29. - To Miss Hatton.

he will not quench! Only pray hard that he would blow it up into a blaze of light and love.

8thly. Beware of impatience, repining, and peevishness, which are the sins of sick people. Be gentle, easy to be pleased, and resigned as the bleeding Lamb of God. Wrong tempers indulged, grieve, if they do not quench the Spirit.

9thly. Do not repine at being in a strange country, far from your friends; and if your going to France does not answer the end proposed to your body, it will answer a spiritual end to your soul. God suffers the broken reeds of your acquaintance to be out of your reach, that you may not catch at them, and that you may at once cast your lonesome soul on the bosom of Him who fills heaven and earth.

10thly. In praying, reading, hearing any person read, and meditating, do not consult feeble, fainting, weary flesh and blood! For at this rate, death may find you idle and supine, instead of striving to enter in at the strait gate, and when your spirits and vigour fail, remember that the Lord is the strength of your life and your portion for ever. “O death, where is thy sting? Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Many pray hard for you that you may acquit yourself, living or dying, in ease or in pain, as a wise virgin, and as a good soldier of Jesus Christ; but above all, Jesus, the Captain of your salvation, and the High Priest of your profession, intercedes mightily for you. Look to him and be saved, even from the ends of France. To his pity love, and power, I recommend you. May he bless you, my dear friend - lift up the light of his countenance upon you, and give you peace and courage, repentance, faith, hope, and patient love, both now and evermore! I am your affectionate, sincere friend and servant in Jesus,

J. FLETCHER.

29. — TO MISS HATTON.

MADELEY, July 17, 1766.

MY VERY DEAR FRIENDS - I want to hear of you, if I cannot hear from you by a line. The last account I had of your state of health was a very poor one. What hath the Lord done for your body since?

My dear friend, we are all going the way of all flesh; and though you are more sensible of the journey in your body than I am at present, yet I follow you, or perhaps you follow me. I often feel a desire to beat your load for you; but the impossibility of this makes me rejoice that Jesus who does not faint as I might do, will and does carry both you and your burden. By a firm unshaken faith, you know, we cast our souls upon Jesus, and by that power, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself, he receives and bears that which we commit to him.

That this faith may be the firmer on our part, let it be rational as well as affectionate; affectionate as well as rational. God is good: he does not want us to take his word without proof. What expectations of the dear Messias from the beginning of the world! What amazing chains of miracles and wonders were wrought in favour of that people and family from which he was to come! What prophecies fulfilled that we might rationally believe! What displays of the Godhead in that heavenly man Christ Jesus! “In him dwelt, of a truth, the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” You see the power of God in his miracles; the goodness of God in his character; the justice and mercy of God in his death; the truth and faithfulness, the glory of God in his resurrection, in the coming of his Spirit, and the preaching of his everlasting Gospel. O my friend, we may believe rationally: we may with calm attention view the emptiness of all other religions, and the fulness of assurance that ours affords. And shall we not believe affectionately also? Let us stir up ourselves to love this Jesus who hath given himself to us with all his blood, all his grace, and all his glory. Come, give him your whole soul, my dear friend, and take him with all his pardons, all his love, all his strength. If he wants you to embrace him in his faint, bloody sweat, or in his racking tortures on the cross, draw not back; love him, love him, and let not the grave frighten you. It is good to drop our clay in his quiet sepulchre, and to follow him on the wings of faith and love, without a clog of sickly flesh to heaven. “He died for us and rose again, that whether we live or die, we might be together with him. To us to live is Christ, and to die gain. He hath blotted out” - - -

I am happily interrupted by your kind letter. Blessed be God for the prospect of recovery you mention! All is well that Jesus does: sick or well, living or dying, we will be Jesus’.

With regard to your complaint of slothfulness, your body cannot bear the strong exertions of a wrestling faith; therefore you are called, I apprehend,