_FIRST TWO YEARS AT MADELEY._
FROM OCTOBER 17, 1760, TO NOVEMBER 22, 1762.
ALMOST of necessity, the life of a clergyman in a small country town is
an uneventful and quiet one; and, therefore, the first ten years that
Fletcher spent at Madeley were unmarked by stirring incidents, such as
were perpetually occurring in the lives of his friends Wesley and
Whitefield.
Madeley is a market town in the county of Salop. It is beautifully
situated in a winding glen, through which the river Severn flows. In
1800, fifteen years after Fletcher’s death, it contained, according to
the parliamentary returns, 291 houses, and 4,758 inhabitants. The church
is dedicated to St. Michael; and the parish includes Coalbrook Dale and
Madeley Wood, noted for their coal mines and their iron-works. Colliers
and iron-workers at Madeley, in the days of Fletcher, were quite as
ignorant and brutal as they were elsewhere. His mission was a trying
one; and its burdensomeness was not lessened by the fact that there was
not a single clergyman in the county of Salop who approved of his
Methodist doctrines, or sympathized with his Methodist endeavours.
Further, he was without parochial experience. He had preached for the
Wesleys and for the Countess of Huntingdon; and, on a few rare
occasions, he had been permitted to occupy the pulpits of the
Established Church; but, notwithstanding the temporary assistance he had
rendered to his Madeley predecessor, he had never held a curacy. In
parish work he was a novice; but he was not dismayed. A few months
before his induction, he had been with Berridge, who, with the exception
of Mr. Hicks at Wrestlingworth, was as much without clerical sympathy
and help in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire, as
Fletcher himself was now in Salop. Berridge had seen marvellous results
of his denounced ministry, and why should not Fletcher see the same?
Hence, on January 6, 1761, he wrote as follows to the Countess of
Huntingdon:—
“I had a secret expectation to be the instrument of a work in this
part of our Church; and I did not despair of being soon a _little
Berridge_. Thus warmed with sparks of my own kindling, I looked out to
see the rocks broken, and the waters flowing out; but, to the great
disappointment of my hopes, I am now forced to look within, and see
the need I have of being broken myself. If my being stationed in this
howling wilderness is to answer no public end as to the Gospel of
Christ, I will not give up the hope that it may answer a private end
as to myself, in humbling me under a sense of unprofitableness.
“As to my parish, all that I see in it, hitherto, is nothing but what
one may expect from speaking plainly, and with some degree of
earnestness; a crying out, ‘He is a Methodist—a downright Methodist!’
While some of the poorer say, ‘Nay, but he speaketh the truth!’ Some
of the best farmers, and most of the respectable tradesmen, talk about
turning me out of my living as a Methodist or a Baptist. My Friday
lecture took better than I expected, and I propose to continue it till
the congregation desert me. The number of hearers at that time is
generally larger than that which my predecessor had on Sunday. The
number of communicants is increased from thirty to above a hundred;
and a few seem to seek grace in the means. I thank your ladyship for
mentioning Mr. Jones as a curate. There is little probability of my
ever wanting one. My oath obliges me to residence, and, when I am
here, I can easily manage all the business, and only wait for
opportunities of oftener bearing witness to the truth.”[70]
Footnote 70:
“Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., p. 240.
Fletcher’s troubles were various. He was dissatisfied with himself; a
visionary convert caused him anxiety; and many of his parishioners
maligned him. Writing to Charles Wesley on March 10, 1761, he remarked:—
“I feel more and more that I neither _abide_ in Christ, nor Christ in
me; nevertheless, I do not _so_ feel it, as to seek Him without
intermission. ‘_Oh wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from_’
this heart of unbelief? Blessed be God, who has promised me this
deliverance, through our Lord Jesus Christ!
“My new convert has, with great difficulty, escaped the wiles of the
devil; who, by fifty visions, had set her on the pinnacle of the
temple. Thanks be to God, she has come down without being cast
headlong. I have had more trouble with her visions than with her
unbelief. Two other persons profess that they have received the
consolations of Divine love: I wait for their _fruits_.
“A few days ago, I was violently tempted to quit Madeley. The spirit
of Jonah had so seized upon my heart that I had the insolence to
murmur against the Lord; but the storm is now happily calmed, at least
for a season. Alas! what stubbornness there is in the will of man; and
with what strength does it combat the will of God under the _mask of
piety_, when it can no longer do so with the uncovered, shameless face
of vice! ‘_If a man bridleth not his tongue_,’ all his _outward
‘religion is vain.’_ May we not add to this, if a man bridleth not his
will, which is the language of his desires, his _inward religion is
vain_ also? The Lord does not, however, leave me altogether; and I
have often a secret hope that He will one day touch my heart and lips
with a live coal from the altar; and that then His word shall consume
the stubble, and break to pieces the stone.
“The question, which you mean to repeat at the end of the winter, is,
I hope, whether you shall be welcome at Madeley? My answer is, you
shall be welcome; for I have already lost almost all my reputation,
and the little that remains does not deserve a competition with the
pleasure I shall have in seeing you.”[71]
Footnote 71:
Letters, 1791, p. 107.
Notwithstanding his dejection, and the opposition he had to encounter,
Fletcher continued to labour with unflagging diligence. To his Friday
night lecture he now added the catechising of children on Sunday
afternoons, but relieved himself of the toil of preparing a second
Sunday sermon, by reading the sermons of other men. He also began to see
a prospect of commencing services at Madeley Wood and at Coalbrook Dale.
Hence, in another letter to Charles Wesley he wrote as follows:—
“MADELEY, _April 27, 1761_.
“When I first came to Madeley, I was greatly mortified and discouraged
by the smallness of my congregations; and I thought if some of our
friends in London had seen my little company they would have triumphed
in their own wisdom. But now, thank God, things are altered in that
respect. Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of seeing some in the
churchyard who could not get into the church.
“I began a few Sundays ago to preach in the afternoon, after
catechising the children; but I do not preach my own sermons. Twice I
read a sermon of Archbishop Usher’s; and last Sunday one of the
Homilies, taking the liberty of making some observations on such
passages as confirmed what I had advanced in the morning; and, by this
means, I stopped the mouths of many adversaries.
“I have frequently had a desire to exhort in Madeley Wood and
Coalbrook Dale, two villages of my parish; but I have not dared to run
before I saw an _open door_. It now, I think, begins to open. Two
small Societies of about twenty persons have formed of themselves in
those places, although the devil seems determined to overturn all. A
young person, the daughter of one of my rich parishioners, has been
thrown into despair, so that everybody thought her insane, and,
indeed, I thought so too. Judge how our adversaries rejoiced; and, for
my part, I was tempted to forsake my ministry, and take to my heels; I
never suffered such affliction. Last Saturday, I humbled myself before
the Lord on her account, by fasting and prayer; and I hope the Lord
heard my prayer. Yesterday, she found herself well enough to come to
church.
