With here and there such incidents to cheer him, Fletcher found, after
two years of rough work and numberless hindrances, that public respect
was taking the place of open opposition, and the word of truth, sown
in difficulty and hardness, was beginning to bring forth fruit in many
hearts. Wesley says of him:--

"Having chosen this narrow field of action, he was more and more
abundant in his ministerial labours, both in public and in private,
not contenting himself with preaching, but visiting his flock in every
corner of his parish. And this work he attended to, early and late,
whether the weather was fair or foul, regarding neither heat nor cold,
rain nor snow, whether he was on horseback or on foot. But this
farther weakened his constitution, which was still more effectively
done by his intense and uninterrupted studies, in which he frequently
continued with scarce any intermission fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen
hours a day. But still he did not allow himself such food as was
necessary to sustain nature. He seldom took any regular meals, except
he had company; otherwise, twice or thrice in four and twenty hours he
ate some bread and cheese or fruit. Instead of this, he sometimes took
a draught of milk, and then wrote on again. When one reproved him for
not affording himself a sufficiency of necessary food, he replied,
'Not allow myself food? Why, our food seldom costs my housekeeper and
me together less than two shillings a week!'"




CHAPTER XIII.

THE ORPHAN HOME.