Fletcher of Madeley | Page 6

At the first English inn at which they stayed Fletcher showed that
simple confidence in his brother-man which so distinguished his later
life by trusting a strange Jew with all his money for the purpose of
changing it into English coin. His fellow-students exclaimed, "You will
never see another crown of it!" but whether or not that quality in
Fletcher which always expected the very best from a man worked
salvation in this case as in many another, certain it is that the Jew
returned with the £90 intact.

For eighteen months Fletcher studied English at a school in
Hertfordshire, and afterwards became tutor to the two sons of a
Member of Parliament named Hill.
He little knew then how important a link in the providential chain was
that appointment. Up to this time, although he had deeply appreciated
religion, had read his Bible and prayed much, using any leisure he
could gain between his ordinary studies for the research of prophecy
and the perusal of devotional books, yet he lacked any experience of
living union with God; joy in Christ was an unknown bliss; the "peace
which passeth all understanding" was unrevealed to him. To his brother
Henry he thus described his condition:--
"My feelings were easily excited, but my heart was rarely affected, and
I was destitute of a sincere love to God, and consequently to my
neighbour. All my hopes of salvation rested on my prayers, devotions,
and a certain habit of saying, 'Lord, I am a great sinner; pardon me for
the sake of Jesus Christ!' In the meantime I was ignorant of the fall and
ruin in which every man is involved, the necessity of a Redeemer, and
the way by which we may be rescued from the fall by receiving Christ
with a living faith. I should have been quite confounded if anyone had
asked me the following questions: 'Do you know that you are dead in
Adam? Do you live to yourself? Do you live in Christ and for Christ?
Does God rule in your heart? Do you experience that peace of God
which passeth all understanding? Is the love of God shed abroad in
your heart by the Holy Spirit?'"
A vivid dream concerning the Day of Judgment was used to arouse him,
and for some days he was so depressed and harassed in mind that he
could not settle to any occupation for long together. Sunday arrived; no
teaching demanded his mental application; he wandered listlessly from
place to place, miserable and dejected. At length he sat down to copy
some music. The door opened and in walked the butler, an old servant
of the family, and a countryman of Fletcher's. For a moment he paused,
then approaching the tutor, said firmly, but respectfully:--
"Sir, I am surprised that you, who know so many things, should forget
what day this is, and that you should not be aware that the Lord's Day

should be sanctified in a very different manner."
The man was a true Christian, deeply humble, and full of zealous love
for God. The knowledge of many things he had borne patiently for
Christ, coupled with the strange power with which he spoke, smote the
tutor with a sense of his own shortcomings, and made him exclaim to
his own heart, "I am not renewed in the spirit of my mind, and without
this the death of Christ will not avail for my salvation!"
Not long after this Mr. Hill went up to London to attend Parliament,
accompanied by his tutor and family. On the road they stayed for a
meal and to change horses at St. Albans, and Fletcher went for a brisk
walk through the streets to stretch his limbs.
The horses were put to, but the tutor did not appear. After some delay
the post-chaise drove off, a horse being left in readiness for the tutor to
mount and ride after them. When in the evening he overtook the party,
Mr. Hill enquired why he stayed behind. He replied, "As I was walking
I met with a poor old woman, who talked so sweetly of Jesus Christ
that I knew not how the time passed away."
"I shall wonder," said Mrs. Hill, "if our tutor does not turn Methodist
by-and-by."
"Methodist, Madame!" asked he, puzzled; "pray what is that?"
"Why, the Methodists are a people that do nothing but pray," was her
rejoinder; "they are praying all day and all night."
"Are they? Then by the help of God I will find them out," said he
decidedly.
He not only "found them out," but joined a Methodist society, meeting
with them whenever an opportunity presented itself.
Fletcher could not readily rid himself of the idea that "much doing"
would make him acceptable unto God. Gradually, however, he was