Christian Leaders of the Last Century — J. C. Ryle
I believe that no one ever reads his Bible with attention without being struck with the deep beauty of the fourteenth Chapter of John’s gospel. I suspect that few readers of that marvelous Chapter fail to notice the wondrous saying of our Lord, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.” Cold and dull must be the heart that is not roused and stirred by these words.
This beautiful saying, of late years, has been painfully wrested from its true meaning. Men of whom better things might have been expected, have misapplied it sadly, and imposed a false sense on it. They have dared to say that men of all faiths and creeds will find a place in Heaven at last; and that “every man shall be saved by the religion which he professes, so long as he is diligent to frame his mind according to that law and the light of nature.” They would have us believe that the inhabitants of Heaven will he a mixed body, including heathen idolaters and Mohammedans as well as Christians, and comprising members of every religious denomination in the world, however opposite and antagonistic their respective opinions may be. Miserable indeed is such theology! Wretched is the prospect which it holds out to us of eternity! Small could be the harmony in such a heterogeneous assembly! At this rate, Heaven would be no Heaven at all.
But we must not allow human misinterpretations to make us overlook great truths. It is true, in a most comfortable sense, that “in our Father’s house there are many mansions,” and that all who are washed in Christ’s blood, and renewed by Christ’s Spirit, will find a place in Heaven, though they may not see eye to eye upon earth. There is room in our Father’s house for all who trust the Head, however much they may differ on points of minor importance. There is room for Calvinists and room for Arminians, room for Episcopalians and room for Presbyterians, room for Thomas Cranmer and room for John Knox, room for John Bunyan and room for George Herbert, room for Henry Martyn and room for Dr. Judson, room for Edward Bickersteth and room for Robert M’Cheyne, room for Chalmers of Edinburgh, and room for Daniel Wilson of Calcutta. Yes! Thank God, our Father’s house is a very large one. There is room in it for all who are true-hearted believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thoughts such as these come crowding over my mind as I take up my pen to write an account of the eleventh spiritual hero of the eighteenth century, whom I want to introduce to my readers. The man whom I mean is the well-known John Fletcher, vicar of Madeley. I cannot forget that there was a doctrinal gulf between him and my last hero, Toplady, and that while one was a Calvinist of Calvinists, the other was an Arminian of Arminians. But I will never shut my eyes to the fact that Fletcher was a Christian as well as an Arminian. Mistaken, as I think he was, on some points, he was certainly thoroughly right on others. He was a man of rare grace, and a minister of rare usefulness. In short, I think that no account of English religion a hundred years ago could be considered just, fair, and complete, which did not supply some information about Fletcher of Madeley.
John William Fletcher was a native of Switzerland, and was born at Nyon on the 12th of September 1729. His real name was De La Flechiere, and he is probably known by that name among his own countrymen to this day. In England, however, he was always called Fletcher, and, for convenience sake, I shall only speak of him by that name. His father was first an officer in the French army, and afterwards a colonel in the militia of his own country. The family is said to have been one of the most respectable in the canton of Berne, and a branch of an earldom of Savoy.
Fletcher appears to have been remarkable for cleverness even when a boy. At the first school which he went to at Geneva, he carried away all the prizes, and was complimented by the teachers and managers in a very flattering manner. During his residence at Geneva, his biographer records that “he allowed himself but little time either for recreation, refreshment, or rest. After studying hard all day, he would often consume the greater part of the night in writing down whatever had occurred in the course of his reading which seemed worthy of observation. Here he acquired that true classical taste which was so frequently and justly admired by his friends, and which all his studied plainness could never entirely conceaL Here, also, he laid the foundation of that extensive and accurate knowledge for which he was afterwards distinguished, both in philosophy and theology.”
From Geneva his father sent him to a small Swiss town called Leutzburg, where he not only acquired the German language, but also diligently prosecuted his former studies. On leaving Leutzburg, he continued some time at home, studying the Hebrew language, and perfecting his acquaintance with mathematics. Such was Fletcher’s early training and education. I ask the reader’s special attention to it. It supplies one among many proofs that those who call the leaders of the English revival of religion in the last century “poor, ignorant, illiterate fanatics,” are only exposing their own ignorance. They know neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. In the mere matter of learning, Wesley, Romaine, Berridge, Hervey, Toplady, and Fletcher, were second to few men in their day.