“You will do well to engage your colliers at Kingswood to pray for
their poor brethren at Madeley. May those at Madeley, one day, equal
them _in faith_, as they _now do_ in that _wickedness_, for which they
(the Kingswood colliers) were famous before you went among them.
“Mr. Hill has written me a very obliging letter, to engage me to
accompany the elder of my pupils to Switzerland; and if I had any
other country than the place where I am, I should, perhaps, have been
tempted to go. At present, however, I have no temptation that way, and
I have declined the offer as politely as I could.”[72]
Footnote 72:
Letters, 1791, p. 109.
The case of the young woman just mentioned was to Fletcher a great
trial. In a letter written to Lady Huntingdon[73] on the same day as the
foregoing letter to Charles Wesley, he states, that, previous to this,
reports had been spread that he drove the people mad, and he had borne
such scandals “patiently enough,” but this “glaring instance,” which
seemed to confirm the rumours circulated against him, had thrown him
into “agonies of soul.” To a great extent, Fletcher had yet to learn a
lesson which the Wesleys and Whitefield had long ago been taught: “If ye
be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of
glory and of God resteth upon you” (1 Peter iv. 14).
Footnote 73:
“Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., p. 241.
The scandals were continued; and even the pulpit was used in lampooning
the Madeley preacher. Hence the following, addressed to Charles Wesley:—
“MADELEY, _August 19, 1761_.
“I know not whether I mentioned to you a sermon preached at the
Archdeacon’s Visitation. It was almost all levelled at the points
which are called the doctrines of Methodism, and, as the preacher is
minister of a parish near mine, it is probable he had me in his eye.
After the sermon, another clergyman addressed me with an air of
triumph, and demanded what answer I could make. As several of my
parishioners were present, besides the churchwardens, I thought it my
duty to take the matter up; and I have done so by writing a long
letter to the preacher, in which I have touched the principal mistakes
of his discourse, with as much politeness and freedom as I was able;
but I have had no answer. I could have wished for your advice before I
sealed my letter; but, as I could not have it, I have been very
cautious, entrenching myself behind the ramparts of Scripture, as well
as those of our Homilies and Articles.
“I know not what to say to you of the state of my soul. I daily
struggle in the Slough of Despond, and I endeavour every day to climb
the Hill Difficulty. I need wisdom, mildness, and courage; and no man
has less of them than I.
“As to the state of my parish, the prospect is yet discouraging. New
scandals succeed those that wear away; but ‘_offences must come_.’
Happy shall I be if the offence cometh not by me. My churchwardens
speak of hindering strangers from coming to the church, and of
repelling them from the Lord’s table; but on these points I am
determined to make head against them. A club of eighty working men, in
a neighbouring parish, being offended at their minister, determined to
come in procession to my church, and requested me to preach a sermon
for them; but I thought proper to decline doing so, and have thereby a
little regained the good graces of the minister, at least for a
time.”[74]
Footnote 74:
Letters, 1791, p. 111.
The preacher, at the Archdeacon’s visitation, was the Rev. Mr.
Prothero;[75] and the “long letter” to him may be found in Fletcher’s
collected works (vol. viii.), where it fills twenty-eight octavo pages,
and is entitled a “Defence of Experimental Religion.” It is dated
“Madeley, July 25, 1761.”
Footnote 75:
_Methodist Magazine_, 1821, p. 17.
Mr. Prothero’s “elegant sermon,” as Fletcher terms it, seems to have
consisted of two parts: a defence of revealed religion against Deists
and Infidels; and a warning against religious superstition and
enthusiasm. The first part gave Fletcher “exceeding great satisfaction,”
and the _design_ of the second part was good, for, as Fletcher remarks,
“It is the duty of a preacher to keep the sacred truths committed to
him, as well from being perverted by enthusiasts, as from being crushed
by infidels. Boasting of communion with God, and peculiar favours from
heaven, is hurtful to the cause of Christ, when people’s lives show them
to be actuated by a spirit of delusion; and setting up impulses in the
room of repentance, faith, hope, charity, obedience, has done no small
mischief in the Church of God.”
But, while Fletcher praises Mr. Prothero for “the goodness of his
design,” he passes strictures upon the execution of it. He condemns Mr.
Prothero for “representing, in general, that virtue, benevolence,
good-nature, and morality, are the _way_ to salvation;” and shows, that
according “to the Word of God and the teaching of our Church,” sinners
are saved by the exercise of faith in Christ. He objected to Mr.
Prothero’s doctrine, that, by nature, and without the assistance of
Divine grace, man “has the same power to enter the paths of virtue as to
walk across a room.” He censured the way in which the preacher
discountenanced the doctrine of the necessity of the new birth; and he
maintained, at great length, that to “set aside all feelings in
religion, and to rank them with unaccountable impulses,” is not
consistent with the teachings of the Bible, and with the Liturgy,
Articles, and Homilies of the English Church.
Soon after this, Fletcher was in another trouble. Hence the following
letter written to Charles Wesley:—
“MADELEY, _October 12, 1761_.
“MY DEAR SIR,—You have always the goodness to encourage me, and your
encouragements are not unseasonable; for discouragements follow one
after another with very little intermission. Those which are of an
inward nature are sufficiently known to you; but some others are
peculiar to myself, especially those I have had for eight days past,
during Madeley wake.
“Seeing that I could not suppress these bacchanals, I did all in my
power to moderate their madness; but my endeavours have had little or
no effect. You cannot well imagine how much the animosity of my
parishioners is heightened, and with what boldness it discovers itself
against me, because I preached against drunkenness, shows, and
bull-baiting. The publicans and maltmen will not forgive me. They
think that to preach against drunkenness, and to cut their purse, is
the same thing.
“My church begins not to be so well filled as it has been, and I
account for it thus: the curiosity of some of my hearers is satisfied,
and others are offended by the word; the roads are worse; and if it
shall ever please the Lord to pour His Spirit upon us, the time is not
yet come. The people, instead of saying, ‘Let us go up to the house of
the Lord,’ exclaim, ‘Why should we go and hear a Methodist?’
“I should lose all patience with my flock if I had not more reason to
be satisfied with them than with myself. My own barrenness furnishes
me with excuses for theirs; and I wait the time when God shall give
seed to the sower and increase to the seed sown. In waiting that time,
I learn the meaning of this prayer, ‘Thy will be done.’
