsphere of experience, but included entire consecration to God, and the\nunhindered indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In aspiration, profession,\nlife, the same high utterance was repeated in different but harmonious\nnotes--\"perfect in Christ\"; always laying more stress upon \"in Christ\"\nthan upon \"perfect,\" yet not shrinking from that term, as having New\nTestament authority and significance.\n\nFor thirty years after Fletcher's death his widow was to remain in\nMadeley, a presence and a power for good; and it is this part of her\nlife and labours by which she is chiefly remembered. There are, indeed,\nfew pictures, in modern Christian history at least, more impressive\nthan that in which she is the central figure, a saintly woman of great\nand varied gifts, in whom Quaker-like calmness and self-control were\njoined with Methodist fervour, for a whole generation a preacher of the\ngospel and a witness for Christ among the people of Madeley and the\nneighbourhood. The following description of her labours was written by\nan eye-witness[13] of them:\n\n     \"Surviving her husband many years, she lived a 'widow\n     indeed,' doing good to all around her, and winning the\n     veneration and love of rich and poor, not only in the\n     village and parish of Madeley, and in the adjoining\n     parishes, but in all places where she was known, and to\n     which the fame of her piety and charity had extended. The\n     rector, not only allowed her to remain in the vicarage house\n     undisturbed during life, but allowed her to choose the\n     curate by whom the duties of the living were to be\n     performed, assigning as his reason that she knew better than\n     himself what would suit and benefit the parishioners.\n     Besides exercising publicly, at stated times, in the\n     vicarage room, she occasionally visited Madeley Wood,\n     Coalbrookdale, Coalport, and other places more distant, at\n     which times the chapels were usually crowded with delighted\n     and profited hearers. To her house the itinerant preachers\n     continued to come to the end of her earthly sojourn. Here\n     they always found a hearty welcome and a delightful home.\n     Several lovely societies were formed, others were augmented,\n     hundreds of souls were converted, Christian believers were\n     edified and blessed, the fruit of Mr. Fletcher's ministry\n     was preserved, and Madeley became the _rendezvous_ for\n     religious persons and purposes--a privileged, honoured\n     place--a sort of Christian Jerusalem. It was not uncommon to\n     see two, three, or more clergymen, pious and able men, from\n     neighbouring and even distant parishes, among the\n     congregation at her week-night lectures. On the Sabbath, the\n     pious people living at the distance of from one to four\n     miles from Madeley usually arrived in time for her morning\n     meeting, at nine o'clock; and, from thence, they went to the\n     parish church, close at hand. At noon, respectable\n     strangers, visiting Madeley for religious purposes, were\n     usually invited to dine with her at the vicarage; the poor\n     living too far off to allow them to return from their own\n     houses for the after services of the day partook, if so\n     disposed, of her hospitalities in the vicarage kitchen;\n     others, having brought their provisions with them, were\n     seen, in fine weather, in little companies in the fields,\n     engaged in heavenly conversation and prayer; and others had,\n     in an apartment to themselves, a cheap family dinner\n     provided at the village inn. On the ringing of a bell, at\n     one o'clock all assembled at Mrs. Fletcher's meeting, when\n     she was accustomed to read the life of some eminently holy\n     man, and make remarks upon it; then they adjourned to the\n     church for the afternoon service there and sermon; after\n     which they repaired to their respective homes, and attended\n     their own meeting-houses, at one or other of which the\n     curate of Madeley officiated every Sabbath evening, as well\n     as occasionally on the week-days, always announcing at the\n     close of the afternoon service in the church the chapel in\n     which he would preach that evening. This plan was adopted by\n     Mr. Fletcher, and was followed by his evangelical and pious\n     successors for upwards of forty years.\"\n\nReturning now to the story of Fletcher's life, we feel that there was\n\"something like prophetic strain\" in the words with which he introduced\nhis wife to his people: \"I have not married a wife for myself only, but\nfor your sakes also.\"\n\nSoon after their settlement at Madeley they had a short visit from\nWesley. It was near the end of March, but the rough, deep roads were\nblocked with snow, and it required four horses to drag his chaise from\nBridgenorth. Wesley preached twice to crowded congregations, and\nassisted Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher to form a Christian society. Probably\nthis part of Fletcher's work had been injured by his long absence, as\nwe find frequent mention of such societies in the parish several years\nbefore. He lamented the decay of these means of grace, and sought\nWesley's help in reviving them. This was a matter in which Wesley had\nunique authority and influence. In the afternoon service he therefore\n\"enforced the necessity of Christian fellowship on all who desired\neither to awake or keep awake. He then desired those who were willing\nto join together for this purpose to call upon him and Mr. Fletcher\nafter service. Ninety-four or ninety-five persons did so; about as many\nmen as women. They explained to them the nature of a Christian society,\nand they willingly joined therein.\"\n\nThree months later, Mrs. Fletcher wrote to Wesley: \"The people you\njoined when here are, I trust, coming forward. I have not conversed\nwith the men, but the women are more in number than at that time, ...\nand on the whole there is a good increase of freedom and liberty in our\nclass-meetings....\n\n\"My dear Mr. Fletcher spares no pains; I know not which is greater, his\nearnest desire for souls, or his patience in bearing with their\ninfirmities and dulness. His preaching is exceeding lively; and our\nsacraments are more like those in the chapels of London than any I have\nseen since I left it. Yet I find a great difference between the people\nhere and those in Yorkshire.\"\n\nMrs. Fletcher accompanied her husband in his preaching excursions and\nvisits to the religious societies within reach. She rode with him\nthrough the rain, and stood by his side, \"where there was neither house\nnor church to cover them,\" while he preached to a large congregation\nwho listened with \"Yorkshire attention.