“You cannot expect to attain to such a carriage as will please all you converse with. The Son of God, the original of all human perfection, was blamed, sometimes for His silence, and sometimes for His speaking; and shall the handmaid be above her Master?
“There is no sin in wearing such things as you have by you, if they are necessary for your station, and characterize your rank.
“There is no sin in looking cheerful. ‘Rejoice evermore:’ and, if it is our duty always to be filled with joy, it is our duty to appear what we are in reality. I hope, however, your friends know how to distinguish between cheerfulness and levity.
“Beware of stiff singularity in things barely indifferent: it is self in disguise; and it is so much the more dangerous when it comes recommended by a serious, self-denying, religious appearance.
“I hope the short-comings of some about you will not prevent you eyeing the prize of a glorious conformity to our blessed Head. It is to be feared that not a few of those who profess to have attained it, have mistaken the way. They are still something; whereas I apprehend that an important step towards that conformity is to become nothing; or rather, with St. Paul,—to become in our own eyes the chief of sinners, and the least of saints.”[[110]]
These fragmentary extracts are of some importance, because they indicate the matters respecting which Fletcher was consulted, and also exhibit his own habitual frame of mind.
Before leaving the year 1764, one incident must be mentioned, far too interesting to be omitted. So far as there is evidence to show, there had been no interview, and, indeed, no correspondence, between Fletcher and Wesley since the year 1760, when Fletcher, contrary to the advice of Wesley, accepted the living of Madeley. There is not the slightest proof of any estrangement of affection having taken place; but Fletcher had been too much occupied to visit Wesley in London; and Wesley, considering the opposition Fletcher had to encounter, had, hitherto, not deemed it expedient to visit Fletcher at Madeley. As to epistolary correspondence, Charles Wesley was Fletcher’s chosen adviser; and that, for the present, was quite enough. The Madeley persecutions had now subsided; and, hence, in the month of July, 1764, the Arch-Methodist ventured to invade the parish of the Madeley vicar. He wrote:—
“1764, Saturday, July 21. I rode to Bilbrook, near Wolverhampton, and preached at between two and three. Thence we went on to Madeley, an exceedingly pleasant village, encompassed with trees and hills. It was a great comfort to me to converse once more with a Methodist of the old type, denying himself, taking up his cross, and resolved to be”.bn 117.png
“Sunday, July 22. At ten, Mr. Fletcher read prayers, and I preached on those words in the Gospel,”The church would nothing near contain the congregation; but a window near the pulpit being taken down, those who could not come in stood in the churchyard, and I believe all could hear. The congregation, they said, used to be much smaller in the afternoon than in the morning; but I could not discern the least difference, either in number or seriousness. I found employment enough for the intermediate hours in praying with various companies who hung about the house, insatiably hungering and thirsting after the good word. Mr. Grimshaw, at his first coming to Haworth, had not such a prospect as this. There are many adversaries indeed; but yet they cannot shut the open and effectual door.
“Monday, July 23. The church was pretty well filled even at five, and many stood in the churchyard. In the evening, I preached at Shrewsbury, to a large congregation, among whom were several men of fortune. I trust, though hitherto we seem to have been ploughing on the sand, there will at last be some fruit.”[[111]]