“Believe me your sincere, though unworthy, friend,
“J. FLETCHER.”[76]
Footnote 76:
Letters, 1791, p. 112.
Fletcher’s faithful preaching offended the publicans, and, judging of
his sermons in general by the following specimens, it is not surprising
that his preaching offended others. The extracts are taken from a sermon
delivered in the month of December 1761, and first published in the
Dublin edition of the _Methodist Magazine_ for 1821 (pp. 249–258).[77]
The text was, “Thou shalt speak My words to them, whether they will hear
or whether they will forbear, for they are most rebellious” (Ezek. ii.
7). After challenging his congregation to assert their innocence,
Fletcher proceeded:—
“Supposing you never allowed yourself to dishonour the name of God by
customary swearing, or grossly to violate His Sabbaths, or commonly to
neglect the solemnities of His public worship; supposing, again, that
you have not injured your neighbours in their lives, their chastity,
their character, or their property, either by violence or by fraud; or
that you never scandalously debased your rational nature by that vile
intemperance which sinks a man below the worst kind of brutes;
supposing all this, can you pretend that you have not in smaller
instances violated the rules of piety, of temperance, and of chastity?
Does not your own heart prove you guilty of pride, of passion, of
sensuality, of an excessive fondness for the world and its enjoyments;
of murmuring, or at least secretly repining, against God under the
strokes of an afflictive Providence; of misspending a great deal of
your time; of abusing the gifts of God’s bounty to vain, and, in some
instances, to pernicious purposes; of mocking Him when you have
pretended to engage in His worship, drawing near to Him with your lips
while your heart has been far from Him? Does not your conscience
condemn you of some one breach of the law at least? and by one breach
of it, does not the Holy Ghost bear witness (James ii. 10) that you
are become guilty of all, and are as incapable of being justified
before God by any obedience of your own, as if you had committed ten
thousand offences? But, in reality, there are ten thousand and more to
be charged to your account. When you come to reflect on all your sins
of negligence, as well as on your voluntary transgressions; on all the
instances in which you have failed to do good when it was in your
power to do it; on all the instances in which acts of devotion have
been omitted, especially in secret; and on all those cases in which
you have shown a stupid disregard to the honour of God, and to the
temporal and eternal happiness of your fellow-creatures; when all
these, I say, are reviewed, the number will swell beyond all
possibility of account, and force you to cry out, ‘I am rebellious,
most rebellious; mine iniquities are more than the hairs of my head!’
They will appear in such a light before you that your own heart will
charge you with countless multitudes; and how much more then that God,
‘who is greater than your heart, and knoweth all things’?”
Footnote 77:
Fletcher seldom wrote his sermons, and more rarely read them. More
than one hundred and forty sermons of Wesley’s have been published,
and at least sixty of Whitefield’s; but of Fletcher’s, who had much
more leisure than either Wesley or Whitefield, only about a dozen. All
the rest are mere outlines. The following are copied from Fletcher’s
MSS., and have not before been published. They may be taken as fair
specimens of Fletcher’s pulpit preparations and pulpit helps. They are
skeletons of two sermons, preached from Matt. xxii. 36–39:— W “I. Why
we must love God.
“II. How we must love Him.
“III. What we must do in order to love Him.
“He is our Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, Sanctifier. He commands us to
love Him. Out of His love there is no happiness. Love of God contains
all. He loved us first.
“With all our soul, heart, and strength. Above all things. More than
our life, wives, children, estate, honour, ourselves.
“Be convinced we do not love Him. Abhor ourselves for our rebellion.
Confess, repent, and believe. Keep a sense of our forgiveness. Pray to
Him. Praise Him. Walk with Him. Seek but Him. Refuse all comfort
unless we feel His love. Keep a constant communion with Him by seeing
His glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
“How have we fulfilled this great duty? Try yourselves. Pray an hour
by yourselves. If you do not love, you hate. What fury to hate all
that is good, great, and lovely! What madness to set our love on
creatures! It must fall with them. Love God in Christ. Look to Christ.
Believe in Christ, to love God. If you do not love Him, you are in
your lives in the devil’s state. You can no more go to heaven than the
devil. Choose which you will love. The world calls. Let us give all
for all.“
“Love thy _neighbour_. All men; though never so distant in place,
different in opinions, interests. Because made by the same hand;
partakers of the same nature; bought with the same blood; capable of
the same happiness.
“As _ourselves_. Not judging; not thinking evil; not speaking evil;
not defrauding; not coveting; doing them good; praying for them;
honouring them
“Because all made in image of God. None but in something better than
ourselves; none but is a child of God, or may become so.
“Put the best construction on words or actions, much more upon
thoughts. Relieve necessities. This is imitating God. What we give is
lent to God.
“Love universally, constantly, impartially, sincerely; from a sense of
Christ’s love.”
This was plain speaking, but very characteristic of the preaching of the
Church of England Methodists. Space will permit only one other extract
from this sermon.
“And now, sinner, think seriously with yourself what defence you will
make to all this? Will you fly in the face of God and that of your
conscience so openly as to deny one of the charges of rebellion, yea,
of aggravated rebellion, I have advanced against you? Have you not
lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven? Have you not sided with
His sworn enemies—the world and the flesh? What part of your body,
what faculty of your soul, have you not employed as an instrument of
unrighteousness? When did you live one day before God with the
dependence of a creature, the gratitude of a redeemed creature, the
heavenly frame of a sanctified creature? Nay, when did you live one
hour without violating God’s known law, either in word, or thought, or
action? Have not you done it almost continually by the vanity of your
mind and the hardness of your heart, if not by the open immorality of
your life? And, what infinitely aggravates your guilt, have you not
despised and abused God’s numberless mercies? Have you not affronted
conscience, His deputy in your breast? Have you not resisted and
grieved His Spirit? Yea, have you not trifled with Him in all your
pretended submissions or solemn engagements? Thousands are, no doubt,
already in hell whose guilt never equalled yours; and yet God has
spared you to see almost the end of another year, and to hear now this
plain representation of your case. And will you not yet consider?
Shall nothing move you to shake off that amazing carelessness and
stupid disregard of your salvation? Will you never begin to ‘work it
out with fear and trembling’? Will you slumber in impenitency till
eternal woes crush you into destruction? Is death, is judgment, is the
bottomless pit so distant that you dare put off from week to week the
day of your conversion? You have read in God’s Word that there is
mercy with Him that He may be feared; but where did you read that
there is mercy with Him for those who fear Him not? Show me such a
place; I shall not say anywhere in the Bible, but in any book written
by a moral heathen. And yet you hope you can be saved in this way.
