myself happy in making this discovery. I preach _merely_ to keep
the chapel open until God shall send a workman _after His own
heart_."

During the famous earthquake of nine years before a little Welsh girl
named Mary Price was then attending a London school. The children were
frightened nearly out of their wits by the upheaval, the crash of
broken glass, the long subterranean rumbling, and, in common with many
London residents, in that hour little Mary promised to serve God. For
nine years she strove and prayed, but found no way by which she could
come near to Him. Persuaded by a friend who knew her inward sorrow,
she sought out the despised Methodist meeting-house in Seven Dials,
and there heard Fletcher preaching for his "one soul." Light flashed
through all her being as she listened, and that morning Mary Price saw
the "Way" to unerring "Truth" and everlasting "Life," entering later
on into lifelong communion with Him whom her spirit had so earnestly
sought.

For fifty-nine years Mary was a shining light in the kingdom of grace.




CHAPTER IX.

THE VICAR OF MADELEY.



At thirty years of age Fletcher was pressed to become a missionary to