Mary Bosanquet was doomed to suffer through her friends She was greatly tried by interfering advisers, and through ill-given counsel she took steps which caused anxieties to thicken and debts to accumulate It was anything but an easy life, yet it was illuminated by wonderful answers to prayer On one occasion she had to find a large sum of money in the course of a day or two.
“You had better borrow it until your own half-yearly cheque comes in,” said Mrs. Ryan.
They tried, but were unsuccessful. Miss Bosanquet went to prayer, and it seemed to her as if the Lord Jesus Christ stood by her side and repeated some words she had lately read: “Christ charges Himself with all your temporal affairs, while you charge yourself with those that relate to His glory.” Such power accompanied the utterance as “wiped away every care,” as she put it to herself While yet she thanked her Lord for His promise a knock came to her door A man had called to bring her just the amount she needed.
Not a little trouble came to Mary Bosanquet through a Miss Lewen who stayed in her house, received much good, and was nursed through an illness which proved unto death.
Many ill-natured persons credited the kindly hostess with an effort to secure Miss Lewen’s fortune for her work, but the reverse was the case, she having cost the little House of Mercy many pounds without contributing anything towards it.
A man named Richard Taylor was her next trial—a debtor and improvident, with a wife and family of small children Being recommended to her good graces, he stayed for a time in her household while trying to arrange with his creditors He accompanied Miss Bosanquet, Mrs. Ryan, and Mrs. Crosby upon a troublesome journey to Yorkshire, taken with the double purpose of benefiting Sarah Ryan’s fast-failing health, and of seeking a larger and more suitable Orphan Home than the one in Leytonstone. The latter object was accomplished, but Mrs. Ryan gradually sank, and to her friend’s great sorrow they had to bury her in the old churchyard of Leeds.
The northern Home involved three times the work required by the other; wheat had to be ground to flour before home-made bread could be baked, cows managed and milked, men-servants overlooked; all the details, in fact, of a country house and a large household came under review This alone would have brought more than enough responsibility, but on the advice of Richard Taylor and another Yorkshire friend, Miss Bosanquet unfortunately bought a farm with malt-kilns attached, and began to build a house suitable for the size of her family.
The investment turned out an unhappy failure The work of God prospered mightily, but the settling of Taylor’s affairs cost her between £200 and £300; the house was an inn-of-call for all Methodists travelling through the district (which could not be without incurring much expense); the farm and kilns swallowed increasingly large sums of money, and Taylor was an extravagant manager.
Had it not been for the unfailing kindness and help of a gentleman who many times proposed to Miss Bosanquet in vain, she would have come out of the affair penniless Friends greatly urged this marriage upon her Her rule in these cases was to ask herself, “Should I be holier or happier with this man?” The answer was invariably “No!” and in this particular instance the thought of her saintly friend at Madeley arose to make the idea doubly disagreeable to her.
In great distress, she began to live on bread and water in order to economise, and go no further into debt, but the night following this forlorn effort God came very near and comforted her with the promise of deliverance in a way she knew not. She says:—
“He showed me (by a light on my understanding) that all my trials were appointed by Himself; that they were laid on by weight and measure, and should go no farther than they would work for my good.. I had depended on creatures for help, and therefore He had let me feel the weight of my burdens, that I might be constrained to cast them afresh on Him; and that, when He had proved and tried me, He would deliver me from all my outward burdens. As a pledge of the inward liberty He would afterwards bring me into, and that the ways and means of my deliverance were in His own hands, and should appear in the appointed time, those words were again brought powerfully to my mind—’If thou ...put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles... Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver...and shalt lift up thy face unto God.... Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee; and the light shall shine upon thy ways.’...It was a profitable and melting time.”
Thus, even in the midst of her troubles, was Mary Bosanquet comforted of God.
An important episode in the life of John Fletcher was his association with the College of Trevecca, opened by the Countess of Huntingdon, for young men who desired to devote themselves to the service of Christ A gratuitous education for three years, with lodging, board, and clothing, was provided for each student, the young men being afterwards free to enter whatever church they preferred.
Above all, it was important that the College should have a President whose advice could be relied upon concerning the choice, conduct and work of both masters and students—practically an unsalaried head of affairs To this post was called the Vicar of Madeley, and though naturally unable to be resident in the College, he accepted the duties of President, and, as such, gave most valuable service.
A little later than this Fletcher undertook to be Chaplain (one of three) to the Earl of Buchan, who was known as one of the most devoted Christians of his rank.