“Sinner, despise me _here_ if thou wilt; call me _here_ an enthusiast,
and laugh at the concern I feel for thy perishing soul; but
_hereafter_ thou wilt do me justice, clear me before the Lord Jesus,
and acknowledge that thy blood is upon thine own head, that thou art
undone because thou wouldst be undone, because thou wouldst take
neither warning nor reproof.”
To give the reader a further idea of the faithfulness and searching
character of Fletcher’s preaching at this early period of his Madeley
ministry, the subjoined extracts are given from sermons preached during
the first three months of 1762.
In January, 1762,[78] he delivered a discourse upon the words, “Ye will
not come unto Me, that ye might have life;” in which he described “four
classes of sinners who will not come to Christ that they might have
life;” and proved “that unbelief, or not coming to Christ for life, is
the most abominable and damning of all sins.” One brief extract on the
latter point must suffice:—
“Unbelief is a sin of so deep a dye that the devils in hell cannot
commit the like. Our Saviour never prayed, wept, bled, and died for
devils. He never said to them, ‘Ye will not come unto Me, that ye
might have life.’ They can never be so madly ungrateful as to slight a
Saviour. Mercy never wooed their stubborn, proud hearts as it does
ours. They have abused grace, it is true, but they never trampled
mercy underfoot. This more than diabolical sin is reserved for thee,
careless sinner. Now thou hearest Christ compassionately say in the
text, ‘Ye will not come unto Me,’ and thou remainest unmoved; but the
time cometh when Jesus, who meekly entreats, shall sternly curse; when
He who in tender patience says, ‘Ye will not come unto Me,’ shall
thunder in righteous vengeance, ‘Depart from Me, ye cursed; depart
unto the second death,—the fire prepared for the devil and his
angels.’ In vain wilt thou plead then as thou dost now, ‘Lord, I am no
adulterer; I am no extortioner; I used to eat at Thy table; I was
baptized in Thy name; I was a true churchman; there are many worse
than I am.’ This will not admit thee into the kingdom of Christ. His
answer will be, ‘I know you not; you never came to Me for life.’”
Footnote 78:
_Methodist Magazine_, 1821, p. 651.
Plain preaching such as this was not likely to please the easy-going
Pharisees of the age in which Fletcher lived, any more than it is likely
to be popular among the same class of people at the present day. To
utter such truths required courage then; and it requires courage now.
Fletcher, one of the gentlest of human beings, possessed this courage.
No doubt there were many occasions when his sermons were full of the
richest comfort to those who had truly repented, and unfeignedly
believed Christ’s holy Gospel; but he never failed faithfully to fulfil
an Old Testament commission, binding upon the ministers of God
throughout all time: “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a
trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob
their sins” (Isa. lviii. 1).
At the risk of wearying the reader, further extracts must be given,
exemplifying Fletcher’s fearless fidelity.
On January 4, 1762, England declared war against Spain; and, a few days
after, proclamations were issued for a general fast to be observed in
England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, in the month of March.[79]
Fletcher, as a loyal Churchman, preached on this occasion;[80] his text
was Ezek. xxxiii. 7–9. After a few preliminary remarks respecting the
king’s “pious proclamation,” he proceeds to say,—
“We must attack, unmask, and overthrow vice with holy violence, and
strike at the heart of sin with the boldness of John the Baptist, and
in the spirit of Elijah. Without any apology for my plainness, I shall
endeavour to convince the wicked man both of his wickedness and
danger.”
Footnote 79:
_London Magazine_, 1762, p. 48.
Footnote 80:
_Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1822, p. 153.
Fletcher begins with “practical atheists”
“Thousands there are, who, by gross ignorance, shameful neglect of
instruction, and abominable contempt of godliness, are in the front of
the battle, and next to the prince of darkness. Their heart is
darkened by the mists of pride and the clouds of presumption, and they
are such utter strangers to their want of spiritual light and divine
grace, that they seldom or never call upon God for help with any
solemnity. The unhappy heathenish families who are of that stamp meet
regularly every day to eat, drink, and make provision for the flesh;
but how seldom do they meet to read and pray. You will find almost as
much godliness among the wild Indians as among these practical
atheists. But why should I call them _atheists_? They have many gods.
The world is their god; pleasure is their god; vanity is their god;
money is their god; their belly is their god; to some or other of
these idols, they sacrifice their hearts and their time. As for the
God of heaven, the great and eternal Jehovah, they put Him off with a
careless attendance on His public worship on Sunday morning, if the
weather suits them; and it is well if to this they add sometimes the
babbling over of the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed, which, after all, in
the manner in which they do it, is no better than a solemn mockery of
the Saviour, whom they constantly crucify afresh. Do you belong to
such a heathenish, prayerless family? If you do, suffer me to deliver
my soul by telling you, that you are the very first person to whom I
am bound to say, ‘Thou shalt surely die.’ Read your sentence in Psalm
lxxix. 6. What! shall the indignation of the Lord fall upon prayerless
families among the heathen, and shall it pass by the nominally
Christian, but prayerless family to which you belong? No, no; the
Judge of all the earth will do right; He will repay you to your face.”
“The wicked is often known, to others and to himself, by his
injustice, oppression, cruelty, deceit, and unfair dealing. Did you
ever make a prey of the poor and helpless? Are you like the
horse-leech, crying, ‘Give, give,’ still wanting more profit, and
never thinking you have enough? Do you take more care to lay up
treasures on earth than in heaven? Have you got the unhappy secret of
distilling silver out of the poor man’s brow, and gold out of the
tears of helpless widows and friendless orphans? Or, which is rather
worse, do you, directly or indirectly, live by poisoning others, by
encouraging the immoderate use of those refreshments, which, taken to
excess, disorder the reason, ruin the soul, and prove no better than
slow poison to the body? If your business calls you to buy or sell, do
you use falsehood? do you equivocate? do you exaggerate or conceal the
truth, in order to impose upon your neighbour, and make a profit of
his necessity or credulity? If any of these marks be upon you, God’s
word singles you out, and drags you to the bar of Divine justice to
hear your doom in the text, ‘The wicked shall surely die.’ O, see your
danger; repent, and make restitution! Why should you meet the unjust
steward in hell, when you may yet follow Zaccheus into heaven?”
“There is another fearful sin, which has in it no profit, no pleasure,
no, not sensual sweetness enough to bait the hook of temptation. The
only enticement to it is the diabolical disposition of the wicked man,
and the horrid pride he takes in _cutting a figure_ among the children
of Belial. I speak of oaths and curses,—those arrows shot from the
string of a hellish heart, and the bow of a Luciferian tongue, against
heaven itself; these are some of the sparks of hell-fire, which, now
and then, come out of the throat of a wicked man. Do they ever come
out of thine? A year ago, I laid before you the horror of that sin,
and besought you to leave it to Satan and his angels, and to act no
more the part of an _incarnate devil_. Have you strictly complied with
that request? Has not heaven been pierced with another fiery dart?
