The history of Methodism . mparting, unaffected deference with which he addressedeven his inferiors. Wesley completes his picture of himwith the lines paraphrased from Milton : Grace was in all his steps, heaven in his eye,In all his gestures sanctity and love. It is true that in the heat of the conflict— the rapture ofthe strife —his impetuosity sometimes carried him too far;but the frankness and humility with which he confessed, de-plored, and asked pardon for this, formed an ample compen-sation. His love to all saints was invincible, however repug-nant to his convictions their tenets and th
The history of Methodism . mparting, unaffected deference with which he addressedeven his inferiors. Wesley completes his picture of himwith the lines paraphrased from Milton : Grace was in all his steps, heaven in his eye,In all his gestures sanctity and love. It is true that in the heat of the conflict— the rapture ofthe strife —his impetuosity sometimes carried him too far;but the frankness and humility with which he confessed, de-plored, and asked pardon for this, formed an ample compen-sation. His love to all saints was invincible, however repug-nant to his convictions their tenets and their terminologymight be. He would have replied to a universal excommu-nication by an ecumenical embrace. Fie declares, Theymay build up a wall of partition between themselves and me,but in the strength of my God, whose love is as boundless ashis immensity, I will leap over the wall. In this respectFletcher and Wesley were not only in advance of their age,but in advance of every age, as yet, except that of the CHAPTER CVJohn Fletchers Last Benedictions Hallowed Memories of Conference.—An Impromptu Open-airSacrament. — Devotion and Debate.—Under the Wings ofthe Cherubim.—God is Love! Shout! Shout Aloud!—Memorials of the Fletchers. THE Protestant saint was no recluse. John Fletcherspure and lofty heavenly-mindedness did not alienatehim from his age. His asceticism, as Mr. Macdonaldhas remarked, was the asceticism of love, and not of bondageor of fear. He was a Methodist of the Methodists, and hewas delighted when Wesley succeeded in persuading the con-verts at Madeley to meet in class. He built a Methodistmeetinghouse in his village, and regarded Christian fellow-ship as essential to a New Testament Church. He greetedthe lay preachers as brethren, and his appearance at Wes-leys Conferences produced the same remarkable spiritualimpression on them as it did on his visitors and hearerselsewhere. At the Bristol Conference of 1777 he was passing by thedoor of t
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