\" It was not all smooth and easy\nwork even now, among the ruder and more ignorant part of the people. On\none occasion he writes: \"I got many a hearty curse from the colliers\nfor the plain words I spoke.... Had I searched the three kingdoms, I\ncould not have found one brother willing to share gratis my weal, woe,\nand labours, and complaisant enough to unite his fortunes to mine; but\nGod has found me a partner, _a sister_, _a wife_, to use St. Paul's\nlanguage, who is not afraid to face with me the colliers and bargemen\nof my parish until death part us.\"\n\nThe organization of Sunday schools was, at this time, being warmly\ntaken up by the Methodists, and by many of the clergy. Raikes\nestablished the first of his Sunday schools in Gloucester in the year\n1781; but a Miss Hannah Ball, of High Wycombe, a member of the\nMethodist society, had established one in 1769, and probably there were\nalso others. Though Wesley had nothing to do with originating them, he\nearly perceived in them a great promise and possibility of good, and\nencouraged their formation throughout his societies. His \"Journal\" has\nthis reference to them: \"_July 18th, 1784._ I find these schools\nspringing up wherever I go. Perhaps God may have a deeper end therein\nthan men are aware of. Who knows but some of these schools may become\nnurseries for Christians?\" At Bolton, three or four years later, he met\n\"between nine hundred and a thousand of the children belonging to our\nSunday-schools. I never saw such a sight before. They were all exactly\nclean, as well as plain, in their apparel. All were serious and\nwell-behaved. Many, both boys and girls, had as beautiful faces as, I\nbelieve, England or Europe can afford. When they all sang together, and\nnone of them out of tune, the melody was beyond that of any theatre;\nand what is the best of all, many of them truly fear God, and some\nrejoice in His salvation.\"\n\nIn common with Wesley, Fletcher was much impressed with the\nSunday-school system as it was developing throughout the country. For\nsome years he had maintained a day school, but he now entered\nvigorously upon the work of organizing Sunday schools. He issued an\naddress to his people setting forth the evils arising from the\nprofanation of the Lord's day, and from neglecting to educate children\nin the principles and practice of religion. He referred to the vices by\nwhich society was degraded and injured, and asked if nothing could be\ndone to check these growing evils. After noticing the example set in\nStroud, Gloucester, Birmingham, Manchester, and many country parishes,\nhe described a plan for establishing Sunday schools in the parish of\nMadeley. He proposed that the children should be taught reading,\nwriting, and the principles of religion; that each teacher should be\npaid one shilling per Sunday; that inspectors should be appointed to\nvisit the schools, to see that the children attended regularly, and the\nmasters did their duty; that the schools be solemnly visited once or\ntwice a year, and a premium given to the children that have made the\ngreatest improvement. On these proposals, subsequently modified and\ndeveloped, Sunday schools were established in Madeley, and another\npowerful agency for benefiting his parishioners was brought into\nexistence.\n\nThe labours of many years had, indeed, begun to tell, not only on\nindividuals, but on the general tone and character of the community.\nVice was checked and restrained; the people were better disposed\ntowards religion; the standard of morals was raised; the conversion of\nnotorious evil doers made its impression upon the conscience of the\ncareless and profane; something like a general reformation had taken\nplace in the parish, and the progress of religion and morality was now\nfurther aided by the regular religious instruction of the young. Love\nfor children was characteristic of Fletcher all through life. He was\nnever happier than when amongst them. Before his Sunday-school was\nopened, he used to meet some two or three hundred of them on a Thursday\nevening, and he continued to do so to the very week in which his last\nillness began. As a result of this, a loving remembrance of him\nremained in the neighbourhood where he had lived much longer than is\nusually the case, even with the best of men. The image of his person\nand character, stamped upon the hearts of children, was found sixty,\nseventy years afterwards, in the hearts of aged men and women.\n\nAmong the young people over whom Fletcher exercised a powerful and\nlasting influence was Melville Horne, who was introduced to him when\nseventeen years of age. At their first interview a deep impression was\nmade upon the youth's mind, and he afterwards sought every opportunity\nof being in Fletcher's company. At the vicarage he came to be treated\nalmost as a son. He subsequently received ordination, and, upon\nFletcher's death, became curate of Madeley. When far advanced in life\nhe would refer with deep feeling to his early intercourse with\nFletcher. He says: \"I know not which most to venerate, his public or\nprivate character. Grave and dignified in his deportment and manners,\nhe yet excelled in all the courtesies and attentions of the\naccomplished gentleman. In every company he appeared as the least, the\nlast, and the servant of all. From head to foot he was clothed with\nhumility; while the heavenly-mindedness of an angel shone from his\ncountenance, and sparkled in his eyes. His religion was without labour\nand without effort, for Christianity was, not only his great business,\nbut his very element and nature. As a mortal man, he doubtless had his\nerrors and failings; but what they were, they who knew him best would\nfind it difficult to say, for he appeared as an instrument of heavenly\nminstrelsy, attuned to the Master's touch.... In every view, he was a\ngreat man, and entitled to rank in the very first class of ministers;\nbut it was his _goodness_ that raised him above all the ministers of\nhis day.\"\n\nIn August, 1783, Fletcher and his wife visited Ireland. They had\nreceived a pressing invitation from the Methodists of Dublin to come\nover and spend a few weeks there, and help them in the good work. As\nlong as it seemed possible to decline the invitation they had done so;\nbut the requests were so urgent that it seemed to them at last that\nthis was a call from God. Fletcher's health at the time was not good,\nand on various grounds they both shrank from so long and formidable a\njourney; but the conviction that it was God's will settled the matter.\nOn the day they set out they rode to Shrewsbury, paying a tribute of\nlove and reverence to the memory of Richard Baxter as they passed\nthrough the village of Eaton Constantine, his early home. The next day\nthey reached Llangollen, where, for want of a change of horses, they\nwere detained for the night. A few persons who could understand English\ncame together next morning, and Fletcher preached to them before\nresuming his journey.