Wesley in a service there--a sufficiently unusual commencement of a
clergyman's career!




CHAPTER VII.

TURNED FROM HOME.



Mary Bosanquet's determination to lay aside the ordinary pleasures of
girlhood, and live a life of waiting upon God for the revelation of
His will, came just two months after John Fletcher's ordination.
Little enough happened to her for a couple of years, save that she
succeeded in increasingly impressing those around her that it was
useless to invite her into paths of worldliness and frivolity. When a
girl of nineteen she stayed for seven weeks in Bristol, renewing there
her friendship with Miss Sarah Ryan--to whom Fletcher wrote some of
his famous letters--through whom, and through Mrs. Crosby, Mary was
introduced to her future husband.

When she came of age Mary Bosanquet found herself mistress of her
personal fortune, and more strongly than ever was she assured that she
might do better work for God if she left her own home. Always afraid
of moving before the Guiding Pillar, however, she feared exceedingly
to take this step unless the express command were laid upon her.

One day her father asked for her solemn promise that she would not try