------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transcriber’s Note: This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. Footnotes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they are referenced. The occasional Greek word was printed without diacritical marks. Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WESLEY’S DESIGNATED SUCCESSOR. [Illustration: J Fletcher/Madeley] WESLEY’S DESIGNATED SUCCESSOR: =The Life, Letters, and Literary Labours= OF THE REV. JOHN WILLIAM FLETCHER, _Vicar of Madeley, Shropshire_. BY REV. L. TYERMAN, AUTHOR OF “THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE REV. SAMUEL WESLEY, M.A., RECTOR OF EPWORTH;” “THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE REV. JOHN WESLEY, M.A.;” “THE LIFE OF THE REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD, B.A.;” AND “THE OXFORD METHODISTS.” =New York:= PHILLIPS AND HUNT. =Cincinnati:= WALDEN AND STOWE. MDCCCLXXXIII. =I dedicate this Book to my Wife,= _Who has shared my joys and sorrows for nearly thirty years_. _L. TYERMAN._ PREFACE. --- “Jean Guillaume de la Flechere,” wrote Robert Southey, “was a man of rare talents, and rarer virtue. No age or country has ever produced a man of more fervent piety, or more perfect charity; no Church has ever possessed a more apostolic minister. He was a man of whom Methodism may well be proud, as the most able of its defenders; and whom the Church of England may hold in remembrance, as one of the most pious and excellent of her sons.” “Fletcher was a saint,” said Isaac Taylor, “as unearthly a being as could tread the earth at all.” “Fletcher,” remarked Robert Hall, “is a seraph who burns with the ardour of divine love. Spurning the fetters of mortality, he almost habitually seems to have anticipated the rapture of the beatific vision.” Dr. Dixon, one of the greatest of Methodist preachers, observed, “I conceive Fletcher to be the most holy man who has been upon earth since the apostolic age.” No apology is needed for publishing the life of such a man, unless it can be shown that a life worthy of him is already in existence.