\n\nThey remained about six weeks in Dublin, and their labours were made a\ngreat blessing to many. Fletcher preached with his accustomed unction\nand power. His host, a gentleman of position and influence in the city,\napplied to the rector of the parish in which he lived to allow Mr.\nFletcher to preach in his church, and this was immediately granted. The\nchurch was crowded to excess. The congregation was greatly moved; but\nwhen it became known that he had preached on the evening of the same\nday at the Methodist chapel, all the churches were at once closed\nagainst him, with the exception of the Huguenot French church. Here he\npreached, both in French and in English. Even when he preached in\nFrench, people who could not understand a word would be present. \"We go\nto look at him,\" they said, \"for heaven seems to beam from his\ncountenance.\" In addition to his public labours Fletcher met the\nmembers of the society in private, and exhorted and counselled them to\ntheir great comfort. Mrs. Fletcher met the classes of women. A great\nrevival of religion followed. The Methodist society increased in\nnumbers from about five hundred persons to upwards of a thousand, and\nthe spiritual life of many was deepened and enriched.\n\nWhen Fletcher was about to leave them the grateful people pressed him\nto accept a sum of money in payment of his expenses. This he entirely\nrefused to accept, until being pressed in such a manner that further\nrefusal seemed impossible, he consented to receive it on condition that\nhe might dispose of it as he pleased. To this they readily agreed, and\nevery penny of it was given to their own poor people before Fletcher\nand his wife left Dublin. A letter warmly thanking them for \"your\nlabour of love in crossing the sea to visit us, and your spending body\nand soul for our profit while among us,\" was signed by one hundred and\nfifty-one members of the Dublin Methodist society, and sent after them\nto Madeley. The passage from Dublin to Holyhead was a stormy one, but\nthey reached their home at last in peace.\n\nFletcher attended one more Conference with Wesley and his preachers. It\nwas held in Leeds in July, 1784. The great Methodist leader was now in\nhis eighty-second year. He wrote to a friend: \"When I was young I had\nweak eyes, trembling hands, and abundance of infirmities. But, by the\nblessing of God, I have outlived them all.\" He laboured as hard as\never. In one respect only he spared himself; instead of riding on\nhorseback he now made use of a travelling carriage. He still considered\npreaching at five o'clock in the morning the healthiest exercise in the\nworld. He was able to preach three times a day, and address large\ncrowds out of doors, and, when making his way to Inverness, could\ntrudge through heavy rain twelve miles on foot. In every part of\nEngland, and very widely in Ireland and Scotland, he was better known\nthan any other public man, and, with few exceptions, universally\nrespected and loved. The nation had come to be proud of him. His\nappearance was venerable and beautiful in the extreme. The people\nflocked to see, as well as to hear him. He was saluted in the streets\nas he passed along, and children would run and kneel before him to\nreceive his blessing.\n\nWesley had particular reasons for inviting Fletcher to attend the\nConference. It was an anxious time with him. He had recently executed\nan important deed--known as the Deed of Declaration,--in which he had\nnamed one hundred of his preachers to constitute the legal Conference\nafter his death. In this body of preachers, which had power to fill up\nall vacancies in its number, was vested all legal authority requisite\nfor the admission and expulsion of preachers, the appointment of\npreachers to their stations; and, in various other respects, the\nConference was invested with the powers hitherto possessed and\nexercised by Wesley himself. This deed has proved a firm foundation for\nthe polity of the Methodists to this day. It underlies and sustains the\nvarious developments that have since taken place. It has been called\nMethodism's Magna Charta. Wesley himself deemed it \"a foundation likely\nto stand as long as the sun and moon endure.\"\n\nBut it was not established without difficulty. There were heartburnings\namongst the preachers. Of those who were not included in the \"legal\nhundred\" some were grieved, others were indignant. They could not\nunderstand on what principle Wesley had made his selection. They\nresented the preference shown to some, and the passing over of others\namong their brethren. Many of the trustees were alarmed, thinking that\ntheir powers in respect of the chapel property were imperilled. The\nunity of the Methodist connexion was seriously threatened, and the\napproaching Conference was anticipated with much anxiety. When the\nConference assembled, Wesley proved himself once more equal to the\noccasion. His tact, his wise reasonableness, his weight of character,\nhis transparent good faith prevailed, but it was well that he was\nsustained in such a crisis by the presence of Fletcher. In prospect of\na heated controversy, all hope of a happy issue lay in calling forth\nwhat was deepest and best in the good men who had come together.\nWesley knew that beneath the irritation and resentment of the hour was\na depth of Christian principle to which appeal might hopefully be made.\n\nOn the Sunday evening before the opening of the Conference the\ncongregation that assembled to hear Wesley was so much larger than the\nchapel could contain, that they adjourned to a neighbouring field,\nwhere Wesley preached a sermon on the judgment day. Early next morning\nFletcher was the preacher, and his text was, \"Ye are the salt of the\nearth.\" Morning and evening, during the session of the Conference,\nthere was a sermon by Wesley, Fletcher, or one of the more eminent\npreachers. At the sacramental service Wesley was assisted by Fletcher,\nCoke, and other clergymen. In a sermon on \"the man of God who was\ndisobedient to the word of the Lord,\" Fletcher drew such a picture of\nthe degradation and misery of a backsliding minister, and of the injury\nhe inflicted upon the Church of Christ, as produced a deep and general\nsensation. One of his hearers reports: \"I was extremely impressed with\nthe whole service; the shadow of the Divine presence was seen among us,\nand His going forth was in our sanctuary.\"\n\nThe debate on the Deed of Declaration was the sharpest the Conference\nhad ever known. Fletcher was greatly affected. Before the first streak\nof dawn his wife heard him praying fervently for the peace and\nprosperity of Zion, and when she gently urged him to go to rest, he\nanswered, \"The cause of God lies near my heart.\" During the discussion\nFletcher \"took much pains,\"--to use Wesley's words. This matter-of-fact\nexpression conveys little notion of the tender, impassioned way in\nwhich Fletcher laboured to heal the strife and prevent a schism.