55. - To Miss Thornton.

We all are one, who him receive,

And each with each agree;

In him the One, the Truth, - we live,

Blest point of unity!

A point this, which fills heaven and earth; which runs through time and eternity. What an immense point! In it sickness is lost in health, and death in life. There let us ever meet. There to live is Christ, and to die gain. Thank dear Mrs. Bissaker for all her love to my dear departed friend; and may our kindred spirits drink deeper into God, till they are filled with all the fulness which our enlarged souls can admit. Nor let your niece, to whom I send my thanks, keep aloof. Let us all tend to our original centre; and experience that life and death are ours, because the Prince of life, who is our resurrection and life, has overcome sin, death, and the grave for you, and for your obliged, unworthy brother,

J. FLETCHER

55. - TO MISS THORNTON.

BRISLINGTON, - - - - - , 1777.

MY VERY DEAR FRIEND, - I shall not attempt to express my gratitude to you for all your charitable care of a poor sickly worm. As we say, that silence speaks often the best praises of our great Benefactor, so I must say here. I hope these lines will find you leaving the things that are behind, and pressing forward toward the mark, - the prize of our high calling on earth. In heaven we are called to be filled with all we can hold of the glorious fulness of God; and what that is we know not, but we shall know if we follow on to know the Lord. But here also, we are called to be filled with all the fulness of God. God is love, you know: to be filled with all his fulness is then to be filled with love. O may that love be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given to us, and abiding in us! I still look for that ineffable fulness; and I beg, if you have not yet attained, you would let nothing damp your hope, and slacken your pursuit.

I spend more time in giving my friends an account of my health than the matter is worth. You will see by the enclosed, which I beg you would send to the post, when you have showed it to Mr. John and Charles Wesley, if they think it worth their while to run it over, to see how their poor servant does.

What shall I say? Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gifts, - for Jesus, - for the Spirit of Jesus, - for the members of Jesus’ mystical body, and in particular am I bound to return thanks for those who have ministered and still do minister to my wants, and share in my infirmities. Your meek humility forbids my saying that among the many who, for Christ’s sake, have debased themselves so far as to take up my cross with me, and help me to bear it after my Lord, you stand in the first rank, and the first fruits of my gratitude are due to you. Simon of Cyrene bore our Lord’s cross by compulsion: you have borne that of the most unworthy of his servants without compulsion: and now, what shall I render? A silent tear whispers, I can render nothing. May the merciful, faithful God, who has promised that a cup of cold water given to the least of his followers shall not lose its reward: may that omnipotent God, who sees you in all the states of weakness which await you between the present moment and the hour of death, give you all that can make your life comfortable, your trials tolerable, your death triumphant, and your eternity glorious! I am your affectionate brother,

J. FLETCHER.

56. - TO THE RIGHT HON. LADY MARY FITZGERALD.

MADELEY, Oct. 21, 1777.

HONOURED AND DEAR MADAM, - With respect to the hints you drop in your letter, concerning your external circumstances, I find it upon my heart to say, Abide in the state in which you have been called, till Providence makes a way for you to escape out of what may be contrary to your new taste. Your cross has changed its nature with your heart; and we may, in some cases, be called to take up a worldly as well as a heavenly cross. Joseph and Moses did so once in Egypt, Esther in Susa, Daniel in Babylon, John the Baptist at Herod’s court, and our Lord in the house of the rich Pharisee. Some great end, to yourself or to others, may be answered by patiently bearing your worldly cross, till it be taken from you, or you are removed from under it. Continue to make it matter of earnest prayer to know the will of God concerning you; and while your eye watches the motions of the providential cloud, and your heart listens for the Lord’s call, endeavour to keep your will as an even balance at his feet, that the least grain of intimation - clear intimation from him, and the least distinct touch of the hand of Providence, may turn the scale either way, without