Have not good men, or good angels (if any attend you still) shuddered
at those imprecations, which you have used, perhaps without remorse?”
“But, perhaps, your conscience bears you witness that you are not a
swearing Christian, or rather a swearing infidel. Well; but are you
clear in the point of adultery, fornication, or uncleanness? Does not
the guilt of some vile sin, which you have wickedly indulged in time
past, and perhaps are still indulging, mark you for the member of a
harlot, and not the member of Christ? Do you not kindle the wrath of
heaven against yourself and your country, as the men and women of
Gomorrah did against themselves and the other cities of the plain? If
you cherish the sparks of wantonness, as they did, how can you but be
made with them to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire? Do not flatter
yourselves with the vain hope, that your sin is not so heinous as
theirs. If it be less in degree, is it not infinitely greater in its
aggravating circumstances? Were these poor Canaanites _Christians_?
Had they Bibles and ministers? Had they sermons and sacraments? Did
they ever vow, as you have done, to renounce the devil, and all the
sinful lusts of the flesh? Did they ever hear of the Son of God
sweating great drops of blood, in an agony of prayer, to quench the
fire of human corruption? O acknowledge your guilt and danger, and, by
deep repentance, prevent infallible destruction.
“I cannot pass in silence the detestable, though fashionable, sin,
which has brought down the curse of heaven, and poured desolation and
ruin upon the most flourishing kingdoms,—I mean pride in apparel. Even
in this place, where poverty, hard labour, and drudgery would, one
should think, prevent a sin which Christianity cannot tolerate even in
kings’ houses, there are not wanting foolish virgins, who draw
iniquity with cords of vanity, and betray the levity of their hearts
by that of their dress. Yea, some women, who should be mothers in
Israel, and adorn themselves with good works as holy and godly
matrons, openly affect the opposite character. You may see them offer
themselves first to the idol of vanity, and then sacrifice their
children upon the same altar. As some sons of Belial teach their
little ones to curse, before they can well speak, so these daughters
of Jezebel drag their unhappy offspring, before they can walk, to the
haunts of vanity and pride. They complain of evening lectures, but run
to midnight dancings. O that such persons would let the prophet’s
words sink into their frothy minds, and fasten upon their careless
hearts: ‘Because the daughters of Sion are haughty, and walk with
stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, the Lord will smite with a sore
the crown of their head, and discover their shame: instead of well-set
hair, there shall be baldness, and burning instead of beauty.’”
These abbreviated extracts of Fletcher’s descriptions of “the wicked”
are followed by his _directions_ to humble themselves before Almighty
God; to confess their sins with deep sorrow, and to return to the Lord
with prayer and fasting; to meditate on the universality, commonness,
and boldness of the nation’s wickedness; to begin a visible and thorough
reformation; and to seek personal salvation in Christ. The bold preacher
cries:—
“From the gilded palace to the thatched cottage, our guilt calls for
vengeance. Wickedness is become so fashionable, that he who refuses to
run with others into vanity, intemperance, or profaneness, is in
danger of losing his character, on one hand; while, on the other, the
son of Belial prides himself in excesses, glories in diabolical
practices, and scoffs with impunity at religion and virtue. O England!
England! happy, yet ungrateful island! Dost thou repay fruitfulness by
profaneness,—plenty by vanity,—liberty by impiety,—and the light of
Christianity by excesses of immorality?
“As you regard the prosperity of the king, the good of our Church, and
the welfare of our country;—as you would not bring a private curse
upon yourself, your house, and your dearest friends;—as you value the
honour of Almighty God, and dread His awakened wrath;—as you would not
force Him to make our land a field of blood, or to break the staff of
our bread, and send famine, pestilence, popery, or some other fearful
judgment among us;—I pray you, I beseech, I entreat each of you, my
dear brethren! as upon my bended knees,—in the name of our Lord Jesus,
and by those bowels of Divine mercy against which we have madly kicked
in times past, and which, nevertheless, still yearn over us,—I entreat
you not to rest in outward humiliation and reformation. Christians
must go one step beyond the Ninevites. O seek then, with all true
Christians, a righteousness superior to that of the Scribes and
Pharisees. Seek it in Christ. Never rest, till you are sure of your
interest in Him; till you feel the virtue of His blood applied to your
hearts by the power of His Spirit. Without this, all the rest will
stand you in little stead.”[81]
Footnote 81:
_Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1822, p. 222.
This, in truth, was thunder and lightning preaching,—no doubt greatly
needed then, as, indeed, it is greatly needed now; preaching likely to
give offence, but the faithfulness of which God always honours, and
crowns with marked success. It raised up against Fletcher bitter
enemies; but it was the means of converting not a few of his godless
parishioners.
One of these was Mary Matthews, who, listening to the reproaches cast
upon Fletcher, was greatly prejudiced against him. At length, she went
to hear him. Mary thought herself very good, but Fletcher showed she was
very vile. For two years, she was an earnest penitent, and then, by
faith in Christ, found peace with God. Mary was brought before
magistrates for opening her little house, in Madeley Wood, for
preaching, but she continued faithful; and, in 1788, passed away to
heaven, her last words being, “I am almost at home. Farewell! God bless
you! God for ever bless you!”
Another was Mary Barnard, who lived to the age of ninety, was very lame,
but always crawled to Madeley church when the weather would permit.
Totally without education herself, she had a son who became a Methodist
local preacher. Her death occurred in 1797, and her last message to
Fletcher’s widow was,—“The covenant is signed and sealed between my Lord
and me. I am His by a marriage bond; and He is mine. And now I set to my
seal, that the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin.”[82]
Footnote 82:
_Methodist Magazine_, 1800, pp. 219–223.
Such conversions were among Fletcher’s encouragements; and he greatly
needed them. His preaching saved some, but offended others. In one of
his unpublished manuscripts, dated “Madeley, February 28, 1762,” he
notes a somewhat remarkable occurrence:—
“Last Sunday, only one objection was made against the doctrine I
preached in this church, and that, I think, was a poor one, as it was
supported by no argument and no Scripture. The sum of it was this, ‘It
is hard to say that one breach of the law brings a man under the
curse, and exposes one out of Christ to the damnation of hell.’ To
this I answer by four arguments.
“The first is taken from matters of fact in the Word of God. By one
sin, and by the offence of one, condemnation came upon all men, namely
by the one sin of Adam’s eating the forbidden fruit. And a more awful
example you have in the sudden destruction of Ananias and Sapphira his
wife _for having told one single lie_.