\n\"Never,\" says a preacher who was present, \"shall I forget the ardour\nand earnestness with which Mr. Fletcher expostulated, even on his\nknees, both with Mr. Wesley and the preachers. To the former he said,\n'My father! my father! they have offended; but they are your children!'\nTo the latter he exclaimed, 'My brethren! my brethren! he is your\nfather!' And then, pourtraying the work in which they were unitedly\nengaged, he fell again on his knees, and with fervour and devotion\nengaged in prayer. The Conference was bathed in tears, many sobbed\naloud.\"\n\nAt the close of the Conference Fletcher returned to Madeley, and\nresumed his quiet, pastoral life. Even yet Wesley was not quite\nsatisfied at Fletcher's \"hiding his light under a bushel\" in his\ncountry parish. But the Vicar of Madeley knew his vocation, and abided\nby it. He wrote to his friend Mr. Ireland: \"I keep in my sentry-box\ntill Providence remove me; my situation is quite suited to my little\nstrength. I may do as much or as little as I please, according to my\nweakness. And I have an advantage which I can have nowhere else in such\na degree: my little field of action is just at my door; so that if I\nhappen to overdo myself, I have but a step from my pulpit to my bed,\nand from my bed to my grave.... The snail does best in its shell; were\nit to aim at galloping, like the racehorse, it would be ridiculous\nindeed. My wife is quite of my mind with respect to the call we have to\na sedentary life.\"\n\nAmong the latest acquaintances made by Fletcher was that with Charles\nSimeon, of Cambridge, then a young and zealous clergyman just coming\ninto note, and afterwards, for so long a period, the leader of the\nEvangelical party in the university. Simeon preached in Madeley church,\nFletcher himself previously going through the village, bell in hand, to\nannounce that a young clergyman from Cambridge was about to preach, and\nurging the people to come to the church.\n\nIt does not appear that there was at this time any noticeable failure\nof strength, or appearance of dangerous symptoms; but, in truth, his\nhold of life was very feeble, his vital force was almost spent. It was\noften in his thoughts that death was near. Life had never been so sweet\nto him as it was now; but death too,\n\n     \"Dear, beauteous death, the jewel of the just,\"\n\nwas none the less the crowning mercy for which he waited. To few men\nhas death been so disarmed beforehand as to Fletcher.\n\nAmong the Evangelical leaders there was now, indeed, a swift succession\nof departures. These \"companions in tribulation, and in the kingdom and\npatience of Jesus Christ,\" were [Greek: epekteinomenoi], \"reaching\nforth unto\" that which was before them, and one after another\n\"attained,\" and was made perfect. Early in May, 1785, Vincent Perronet,\nthe venerable Vicar of Shoreham, died in the ninety-second year of his\nage. Charles Wesley buried him, and preached his funeral sermon. He\nhimself was, in much feebleness, awaiting his summons, and asked for\nFletcher's prayers, saying, \"Help me to depart in peace.\" He had yet\nthree years to wait for his release.\n\nIt has been supposed that the letter, dated May 24th, 1785, in which\nthese words occur, was the last that Fletcher received from his old and\nfaithful friend. We are able, however, to supply a hitherto unpublished\nletter four weeks later in date, which is, pretty certainly, the last\nof the series. As will be seen, it consists in reality of three\nletters, one to Mrs. Fletcher, one to her and her husband conjointly,\nand one to Fletcher alone. They are written, however, continuously, on\none sheet of paper. The fears and forebodings to which he gives\nexpression are familiar to all who are acquainted with the history of\nMethodism. It will be remembered that the question of a successor to\nWesley had been mentioned several years before; Charles Wesley joining\nwith his brother in designating Fletcher to that office, and Fletcher\ndeclining it, and urging in return that, in the event of John Wesley's\ndecease, the leadership must naturally devolve upon Charles. The latter\nhad now made up his mind that nothing could save the Methodist\nsocieties from falling to pieces as soon as he and his brother should\nbe removed, events that could not be far distant.\n\n\n                                    \"LONDON, _June 21st, 1785_.\n\n     \"MY DEAR SISTER,--\n\n     \"If you are weary of writing, I much more, who have almost\n     lost the use of my hand and eyes. You owe _me_ no thanks for\n     _my_ care of you. The care of all the Churches has lain upon\n     my brother.\n\n     \"We agree in our 'willingness to be hid and forgotten.'\n     Surely I have been _thrust out_ into the harvest. If I am\n     saved, let my memorial perish.\n\n     \"When we get to the other side we shall know all; till then\n     our life must continue a mystery.\n\n     \"Your partner was certainly given to the prayers of the\n     people; therefore he is their debtor so long as he lives.\n\n     \"Don't you know poets are all envious? Yet you challenge me,\n     who never ventured at an acrostic in all my life.\n\n     \"If you saw 'Sam in the cradle,' you saw him in his best\n     estate. One out of them has some desire of salvation, but\n     she seeks rather than strives.\n\n     \"My wife and I are quite willing 'to come and see you at\n     Madeley,' but our way is hid. It is most probable that if we\n     ever meet again, it should be in London or Bristol. Let us\n     help each other by our prayers at least. You will not, I\n     know, forget your old, useless, but still affectionate\n     servant and friend,\n\n                                             \"C. W.\n\n     \"This side is for you _both_.\n\n     \"I trust you are resigned (after mine and my brother's\n     departure) to gather up the wreck. Be sure the sheep will be\n     scattered. All the beasts of the forest are waiting for\n     them. Many will find shelter among the Moravians; many will\n     turn to the Calvinists, Baptists, Presbyterians, and\n     Quakers. Most, I hope, will return to the bosom of their\n     mother, the Church of England. Not one, but several sects\n     will arise, _and Methodism will be broken into a thousand\n     pieces_.\n\n     \"It is impossible for you to know _now_, or to divine, or to\n     conjecture what you are intended for. Therefore the less you\n     think about it the better, for we penetrate, we prophesy, in\n     vain. You must stand still, and see the design and the\n     salvation of God.\n\n     \"Had I a sufficient body, I would strive to visit you, that\n     we might compare our thoughts. So far I _can_ see, that the\n     Lord is preparing His people for some great event. But who\n     shall live when the Lord doth this? I am far entered on my\n     last stage, and expect every month to be my last. Providence\n     (if you survive me) will call you to this place. My widow\n     can tell you my mind, if worth your knowing, and show you my\n     posthumous papers, if worth your seeing.