doctrinal controversy.

This time of waiting for God to show his future sphere of work was
much blessed to Fletcher in spiritually preparing him for it. Through
an incident in which he was much misunderstood by many, he learned the
all-important lesson to a preacher, that a sermon full of the most
vigorous ideas is as nothing if not inspired by the living Spirit.

His own account of the matter is brief but instructive:--

"Just as I was going to resume my daily course of business I was
called to preach in a church at Salop, and was obliged to compose a
sermon in the moments I should have spent in prayer. Hurry and the
want of a single eye drew a veil between the prize and my soul. In the
meantime Sunday came, and God rejected my impure service and abhorred
the labour of my polluted soul; and while others imputed my not
preaching to the fear of the minister who had invited me to his
pulpit, and to the threatenings of a mob, I saw the wisdom and
holiness of God, and rejoiced in that providence which does all
without the assistance of hurrying Uzzah."

During the holidays Fletcher would betake himself to London, giving
all his time to service in connection with a chapel in Seven Dials.
The sermon he did not preach bore fruit in his own heart, and to his
beloved friend, Charles Wesley, he wrote: "May God water the poor seed
I have sown, and give it fruitfulness, _though it be only in one
soul!_ But I have seen so much weakness in my heart, both as a
minister and a Christian, that I know not which is most to be pitied--
the man, the believer, or the preacher. Could I at last be
_truly_ humbled and _continue so always_, I should esteem