Notwithstanding these duties, Fletcher’s work became increasingly itinerant in character. Wesley says:—
“For many years he regularly preached at places eight, ten, and sixteen miles off, returning the same night, though he seldom got home before one or two in the morning At a little Society which he had gathered about six miles from Madeley, he preached two or three times a week, beginning at five in the morning... In some of his journeys he had not only difficulties, but dangers likewise, to encounter One day, as he was riding over a wooden bridge, just as he got to the middle thereof, it broke in The mare’s forelegs sank into the river, but her breast and hinder parts were kept up by the bridge In that position she lay as still as if she had been dead, till he got over her neck and took off his bags, in which were several MSS., the spoiling of which would have occasioned much trouble. He then endeavoured to raise her up, but she would not stir till he went over the other part of the bridge. But no sooner did he set his feet upon the ground than she began to plunge Immediately the remaining part of the bridge broke down and sunk with her into the river But presently she rose and swam to him.”
Other adventures befell Fletcher in his travels, some of them ending in the narrowest escapes from injury and death.
In the early part of the year 1770 Fletcher visited Italy, France, and his native Switzerland, with his friend Mr. Ireland Few details are preserved, but it seems to have been an uncommonly lively tour Mr. Ireland tells of the Vicar’s enthusiasm for unmasking various practices of the Italian priests, which placed them frequently in danger of their lives.
During this trip they met with a classical scholar who said he had “travelled all over Europe, and had passed through all the societies in England to find a person whose life corresponded with the Gospels and with Paul’s Epistles.” Almost defiantly he demanded of Mr. Ireland if he knew a single clergyman or Dissenting minister in his native land possessed of £100 a year who would not desert his living for any other if offered double that amount Mr. Ireland triumphantly pointed to his travelling companion, saying, “Thatman would not!”
The traveller turned to Mr. Fletcher and began a religious argument, which the two kept up at intervals for a whole week The Vicar overcame his opponent again and again, and though the latter lost his temper continually over his repeated defeats, the calm, sweet reasonableness of Fletcher’s spirit, as much as the overwhelming weight of his arguments for Jesus Christ, made a lasting impression upon his mind Eight years later he showed his appreciation by becoming the Vicar’s host in Provence, and treating him with the greatest reverence and attention.
While in Paris he was sent for to visit a sick woman Information having been given to a magistrate which ascribed to him wrong motives, a garbled case was got up, and an order of apprehension was issued from the King An officer called at the house where the friends were staying to serve the order Mr. Ireland stepped out and, without mentioning his name, said quietly, “Sir, have you an order for me?” “I have,” responded the officer, taking him for Fletcher. They went off together, and Mr. Fletcher was well out of the city before the magistrate disgustedly discovered the mistake.
When in the south of France, Fletcher determined to visit the Protestants of the Cevennes Mountains, and nothing would serve him but that he should perform the long and difficult journey on foot, with but a staff in his hand He disdained to appear well cared for, and on horseback, at the doors of those whose fathers were hunted for their faith from rock to rock He set out in his own fashion, therefore; on the first night of his travels begging the use of a chair in some humble cottage until morning. The peasant was reluctant to admit his strange guest, but when he had heard him talk and pray, himself, no less than his wife and children, were affected to tears. “I nearly refused to let a stranger into my house,” related the peasant to his neighbours, “but when he came I found more angel than man.”
Nor was this the only person who held such an opinion Wesley tells of another visit paid by the Vicar upon his way to call upon a minister of the district A little crowd was assembled at the door of a house where a mother and her newly-born child were dying The room was also filled with neighbours Fletcher went in, spoke gently to the people present of the effects of the sin of our first parent, and pointed them to Jesus “Jesus!” he exclaimed, “He is able to raise the dead, to save you all from sin, to save these from death. Come, let us ask Him!”
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 cannotrideover ground where the Apostle Paul oncewalked,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 tomake an impressionupon 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. Hislife, from day to day, washid 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. Hemustspeak, 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.”
Few headmasters have had the opportunity to speak of the President of their college as the headmaster of Trevecca was led to do of Fletcher.
Early in the new year of 1771 the happy relations of Fletcher and Wesley with the Countess of Huntingdon were shattered by unfortunate differences in theology, Mr. Fletcher, held by certain utterances of Wesley against Calvinistic doctrine, finding himself, as a result, obliged to resign his Presidency of Trevecca College Circumstances, regretted most of all by himself, drew Fletcher into a long Calvinian controversy, and to the publication of his famous “Checks to Antinomianism,” and remarkable and closely-reasoned vindication of the doctrines by which he held, abounding in the plainest of plain speech.
The Calvinian controversy was long and bitter, being succeeded by a Unitarian controversy, which became equally prominent Both disturbances were productive of much discussion, of many pamphlets, of “Vindications,” and “Answers,” and “Circulars,” and “Letters.” Into this word-war Fletcher was drawn much against his own preference, but when once the fight had been entered upon, it was almost impossible for him to extricate himself until it was fought out.
“What a world!” he wrote to Benson; “methinks I dream when I reflect that I have written on controversy; the last subject I thought I should have meddled with I expect to be smartly taken in hand and soundly drubbed for it Lord, prepare me for it, and for everything that may make me cease from man, and, above all, from your unworthy servant.”
