“You cannot expect to attain to such a carriage as will please all you converse with. The Son of God, the _original_ of all human perfection, was blamed, sometimes for His silence, and sometimes for His speaking; and shall the handmaid be above her Master? “There is no sin in wearing such things as you have by you, if they are necessary for _your station_, and characterize your _rank_. “There is no sin in _looking cheerful_. ‘_Rejoice evermore_:’ and, if it is our duty always to be _filled with joy_, it is our duty to _appear_ what we are in reality. I hope, however, your friends know how to distinguish between _cheerfulness_ and _levity_. “Beware of stiff singularity in things _barely indifferent_: it is _self_ in disguise; and it is so much the more dangerous when it comes recommended by a serious, self-denying, religious appearance. “I hope the short-comings of some about you will not prevent you eyeing the prize of a glorious conformity to our blessed Head. It is to be feared that not a few of those who profess to have attained it, have mistaken the way. They are still _something_; whereas I apprehend that an important step towards that conformity is to become _nothing_; or rather, with St. Paul,—to become in our own eyes the _chief of sinners_, and the _least of saints_.”[110] Footnote 108: Letters, 1791, p. 147. Footnote 109: _Ibid._, 1791, p. 151. Footnote 110: Letters, 1791, p. 153. These fragmentary extracts are of some importance, because they indicate the matters respecting which Fletcher was consulted, and also exhibit his own habitual frame of mind. Before leaving the year 1764, one incident must be mentioned, far too interesting to be omitted. So far as there is evidence to show, there had been no interview, and, indeed, no correspondence, between Fletcher and Wesley since the year 1760, when Fletcher, contrary to the advice of Wesley, accepted the living of Madeley. There is not the slightest proof of any estrangement of affection having taken place; but Fletcher had been too much occupied to visit Wesley in London; and Wesley, considering the opposition Fletcher had to encounter, had, hitherto, not deemed it expedient to visit Fletcher at Madeley. As to epistolary correspondence, Charles Wesley was Fletcher’s chosen adviser; and that, for the present, was quite enough. The Madeley persecutions had now subsided; and, hence, in the month of July, 1764, the _Arch-Methodist_ ventured to invade the parish of the Madeley vicar. He wrote:— “1764, Saturday, July 21. I rode to Bilbrook, near Wolverhampton, and preached at between two and three. Thence we went on to Madeley, an exceedingly pleasant village, encompassed with trees and hills. It was a great comfort to me to converse once more with a Methodist of the _old type_, denying himself, taking up his cross, and resolved to be”.bn 117.png