“My Christian love waits upon Mrs. Crosby, Miss Hurrel, and Miss Ritchie.[[420]] I hope the Lord binds you each day closer to Himself and to each other, and enables you to see and experience the glory of the promise made to the daughters and handmaids, as well as to the sons and servants of the Lord. Oh, what a day when we shall all be so filled with power from on high, as to go forth and prophesy, and water the Lord’s drooping plants and barren parched garden with rivers of living water flowing from our own souls; and when an ardent fire of Divine love will make us put our candle to the chaff of sin, and fire all the harvests and tents of the Laodiceans! As Abraham saw the day of Christ, our first Comforter, and was glad, so I see the day of the Spirit, our other Comforter, and rejoice. May you live to enjoy it! May you and yours hasten it by the pleadings of mighty prayer! To thank the Father for the unspeakable gift of His Son; and to look to both for the fulness of that other gift of God, for that well of living water which Christ offered to the woman of Samaria, is a blessed work, in which I beg you would assist your obliged brother,
“J. Fletcher.
“Miss Bosanquet,
“At Cross Hall,
“Near Leads,
“Yorkshire, by Manchester.”
Bristol postmark.
In another letter to Miss Bosanquet, written about the same time, he remarked:—
“I calmly wait, in unshaken resignation, for the full salvation of God: ready to trust Him, to venture on His faithful love and on the sure mercies of David, either at midnight, noonday, or cock-crowing: for my time is in His hand, and His time is best, and shall be my time. Death has lost his sting; and I know not what hurry of spirits is, or what are unbelieving fears, under the most trying circumstances. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift.”[[421]]
At the same period, Fletcher commenced a correspondence with another distinguished lady, the Right Hon. Lady Mary Fitzgerald, daughter of the Earl of Bristol, and aunt of Lord Liverpool. She had been married to George Fitzgerald, Esq., and, for about twelve years past, had been an exemplary member of the Methodist Society. The friendship between her and Wesley was great, and Wesley visited her only nine days before his death. In 1815, at the age of ninety, her clothing caught fire, and she died, her last words being, “Come, Lord Jesus, my blessed Redeemer, come and receive my spirit!” In conformity with a clause in her will, her remains were interred in the burial ground at the front of City Road Chapel; and, in memory of her, there is a plain white marble tablet in that sacred edifice.[[422]] The following is an extract from Fletcher’s letter to this Methodist lady:—