[118]. Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1856, pp. 36–38.
[119]. See “Life of Whitefield,” vol. ii., p. 489.
[120]. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., p. 469.
[121]. A clergyman whom James Ireland, Esq., of Brislington, near Bristol, had obtained to supply Fletcher’s pulpit at Madeley. See a subsequent letter, dated April 27, 1767.
[122]. “Thirteen Original Letters.” By the Rev. J. Fletcher. Bath: 1791, p. 10.
CHAPTER VI.
TWO YEARS MORE.
1766 AND 1767.
FLETCHER began the year 1766 in mournfulness, and yet full of love and loyalty to Christ. In a letter to Miss Hatton, he wrote:—
“Madeley, January 13, 1766.
“Madam,—This evening I have buried one of the warmest opposers of my ministry—a stout, strong young man, aged twenty-four years. About three months ago, he came to the churchyard with a corpse, but refused to come into the church. When the burial was over, I went to him, and mildly expostulated with him. His constant answer was, that he had bound himself never to come to church while I was there; adding, that he would take the consequences. Seeing I got nothing, I left him, saying, with uncommon warmth, though, as far as I can remember, without the least touch of resentment, ‘I am clear of your blood; henceforth it is upon your own head; you will not come to church upon your legs, prepare to come upon your neighbours’ shoulders!’ He wasted from that time, and, to my great surprise, has been buried on the spot where we were when the conversation passed between us. When I visited him in his sickness, he seemed tame, as a wolf in a trap. O may God have turned him into a sheep in his last hours!