Fletcher, John, 1729-1785; Methodists -- England -- Biography
On the seventh day of June, a month after Fletcher's return to
Madeley, was the fourteenth anniversary of Miss Bosanquet's troubled
sojourn in Yorkshire. "On that day," she relates, "I took a particular
view of my whole situation, and saw difficulties as mountains rise
around me. Faith was hard put to it. The promises seemed to stand
sure, and I thought the season was come; yet the waters were deeper
than ever."
During this time, however, their correspondence had been renewed, and
to Fletcher the thought of Mary Bosanquet was bringing more than
ordinary comfort and joy.
Finding his health so greatly improved, he thought he might venture
upon a still closer friendship, and the very day after Miss
Bosanquet's "mountains" and "deeper waters" seemed to hem her in, a
new door opened for her in a proposal of marriage, which assured her
of the regard Fletcher had secretly treasured for her for twenty-five
long years.
In August Mr. Fletcher travelled to Yorkshire to attend Wesley's
conference at Leeds, and Mary Bosanquet's diary contains this brief
record:--
"We corresponded with openness and freedom till August 1st, when he
came to Cross Hall and abode there a month; preaching in different
places with much power, and having opened our hearts to each other,
both on temporals and spirituals, we believed it to be the order of
God we should become one, when He should make our way plain."
That Fletcher could love, and that ardently, will be seen from a
letter written a few weeks later to the woman of his choice:--
"O Polly! generous, faithful Polly! Dost thou indeed permit me to
write to thy friends, and to ask the invaluable gift of thy hand? That
hand, that is _half_ mine shall be wholly mine...Polly! I read
thy letter, and wondered at the expression in it--'_If you think me
worth writing for._' Ah, my holy, my loving, my lovely, my precious
friend, I think thee worth writing for _with my vital blood_; I
am only sorry that I had not thee beside me to write with thy
_wisdom_...
"'Difficulties!' If thou hast any I shall gladly share them with thee,
and think myself well repaid with the pleasure of praying and praising
_with thee_ and _for thee_. Therefore, do not talk of _struggling
through alone_. I charge thee, by thy faithfulness, let me be _alone_
as little time as thou canst...
"I thank thee for that believing sentence--'But all shall be right.'
The worst thy friends can do is to keep thy money, which I look upon
as dung and dross in comparison of thee. Ah, Polly! with the
_treasure_ of _thy_ friendship, and the _unsearchable_ riches of
Christ, how rich thinkest thou I am? Count--cast up--but thou wilt
never make out the amazing sum....
"I embrace thee in spirit, and more than mix my soul with thine."
(From "Wesley's Designated Successor.")
Of the oneness established between them John Wesley writes
interestingly:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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