Enemies there were, not a few, who rejoiced at an opportunity of hurling abuse at a good man—some of the sharp and stinging things they said amounted to actual slander To know how keen was the fight, how bitter and provoking the attacks made, one must read the correspondence and pamphlets then issued; but in the midst of it all Wesley was able to write of his friend:—
“I rejoice not only in the abilities, but in the temper, of Mr. Fletcher He writes as he lives I cannot say that I know such another clergyman in England or Ireland He is all fire, but it is the fire of love His writings, like his constant conversation, breathe nothing else, to those who read him with an impartial eye.”
The controversy was much to be deplored on account of the personal element brought in at all points, yet Fletcher’s clear and eloquent writings in his “Checks” was a fine service rendered to the Christian faith Once more to quote Wesley:—
“In his ‘Checks to Antinomianism,’ one knows not which to admire most —thepurityof the language, thestrengthandclearnessof the argument, or themildnessandsweetnessof the spirit that breathes through the whole Insomuch that I nothing wonder at a serious clergyman, who, being resolved to live and die in his own opinion, when he was pressed to read them, replied, ’No, I will never read Mr. Fletcher’s “Checks,” for if I did I should be of his mind.’”
In January, 1773, a memorial letter was written to the Vicar of Madeley by John Wesley, asking him to become his successor as leader and head of the Methodist people Indeed, the venerable Father of Methodism would have had his instant aid, for his letter concludes:—
“Without conferring, therefore, with flesh and blood, come and strengthen the hands, comfort the heart, and share the labour of “Your affectionate friend and brother, “John Wesley.”
Fletcher’s response was tentative; not wholly a refusal, yet not an acceptance:—
“I would not leave this place,” he concluded, in reply, “without a fuller persuasion that the time isquitecome Not that God uses me much here, but I have not yet sufficiently cleared my conscience from the blood of all men. Meantime, I beg the Lord to guide me by His counsel, and make me willing to go anywhere, or nowhere, to be anything, or nothing.
“Help by your prayers till you can bless by word of mouth, Rev. and dear Sir, your willing, though unprofitable servant in the Gospel.
“J.Fletcher.”
Wesley was greatly against his saintly friend hiding his light under the bushel of a country vicarage Thirteen years later he wrote his own opinion of Fletcher’s mission:—
“He was full as much called to sound an alarm through all the nation as Mr. Whitefield himself Nay, abundantly more so, seeing he was far better qualified for that important work. He had a more striking person, equally good breeding, an equally winning address, together with a richer flow of fancy, a stronger understanding; a far greater treasure of learning, both in languages, philosophy, philology, and divinity; and, above all (which I can speak with fuller assurance, because I had a thorough knowledge both of one and the other), a more deep and constant communion with the Father, and with the Son, Jesus Christ.”
Before a year had passed Fletcher’s health began to fail, and he was glad to devote himself to the writing which proved so useful and convincing. To Mr. Ireland he wrote:—
“My throat is not formed for the labours of preaching When I have preached three or four times together it inflames and fills up; and the efforts which I am then obliged to make heat my blood Thus I am, by nature, as well as by the circumstances I am in, obliged to employ my time in writing a little O that I may be enabled to do it to the glory of God!”
Perhaps nothing he wrote more fully conduced to that lofty purpose than his famous “Polemical Essay on the Twin Doctrines of Christian Imperfection and a Death Purgatory”; than which few clearer, more convincing, or more able vindications of Scriptural holiness have ever been written Can aught be plainer than the definition of Christian perfection which follows:—
“...Christian perfection is nothing but the depth of evangelical repentance, the full assurance of faith, and the pure love of God and man shed abroad in a faithful believer’s heart, by the Holy Ghost given unto him, to cleanse him, and to keep him clean, ’from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit’; and to enable him to fulfil the law of Christ’ according to the talents he is entrusted with, and the circumstances in which he is placed in this world... This is evident from the descriptions of Christian perfection which we find in the New Testament.”
In a practical, almost homely, manner, Fletcher deals with questions we often hear put to-day. For instance :—
“How many baptisms, or effusions of the sanctifying Spirit, are necessary to cleanse a believer from all sin, and to kindle his soul into perfect love?...If you asked your physician how many doses of physic you must take before all the crudities of your stomach can be carried off, and your appetite perfectly restored, he would probably answer you that this depends upon the nature of those crudities, the strength of the medicine, and the manner in which your constitution will allow it to operate, and that, in general, you must repeat the dose, as you can bear, till the remedy has fully answered the desired end I return a similar answer: If one powerful baptism of the Spirit ‘seals you unto the day of redemption,’ and ’cleanses you from all’ moral ‘filthiness,’ so much the better If two or more are necessary, the Lord can repeat them.
