did obtain the victory, in a very eminent degree. For twenty years and
upwards before his death no one ever saw him out of temper, or heard
him utter a rash expression on any provocation whatever.... I never
saw him in any temper in which I myself would not have wished to be
found at death."

A friend who lived for some time in his house writes thus:--

"His enemies wrested his words, misrepresented his actions, and cast
out his name as evil; but whether he was insulted in his person or
injured in his property; whether he was attacked with open abuse or
pursued with secret calumny, he walked amid the most violent assaults
of his enemies, as a man invulnerable, and while his firmness
discovered that he was unhurt, his forbearance testified that he was
unoffended."

To a man with talents trained as were his, with a power of expression
which could melt into uncommon eloquence when he chose, with learning
to illuminate, judgment to balance his effects, and extreme quickness
of perception to adapt illustration and appeal to any audience,
Fletcher might have made for himself a mighty name. Instead of this,
"his design was to _convert_ and not to _captivate_ his
hearers; to secure their eternal interests, and not to obtain their
momentary applause.... He spake as in the presence of God, and taught
as one having Divine authority. There was an energy in his preaching
that was irresistible. His subjects, his language, his gestures, the
tone of his voice, and the turn of his countenance, all conspired to
fix the attention and affect the heart. Without aiming at sublimity,
he was truly sublime, and uncommonly eloquent without affecting the
orator."