Fletcher and the Three Hebrews
JOHN WILLIAM FLETCHER, native of Nyon, Switzerland
(1729), and graduate of the University of Geneva, was
prevented by an accident from becoming a soldier of the
Portuguese Army in Brazil.
As he was about to start, a
serving-maid spilled a kettle of boiling water on him,
incapacitating him for some time. Later, under Methodist
influence, he entered into a Christian experience and
became one of Wesley's preachers. Still later he was
appointed vicar of the Church of England at Madeley, a
notoriously wicked community.
On Sunday mornings he went about at five o clock,
ringing a bell to rouse people in time for service. His
church soon was crowded, to the disgust of a group of
evildoers who determined to stop him. They arranged a
"bull-baiting" near his preaching place and planned to
pull him off his horse when he arrived. But, called to a
child's funeral, he was providentially a little late for the
service; and, while the conspirators were in a drinking
booth, the bull broke loose, charged the tent and scattered
them so effectually that he preached in peace.
A butcher forbade his wife attending Fletcher's church
threatening to cut her throat if she went. When she
started to go, he exclaimed, "Are you going to Fletcher s
church?" "I am," she replied. "Then, I shall not cut
your throat as I intended, he declared, "`but I will heat
the oven and throw you into it, when you come home!"
Fletcher preached that morning on the first Scripture
lesson of the day-the three Hebrews, saved in the flames
of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. The message so heartened
the distracted woman that, on returning, she
courageously faced her husband and conquered his evil spirit
until he was convicted of sin.
This article was taken from the book entitled "One Hundred and One Methodist Stories" by Carl F. Price and
published by the Methodist Book Concern.