\n\n     \"Pray on, and help to a peaceful end, my beloved friends,\n\n                                    \"Your faithful Brother,\n\n                                             \"C. W.\n\n\n     \"TO MR. J. F.\n\n     \"'Spared to keep the people,' says my dear friend? _Sed quis\n     custodiet ipsos custodes?_ The longer our time, the greater\n     our danger of failing. I have always feared for myself that\n     I should live a little too long. Now I fear it for my\n     brethren also.\n\n     \"Be not too sanguine for the American Methodists. _First_,\n     know their _real_ condition. You justly fear that _our_\n     Methodists should get into the prelatical spirit. I fear the\n     fanatical spirit also. I cannot explain this in writing.\n\n     \"You think I know nothing about the peace; I think you know\n     nothing about it. Yet I wish your poem a good sale.[14]\n\n     \"Happy would Sally be to die like her god-sister. I am not\n     without hope that she will live to be a Christian. She\n     presents her duty. We all join in love. I _need_ no\n     invitation to Madeley. While I had strength I wanted\n     opportunity. Now I have neither.\"\n\nFor two or three years longer this question, 'What was to become of the\nMethodists after Wesley's death,' continued to exercise his brother\nCharles. Perhaps some anxiety would have been spared him had he acted\nmore upon the advice he gave to Fletcher: \"The less you think about it\nthe better, for we penetrate, we prophesy, in vain. You must stand\nstill, and see the design, the salvation of God.\" To this he seems\nfinally to have come, for in one of his last letters to his brother he\nsays: \"Keep your authority while you live; and, after your death,\n_detur digniori_, or rather, _dignioribus_. You cannot settle the\nsuccession; you cannot divine how God will settle it.\" Meanwhile, so\nfar as Fletcher was concerned, he had little to learn, even from his\ndearest friend and counsellor, as to waiting for the Lord. No man was\never less inclined to \"penetrate or prophesy.\" Whether he lived, he\nlived unto the Lord; whether he died, he died unto the Lord; living or\ndying, he was the Lord's. No room was left for anxiety about the\nfuture.\n\nThe summer of 1785 was an unhealthy one at Madeley. There was a good\ndeal of fever about, \"a bad, putrid fever,\" and Fletcher and his wife\nwere much engaged among the sick. Two persons died within a few yards\nof the vicarage. Mrs. Fletcher visited them in their illness, and took\nthe fever. \"Now,\" she says, \"I had a fresh instance of the tender care\nand love of my blessed partner; sickness was made pleasant by his kind\nattention.\" During this illness many thoughts passed through her mind\nfor which she could scarcely account. Something seemed to tell her that\nshe must yet drink deeper of the cup. She adds, \"My dear husband and I\nare led to offer ourselves to do and suffer all the will of God.\" The\ntime was fast approaching when this submission to the will of God was\nto have its crowning test.\n\nOn Thursday, August 4th, Fletcher was busy amongst his flock from three\nin the afternoon till nine at night. On returning home he said, \"I have\ntaken cold.\" During the two following days he went about much as usual,\nthough with some difficulty. On Saturday night he was very feverish,\nand his wife begged him not to go to church in the morning, but to let\none of the Methodist preachers who was staying with them preach in the\nchurchyard; but he replied that it was the will of the Lord that he\nshould go. The morning came, and he began the service at the usual\nhour. While reading the prayers he almost fainted. His wife pressed\nthrough the crowd, and entreated him to leave the reading-desk and come\nhome. In his gentle manner he bade her let him go on. The windows were\nopened, and he seemed a little refreshed as he proceeded with the\nservice. When prayers were ended he ascended the pulpit, and gave out\nhis text, \"How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the\nchildren of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.\" After\nthe sermon he went up the aisle to the communion table, saying, \"I am\ngoing to throw myself under the wings of the cherubim, before the\nmercy-seat.\" The congregation was large, and the service lasted till\nnearly two o'clock. He was often obliged to stop for want of power to\nspeak. The people were deeply affected; nearly all were in tears.\n\nAs soon as the service was over he was hurried away to bed, and\nimmediately fainted. During the three following days he was restless in\nbody, but in mind alternately calm, and filled with holy joy. Again and\nagain he would say, \"God is love, God is love.\" His symptoms were still\nthought to be not unfavourable. On Thursday, the 11th, his speech began\nto fail, but when he could say nothing else to be understood, he would\nrepeat \"God is love.\" The next day his faithful wife felt a sword\npierce through her soul as she found his body covered with spots. She\nknelt by his bed, with her hand in his, and entreated the Lord to be\nwith them both. On the afternoon of Saturday he stretched out his hand\nto each of the friends who stood around him. His wife said to him: \"My\ndear, I ask not for myself, but for the sake of others; if Jesus is\nvery present with thee, lift thy right hand.\" He did so. She added, \"If\nthe prospect of glory opens before thee, repeat the sign.\" He raised\nhis hand again; and, in half a minute, a second time.\n\nThe end was fast drawing near. It was Sunday evening, and the church\nwas filled with a weeping congregation offering up their prayers for\ntheir dying pastor. At the conclusion of the service the people\nlingered about the vicarage, and seemed unable to go to their homes.\nMany of them were admitted to the house, and allowed to pass by the\nopen door of his room, where they could see him, propped up with\npillows in his bed. His countenance continued unaltered, but his\nweakness perceptibly increased. He sank into a kind of sleep, and at\nhalf-past ten o'clock on Sunday night, August 14th, 1785, Fletcher of\nMadeley breathed his last, in the fifty-sixth year of his age.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThree days afterwards he was buried in Madeley churchyard amid the\ntears and lamentations of his people.\n\nThe inscription on his tombstone was written by his widow. A longer and\nmore detailed epitaph, from the pen of Richard Watson, in City Road\nChapel, sets forth his character and labours. Fletcher of Madeley will\ncontinue to be remembered for what he did, but still more for what he\nwas. \"The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[Footnote 1: \"The English Church in the Eighteenth Century.\" By C. J.\nAbbey and J. H. Overton. Vol. ii., p. 113.]\n\n[Footnote 2: MOZLEY: \"Theory of Development,\" p. 141.]\n\n[Footnote 3: GLEDSTONE: \"Life of Whitefield,\" p. 304.]