In prayer he had wondrous liberty. The child’s convulsions ceased, the mother became easy, and strength flowed into her as he prayed. The neighbours gazed astonished, and silently withdrew, whispering to one another when without the house, “Certainly it was an angel!”
On their journey from France to Italy the travellers arrived at the Appian Way Fletcher stopped the carriage and descended, remarking to his friend, “I cannot ride over ground where the Apostle Paul once walked, chained to a soldier;” and taking off his hat he walked up the old Roman road praising God for the glorious Gospel preached by His servant of long ago.
Nor was this affectation upon Fletcher’s part Nothing was further from his thoughts at any time than to make an impression upon those around him Perhaps for this very reason the mark he did make was indelible No man ever spent an hour with the Vicar of Madeley without being spiritually better for it.
Arrived at Nyon, he was pressed to occupy several pulpits Crowds flocked after him from place to place, sinners were awakened, scoffers silenced, and many were brought to seek Jesus as the only Saviour.
One aged minister besought him to prolong his visit, if only for an additional week. When assured it was impossible, he turned to Mr. Ireland with tears running down his cheeks “Oh, sir,” he exclaimed, “how unfortunate for my country! During my lifetime it has produced but one angel of a man, and now it is our lot to. lose him.”
The parting from these good people was almost overwhelming Some of the multitude which gathered to say good-bye followed the carriage for over two miles, unwilling to lose sight of one who had brought them so near to God.
More than ordinary welcome awaited him at Trevecca Joseph Benson— headmaster of the College, and Fletcher’s biographer in latter days— wrote of it thus:—
“He was received as an angel of God It is not possible for me to describe the veneration in which we all held him Like Elijah in the schools of the prophets, he was revered; he was loved; he was almost adored; not only by every student, but by every member of the family.
“And, indeed, he was worthy. . . Though by the body he was tied down to earth, his whole conversation was in Heaven. His life, from day to day, was hid with Christ in God. Prayer, praise, love, and zeal, all ardent, elevated above what one would think attainable in this state of frailty, were the element in which he continually lived As to others, his one employment was to call, entreat and urge them to ascend with him to the glorious source of being and blessedness. He had leisure, comparatively, for nothing else. Languages, arts, sciences, grammar, rhetoric, logic, even divinity itself, were all laid aside when he appeared in the schoolroom among the students. His full heart would not suffer him to be silent. He must speak, and they were readier to hearken to this servant and minister of Jesus Christ than to attend to Sallust, Virgil, Cicero, or any Latin or Greek historian, poet, or philosopher they had been engaged in reading And they seldom hearkened long before they were all in tears, and every heart catched lire from the flame that burned in his soul.
“These seasons generally terminated in this Being convinced that to be ‘filled with the Holy Ghost’ was a better qualification for the ministry of the Gospel than any classical learning...after speaking awhile in the schoolroom, he used frequently to say, ’As many of you as are athirst for the fulness of the Spirit, follow me into my room.’ On this, many of us instantly followed him, and there continued till noon, for two or three hours, praying for one another till we could bear to kneel no longer... I have sometimes seen him...so filled with the love of God that he cried out, ’O my God, withhold Thy hand, or the vessel will burst!’ But he afterwards told me he was afraid he had grieved the Spirit of God, and that he ought to have prayed that the Lord would have enlarged the vessel, or have suffered it to break, that the soul might have had no further bar to its enjoyment of the Supreme Good.”