“September 12. This day I am forty-five years old. I have had such a sense of the goodness of God toward me as I cannot express. I am filled with favours. I have the best of husbands, who daily grows more and more spiritual, and I think more healthful, being far better than when we first married. My call also is so clear, and I have such liberty in the work, and such sweet encouragement among the people. My servant, too, is much improved, and as faithful as if she were my own child. An income quite comfortable, and a good deal to help the poor with! O what shall I render to the Lord for all the mercies He hath shown unto me!”
In this happy home, Fletcher wrote the following happy letter to a youth, his godson, by name John Fennel:—
“Madeley, November 28, 1784.
“Dear John,—I rejoice to hear that you think of a better world; and of that better part which Mary, and your mother—another Mary—chose before you. May all her prayers, and, above all, may the dew of heaven, come down upon your soul in solemn thoughts, heavenly desires, and strong resolutions to be the Lord’s, cost what it will. Let the language of your heart and lips be, ‘I will be a follower of Christ, a child of God, an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.’ A noble promise this! of which I have so peculiar a right to put you in mind. In order to be this happy and holy soul, you must not forget that your Christian name, your Christian vow, and ten thousand reasons beside, bind you to turn your back upon the world, the flesh, and the devil; and to set yourself to look steadfastly to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, your Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.
“Dear John, you have no time to lose. We have calls here to the young without end. I lately buried, in our churchyard, two brothers and sisters in the same grave. Be you also ready! I was praying for you some nights ago on my bed, in my sleepless hours; and I asked for you the faith of righteous Abel, the chastity of Joseph, the early piety of Samuel, the right choice of young Solomon, the self-denial and abstinence of Daniel, together with the early zeal and undaunted courage of his three friends; but, above all, I asked that you might follow John the Baptist and John the Apostle as they followed our Lord. Back, earnestly back my prayers. So shall you be faithful, diligent, godly; a blessing to all around you, and a comfort to your affectionate old friend and minister,
“John Fletcher.”[[620]]
At this period, the Rev. Charles Simeon, a young man of twenty-five, and full of faith and zeal, was rising into great popularity among the Methodist clergymen of the day. He was an intimate friend of Berridge and of Henry Venn; and had recently visited Riland at Birmingham, Cadogan at Reading, Pentycross at Wallingford, and Robinson at Leicester;[[621]] and now, toward the end of 1784, he came to Fletcher at Madeley. As soon as he entered the vicarage, Fletcher took him by the hand and brought him into the parlour, where the two engaged in prayer. That being ended, Fletcher asked Simeon to preach in the church. After some hesitation, Simeon consented; and away went Fletcher, bell in hand, through the village, and, ringing as loudly as he could, told the people they must attend church, for a young clergyman from Cambridge had come to preach to them.
After the service in the church, Fletcher and his visitor went for a walk, in the course of which they entered the ironworks. Simeon was surprised at the aptitude of Fletcher to turn everything he saw to spiritual profit. To one of the ironworkers, hammering on an anvil, he remarked, “O, pray to God that He may hammer that hard heart of yours.” To another, who was heating a bar of iron, “Ah! thus it is that God tries His children in the furnace of affliction.” And to a third, who was drawing a furnace, “See, Thomas! if you can make such a furnace as that, think what a furnace God can make for sinners.”[[622]]
Soon after this, Wesley wrote:—
“1784, Monday, December 20. I went to Hinxworth, where I had the satisfaction of meeting Mr. Simeon, Fellow of King’s College in Cambridge. He has spent some time with Mr. Fletcher, at Madeley: two kindred souls; much resembling each other both in fervour of spirit and in the earnestness of their address. He gave me the pleasing information that there are three parishes in Cambridge wherein true Scriptural religion is preached, and several young gentlemen who are happy partakers of it.”[[623]]