“Which is the way to Christian perfection? Shall we go to it by internal stillness, agreeably to the direction of Moses and David ... or shall we press after it by an internal wrestling according to the commands of Christ?...The way to perfection is by the due combination of prevenient, assisting free grace, and of submissive, assisted free will... ‘God worketh in you to will and to do,’ says St. Paul Here he describes the passive office of faith, which submits to, and acquiesces in, every divine dispensation and operation. ‘Therefore work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,’ and, of consequence, with haste, diligence, ardour, and faithfulness... Would ye then wait aright for Christian perfection? Impartially admit the two Gospel axioms, and faithfully reduce them to practice In order to this, let them meet in your hearts, as the two legs of a pair of compasses meet in the rivet which makes them one compound instrument... When your heart quietly rests in God by faith, as it steadily acts the part of a passive receiver, it resembles the leg of the compasses which rests in the centre of a circle; and then the poet’s expressions, ‘restless, resigned’ ("Restless, resigned, for God I wait; for God my vehement soul stands still."—Wesley), describes its fixedness in God But when your heart swiftly moves towards God by faith, as it acts the part of a diligent worker; when your ardent soul follows after God, as a thirsty deer does after the water-brooks, it may be compared to the leg of the compasses which traces the circumference of a circle; and then these words of the poet, ‘restless’ and ‘vehement,’ properly belong to it.
“Is Christian perfection to be instantaneously brought down to us? or are we gradually to grow up to it? Shall we be made perfect in love by an habit of holiness suddenly infused into us, or by acts of feeble faith and feeble love so frequently repeated as to become strong, habitual, and evangelically natural to us?”
Such are the difficulties with which Fletcher deals, patiently and fully turning them inside out, comparing and contrasting, defining and enlarging, leading the reader step by step to the conclusion that Christian perfection is essentially the perfection oflove, love, “the highest gift of God, humble, gentle, patient love,” shed abroad in the heart of the believer by the perpetual anointing of the Holy Spirit.
As he finds his climax in Wesley’s words, let us read them in the sense of his own quotation:—
“All visions, revelations, manifestations whatever, are little things compared to love.... The Heaven of heavens is love There is nothing higher in religion; there is, in effect, nothing else. If you look for anything but more love, you are looking wide of the mark, you are getting out of the royal way And when you are asking others, ’Have you received this or that blessing?’ if you mean any thing but more love, you mean wrong; you are leading them out of the way, and putting them upon a false scent Settle it, then, in your heart, that, from the moment God has saved you from all sin you are to aim at nothing but more of that love described in 1 Cor. xiii You can go no higher than this till you are carried into Abraham’s bosom.”
One of the Greenwood family, with whom Fletcher frequently stayed, made a reference to this production of his thought, which it were well to remember: “Whoever has had the privilege of observing Mr. Fletcher’s conduct will not scruple to say thathe was a living comment on his own account of Christian perfection.... As far as man is able to judge, he did possess perfect humility, perfect resignation, and perfect love.”
Unwilling as he might be for further controversy, Fletcher quickly discovered that he had not yet done with it Toplady, Vicar of a Devon village, and so-called author of “Rock of Ages,” bitterly attacked a tract of Mr. Wesley’s on Predestination, referring to some of his own Calvinian heresies Wesley had neither time nor inclination to wage a paper war with an angry man The work was undertaken by Fletcher, who found himself plunged afresh into the troubled waters of religious controversy. In his very Introduction Fletcher refuses to have anything to say to the personal charges vindictively hurled by his opponent:—
“These charges,” he writes, “being chiefly founded upon Mr. Toplady’s logical mistakes, they will, of their own accord, fall to the ground as soon as the mistakes on which they rest shall be exposed May the God of truth and love grant that if Mr. Toplady has the honour of producing the best arguments, I, for one, may have the advantage of yielding to them! To be conquered by truth and love is to prove conqueror over our two greatest enemies—error and sin.”
He then proceeds to deal with each of Toplady’sseventy-threearguments in favour of Predestination, abolishing them one by one, but in a cool, calm, reasonable way which contrasts nobly and sweetly with the angry prejudice of the other.
His preaching tours were interfered with by this work, but he deemed himself to be doing as much, if not more, for God by pouring the daylight of heavenly reason upon the errors which darkened the minds, narrowed the perspective, and burdened the hearts of so many in that day of Calvinian controversy.
Strangely enough, Fletcher’s next essay was into the arena ofpoliticalstrife—or, as he terms it, “Christian politics"— being led thereto by a pamphlet of Wesley’s upon the American War of Independence then raging He thoroughly prepared himself, not unnecessarily, for the storm which was to follow; for the minds of men were divided, and political speech has ever tended to undue licence and heat.
