[521]. At that time the incumbent of the parish of St. Alkmond, Shrewsbury. (“Life of Rev. R. Hill,” by Sidney, p. 137.)

CHAPTER XXIV.
FLETCHER’S MARRIAGE.
1781.

FLETCHER spent a happy month among the “elect” ladies of Methodism in the North of England; to wit, Miss Bosanquet, Hester Ann Rogers, Sarah Crosby, and their friends; and, on his return to Madeley, he had to correspond with two others in the south, Miss Perronet and Lady Mary Fitzgerald. To the former he wrote as follows:—

“Madeley, September 4, 1781.

“My Dear Friend,—You want ‘some thoughts on the love of God;’ and I want the warmest feelings of it. Let us believe His creating, feel His preserving, admire His redeeming, and triumph in His sanctifying love. Loving is the best way to grow in love. Let us then look at the love of our heavenly Father, shining in the face of our elder Brother, and we shall be changed into love—His image and nature—from one glorious and glorifying degree of love to another. Love always delights in the object loved. ‘Delight thou in the Lord,’ then, and ‘thou shalt have thy heart’s desire;’ for we can desire nothing more than the supreme good and infinite bliss; both are in God. When, therefore, we love God truly, we delight in what He is; we share in His infinite happiness; and, by divine sympathy, His throne of glory becomes ours; for true love rejoices in all the joy of the object to which it cleaves.

“Add to this, that when we love God we have always our hearts’ desire; for we love His will, His desires become ours, and ours are always perfectly resigned to His. Now as God does whatsoever He pleases, both in heaven and earth, His lovers have always their hearts’ desire, forasmuch as they always have His will, which is theirs. Submitting our private will to His is only preferring a greater good to a less, and we are called to do it in afflictions.

“Farewell, my dear friend, and excuse these reflections, which you could make much better than your humble servant,

“J. Fletcher.”[[522]]

An excellent love-letter, from one who was now the declared lover of Mary Bosanquet.