He soon after left Switzerland, and with great pain and difficulty reached Douay, in French Flanders, where he was taken worse, and died in peace, Dec. 2, 1781. A little time after, Mr. Fletcher wrote as follows to his father: LETTER CXXVIII. REV. AND DEAR SIR, To the Same. WHILE I condole with you about the death of my dear friend, and your dear son, I congratulate you about the resignation and Christian fortitude with which you, Abraham-like, lay him upon the altar of our heavenly Father's providential, good, and acceptable will. We shall one day see why he made your sons go before you, and my kind physician before me. About the time he died, so far as I can find by your kind letter, a strong concern about him fell upon me by day and by night, insomuch that I could not help waking my wife* to join me in praying for him and at once that concern ceased, nor have I since had any such spiritual feeling; whence I concluded that the conflict I supposed my friend to be in, was ended. But how surprised was I to find it was by death! Well, whether Paul or Apollos, or life or death, all things are our's through Jesus, who knows how to bring good out of evil, and how to blow us into the harbour by a cross wind, and even by a dreadful storm. If, my dear friend, your son, has not quite completed his affairs in Switzerland, and an agent is necessary there for that purpose, I offer you the care and help of my brother, who was our counsellor, and who, I am sure, will do what lies in him to oblige the father of him whom he had the pleasure of having some time under *He was then married. his roof, as a sick monument of Christian meekness and resignation. I am but poorly, though I serve yet my church without a curate, Mr. Bailey being wanted at Kingswood. But what are we ? Pocr mortals, dying in the midst of a world of dying or dead men. But in the midst of death we are in Christ, the resurrection and the life, to whom be glory for ever. prays, Rev. and dear Sir, Your affectionate Son and Servant in the Gospel, J. FLETCHER.” So BRIEF OUTLINES OF SERMONS. THE OUTLINES here presented to the Public, have been selected from a great number of others,-regard being had rather to the important subjects on which they treat, than to the skilful disposition of the matter which they contain. It must always be considered injurious to the deserved posthumous reputation of an able minister, to have such slender helps to thought, as these are, exposed to public view. Yet in the few specimens which follow, meagre thought they be, the intelligent reader may trace the master-mind of the Author of the Checks, and the Christian zeal and charity of the Vicar of Madeley. They will also be perused with considerable interest by all those who have rightly estimated the spirituality, fervour, and unction which accompanied the ministrations of this eminent Christian Pastor; and on beholding the judi~ cious (yet very imperfect) array of his scriptural materials, every pious man will be tempted to apply to them, in an accommodated sense, the expression of the banished Grecian orator concerning his celebrated rival, "What would you have felt, had you heard Fletcher himself deliver them in their perfect form with divine pathos!” |