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 delight is to worship the Lord with you, and many, very many,
sweet times have we had together; but our unerring master has, at
this time, been pleased to confine me by a greater degree of weakness
than I ever remember before; therefore, by my pen, through the mouth
of my dear friend, I take this method to assure you, I am with you in
spirit, though absent in body; and I intreat you all to make trial of
the ground whereon you stand: when sickness and death approaches,
there is no comfort but in the love of God; I find none but what I
derive from that source. O that you would therefore do as Jacob did,
be earnest with the Lord, that his love may fill your heart, as the
scripture expresses it, the love of God shed abroad in your hearts by
the Holy Ghost, given unto you. If you get your hearts full of the
love of God, you will find that is the oil by which the lamp of faith
will be ever kept burning; love makes all our duty easy; a soul
united as one spirit to the Lord, if temptation presents, has a ready
answer; such a one instantly cries out, How shall I do this great
wickedness, and sin against God? against Him in whom my soul
delighteth? Pray, my friends, pray much for this love; and remember
that word, “He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in
him.”
Thus did she, whether sick or well, labour for the increase of
spirituality in the hearts of the people: her eyes were always
heaven-ward, and whether at home or abroad, she was ever endeavouring to
draw souls to a closer walk with God. She was often reminding us who
were about her, of the fulness that was to be obtained. I shall not
exceed the; truth, if I say that none more fully possessed the happy art
of leading souls into a close internal walk with God, than she did; being
herself so experimentally acquainted with the path of righteousness, she
was well qualified to conduct others therein: and as to her own soul, she
was continually drinking more and more into the spirit of her Lord. Her
capacious soul was always panting after deeper and deeper draughts of the
living water; frequently telling me what sweet openings the Lord had been
giving her, and what enjoyment in the filling and enlarging of her
desires. She was ever desirous that souls would be looking for great
things from the hands of the Lord; frequently saying, “what pity it is
that any rest in low attainments, when so much might be gained; has not
the Lord said, Ask what you will, and I will do it for you.” This last
sentence was one of those sayings of our Divine Master, in which she
delighted to the end of her course. I believe there are numbers who
cannot forget with what energy she would recommend the wrestling Jacob;
and whatever duty she enforced upon the minds of others, she was
exemplary in practising herself. It was always her custom, unless some
providential call prevented, to go from secret prayer to the class, and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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