The Government of Georgeiii., however, considered that Fletcher had uttered words as valuable as they were timely The Secretary of State for the Colonies introduced the tract to the Lord Chancellor, and he to the King It was not long before Fletcher was asked if he would entertain the idea of any preferment in the Church; was there aught which the Lord Chancellor might do for him in this way? His reply chimed with every act of his life “I want nothing,” answered the saintly man; “nothing but more grace.”
It was at this time that Fletcher’s health showed grievous signs of failure His arduous toil, long journeys, close writing, and insufficient food, had told all too surely upon a delicately-organised frame A violent cough beset him, with slight but frequent hæmorrhage.
John Wesley advised an open-air cure, pressing him to spend some months on horse-back, touring with him through parts of England and Scotland. They set out together in the early spring, and travelled 1,100 or 1,200 miles in this way (not, however, into Scotland), taking such journeys as were suited to the invalid’s strength So greatly did he profit by some weeks in the saddle that Wesley declared if he would only have continued it for a few months longer he would have become a strong man once more.
In May, 1776, however, we find him at Bristol Hot Wells, debarred from his parochial work Wesley suggested more saddle-cure, proposing a five-hundred mile tour to Cornwall, but Fletcher had by that time resigned himself to the hands of a physician who forbade the exertion, being out of sympathy with a remedy so far in advance of the times.
This medical adviser, however, mistook his case, reducing him to great weakness A specialist who then undertook him restored his strength somewhat by more generous diet, although the relapse which followed was so serious that his friends thought him to be dying, and his congregation sang an intercessory hymn composed for the occasion.
From his multiplicity of remedies and advisers, however, Wesley rescued him once more, put him in the saddle, and led him through Oxfordshire, Northampton, and Norfolk, bringing him home greatly benefited for the open air.
Fresh-air treatment, however, needs wisely conducting in the untoward climate of England, and a self-prescribed ride upon a winter’s day of bitter frost threw Fletcher again into suffering and danger Friends nursed him in London, and a noted specialist was brought to him by Mr. Ireland, whose kindness was ever unfailing; while two or three physicians regularly attended and gave their best advice. Rest, silence, and a diet of the richest milk seemed most to help him, but it was a real sacrifice for him to hold his peace concerning the intense love of Jesus which filled his soul Often by signs he would “stir up those about him to pray and praise.”
“When he was able to converse, his favourite subject wasthe promise of the Father, the gift of the Holy Ghost, including the rich, peculiar blessing of union with the Father and the Son mentioned in the prayer of our Lord, recorded in John xvii ’We must not be content,’ said he, ’to be only cleansed from sin; we must be filled with the Spirit.’ One asking him, What was to be experienced in the full accomplishment ofthe promiseof the Father? ‘Oh,’ said he, ’what shall I say? All the sweetness of the drawings of the Father, all the love of the Son, all the rich effusions of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, more than ever can be expressed are comprehended here! To attain it, the Spirit maketh intercession in the soul, like a God wrestling with a God.’”
Fletcher’s conversation had a savour all its own He heard and saw nothing which did not in some way suggest to him the ways and love of God He was much in the habit of spiritualising all allusions of an earthly nature, and what in some men would have sounded likecantwas refined by his inner spirituality to sanctified quaintness. For instance, Mr. Ireland with great difficulty persuaded Fletcher to sit for his portrait While the artist was busy, his subject used the time in exhorting all in the room to spare no pains to get the outlines and colourings of the image of Jesus impressed upon their hearts During the barbarous blood-letting to which his physicians subjected him, he would talk very tenderly of “the precious blood-shedding of the Lamb of God.” On being entertained in the house of a friend he besought the cook to “stir up the Divine fire of love within his heart, that it might burn up all the rubbish therein, and raise a flame of holy affection”; while he addressed the housemaid as follows: “I entreat you to sweep every corner of your heart, that it may be fit to receive your Heavenly Guest!”
The Rev Henry Venn met Fletcher at the house of Mr. Ireland, where they stayed together for six weeks Referring to this visit some years later, Mr. Venn remarked to another clergyman:—
“Sir, Mr. Fletcher was a luminary—a luminary, did I say? He was asun!I have known all the great men for these fifty years, but I have known none like him I was intimately acquainted with him... I never heard him say a single word which was not proper to be spoken, and which had not a tendency to minister grace to the hearers... Never did I hear Mr. Fletcher speak ill of anyone He would pray for those who walked disorderly, but he would not publish their faults.”
Little wonder that both saint and sinner loved this Christly man!
Unaware of the sickness of her saintly friend (whom she had not met for fifteen years), Miss Bosanquet was one day extremely startled to be asked, “Do you know that Mr. Fletcher is dying?” She at once began to entreat the Lord for him, and while upon her knees received the assurance of James v. 15: “The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.”