\n\n[Footnote 4: An expression in one of Fletcher's letters to Charles\nWesley, written in 1759, is noteworthy in connexion with the\necclesiastical development of Methodism. He speaks of \"the Methodist\nChurch.\" Is not this the earliest instance of the use of this term?]\n\n[Footnote 5: I am indebted to the Rev. George Mather for the\nopportunity of examining the documents relating to Fletcher's\nordination, license, induction, &c. They are as follows:\n\n     1. Deacon's orders, March 6th, 1757, Bishop of Hereford.\n\n     2. Priest's orders, March 13th, 1757, Bishop of Bangor.\n\n     3. License to the curacy of Madeley, March 14th, 1757,\n        Bishop of Hereford.\n\n     4. Presentation to vicarage of Madeley, October 4th, 1760.\n\n     5. Institution to vicarage of Madeley, October 7th, 1760.\n\n     6. Mandate for induction, October 7th, 1760.\n\n     7. Certificate of Fletcher's conforming to the Liturgy,\n        October 7th, 1760.\n\n     8. Certificate of subscribing to the Thirty-nine Articles,\n        October 7th, 1760.\n\n     9. Certificate, signed by two parishioners, stating that on\n        Lord's day, October 26th, 1760, John Fletcher, Vicar of\n        Madeley, had read prayers, and declared his unfeigned assent\n        and consent, &c., dated December 1st, 1760.\n\nThese documents are all in good condition, and the signatures perfectly\nfresh and clear.]\n\n[Footnote 6: Published in a sermon preached on the occasion of the\ndeath of Fletcher's widow in 1816, by the Rev. John Hodson, who had the\nincident from \"a pious woman who for many years was intimately\nacquainted with Mr. Fletcher.\" Quoted from Tyerman's \"Life of\nFletcher.\"]\n\n[Footnote 7: The characteristic of Fletcher's letters which we consider\ntheir greatest blemish is the frequent spiritualizing of common facts\nand incidents. We will illustrate our meaning. His friend Mr. Ireland\nhad sent him a hamper of wine, and some cloth to be made into a suit of\nclothes. In acknowledging the present, he says: \"Your broadcloth can\nlap me round two or three times; but the mantle of Divine love, the\nprecious fine robe of Jesus's righteousness, can cover your soul a\nthousand times. The cloth, fine and good as it is, will not keep out a\nhard shower; but that garment of salvation will keep out even a shower\nof brimstone and fire. Your cloth will wear out; but that fine linen,\nthe righteousness of saints, will appear with a finer lustre the more\nit is worn. The moth may fret your present, or the tailor may spoil it\nin cutting it; but the present which Jesus has made you is out of reach\nof the spoiler, and ready for present wear.\" These comparisons are\npursued considerably further, and then the other part of Mr. Ireland's\npresent has its turn. \"As I shall take a little of your wine for my\nstomach's sake, take you a good deal of the wine of the kingdom for\nyour soul's sake. Every promise of the gospel is a bottle, a cask that\nhas a spring within, and can never be exhausted. Draw the cork of\nunbelief, and drink abundantly. Be not afraid of intoxication; and if\nan inflammation follows, it will only be that of Divine love.\"\n\nOn another, but similar, occasion he writes to his good friend, \"I want\nthe living water rather than cider, and righteousness more than\nclothes.\"\n\nThese are not the extremest instances that Fletcher's letters afford of\nhis habit of \"spiritualising.\" It is plain that no suspicion of\nanything incongruous in his comparisons ever crossed his mind. Happy\nthe man of whom it can be said that the only quality in which he is\ndeficient is a sense of humour!\n\nWesley's remark upon this characteristic of Fletcher's style is: \"This\nfacility of raising useful observations from the most trifling\nincidents was one of those peculiarities in him which cannot be\nproposed to our imitation.... What was becoming and graceful in Mr.\nFletcher would be disgustful almost in any other.\"]\n\n[Footnote 8: In Archdeacon Pratt's \"Eclectic Notes,\" pp. 185-189, there\nis an interesting discussion of one of the questions referred to above,\nviz. the advantages and disadvantages of religious societies. Mr. Venn\nis quoted as saying, \"Dr. Woodward's societies were the first we read\nof. They might have existed to this day, had not Mr. Wesley's arisen.\"]\n\n[Footnote 9: More than half a century afterwards, when all the parties\nto this controversy had passed away, and time had given opportunity for\na calm estimate of the whole matter, Mr. Watson, at once the most\ncompetent and the most reverential of Wesley's biographers, expressed\nhimself as follows, concerning the \"Minutes\" of 1770: \"That there were\npassages calculated to awaken suspicion, and that they gave the\nappearance of inconsistency to Mr. Wesley's opinions, and indicated a\ntendency to run to one extreme in order to avoid another--an error\nwhich Mr. Wesley more generally avoided than most men,--cannot be\ndenied....\n\n\"Mr. Wesley acknowledged that the 'minutes' were 'not sufficiently\nguarded.' This must be felt by all; they were out of his usual manner\nof expressing himself, and he had said the same truths often, in a\nclearer, and safer, and even stronger manner. He certainly did not mean\nto alter his previous opinions, or formally to adopt other terms in\nwhich to express them, and therefore to employ new modes of speaking,\nthough for a temporary purpose, was not without danger, although they\nwere capable of an innocent explanation.\"]\n\n[Footnote 10: \"Wesley's Designated Successor,\" pp. 177-179.]\n\n[Footnote 11: Referring to the death of Whitefield in 1770.]\n\n[Footnote 12: \"Wesley's Designated Successor,\" p. 487.]\n\n[Footnote 13: Rev. W. Tranter, _Methodist Magazine_, 1837, p. 903.]\n\n[Footnote 14: Fletcher had written a poem in French on the peace which,\nin January, 1783, had been concluded with America, France, and Spain.\nAt the time of Charles Wesley's letter, an English version of it, by\nthe Rev. J. Gilpin, was in the press. It appeared shortly after\nFletcher's death.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX.\n\n\nEXTRACTS from Fletcher's manuscript \"Book of Devotions,\" referred to on\np. 38.\n\n\nCHRISTIANA PRAECEPTA.\n\n     Contemplare Dei Natum, legesque benignas;\n     Omnia te Christi vita docere potest.\n\n     Appage te mea mens absisque philautia longe,\n     Filius ipse Dei sua nunquam vota secutus.\n     Ut mea vota Deo mactarem, se duce, laetus\n     Sponte sua summo paruit patri inter olivas.\n\n     Porcina qui quaerit Divina solamina perdit.\n     Ne dapium ventrisque tui mala gaudia quaeras;\n     Mens tibi pura nequit saturato ventre vigere.\n     Cibus enim nimius Divinae particulam aurae\n     Certo affigit humi Coelique afflamine privat.\n\n     Ne doleas si pauper habes seu scommata mundi,\n     Seu risus hominum titulos et praedia sola;\n     Pauper cum Christus vilique a plebe jocatus\n     In turpi ligno vitam componat amaram.