will not come to church upon your legs, prepare to come upon your neighbour's shoulders. He wasted from that time, and to my great surprize hath been buried on the spot where we were, when the conversation passed between us. When I visited him in his sickness, he seemed tame as a wolf in a trap. O may God have turned him into a sheep in his last hours !"

Mr. Fletcher was wondrously skilled in adapting himself to the different capacities and conditions of his hearers.He could stoop to the illiterate, and rise with the learned; he had incontrovertible arguments for the sceptic, and powerful persuasives for the listless believer; he had sharp remonstrance for the obstinate, and strong consolation for the mourner: and, like a scribe thoroughly instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, he brought forth out of his treasures things new and old, as occasion required. To hear him without admiration, was impossible; without profit, improbable. The unthinking went from his presence under the influence of serious impressions, and the obdurate with kindled relentings. Many an unsuspecting trifler has he enclosed in the gospel net, and many a happy captive has he led in the course of his public ministry, from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. I shall here transcribe a short passage from a letter addressed to me, by one of the author's esteemed friends. "I would "rather have heard," says the writer, "one sermon from "Mr. Fletcher, viva voce, than read a volume of his "works. His words were clothed with power, and enter"ed with effect. His writings are arrayed in all the garb "of human literature. But his living word soared an ea"gle's flight above humanity. He basked in the sun, car"ried his young ones on his wings, and seized the prey "for his master. In short, his preaching was apostolic ; "while his writings, though enlightened, are but human."

The concern which Mr. Fletcher expressed for the relief of the unfortunate and afflicted, was truly uncommon; but

F

his compassion was still more abundant toward the immoral and profane, whom he constantly regarded as the most miserable of men. While he detested vice, he pitied the vicious; and while he fled from sin, as from the face of a serpent, he turned to the sinner with the warmest emotions of benevolence and charity. Considering the wicked as poor beyond the power of expression, he joyfully presented them with the pearl of great price. He saw them wandering as sheep without a shepherd, and endeavoured to conduct them to the fold of God: he beheld them attempting to quench their thirst at the poisoned streams of worldly pleasure, and affectionately invited them to the fountain of living waters; he saw them heedlessly rushing to the gates of death, and laboured to turn their feet into the way everlasting.

Animated with that burning charity, by which St. Paul was impelled to publish the gospel from nation to nation, this evangelical preacher was constrained, not only within, but as has been observed above, beyond the limits of his parish, to follow after the ignorant, the careless, and the abandoned, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that he might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Considering the business with which he was charged, as an employment of the highest importance, without paying any servile attention to times or places, he lost no opportunity of executing the commission he had received. His highest wish was to convert the wicked from the error of his way; and in the course of so arduous an undertaking, he was prepared, at the command of his Lord, to go forth into the highways and hedges with the invitations of the gospel; anxious to do the work of an evangelist with all possible fidelity, and not ashamed, that every hour and every place should bear testimony to the affectionate zeal, with which he laboured for the welfare of the church.

As the miser toils to increase his hoards, and as the ambitious person studies to advance his reputation in

the world; with equal assiduity and desire this holy man endeavoured to promote the reformation of the ungodly. Rising up early and late taking rest, he was employed, either directly or indirectly, through the whole of the day, in hiring labourers into the service of his Lord. To engage their attention and excite their desire, he set before them the freedom of that service, the honours that attend it, and the rewards that follow it: to strengthen their feeble resolution, he joyfully offered them every brotherly assistance; and to shame their inactivity, he pointed them to the example of those, who cheerfully bore all the burden and heat of the day. As an affectionate father conducts himself toward his disobedient children, reproving and alluring, admonishing and persuading them, with every affecting testimony of parental tenderness; so this spiritual father conducted himself toward the children of transgression and impiety, seeking by every effectionate method, to engage them in the pursuit of that holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

With respect to individuals, he was peculiarly careful to choose the fittest opportunity of conversing with them upon sacred subjects. In the day of their prosperity, he sometimes spake to them, as it were at a distance; but in the day of their adversity, he redoubled his efforts, and followed them with the most familiar attention; fully persuaded, that religious impressions can never be made in a more favourable season, than when the heart has been softened by previous afflicting providences. Were they destitute of spiritual knowledge?-he explained to them the mysteries of evangelical truth. Were they presuming upon the mercy they had formerly abused?-he awakened their fears by representations of that righteous wrath, which is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness. Were they doubtful of ever finding acceptance with God;—he animated their hopes, and encouraged them to a steady dependance upon the promises of God; happily adapting his

several applications to the circumstances of his spiritual patients. Such was the ardent charity of this father in Christ toward the depraved and unbelieving, wherever he discovered them; a charity, which was frequently no less effectual in its operations, than powerful in its essence. A number of instances of this might be produced if need

were.

The same concern for the spiritual welfare of his flock, together with the very mean opinion which he had formed of himself, induced him from time to time to invite other ministers to visit his parish, and assist him to make known to the inhabitants thereof the riches of the grace of God. The Rev. Mr. John Wesley frequently visited him; and many are the invitations which we find to Mr. Charles Wesley, in his letters to that servant of God. Nor did he confine his invitations to ministers of the established church, but requested the aid even of such as had not been episco-, pally ordained. In or about the year 1764, he writes as follows to Mr. Mather, a well known and eminent preacher in Mr. Wesley's connexion.* "I desire you will call at the Bank as often as you have opportunity. An occasional exhortation from you or your fellow-labourer, at the Bank, Dale, &c. will be esteemed a favour; and I hope that my stepping, as Providence directs, to any of your places (leaving to you the management of the societies) will be deemed no encroachment. In short, we need not make two parties: I know but one heaven below, and that

The Rev Alexander Mather (a native of Scotland,) whose just praise is in all the Methodist churches, was a man of such excellent knowledge, piety and usefulness, that for almost half a century, he was emphatically styled "Mr. Wesley's right hand." He died in England, August 22d, 1800, and in his dying experience was accomplished that saying of the Psalmist: “Mark the perfect, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace."

J. K.

† A place about five miles from his parish, on which he had bestow. ed much labour, and where he had gathered a small society.

is Jesus's love; let us both go and abide in it, and when we have gathered as many as we can to go with us, too many will still stay behind." May 27, 1766, he says to a friend, "The coming of Mr. Wesley's preachers into my parish gives me no uneasiness. As I am sensible that every body does better, and, of course, is more acceptable than myself, I should be sorry to deprive any one of a blessing; and I rejoice that the work of God goes on by any instrument or in any place."

Thus this man of God laboured to be useful in every possible way. By preaching, conversing, writing; by instructing, reproving, encouraging; exhorting; by warning, and beseeching; by word and deed; by acting and suffering, and especially by letting his light shine before men, and exhibiting to their view an example of sincere and genuine piety and virtue, he endeavoured, with the most ardent zeal, and unwearied diligence, to advance the honour and interest of his divine master. At home and abroad, in company and alone, in public and in private, he ceased not to keep in view and prosecute his great and important design.

But although, as will readily be allowed by every unprejudiced reader of this Narrative, "he* was far more abundant in his public labours, than the greater part of his companions in the holy ministry; yet," as Mr. Gilpin justly observes, "these bore but little proportion to those internal exercises of prayer and supplication, to which he was wholly given up in private. The former, of necessity, were frequently discontinued; but the latter were almost uninterruptedly maintained, from hour to hour. He lived in the spirit of prayer; and whatever employments he was engaged in, this spirit was constantly manifested through them all. Without this he neither formed any design, nor entered upon any duty: without this, he neither read, nor

* Gilpin's Notes.