And each with each agree;
In Him the One, the truth we live,
Blest point of unity!’
“A point this which fills heaven and earth, which runs through time and eternity. In it sickness is lost in health, and death in life. There let us ever meet.
“I cannot tell you how much I am obliged to your dear brother for all his kind brotherly attendance as a physician. He has given me his time, his long walks, his remedies. He has brought me Dr. Turner several times, and will not allow me to reimburse his expenses. Help me to thank him for all his profusion of love, for I cannot sufficiently do it myself.
“My duty to your father; I throw myself in spirit at his feet and ask his blessing, and an interest in his prayers. Tell him that the Lord is gracious to me; does not suffer the enemy to disturb my peace; and gives me, in prospect, the victory over death. Absolute resignation to the Divine will baffles a thousand temptations, and confidence in our Saviour carries us sweetly through a thousand trials.”[[404]]
The time of Fletcher’s happy sojourn with Mr. and Mrs. Greenwood at Stoke Newington was now ended. One of the family wrote:—
“When he first came, he was, by Dr. Fothergill’s advice, under the strictest observance of two things—rest and silence. These, together with a milk diet, were supposed to be the only probable means of his recovery. In consequence of these directions, he spoke exceeding little. If ever he spoke more than usual, it did not fail to increase his spitting of blood, of which indeed he was seldom quite clear, although it was not violent. Therefore, a great part of his time was spent in being read to; but it was not possible to restrain him altogether from speaking. His natural vivacity, with his intense love of Jesus, impelled him to speak; but on being reminded of his rule, with a cheerful smile he was all submission, consenting by signs only to stir up those about him to pray and praise. Those who had the privilege of observing his spirit and conduct, will not scruple to say that he was a living comment on his own account of Christian perfection. When he was able to converse, his favourite subject was, the promise of the Father, the gift of the Holy Ghost, including the rich peculiar blessing of union with the Father and the Son, mentioned in the prayer of our Lord, recorded in John xvii. ‘We must not be content,’ said he, ‘to be only cleansed from sin; we must be filled with the Spirit.’ One asking him, What was to be experienced in the full accomplishment of the promise of the Father? ‘O,’ said he, ‘what shall I say? All the sweetness of the drawings of the Father, all the love of the Son, all the rich effusions of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, more than ever can be expressed are comprehended here! To attain it, the Spirit maketh intercession in the soul, like a God wrestling with a God.’
“In some of these favoured moments of converse, he mentioned several circumstances, which, as none knew them but himself, would otherwise have been buried in oblivion. ‘In the beginning,’ said he, ‘of my spiritual course, I heard the voice of God in an articulate, but inexpressibly awful sound, go through my soul in those words, If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself. At a later date, I was favoured, like Moses, with a supernatural discovery of the glory of God, in an ineffable converse with Him, face to face; so that whether I was then in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell.’
“On another occasion he said, ‘About the time of my entering into the ministry, I one evening wandered into a wood, musing on the importance of the office I was going to undertake. I then began to pour out my soul in prayer; when such a sense of the justice of God fell upon me, and such a sense of His displeasure at sin, as absorbed all my powers, and filled me with the agony of prayer for poor lost sinners. I continued therein till the dawn of day; and I considered this as designed of God, to impress upon me more deeply the meaning of those solemn words, Therefore, knowing the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men.’