Fletcher of MadeleyMacdonald, Frederic W. (Frederic William)
Religion
Fletcher of Madeley
Macdonald, Frederic W. (Frederic William)
Fletcher, John, 1729-1785
'Captain of Thine enlisted host,
Display Thy glorious banner high.'"
After a week of never to be forgotten blessings, the great crowds
slowly dispersed, and the tireless evangelists took horse and rode
away, each to his work, with strength renewed, and spirit refreshed as
from the presence of the Lord.
Although Fletcher did not reside at the college, his connexion with it
was by no means a nominal one. His journeys to Trevecca were frequent,
involving fatigue and privations, which his feeble frame could ill
endure, though he counted them less than nothing. As to the character
of his visits, and the influence that accompanied him, the testimony of
Mr. Benson, the headmaster, himself a man of exceptional intelligence
and sanctity, is well known, but is too important to be omitted here:
"Mr. Fletcher visited them frequently, and was received as
an angel of God. It is not possible for me to describe the
veneration in which we all held him. Like Elijah in the
schools of the prophets, he was revered, he was loved, he
was almost adored; and that, not only by every student, but
by every member of the family. And indeed he was worthy. The
reader will pardon me if he think I exceed. My heart kindles
while I write. Here it was that I saw, shall I say an angel
in human flesh? I should not far exceed the truth if I said
so. But here I saw a descendant of fallen Adam so fully
raised above the ruins of the fall, that though by the body
he was tied down to earth, yet was his whole conversation in
heaven, yet was his life, from day to day, hid with Christ
in God. Prayer, praise, love, and zeal, all ardent, elevated
above what one would think attainable in this state of
frailty, were the element in which he continually lived. And
as to others, his one employment was to call, entreat, and
urge them to ascend with him to the glorious Source of being
and blessedness. He had leisure comparatively for nothing
else. Languages, arts, sciences, grammar, rhetoric, logic,
even divinity itself, as it is called, were all laid aside
when he appeared in the schoolroom among the students. His
full heart would not suffer him to be silent. He must speak,
and they were readier to hearken to this servant and
minister of Jesus Christ than to attend to Sallust, Virgil,
Cicero, or any Latin or Greek historian, poet, or
philosopher, they had been engaged in reading. And they
seldom hearkened long before they were all in tears, and
every heart catched fire from the flame which burned in his
soul.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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