“October 21, 1777.
“Honoured and Dear Madam,—The honour of your Christian letter humbles me; and the idea of your taking half-a-dozen steps, much more that of your taking a journey, to consult so mean a creature as myself, lays me in the dust. My brothers and sisters invite me once more to breathe my native air, and the physicians recommend to me a journey to the continent. If I go, I shall probably pass through London, and, in that case, I could have the honour of waiting upon you. I say, probably, because I shall have to accompany my friend and a serious family, who intend to spend the winter in the south of France, or in Spain; and I do not yet know whether they design to embark at Dover, or at some port in the west of England.
“You have been afflicted as well as myself. May our maladies yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness, complete deadness to the world, and increased faith in the mercy, love, and power of Him, who supports under the greatest trials, and can make our extremity of weakness an opportunity of displaying the greatness of His power!
“I have taken the bark for some days, and it seems to have been blessed to the removal of my spitting of blood. Time will decide whether it be a real removal, or only a suspension of that symptom. Either will prove a blessing, as His will is our health. To live singly to God, the best method is to desire it in meekness; to spread the desire in quietness before Him who inspires it; to offer Him now all we have and are, as we can; and to open our mouth of expectation wide, that He may fill it with all His fulness, or that He may try our patience, and teach us to know our total helplessness. With respect to the weeping frame of repentance, and the joyous one of faith, they are both good alternately; but the latter is the better of the two, because it enables us to do, and suffer, and praise, which honours Christ more. Both are happily mixed. May they be so in you, Madam, and in your unworthy and obliged servant,
“J. Fletcher.”[[423]]
To another lady, Mrs. Thornton, Fletcher wrote:—
“I spend more time in giving my friends an account of my health, than the matter is worth. You will see by the enclosed, which I beg you to send to the post, when you have shown it to Mr. John and Charles Wesley, how their poor servant does. I am kept in sweet peace, and am looking for the triumphant joy of my Lord, and for the fulness expressed in these words, which sweetly filled the sleepless hours of last night,—
“‘Drawn—and redeem’d—and seal’d,
I bless the One and Three;
With Father, Son, and Spirit fill’d