A Letter to the Loving and Beloved People of the Parish of Madeley, and Its Vicinity, Who Have Lost a Friend to Piety in the Death of Mrs. Fletcher, Widow of the Rev. J. W. Fletcher, (or de la Flechere,) Late Vicar of Madeley, Shropshire.Tooth, Mary
Religion
A Letter to the Loving and Beloved People of the Parish of Madeley, and Its Vicinity, Who Have Lost a Friend to Piety in the Death of Mrs. Fletcher, Widow of the Rev. J. W. Fletcher, (or de la Flechere,) Late Vicar of Madeley, Shropshire.
Tooth, Mary
Fletcher, Mary, 1739-1815; Methodist women -- Biography
My Saviour and King,
Thy succour afford,
Thy righteousness bring;
Thy righteousness wearing, and cleans’d by thy blood,
Bold shall I appear in the presence of God.
All this day she had a great degree of fever upon her, and would
sometimes say to me, “What were the sweet words the Lord gave me last
night?” As soon as I pronounced the first words, “My Saviour,” she would
go on with them, and add, “I feel the power of them, though my head was
so confused, with this fever, that I could not recollect them.”
She was always exceedingly affectionate to me; and as it pleased God
through her means, to kindle the first spark of spiritual life in my
soul, I ought also to say, that nothing has ever been wanting on her part
to increase the kindled fire, on the contrary, she was always a helper of
my faith, as well as the most indulgent friend: numberless are the times
she has expressed her strong attachment _to_, and great affection _for_,
me. Never was any thing more expressive, than, on the 6th of December,
while looking on me with a look of the tenderest affection, she said, “My
faithful friend, my dearest friend, ten thousand blessings on her head.”
Several other times, especially in the last week of her life, with eyes
and hands lifted up to heaven, she would exclaim, “What shall I do for my
friend?” She has for years been in the habit of repeating the following
verse;
“Thy bounteous hand with worldly bliss
Has made my cup run o’er;
And, in a kind and faithful friend,
Has doubled all my store.”
She would often be crying to God for a blessing upon such and such
particular souls; and all her relations, though so far from her in body,
were to the last interested in her prayers: she would frequently plead
with the Lord, that one day she might meet them all in glory. Ever after
December begun, she was much inclined to doze, when the cough and the
oppression upon her breath would allow her a degree of ease: this she
would complain of, saying, “I lose my time; I want every moment to be
spent in prayer or praise.”
One day, I think the 6th of December, when waking out of a doze, she
said, “I am drawing near to glory:” and soon after, “There is my house
and portion fair;” and again, “Jesus come, my hope of glory:” and, after
a short pause, “He lifts his hands, and shews that I am graven there.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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