Just at that time the Methodist Conference was held in Bristol, and Fletcher, who had returned to the ceaseless care of Mr. Ireland near by, was one day assisted by him into the assembly A letter written by one who was present gives an interesting picture of the scene:—
“The whole assembly stood up as if moved by an electric shock Mr. Wesley rose,ex cathedrâ, and advanced a few paces to receive his highly-respected friend and reverend brother, whose visage seemed strongly to bode that he stood on the verge of the grave, while his eyes, sparkling with seraphic love, indicated that he dwelt in the suburbs of Heaven... He addressed the Conference, on their work and his own views, in a strain of holy and pathetic eloquence, which no language of mine can adequately express The influence of his spirit and pathos seemed to bear down all before it....He had scarcely pronounced a dozen sentences before a hundred preachers, to speak in round numbers, were immersed in tears... Mr. Wesley, in order to relieve his languid friend from the fatigue and injury which might arise from a too long and arduous exertion of the lungs through much speaking, abruptly kneeled down at his side, the whole congress of preachers doing the same, while, in a concise and energetic manner, he prayed for Mr. Fletcher’s restoration to health, and a longer exercise of his ministerial labours. Mr. Wesley closed his prayer with the following prophetic promise, pronounced in his peculiar manner, and with a confidence and emphasis which seemed to thrill through every heart—’he shall notdie,but live,and declarethe works of the lord?’”
This prophecy was afterwards blessedly fulfilled.
Madeley yearned for its now beloved Vicar, and thinking that all would be well if he were only once more in their midst, one of his parishioners brought a horse, designing to walk by him all the way from Bristol to Madeley Two or three others came and entreated him to travel home in a post-chaise, but his physicians forbade his return to the scene of his old labours, and his parishioners, perforce, returned disappointed.
Miss Bosanquet thought to help the cure she now expected, and sent a favourite remedy of her own, which Fletcher acknowledged in a long letter, but did not try.
Before the year (1777) was spent, Fletcher had so far recovered his strength as to be able to travel, and, accompanied by Mr. Ireland, two of his daughters, and other friends, started for Switzerland, that once more Fletcher might breathe his native air.
A continental journey by post-chaise in December was not unlikely to prove trying, but though the axle-tree broke, and they were left on the side of a snow-covered hill with nine miles to walk in the piercing cold of a north wind, Mr. Fletcher bore the fatigue and cold as well as any of the party. By the end of February he was able to ride fifty-five miles in a day A couple of months later he was welcomed to his father’s house at Nyon once more, where the sweet, pure air, much riding and plenty of goats’ milk conduced to the healing process at work within him.
“We have a fine shady wood near the lake,” he wrote to a friend, “where I can ride in the cool all the day, and enjoy the singing of a multitude of birds.” Of the way in which he spent his time he says, “I pray, have patience, rejoice, and write when I can; I saw wood in the house when I cannot go out; and eat grapes, of which I have always a basket by me.”
“I met some children in my wood gathering strawberries,” runs a letter to Mr. Ireland, who had not accompanied him to Nyon; “I spoke to them about ourcommonFather. We felt a touch of brotherly affection They said they would sing to their Father, as well as the birds, and followed me, attempting to make such music as you know is commonly made in these parts. I outrode them, but some of them had the patience to follow me home, and said they would speak with me. The people of the house stopped them, saying I would not be troubled with children They cried, and saidthey were sure I would not say so, for I was their good brotherThe next day, when I heard this, I enquired after them, and invited them to come and see me, which they have done every day since. I make them little hymns, which they sing Some of them are under sweet drawings... Last Sunday I met them in the wood; there were a hundred of them, and as many adults Our first pastor has since desired me to desist from preaching in the wood... for fear of giving umbrage; and I have complied, from a concurrence of circumstances which are not worth mentioning; I therefore now meet them in my father’s yard.”
In the following winter Fletcher made an eighty-mile journey in order to assist his English medical adviser and friend, William Perronet, to secure a Swiss inheritance which he had gone to the Continent to claim Part of the distance had to be performed on a sledge through “narrow passes cut through the snow...frequently on the brinks of precipices”; some of it was traversed on foot amid hardship and danger But neither distances nor difficulties prevented Fletcher from speaking to all whom he could find ready to listen of Christ and His boundless love. William Perronet declared that he had preached the Gospel, not only by words and example, but bylooksalso, wherever he went.
From the early days of his frugal feasting upon bread and currants, Fletcher strongly believed in the plentiful use of fruit as food. His grapes were succeeded the following summer by a black-cherry diet, and for severe rheumatism he drank a decoction of pine-apple He had also great faith in exercise, riding in preference to driving, walking whenever he had strength, and when unable to go out of doors allowing himself three minutes of jumping just before dinner This may sound a curious form of exertion, yet it was recommended to him by two physicians.