“The second argument is taken from common sense, which tells us that
one leak in a ship unstopped will sink it in time, as certainly as a
hundred; one piece broken out of a glass makes it a useless glass, as
much as if it was dashed into twenty pieces; one stab of a dagger
through the heart kills a man as much as a hundred would. And so one
sin uncancelled by Christ’s blood will as surely destroy an
unconverted man as a hundred, though his destruction will not be so
terrible as that of him who has committed a hundred.
“The third argument is taken from the exactness of human laws and the
practice of earthly judges. They all condemn a man for one single
offence. If one can be proved it is enough. Let a murderer kill one
man, he is to be hanged as well as if he had killed a hundred. Let a
highwayman take one pound from one single person, the law condemns him
for a felon, and sends him to the gallows, as well as if he had taken
a thousand pounds from a thousand different travellers. The law of the
land, to the breach of which the penalty is annexed, is as effectually
broken by one act of felony as by a hundred; and the law of God is as
much, though not so heinously, broken, by one sin as by a hundred:
consequently the law of God curses and damns for one sin as well as
for a hundred.
“The fourth argument is taken from Deuteronomy xxvii. 26, ‘Cursed be
he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them.’ Also,
Galatians iii. 10, ‘Cursed is every one that continueth not in all
things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.’ And
James ii. 10, ‘Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in
one point, he is guilty of all.’ He violates the law, despises the
law, incurs the punishment threatened.”
Passing by Fletcher’s arguments and logic, this fugitive manuscript is
of some importance, as intimating not only that objections were made to
Fletcher’s doctrines, but also that he was accustomed publicly to notice
and answer them in his parish church.
Fletcher had other troubles besides those arising from objections to his
teaching. In his Fast-day sermon, preached on March 12, 1762, he had
cried:—
“‘Because of swearing the land mourneth.’ If the prophet of old had
lived in our degenerate days, he would have added, ‘Because of perjury
the land groaneth.’ To go no farther than the place we inhabit, how
many of us, who have been entrusted with public offices, have wilfully
broken the oaths administered unto us? How many open and notorious
drunkards, fighters, sabbath-breakers, blasphemers of God’s Word, and
cursers of men, have escaped deserved censure, I shall not say by the
accidental neglect, but by the downright perjury of officers?”
This bold accusation stimulated one of Fletcher’s young parishioners to
put the law in force against one of the culpable parish officers; by
which act the young man brought himself into trouble, and also Fletcher,
who protected him.
Further, in the small house of Mary Matthews, built upon the rock in
Madeley Wood, Fletcher had begun to hold preaching services; the
congregation assembling there had been called “the Rock Church;” and
Mary Matthews had been fined £20 for permitting such assemblies in her
humble dwelling. Fletcher refers to these incidents in the following
letter to Charles Wesley:—
“MADELEY, _May 16, 1762_.
“Since my last, our troubles have increased. A young man having put in
force the Act, for suppressing swearing, against a parish officer, he
stirred up all the other half gentlemen to remove him from the parish.
Here I interposed, and, to do so with effect, I took the young man
into my service. By God’s grace, I have been enabled to conduct
myself, in this matter, so as to give them no handle against me; and,
in spite of all their cabals, I have got the better of them.
“What has greatly encouraged them is the behaviour of a magistrate,
who was at the first inclined to favour me, but afterwards turned
against me with peculiar malevolence, and proceeded so far as to
threaten me and all my flock of the Rock Church with imprisonment.
Hitherto, the Lord has stood by me, and my little difficulties are
nothing to me; but I fear I support them rather like a philosopher
than a Christian. We were to have been mobbed with a drum last
Tuesday, at the Rock Church; but their captain, a papist, behaved
himself so very ill, that they were ashamed of him, and are made
peaceable for the present.”[83]
Footnote 83:
Letters, 1791, p. 114
Fletcher wrote to this persecuting papist the following letter, which is
now for the first time published:—
“SIR,—The indecent and profane manner in which you broke upon those of
my parishioners who came to me for private exhortations at Mrs.
Matthews’, lays me under an absolute obligation to present you at
Ludlow Court as a person notoriously guilty—1, Of drunkenness; 2, of
cursing; 3, of disturbing me in the discharge of the private labours
of my ministry; 4, of profane disregard to the Liturgy of the
Established Church; 5, of want of respect for the Royal Family, openly
intimated in indecent interruption while I prayed for them, and
obliging me to get up from my knees and make you go out of the room
before I could conclude the collect in peace; and 6, of cursing, and
making game of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity.
“Though I told you upon the spot, that you should be informed of for
your profane behaviour, I think it my duty to acquaint you of it more
particularly, that you may prepare your answers to the above mentioned
charges.
“I assure you, Sir, that malice, or any private pique, is entirely out
of the question. I heartily wish you well, and am ready to do you any
service but that of sacrificing the interests of religion and virtue
to open profaneness and immorality.
“The following considerations weigh much with me to make me insist on
the churchwardens putting you in their presentment; and they will, I
hope, convince you that I act only according to the dictates of
Christian prudence.
“1. Most of the things laid to your charge were grown into habit
before they broke out in my presence. It is not the first time that
you have been seen in liquor, and been heard to use profane
expressions, and to make sport of the things of God, and turn my
labours into ridicule.
“2. So public an offence absolutely demands a public punishment, and
the officers, whom I have informed of your behaviour, must be perjured
if they present you not, and an irreparable blow will be given to the
honour of religion and morality.
“3. The regard I have for our Church, and the peace of the parish,
obliges me to resist in you the persecuting spirit of opposition your
Church is so noted for.
“4. Part of my business here as a clergyman of the Church of England
is to withstand the propagation of your dangerous principles, and to
oppose the increase of the blind persecuting zeal which some seem to
breathe after you. If you are suffered openly to excite that profane
zeal with impunity, how will your misled companions be confirmed in
their errors. If you, who have so many laws to curb you, can offend
with impunity, how daring will others grow in wickedness.
“5. A person of note in the parish has lately undergone the severity
of the law for part of the above-mentioned charges. What intolerable
partiality would it be in the officers and me to take no notice of you
who are guilty of the whole.
“Lastly. If I do not get you presented, I shall for ever deprive
myself of the liberty of repressing profaneness, immorality, and
persecution in my parish. Every drunkard, every swearer, every railer,
etc., etc., will (and not without reason) say to me, ‘You could spare
Mr. Haughton, who was notoriously guilty of our errors; why should you
be stricter with Protestants than with Papists?’
