“I do not wonder at it at all, especially considering with whom you have chiefly conversed for some time past, namely, the hearers of Mr. Madan, or Mr. Bourian, perhaps I might add, of Mr. Whitefield. The conversing with these I have rarely found to be profitable to my soul. Rather it has damped my designs; it has cooled my resolutions; and I have consciously left them with a dry, dissipated spirit. “Again; you have, for some time, conversed a good deal with the genteel Methodists. Now it matters not a straw what doctrine they hear,—whether they frequent the Lock or West Street,—they are, almost all, salt which has lost its savour, if ever they had any. They are thoroughly conformed to the maxims, the spirit, the fashions, and customs of the world. “But were these or those of ever so excellent a spirit, you conversed with them too long. One had need to be an angel, not a man, to converse three or four hours at once, to any purpose. “But have you not a remedy for all this in your hands? In order to truly profitable conversation, may you not select persons clear of both Calvinism and Antinomianism? not fond of that luscious way of talking, but standing in awe of Him they love; who are vigorously working out their salvation, and are athirst for full redemption, and every moment expecting it, if not already enjoying it?”[154] Footnote 154: Tyerman’s “Life and Times of Wesley,” vol. iii., p. 4. Apart from the subject of this letter, it is of importance, as showing that the maelstrom of the Calvinian controversy was already stirring, and that Wesley was afraid of Fletcher being drawn into it. This would be much more apparent could the letter be quoted here _in extenso_. Suffice it to add, that Fletcher was preserved from the spreading evils, and that it is difficult to tell how much he was indebted to Wesley’s long warning letter for his escape from danger. So far as Fletcher was concerned, the great event of the year 1768 was the opening of Lady Huntingdon’s College at Trevecca. Wesley seemed to disapprove of her ladyship’s design. In a letter to his brother Charles, he wrote:— “Edinburgh, May 14, 1768.—I am glad Mr. Fletcher has been with you. But, if the tutor fails, what will become of our College at Trevecca? Did you ever see anything more queer than their plan of institution? Pray, who penned it, man or woman? I am afraid the Visitor” (Fletcher) “too will fail.”[155] Footnote 155: Wesley’s Works, vol. xii., p. 126.