Despite the blessing Fletcher was to the people around him—some of whom pleaded with himon their knees, with tears, to remain with them—there were many in authority who took the greatest exception to his “irregular” ways of doing good He was actually “summoned before the Seigneur Bailiff, who sharply reprimanded him for preaching against Sabbath-breaking and stage plays.” He forbade Mr. Fletcher preaching in any of the churches of his native country. Curiously enough, the minister who led this opposition died suddenly, as he was dressing for church, and a house was given over to the Vicar’s use that he might there exhort the many who came to him for help and teaching.
While in Switzerland he composed a French poem called “La Louange” (Praise), which he afterwards enlarged under the title of “Grace and Nature,” dedicating it, by permission, “To the Queen of Great Britain.” He also wrote “The Portrait of St. Paul—the true Model for Christians and Pastors”; which was translated and published after his death.
Fletcher arrived in England in April, 1781, preaching at City Road Chapel on his way to Mr. Ireland’s house near Bristol, where, because his friend was ill, he stayed a month, returning to Madeley in May, after having been absent four and a-half years.
He found his parish under a cloud, “but, alas!” he exclaimed, “it is not the luminous cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night Even the few remaining professors stared at me the other day when I preached to them on these words: ’Ye shall receive the Holy Ghost, for the promise is unto you.’”
So sad was he about the spiritual condition of his parishioners, that he applied to Wesley for one of his helpers, who was then a master in Kingswood School; believing truly that two who were of one mind, both living in communion with the Holy Ghost, had great hope of bringing to life a dead parish, even though one were not an authorised curate, and the other but a sick vicar Fletcher had learned to lookpast man—to God and God alone.
There existed no “chance” or “ill-fortune” for Fletcher Whatever happened was subject, he believed, to the over-ruling providence and direction of God, and for him there was no second causes, no human marplots He could always sing—
Thrice comfortable hopeThat calms my troubled breast;My Father’s hand prepares the cup,And what He wills is best.
When in answer to a letter of his to Miss Bosanquet on Christian Perfection there was sent to him a reply which, by the forgetfulness of a friend, lay in a drawer for three years undelivered, he wrote on the morning of its belated arrival:—
“You speak, Madam, ofa letter from Bath; I do not recollect, at present, your having favoured me with one from that place Is it my lot to be tried or disappointed in this respect? Well, the hairs of our heads, and the letters of our friends, are all numbered; not one of the former falls, not one of the latter miscarries, without the will of Him to whose orders we have long since fully and cheerfully subscribed.”
Miss Bosanquet was at this time in dire difficulties at Cross Hall Perplexed by contrary advice, embarrassed by ever-increasing financial loss, opposed by those who ridiculed her work as a mission to the mean, “a call to the care of cows and horses, sheep and pigs,” and criticised even by those to whom she acted as daily benefactor, her path was by no means an easy one, and eagerly she looked to the Lord for deliverance, although she knew not whence it would come.
She suffered more than she could ever describe through the public work she was called to do “None, O my God, but Thyself, knows what I go through for every public meeting!” she exclaimed in her diary Yet, though this shrinking was combined with exceedingly delicate health, she never shirked her duty, but went steadily on with housekeeping, farming, nursing, or public speaking, just as the Lord gave it to her to do—even consenting to stand upon a horse-block at Huddersfield to address a crowd whom otherwise she could not have reached “Indeed, for none but Thee, my Lord,” she cried after that ordeal, “would I take up this sore cross!.. O do Thine own will upon me in all things!”
On the seventh day of June, a month after Fletcher’s return to Madeley, was the fourteenth anniversary of Miss Bosanquet’s troubled sojourn in Yorkshire “On that day,” she relates, “I took a particular view of my whole situation, and saw difficulties as mountains rise around me Faith was hard put to it. The promises seemed to stand sure, and I thought the season was come; yet the waters were deeper than ever.”
During this time, however, their correspondence had been renewed, and to Fletcher the thought of Mary Bosanquet was bringing more than ordinary comfort and joy.
Finding his health so greatly improved, he thought he might venture upon a still closer friendship, and the very day after Miss Bosanquet’s “mountains” and “deeper waters” seemed to hem her in, a new door opened for her in a proposal of marriage, which assured her of the regard Fletcher had secretly treasured for her for twenty-five long years.
In August Mr. Fletcher travelled to Yorkshire to attend Wesley’s conference at Leeds, and Mary Bosanquet’s diary contains this brief record:—
“We corresponded with openness and freedom till August 1st, when he came to Cross Hall and abode there a month; preaching in different places with much power, and having opened our hearts to each other, both on temporals and spirituals, we believed it to be the order of God we should become one, when He should make our way plain.”