“I flatter myself that these reasons will convince you that I am led
by Christian prudence and a calm resolution to oppose triumphing
profaneness, and not at all by any private views or uncharitable
motives. And, wishing that, if you are convicted, the course of human
laws may lead you to the harbour of temperance and piety,
“I remain, Sir, your humble and obedient servant,
“J. FLETCHER.”
Of course, opinions differ as to the expediency of trying to make men
moral by Acts of Parliament; but there can be no doubt of Fletcher’s
Christian sincerity in the action he took against Mr. Haughton. His
effort, however, was a failure. Writing to Charles Wesley, in the month
of July, 1762, he said:—
“Your letter arrived some days too late, to prevent my taking a false
step respecting the papist in question. Three weeks ago, I went to
Ludlow to the Bishop’s visitation, and I thought the occasion
favourable for my purpose; but the churchwardens, when we were on the
spot, refused to support me, and the court has paid no regard to my
presentation. Thus I have gained some experience, though at my own
cost. The sermon did not touch the string with which I was whipped at
the last visitation; and I afterwards had the boldness to go and dine
with the Bishop.
“Many of my parishioners are strangely disconcerted at my bringing my
gown back from Ludlow. With respect to the magistrate I mentioned to
you in my last, because he acted as judge of the circuit two years
ago, he now believes himself as able a lawyer as Judge Foster; but,
for the present, he contents himself with threatenings. I met him the
other day, and, after he had called me Jesuit, etc., and menaced me
with his cane, he assured me that he would soon put down our
assemblies. How ridiculous is this impotent rage!
“I have attempted to form a Society, and, in spite of much opposition
and many difficulties, I hope to succeed. I preach, I exhort, I pray;
but, as yet, I seem to have cast the net on the wrong side of the
ship. Lord Jesus, come Thyself, and furnish me with a Divine
commission!
“For some months past, I have laboured under an insuperable
drowsiness: I could sleep day and night; and the hours which I ought
to employ with Christ on the mount, I spend like Peter in the
garden.”[84]
Footnote 84:
Letters, 1791, p. 115.
Poor Fletcher’s troubles continued and increased. A month later, he
wrote again to Charles Wesley, as follows:—
“I have still trials of all sorts. First, spiritual ones. My heart is
hard; I have not that contrition, that filial fear, that sweet, humble
melting of heart before the Lord, which I consider essential to
Christianity.
“Secondly, the opposition made to my ministry increases. A young
clergyman, who lives in Madeley Wood, where he has great influence,
has openly declared war against me, by pasting on the church door a
paper, in which he charges me with rebellion, schism, and being a
disturber of the public peace. He puts himself at the head of the
gentlemen of the parish (as they term themselves), and, supported by
the Recorder of Wenlock, he is determined to put in force the
Conventicle Act against me. A few weeks ago, the widow who lives in
the Rock Church, and a young man, who read and prayed in my absence,
were taken up. I attended them before the magistrate, and the young
clergyman with his troop were present. They called me Jesuit, etc.;
and the magistrate tried to frighten me, by saying that he would put
the Act in force, though we should assemble only in my own house. I
pleaded my cause as well as I could; but, seeing he was determined to
hear no reason, I told him he must do as he pleased, and that, if the
Act in question concerned us, we were ready to suffer all its rigours.
In his rage, he went the next day to Wenlock, and proposed to grant a
warrant to have me apprehended; but, as the other magistrates were of
opinion that the business did not come under their cognizance, but
belonged to the Spiritual Court, he was obliged to swallow his spittle
alone.
“Mr. Madan,[85] whom I have consulted, tells me the Act may be
enforced against the mistress of the house, the young man, and all who
were present. The churchwardens talk of putting me in the Spiritual
Court for meeting in houses, etc.; but what is worst of all, three
false witnesses offer to prove upon oath that I am a liar; and some of
_my followers_ (as they are called) have dishonoured their profession,
to the great joy of our adversaries.
“In the midst of these difficulties I have reason to bless the Lord,
that my heart is not troubled. Forget me not in your prayers.”[86]
Footnote 85:
The Rev. Martin Madan, who, before he became a clergyman, was a
barrister-at-law.
Footnote 86:
Letters, 1791, p. 117.
All this braggart persecution seems to have ended in threats. Fletcher
wrote again to Charles Wesley, on November 22, 1762:—
“The debates about the illegality of exhorting in houses (although
only in my own parish) grew some time ago to such a height, that I was
obliged to lay my reasons before the Bishop; but his lordship very
prudently sends me no answer. I think he knows not how to disapprove,
and yet dares not approve this methodistical way of procedure.”[87]
Footnote 87:
Letters, 1791, p. 124.
Such is a bird’s-eye view of Fletcher’s ministry and ministerial trials
during the first two years after his appointment to the living of
Madeley in 1760. As an earnest evangelical clergyman of the Church of
England, he almost stood alone. Shropshire had produced one like-minded
minister; but he, the Rev. Mr. Hatton, was now in the Isle of Man. To
this gentleman, Fletcher, in his solitude, wrote as follows:—
“MADELEY, _August 4, 1762_.
“REV. SIR,—There are so few of our profession in this county who are
not ashamed of the cross of Christ, and of the Homilies and Articles
of our Church, that it gave me no small pleasure to hear you are not
led away with the generality into dry empty notions of morality and
formality,—the two legs on which fashionable religion stalks through
this so-called Christian land. May the Lord Jesus convince us daily
more and more, by His Spirit, of sin in ourselves, and of
righteousness in Him! May we, in the strength of our dying Samson,
pull down the buildings of self-righteousness, though the consequence
should be to see all our hopes of preferment and esteem buried in the
ruins! May we never be led to preach another Gospel than that of
Christ! ‘He that believeth shall be saved; he that believeth not shall
be damned’ (Mark xvi. 16).
“I hope, Sir, you will not be discouraged. Regard not the wind, but
sow your seed early and late; and the Lord of the harvest will give
the increase, as seemeth best to His heavenly wisdom. I meet with many
trials in my parish, but our faithful Lord opens always a door for me
to escape; and so He will for you.
“I should be thankful to Providence, if your way should be made plain
into this neighbourhood. You owe yourself to Shropshire in particular;
and no county needs hands for the spiritual harvest more than this
does. I pray that the Lord of the harvest may thrust you among us.
“I bespeak a sermon when you come to Salop; trusting that you will not
be ashamed to bear witness to the truth as it is in Jesus, from so
despised a pulpit as that of, dear Sir, your affectionate and weak
fellow servant in the Gospel,
“J. FLETCHER.”[88]
Footnote 88:
_Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1829, p. 175.
