“I am your affectionate servant,
“Mary Fletcher.“[[571]]
Two months after this, Fletcher was temporarily disabled by an accident, mentioned in a long letter to Lady Mary Fitzgerald, from which the following is extracted:—
“Madeley, August 28, 1782.
“My Honoured Friend,—The Lord has peculiar favours in store for your ladyship, and for me; the proof is, that we are afflicted. Have you been in a weak state of health? I have had the honour to drink of your cup. The influenza laid me down; and, when I was partly well, I broke my shin against a bench, in consequence of which I am confined by a bad leg to my bed, where I write this.
“You still complain of vile self. Let vile self be reduced to order, and, though he be a bad master, he will become an excellent servant. Do this, by letting the Lord, the Maker, the Preserver, the Redeemer, the Lover of your soul, ascend upon the throne of your thoughts, will, and affections. Who deserves to engross them better than He does? Is not He your first Lord, your best Husband, your most faithful Friend, and your greatest Benefactor? Oh! allow Jehovah, the Supreme Being, to be to you what He deserves to be, All in all. One lively act of faith, one assent and consent to this delightful truth, that your Father, who is in heaven, loves you a thousand times more than you love your idol (for God’s love is, like Himself, infinite and boundless), will set your heart at liberty, and even make it dance for joy. What, if to this ravishing consideration, you add the transporting truth, that the Son of God, fairer than the sons of men and brighter than the angels, has loved you unto death, to the death of the cross, and loves you still more than all your friends do, were their love collected into one heart, could you help thinking, with a degree of joyous gratitude, of such an instance of Divine condescension? No, your vile self would be ennobled, raised, expanded, and set at liberty by this evangelical thought. Self would be nobody; Emmanuel would be all in all. You would be so employed in praising your Father’s mercy, and your Saviour’s love and tenderness, that you would have but little time to speak either of good or bad self. When self is forgotten, as nothing before God, you put self in its proper place; and you make room for the heavenly Being, whose holy and happy existence you are to shadow out. If you have left off attending on the Princess,[[572]] attend on the Prince of Peace with double diligence.
“Shall we ever have the honour of seeing you, my lady? My wife, who joins in respectful love and thanks to your ladyship, for your remembrance of her, says, she will do her best to render our cold house safe for you, if not convenient. You would have had a repeated invitation from us, if a concern for your health, heightened by the bad weather, had not checked our desires to have an opportunity of assuring you how much we are devoted to your service. But the roads and weather beginning to mend, we venture to offer you the best apartment in our hermitage. I wish it were large enough to take in dear Mrs. G——,[[573]] and our dear friends in St. James’s Place; but we have only two small rooms; to which, however, you would be received with two enlarged hearts,—I mean those of your ladyship’s obedient, devoted servants,
“John and Mary Fletcher.”[[574]]
How long Fletcher was laid aside from his public work there is no evidence to show. His position was somewhat trying, for the work was heavy, and Mr. Bayley, his curate, had been obliged to return to Wesley’s school at Kingswood. This and other matters are referred to in the following letter to Charles Wesley:—
“Madeley, December 19, 1782.