“There are three meetings in my parish—a Papist, Quaker, and Baptist, and they begin to call the fourth _the Methodist_ one—I mean the Church. But the bulk of the inhabitants are stupid heathens, who seem past all curiosity, as well as all sense of godliness. I am ready to run after them into their pits and forges, and I only wait for Providence to show me the way. I am often reduced to great perplexity; but the end of it is sweet. I am driven to the Lord, and He comforts, encourages, and teaches me. I sometimes feel that zeal which forced Paul to wish to be accursed for his brethren’s sake; but I want to feel it without interruption. The devil, my friends, and my heart have pushed at me to make me fall into worldly cares and creature snares,—first, by the thoughts of marrying; then, by the offers of several boarders, one of whom, a Christian youth, offered me £60 a year; but I have been enabled to cry, ‘_Nothing but Jesus, and the service of His people_;’ and I trust the Lord will keep me in the same mind.”[69] Footnote 69: “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., p. 239. In such a way and spirit did Fletcher begin his ministry of twenty-five years’ duration at Madeley. Comment on his simple and honest letters is unnecessary; it would be uninstructive meddling, which would try the reader’s patience. CHAPTER IV. _FIRST TWO YEARS AT MADELEY._ FROM OCTOBER 17, 1760, TO NOVEMBER 22, 1762. ALMOST of necessity, the life of a clergyman in a small country town is an uneventful and quiet one; and, therefore, the first ten years that Fletcher spent at Madeley were unmarked by stirring incidents, such as were perpetually occurring in the lives of his friends Wesley and Whitefield.