\n\n\nRESISTE TENTATIONI HIS CONSILIIS.\n\n     Daemona ne dubita te certo vincere posse,\n     Hunc tunc haud dubio Christo auxiliante fugabis.\n     Ne ruas in vetitum, brevis est et fluxa Libido:\n     Sperne Voluptatem, dirum pone linquit acumen.\n     Crede mihi, Satanae minimam ne cedito partem;\n     Fortiter ac subito plagam repelle priorem.\n     Numinis auxilium precibus rogato benignis.\n     In cruce pro culpis morientem cernito Jesum.\n     Coelestes palmas, et Tartara dira memento.\n     Offert judicium cita mors, hilaremque triumphum.\n     Viribus indomitis, rigidisque resistito membris\n     Daemonis impetibus; Christus hunc _appage_ vicit.\n     Vivida sit fides, te certa corona manebit.\n\nThere is no need either to point out, or to apologize for, the\nshortcomings of Fletcher's Latin verses. They are little more than\nprivate memoranda for use in prayer and meditation, written in Latin,\nperhaps, as a kind of cipher. The following resolutions are\ninteresting:\n\n     \"Haec Deo juvante facere decerno.\n\n     3 edere die. quod ubi primum violaverim, pauperibus b. asses\n     dandi et venia per horam petenda erit, nullo fulcro utens.\n\n     Pueros nunquam ob doctrinam castigare, sub eadem poena.\n\n     Precans nunquam jacere, sed stare vel genu flectere.\"\n\nThis may be translated:\n\n     These things, God helping me, I determine:\n\n     To take food three times a day; for a breach of this rule,\n     twopence to be given to the poor, and pardon to be implored\n     for an hour, using no bodily support.\n\n     Never to punish the boys for their lessons, under the same\n     penalty.\n\n     Never to lie down while engaged in prayer, but stand or\n     kneel.\n\n\nLE BONHEUR DU CHRETIEN.\n\n     Heureux qui n'a point de desir,\n     Heureux qui se fait violence,\n     Qui se prive des vains plaisirs,\n     Et se plait dans la dependance.\n     Heureux l'homme de bonne foi,\n     Simple, sage, plein d'innocence,\n     Qui, toujours severe pour soi,\n     Pour son prochain est rempli de clemence.\n\n     Heureux qui cherit le silence,\n     Qui ne parle que utilement,\n     Et se repose uniquement\n     Sur la Divine Providence.\n\n     Heureux qui connaissant son extreme indigence\n     L'expose au ciel incessamment,\n     Et qui de son Dieu seulement\n     Attend toute son assistance.\n     Heureux qui n'a rien d'affecte,\n     Heureux l'homme sans volonte,\n     Et qui, vide de lui meme,\n     Est tout plein du vrai Dieu qu'il aime.\n\n     Heureux qui penetre des besoins du prochain\n     Lui partage son coeur, son Esprit, et son pain.\n     Heureux celui qui l'edifie.\n     Heureux celui qu'on humilie,\n     Et qui sait profiter de ses abaissements.\n     Heureux qui n'a jamais de vertus chimeriques,\n     Et qui cherit ses domestiques\n     Comme s'ils etaient ses enfants.\n     Heureux qui ne va point par des routes obliques,\n     Heureux, plus heureux qu'on ne croit,\n     Qui marche constamment dans le chemin etroit.\n     Heureux qui par ses soins, par son economie,\n     Sait amasser pour l'autre vie,\n     Et menager si bien ses precieux moments\n     Qu'il n'en pert pas un seul en vains amusements.\n     Heureux qui se voit sans attache,\n     Qui se fait petit, qui se cache,\n     Et qui ne suit jamais ses propres mouvements.\n     Heureux qui sur la grace uniquement se fonde,\n     Qui sait, et ne croit rien savoir.\n     Qui peut, et qui n'a du pouvoir,\n     Que pour obliger tout le monde.\n     Heureux celui qui du Sauveur\n     S'Efforce d'etre la copie.\n     Heureux celui de qui le coeur\n     Goute la parole de vie.\n     Heureux qui sait aimer, craindre, croire, esperer,\n     Comme le fait un vrai fidele.\n     Heureux qui sait perseverer,\n     Et soumettre a l'esprit une chair si rebelle.\n     Heureux l'homme nouveau, qui souvent dans son coeur\n     Trouve une utile, douce, et sainte solitude,\n     Et qui fait toute son etude\n     De la croix de son Redempteur.\n     Heureux le grand sans tyrannie;\n     Heureux le petit sans envie;\n     Heureux l'homme toujours egal,\n     Qui ne pense d'autrui ni ne dit aucun mal.\n     Heureux qui gemit et qui prie\n     Pour le prochain comme pour soi,\n     Et qui sent pour le vice une horreur infinie.\n     Heureux qui se fait une loi\n     De son devoir qu'il aime, et qu'il veut toujours suivre.\n     Heureux qui souffre tout et ne fait rien souffrir;\n     Heureux celui qui sait bien vivre,\n     C'est le moyen de bien mourir.\n\n\nButler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nMEN WORTH REMEMBERING:\n\nA SERIES OF POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES.\n\n_Price 2s. 6d. each, Handsomely Bound in Cloth._\n\nNOW READY, THE NEW VOLUME\n\nBy F. W. MACDONALD.\n\n\nFLETCHER OF MADELEY.\n\n     CONTENTS.--Early Life.--Settles in England.--His Connexion\n     with Wesley and the Methodists.--Spiritual\n     Discipline.--Enters the Ministry.--First Years at\n     Madeley.--Difficulties and Discouragements.--Controversy and\n     Correspondence.--Trevecca College.--The Calvinist\n     Controversy.--Wesley's Proposal.--Failing Health.--Residence\n     in Switzerland.--Return to England.--Marriage.--Last Years.\n\n\nIN THE SAME SERIES.\n\nI.\n\nWILLIAM WILBERFORCE.\n\nBy JOHN STOUGHTON, D.D.\n\n     \"This series of biographies has a distinct aim, and occupies\n     a distinct place. It purposes to record the lives of men\n     eminent for religious character or service. The series is\n     well begun by Dr. Stoughton's excellent memoir of\n     Wilberforce, which is done with equal literary skill, sound\n     judgment, and good taste. It is admirable in feeling, and\n     from beginning to end full of interest.\"--_British Quarterly\n     Review._\n\n\nII.\n\nHENRY MARTYN.\n\nBy CHARLES D. BELL, D.D., Honorary Canon of Carlisle, and\nRector of Cheltenham.\n\n     \"A worthy record of a noble life.\"--_Whitehall Review._\n\n     \"In every way a most delightful volume.\"--_Rock._\n\n\nIII.\n\nPHILIP DODDRIDGE.\n\nBy CHARLES STANFORD, D.D.\n\n     \"The story of the life and life-work of Doddridge is told by\n     Dr. Stanford with felicitous grace and extraordinary\n     animation. The romance and the conflict of the life, the\n     delicate culture and high breeding of the man, and the\n     various results of his sanctified intelligence and\n     consecrated sense, are delineated with subtle tact and fine\n     feeling.\"--_Evangelical Magazine._\n\n\nIV.\n\nSTEPHEN GRELLET.\n\nBy WILLIAM GUEST, F.G.S.\n\n     \"The singularly adventurous history of Grellet, a son of\n     noble parents established at Limoges, in France, who yet\n     became one of the most distinguished American Quaker\n     preachers, is not wholly unknown even beyond the Society of\n     Friends. Mr. Guest necessarily condenses his facts, but his\n     little book nevertheless presents many scenes of striking\n     interest.