“When I was in London, I endeavoured to make the best of my time; that is to say, to hear, receive, and practise the Word. Accordingly, I went to Mr. Whitefield’s Tabernacle, and heard him give his Society a most sweet exhortation upon love. He began by observing that when the Apostle St. John was old and past walking and preaching, he would not forsake the assembling himself with his brethren, as the manner of too many is, upon little or no pretence at all. On the contrary, he got himself carried to their meeting, and, with his last thread of voice, preached to them his final sermon made up of this one sentence, ‘My little children, love one another.’ I wish, I pray, I earnestly beseech you to follow that evangelical, apostolical advice; and till God makes you all little children, little in your own eyes, and simple as little children, give me leave to say, dear brethren, love one another, and, of course, judge not, provoke not, be not shy of one another, but bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Yea, bear with one another’s infirmities, and do not easily cast off any one, no not for sin, except it be obstinately persisted in. “My sheet is full, and so is my heart of good wishes for and strong longing after you all. I have just room to tell you I hope to be with you in three or four weeks’ time. Oh! let me have the comfort of finding you all believing and loving. Farewell, my dear brethren! The blessing of God be with you all! This is the earnest desire of “Your unworthy minister, “JOHN FLETCHER.”[131] Footnote 131: “Thirteen Original Letters,” by Fletcher, published at Bath in 1791, p. 20. This is a long but valuable letter—valuable for the sentiments and advice it contains, and also as showing Fletcher’s loving and faithful passion to save the souls of his parishioners. Comment upon it would be easy, but is unnecessary. When he wrote it, on September 23, he intended to return to Madeley in “three or four weeks’ time,” but at the beginning of November he was still in London. In a letter to Mr. Powys, dated the first of that month, Whitefield remarked, “Dear Mr. Fletcher is become a scandalous Tottenham Court preacher.”[132] How long he continued to officiate in Whitefield’s far-famed chapel it is impossible to tell; but at the beginning of 1767 he was at Madeley, and wrote to Miss Hatton as follows:— “MADELEY, _January 9, 1767_.