That Fletcher could love, and that ardently, will be seen from a letter written a few weeks later to the woman of his choice:—
“O Polly! generous, faithful Polly! Dost thou indeed permit me to write to thy friends, and to ask the invaluable gift of thy hand? That hand, that ishalfmine shall be wholly mine...Polly! I read thy letter, and wondered at the expression in it—’If you think me worth writing for.’ Ah, my holy, my loving, my lovely, my precious friend, I think thee worth writing forwith my vital blood; I am only sorry that I had not thee beside me to write with thywisdom...
“‘Difficulties!’ If thou hast any I shall gladly share them with thee, and think myself well repaid with the pleasure of praying and praisingwith theeandfor thee. Therefore, do not talk ofstruggling through alone. I charge thee, by thy faithfulness, let me bealoneas little time as thou canst...
“I thank thee for that believing sentence—’But all shall be right.’ The worst thy friends can do is to keep thy money, which I look upon as dung and dross in comparison of thee Ah, Polly! with thetreasureofthyfriendship, and theunsearchableriches of Christ, how rich thinkest thou I am? Count—cast up—but thou wilt never make out the amazing sum....
“I embrace thee in spirit, and more than mix my soul with thine.” (From “Wesley’s Designated Successor.”)
Of the oneness established between them John Wesley writes interestingly:—
“He (Mr. Fletcher) was upon all occasions very uncommonly reserved in speaking of himself, whether in writing or conversation. He hardly ever said anything concerning himself, unless it slipped from him unawares. . . This defect was indeed, in some measure, supplied by the entire intimacy which subsisted between him and Mrs. Fletcher. He did not willingly, much less designedly, conceal anything from her They had no secrets with regard to each other, but had indeed one house, one purse, and one heart Before her, it was his invariable rule tothink aloud; always to open the window in his breast.” The story of Mary Bosanquet’s deliverance from her Cross Hall embarrassments is practically a leaf from God’s Providence Book.
At the end of October the aspect of her difficulties had in no sense changed, but it was borne in upon both herself and Mr. Fletcher that they should act as though God were indeed working for them. They agreed to marry in a fortnight, but for the first week all remained as it was In the beginning of the second week a gentleman arrived to buy Cross Hall for £1,620 Three days later another purchased the farm implements and stock One by one, each inmate of the house was provided for with the exception of a poor cripple with great infirmities, whose home had been with Miss Bosanquet for sixteen years. The very night before the wedding even she was provided for Sally Lawrence, the adopted girl, was to be taken with them to Madeley.
One little item still remained to trouble the bride—a little payment for the estate was not to be made immediately, and in order to provide certain sums to settle the various Cross Hall inmates in suitable homes, as well as to pay a few current accounts, £100 was required The matter was laid in faith before Him to whom belongs all the silver and the gold, and by the next post came a bank-note for £100 as a present from Mary Bosanquet’s youngest brother!
The diary is brief as usual concerning the wedding, but it meant very much to both of them that, without a hindrance remaining, the bride should be able to write:—
“So, on Monday, the 12th of November, 1781, in Batley Church, we covenanted in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, ‘to bear each other’s burdens,’ and to become one for ever.”
Mrs. Crosby gives us a look-in upon that memorable marriage day:—
“On the morning of the day several friends met together They reached Cross Hall before family prayers Mr. Fletcher . . . read Rev. xix. 7- 9: ’Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honour to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come,’etcMr. Fletcher then spoke from these verses in such a manner as greatly tended to spiritualise the solemnities of the day He said, ’We invite you to our wedding, but the Holy Ghost invites you to the marriage of the Lamb. The bride, the Lamb’s wife, represents the whole Church, triumphant and militant united together. You may all be the bride, and Jesus will condescend to be the Bridegroom Make yourselves ready by being filled with the Spirit.’ He then engaged in prayer. . . They were married in the face of the congregation; the doors were opened, and everyone came in that would We then returned home, and spent a considerable time in singing and prayer There were nearly twenty of us....
“From dinner, which was a spiritual meal as well as a natural one, until tea-time, our time was chiefly spent in prayer or singing After singing the covenant hymn Mr. Fletcher went to Mrs. Fletcher and said to her, ’Well, my dearest friend, will you unite with me in joining ourselves in a perpetual covenant to the Lord? Will you with me serve Him in His members? Will you help me to bring souls to the Blessed Redeemer? And in every possible way this day lay yourself under the strongest ties you can, to help me to glorify my gracious Lord?’ She answered, ‘May God help me so to do!’
“In the evening Mr. Valton preached in the hall from ’What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.’ His words did not fall to the ground; many were greatly refreshed After the preaching there was a sweet contest among us; everyone thought, ’I, in particular, owe the greatest debt of praise’; at length we agreed to sing—
“I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath,And when my voice is lost in deathPraise shall employ my nobler powers;My days of praise shall ne’er be past,While life, and thought, and being last,Or immortality endures!”