\"--_Daily News._\n\n     \"If it were in our power, we would induce every one of our\n     readers to invest his first spare half-crown in this book,\n     and then we would persuade him to read it through and\n     through.\"--_Sword and Trowel._\n\n     \"A marvellous story of adventurous mission and extraordinary\n     acceptance.\"--_Evangelical Magazine._\n\n\nV.\n\nROBERT HALL.\n\nBy E. PAXTON HOOD.\n\n     \"Whatever thou art, orthodox or heterodox, send for the Life\n     of Robert Hall.\"--_Bulwer Lytton's \"The Caxtons.\"_\n\n     \"Mr. Paxton Hood's brilliant pen has given us a sketch of\n     Robert Hall worthy to rank beside Dr. Stanford's 'Philip\n     Doddridge.'\"--_Christian._\n\n     \"We have not often taken up a more interesting\n     biography.\"--_Record._\n\n     \"Mr. Hood has delineated Robert Hall very successfully. A\n     wide range of knowledge, a fine instinctive perception, and\n     considerable literary aptitude, make this memoir about the\n     best delineation of the great preacher that we\n     know.\"--_British Quarterly Review._\n\n\nVI.\n\nTHOMAS CHALMERS.\n\nBy DONALD FRASER, D.D.\n\n     \"Characterized by a true appreciation of Dr. Chalmers'\n     character and work, and is written in a vigorous and\n     interesting manner.\"--_United Presbyterian Magazine._\n\n     \"Dr. Fraser has evidently found the subject a congenial one,\n     and he has treated it in a skilful and effective\n     manner.\"--_Rock._\n\n\nVII.\n\nWILLIAM CAREY.\n\nBy JAMES CULROSS, D.D.\n\n     \"The work has a special value in recording an important\n     chapter of Anglo-Indian history. It seems to us very well\n     written.\"--_Academy._\n\n     \"An excellent monograph on Carey. Dr. Culross has done his\n     work well.\"--_Athenaeum._\n\n     \"The little book has great literary excellence. Dr. Culross\n     has taken no ordinary trouble in the collection of his\n     material. He understands how to arrange it in felicitous\n     style, and so to tell the story as to make it eminently\n     attractive and useful to his readers.\"--_Congregationalist._\n\n\nVIII.\n\nANDREW FULLER.\n\nBy his Son, ANDREW GUNTON FULLER.\n\n_Letter from the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon to the Author:_--\n\n     \"Venerable Friend,--I thank you for sending me your 'Andrew\n     Fuller.' If you have lived for a long time for nothing else\n     but to produce this volume, you have lived to good purpose. I\n     have long considered your father to be the greatest\n     theologian of the century, and I do not know that your pages\n     have made me think more highly of him as a _divine_ than I\n     had thought before. But I now see him within doors far more\n     accurately, and see about the Christian man a soft radiance\n     of tender love which had never been revealed to me either by\n     former biographies, or by his writings. You have added the\n     moss to the rose, and removed some of the thorns in the\n     process. Yours most respectfully, C. H. SPURGEON.\"\n\n     \"It is a remarkable production, when one remembers that Mr.\n     Gunton Fuller is now eighty-two years of age, and he lost his\n     father as far back as the year 1815. An excellent addition to\n     Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton's series of 'Men Worth\n     Remembering.'\"--_Christian World._\n\n\nIX.\n\nALEXANDER DUFF, D.D., LL.D.\n\nBy THOMAS SMITH, D.D.\n\n     \"Dr. Smith, who has enjoyed very intimate association with\n     Duff, both in private life and in public work, has executed\n     his task with much skill and fine sympathy.\"--_Outlook._\n\n     \"We heartily commend this compact and interesting little\n     volume.\"--_Evangelical Magazine._\n\n     \"As an original study of a great man by one of his most\n     intimate friends and co-workers, it would be impossible to\n     speak too highly of this little volume.\"--_Christian\n     Leader._\n\n\nX.\n\nSAMUEL RUTHERFORD.\n\nBy ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., F.R.S.E., Edinburgh.\n\n     \"The volume is written in a popular style, and contains all\n     that is really needful to be known regarding Rutherford's\n     career, character, and writings. Dr. Thomson has imparted\n     vivacity to the narrative by visiting the localities where\n     Rutherford lived. The author has produced a volume which, in\n     respect at once of completeness, sustained interest, and\n     freshness of interest, is unequalled by any preceding memoir\n     of Rutherford.\"--_Scotsman._\n\n     \"An admirable and delightful biography, written with great\n     literary grace and equally great spiritual sympathy. A most\n     interesting account of religious Scotland as it was two\n     hundred years ago.\"--_British Messenger._\n\n\nXI.\n\nRICHARD BAXTER.\n\nBy the Very Rev. G. D. BOYLE, M.A., Dean of Salisbury.\n\n     \"The Dean of Salisbury has given in a popular form a\n     trustworthy and attractive summary of a somewhat puzzling and\n     complex personality and career. Mr. Boyle's estimate of\n     Baxter's theological position is marked by a singular candour\n     and liberality of sentiment. His presentation of fact is as\n     accurate as his criticism is sound.\"--_Academy._\n\n     \"The biography of Richard Baxter by Dean Boyle is an\n     intellectual feast. In it we have vivid pictures of the\n     troublous times of the seventeenth century, and of course we\n     get a particular account of the eminent Nonconformist, his\n     religious convictions, his ministerial work, his sufferings\n     under persecution, his trial before the terrible Chief\n     Justice Jeffreys, the strong and the weak sides of his\n     character, his political influence, his voluminous writings,\n     his majestic prowess as a casuist, his yearning for a real\n     and comprehensive unity amongst Christians, and, above all,\n     his childlike resignation to God's will. All these topics are\n     delightfully descanted upon by the Dean of\n     Salisbury.\"--_Clergyman's Magazine._\n\n\nXII.\n\nJOHN KNOX.\n\nBy WM. M. TAYLOR, LL.D.\n\n     \"A bold and vigorous sketch of the illustrious preacher, for\n     whom a claim is made that 'if not pre-eminently the Scotchman\n     of history,' he is certainly 'one of the three mightiest,' of\n     'the first three' of his nation.\"--_Daily Chronicle._\n\n     \"An admirable biography of John Knox. The volume forms the\n     most compendious and trustworthy and, perhaps we may add,\n     interesting memoir of the great reformer available to the\n     general reader.\"--_Liverpool Daily Post._\n\n\nLONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW.\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes\n\nMade minor punctuation corrections.\nSpaced the oe ligatures.\nTransliterated the Greek text.\nReindexed and moved Footnotes to end of main text, before Appendix.","title":"Fletcher of Madeley","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":51640}