Fletcher longed for clerical sympathy and co-operation; but he had to
wait for them. In all respects his position was a trying one. The Rev.
Mr. Gilpin, who afterwards was well acquainted with him, writes:—
“Celebrated for the extensive ironworks carried on within its limits,
Madeley was remarkable for little else than the ignorance and
profaneness of its inhabitants, among whom respect to man was as
rarely to be observed as piety towards God. In this benighted place,
the Sabbath was openly profaned, and the most holy things
contemptuously trampled under foot; even the restraints of decency
were violently broken through, and the external form of religion held
up as a subject of ridicule.
“Immediately upon his settling in this populous village, Mr. Fletcher
entered upon the duties of his vocation with an extraordinary degree
of earnestness and zeal. He saw the difficulties of his situation, and
the reproaches to which he should be exposed by a conscientious
discharge of the pastoral office; but, as a steward of the manifold
grace of God, he faithfully dispensed the word of life, according as
every man had need; instructing the ignorant, reasoning with
gainsayers, exhorting the immoral, and rebuking the obstinate. Not
content with discharging the stated duties of the Sabbath, he counted
every day as lost in which he was not actually employed in the service
of the Church. As often as a small congregation could be collected, he
joyfully proclaimed to them the acceptable year of the Lord, whether
it were in the church, in a private house, or in the open air.”
“It was a common thing, in his parish, for young persons of both sexes
to meet together for what was called recreation; and that recreation
usually continued from evening to morning, consisting chiefly in
dancing, revelling, drunkenness, and obscenity. These licentious
assemblies he considered a disgrace to the Christian name, and
determined to exert his ministerial authority for their total
suppression. Frequently he burst in upon them with a holy indignation,
making war upon Satan in places peculiarly appropriated to his
service.”
“His enemies wrested his words, misrepresented his actions, and cast
out his name as evil; but whether he was insulted in his person, or
injured in his property; whether he was attacked with open abuse, or
pursued by secret calumny, he walked amid the most violent assaults of
his enemies, as a man invulnerable; and while his firmness discovered
that he was unhurt, his forbearance testified that he was unoffended.”
“Had he aimed at celebrity as a public speaker, furnished as he was
with the united powers of learning, genius, and taste, he might have
succeeded beyond many; but his design was to _convert_ and not to
_captivate_ his hearers; to secure their eternal interests, and not to
obtain their momentary applause. Hence his ‘_speech and his preaching
were not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of
the Spirit and of power_.’ He spake as in the presence of God, and
taught as one having Divine authority. There was an energy in his
preaching that was irresistible. His subjects, his language, his
gestures, the tone of his voice, and the turn of his countenance, all
conspired to fix the attention and affect the heart. Without aiming at
sublimity, he was truly sublime; and uncommonly eloquent without
affecting the orator.”[89]
Footnote 89:
“The Portrait of St. Paul.”
Such is the testimony of a gentleman who, for a season, lived in
Fletcher’s house, and for many years lived in the neighbourhood of
Fletcher’s parish. It would be worse than foolish to add anything to it,
except the remarks of Fletcher’s friend and first biographer, John
Wesley:—
“Mr. Fletcher settled at Madeley in the year 1760, and from the
beginning he was a laborious workman in his Lord’s vineyard. At his
first settling there, the hearts of several were unaccountably set
against him, insomuch that he was constrained to warn some of these
that if they did not repent God would speedily cut them off. And the
truth of these predictions was shown over and over by the signal
accomplishment of them.[90] But no opposition could hinder him from
going on his Master’s work, and suppressing vice in every possible
manner. Those sinners who endeavoured to hide themselves from him he
pursued to every corner of his parish by all sorts of means, public
and private, early and late, in season and out of season, entreating
and warning them to flee from the wrath to come. Some made it an
excuse for not attending church that they could not awake early enough
to get their families ready. He provided for this also. Taking a bell
in his hand, he set out every Sunday at five in the morning, and went
round the most distant parts of the parish, inviting all the
inhabitants to the house of God.
“Yet, notwithstanding all the pains he took, he saw for some time
little fruit of his labour; insomuch that he was more than once in
doubt whether he had not mistaken his place; whether God had indeed
called him to confine himself to one town, or to labour more at large
in His vineyard. He was not free from this doubt when a multitude of
people flocked together at a funeral. He seldom let these awful
opportunities slip without giving a solemn exhortation. At the close
of the exhortation which was then given, one man was so grievously
offended that he could not refrain from breaking out into scurrilous,
yea, menacing language. But, notwithstanding all his struggling
against it, the Word fastened upon his heart. At first, indeed, he
roared like a lion; but he soon wept like a child. Not long after, he
came to Mr. Fletcher in the most humble manner, asking pardon for his
outrageous behaviour, and begging an interest in his prayers. This was
such a refreshment as he stood in need of. In a short time, this poor
broken-hearted sinner was filled with joy unspeakable. He then spared
no pains in exhorting his fellow-sinners to flee from the wrath to
come.
“It was not long after, when, one Sunday evening, Mr. Fletcher, after
performing the usual duty at Madeley, was about to set out for Madeley
Wood, to preach and catechise as usual. But just then notice was
brought (which should have been given before) that a child was to be
buried. His waiting till the child was brought prevented his going to
the wood; and herein the providence of God appeared. For at this very
time, many of the colliers, who neither feared God nor regarded men,
were baiting a bull just by the meeting-house; and, having had plenty
to drink, they had all agreed, as soon as he came, _to bait the
parson_. Part of them were appointed to pull him off his horse, and
the rest to set the dogs upon him. One of these very men afterwards
confessed that he was with them when this agreement was made; and that
afterwards, while they were in the most horrid manner cursing and
swearing at their disappointment, a large china punch-bowl, which held
above a gallon, without any apparent cause (for it was not touched by
any person or thing) fell all to shivers. This so alarmed him that he
forsook all his companions, and determined to save his own soul.”[91]
Footnote 90:
Jonathan Crowther, President of the Methodist Conference in 1819,
relates, in his unpublished autobiography, the following anecdote:
“Mrs. Fletcher told me that one Sunday, after the forenoon service,
Mr. Preston, a gentleman farmer near Madeley, very grossly insulted
Mr. Fletcher in the churchyard, and evinced great enmity against his
faithful ministry. In his sermon in the afternoon, Mr. Fletcher said,
he had a powerful impression that before the next Sabbath God would
give a signal mark of His displeasure against the enemies of His cause
and truth. The week was drawing to a close; nothing remarkable had
happened; but on Saturday night, Mr. Preston, when returning home from
market in a state of intoxication, fell from his horse and died on the
spot.”
Footnote 91:
Wesley’s “Life of Fletcher.”