Fletcher, John, 1729-1785; Methodists -- England -- Biography
Arrived at Nyon, he was pressed to occupy several pulpits. Crowds
flocked after him from place to place, sinners were awakened, scoffers
silenced, and many were brought to seek Jesus as the only Saviour.
One aged minister besought him to prolong his visit, if only for an
additional week. When assured it was impossible, he turned to Mr.
Ireland with tears running down his cheeks. "Oh, sir," he exclaimed,
"how unfortunate for my country! During my lifetime it has produced
but one angel of a man, and now it is our lot to. lose him."
The parting from these good people was almost overwhelming. Some of
the multitude which gathered to say good-bye followed the carriage for
over two miles, unwilling to lose sight of one who had brought them so
near to God.
More than ordinary welcome awaited him at Trevecca. Joseph Benson--
headmaster of the College, and Fletcher's biographer in latter days--
wrote of it thus:--
"He 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; not only by every student, but by every member of the family.
"And, indeed, he was worthy. . . . Though by the body he was tied down
to earth, _his whole conversation was in Heaven_. His _life_,
from day to day, was _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. 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, 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 lire from the
flame that burned in his soul.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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