“1783, September 6. The same grace and power which attend Mr. Fletcher’s pulpit lectures, and gather innumerable crowds of hungering, thirsting souls to flock to his ministry, also attend his conversation in private. He seems never—no, never—for a moment, to turn his eye from the one great object of our faith and love; and he continually stirs up all around him to love and praise. He appears to live and breathe nothing else.”
In another letter, to his father, Mr. Brooke observed:—
“I wish it were in my power to convey to you the substance and energy of those precious and excellent discourses, with which we are frequently favoured from Mr. Fletcher. His words are living sparks, rushing from the furnace of divine love glowing in his heart.”
Mr. Brooke, in a letter to the Rev. J. Gilpin, the translator of Fletcher’s “Portrait of St. Paul,” remarked:—
“When Mr. Fletcher was about to leave us, knowing the scanty pittance he received from his parish, we thought it but an act of common honesty to refund him the expense he had been at in coming to Dublin, and to bear his charges back again to Madeley. Accordingly, after he had preached on the last evening of his stay among us, the stewards and trustees united to press his acceptance of a small purse, not as a present, but as a debt justly due to him. But he firmly and absolutely refused it. At length, being very urgent with him and importunate to an excess, he took the purse in his hand, and said, ‘Do you really force it upon me? Must I accept it? Is it entirely mine? and may I do what I please with it?’ ‘Yes, yes,’ we all replied. ‘God be praised then! God be praised!’ cried he, raising his eyes towards heaven. ‘What a mercy is here! I heard some of you complaining that your Poor’s Fund was never so low before; take this purse; God has sent it to you; raised it among yourselves; and bestowed it upon your poor. You cannot deny me; it is sacred to them. God be praised! I thank you, I heartily thank you, my dear kind brethren.’”[[591]]
A number of other anecdotes respecting this memorable visit, all more or less authentic, might be inserted; but enough has been said to show that it must always be one of the great events in the history of Methodism in Dublin.
Soon after the return to Madeley of Fletcher and his wife, they received the following, hitherto unpublished letter, signed by one hundred and fifty-one members of the Dublin Methodist Society, the signature of “Henry Brooke” standing first.
“1783, October.
“Rev. and Very Dear Sir and Madam,—Your kindness in accepting our united invitation, your labour of love in crossing the sea to visit us, and your spending body and soul for our profit while among us, demand a return of acknowledgment and gratitude, which we find ourselves, jointly and severally, as unable to express as to repay.
“Confession of our debt is the utmost extent of our ability. As for reward, we must call upon Him to answer for us, who has already paid the mighty debt due by the whole world. May He, then, even that Master, the sound of whose feet was heard behind you, and the power of whose Spirit clothed your word in private and in public,—may He abundantly reward both your bodies and souls, and, according to the measure you have meted out, measure to you again a hundred-fold, pressed down, shaken together, and running over into your own bosoms in time and eternity.