63. - To Mr. William Wase.

and it will comfort and strengthen you in your work. The joy of the Lord, and of charity, is our strength. Salute the children from me, and tell them I long to show them the way to happiness and heaven. Pray, have you mastered the stiffness and shyness of your temper? Charity gives a meekness, an arguability, a childlike simplicity and openness, which nature has denied you, that grace might have all the honour of it. Let me find you shining by these virtues, and you will revive me much. God bless your labour about the sheep and the lambs.

J. FLETCHER.

63. - TO MR. WILLIAM WASE.

NYON, Feb. 14,1781.

MY DEAR FRIEND, - I am exceeding glad that there is a revival on your side the water, and that you are obliged to enlarge your room. I wish I could contribute to shake the dry bones in my parish; but I have no confidence in the flesh; and what I could not do, when I was in my strength, I have little prospect of doing now that my strength is broken. However, I do not despair: for the work is not mine, “but the Lord’s.” If the few who love the Gospel would be simple and zealous, God would again hear their prayers for those who are content to go on in the broad way. I thank you for your view of the iron bridge. I hope the word, and the faith that works by love, will erect a more solid and durable bridge, to unite those who travel together toward Sion.

My friend Ireland invites me to go and join him in the south of France; and I long to see whether I could not have more liberty to preach the word among the Papists, than among the Protestants. But it is so little I can do, that I doubt much whether it is worth while going so far upon so little a chance. If I were stronger and had more times the fear of being hanged should not detain me. I trust to set out next month and to be in England in May: it will not be my fault if I be not there in April.

Remember me in much love to Mr. Greaves, Mr. Gilpin, and the preachers who labour with us. O! my friend, give yourself wholly up to the Lord, and you will have that peace and joy, through Christ and righteousness, which will be worth a little heaven to you. Adieu. Yours,

J. FLETCHER.

64. - TO MR. MICHAEL ONIONS.

NYON, March, 1781.

I THANK YOU, my dear brother, for your kind remembrance of me, and for your letters: I hope to bring my fuller thanks to you in person. Come, hold up your hands. Confirm the feeble knees Set up an Ebenezer every hour of the day. In every thing give thanks; and in order to this, pray without ceasing, and rejoice evermore. My heart sympathizes with poor Molly Cartwright. Tell her from me that her husband lives in Him who is the resurrection, and that I want her to live there with him. In Christ there is no death, but the victory over death. O! let us live in him, to him, for him, who more than repairs all our losses. I long to rejoice with her in hopes of meeting our departed friends, where parting and trouble shall be no more. My love to your wife; tell her she promised me to be Jesus’, as well as yours. I trust her mother ripens faster for glory than for the grave. I hope to find her quite mellowed by the humble love of the Gospel. My love to John Owen, and all our other leaders, and by them to the few who do not tire by the way. With regard to the others, take them in the arms of prayer and love, and carry them out of Egypt and Sodom, if they are loath to come. Despair of none. You know charity hopeth all things, and bringeth many things to pass. All things are possible to him that believeth, all things are easy to him that loveth. God be with you, my dear brother, and make you faithful unto death. It is my prayer for you, and all the society, and all my dear neighbours, my dear parishioners, to whom I beg to be remembered. I have no place to write their names; but I pray they may be all written “in the book of life.” God is merciful, gracious, and faithful; I set my seal to his loving kindness: witness my heart and hand, JOHN FLETCHER.

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

MADELEY, Sept., 1781.

MY MUCH HONOURED LADY, - Two days ago, I came here, after an absence of above a month; and yesterday I received the honour of your letter without date, which has been, I am told, waiting here some time. What a pity I did not rejoice sooner in the good news you send me, that you desire to be entirely devoted to God. Indeed, complaints follow; but heaven is in that holy desire. If you cultivate it, it will produce all that conformity to a holy God, which love can bring to a human soul, called to partake the Divine nature. As for your complaints, they are the natural expression of that repentance which precedes, in our hearts, the coming of the Comforter who is to abide with us for ever. I am ready to rejoice, or to mourn with my honoured friend; and I have abundant cause to do both, with respect to myself, my ministrations, the Church, and my people. And will you, indeed, find it in your heart to honour my house with your presence, and perfume also with your prayers the plain apartments occupied by your friend Johnson? I wonder at nothing on earth, when I consider the condescension with which Emmanuel came down from heaven and filled a stable with his glory. Your time, my condescending friend, will suit me best. You will be queen in my hermitage, the Lord will rule in our hearts, and you will command under him within our walls. You smile, perhaps, at the vastness of your new empire, but if you can be content and happy in God in my homely solitude, you will make greater advances toward bliss than if you obtained the principality of Wales. But if you cannot be happy with Jesus, prayer, praise, godly conversation, and retirement, expect a disappointment. However, my honoured friend, if you come, as the serious Catholics go on a pilgrimage, as French noblemen go to the Carthusian convent at La Trappe, as the French king’s aunts went to the Carmelites: come and do evangelical penance. Our good friend Johnson will tell you of an upper room where we crucify our old man, and have had many a visit from the new. If you do not bring her with you, bring her faith, which brought him down, and then you shall not pine for the company of earthly princes. The Prince of Peace and Life himself will keep his court in our cottage, and your heart shall be one of his favourite thrones. I hope, my lady, you will bring us good news of our friends in St. James’ Place. My heart visits them often, and if bodies could move as quick as thought, they would be importuned frequently with my company. If you write to them before I do, convey my Christian and grateful love in your letter, and accept it yourself from my honoured and dear lady, your dutiful servant in Christ,

J. FLETCHER