From Miss C. Rhodes in Nottingham to Mary Fletcher in Madeley. Since Rhodes last wrote, she has been favoured with many divine blessings ‘but during the course of the last year I have been permitted to pass through the deep waters of temptation and suffering many ways, partly I think owing to my not persevering in the line of action the Lord hath called and blessed me with in the preceding year.’
Through the persuasion of her Christian friends and her own retiring nature, Rhodes allowed herself to remain at home in Leeds for over a year. She spent the time meeting with her class and band etc, but she found that she did not prosper as usual. Rhodes gradually lost spiritual ground and the Lord showed her that if she remained where she was, she was in danger of losing her soul.
Rhodes felt terribly depressed but no sooner had she complied with the Lord’s prompting, then she was lifted and felt that she was once more walking in God’s path. ‘My soul began to rise and my spirit was led out to action in the prayer meetings, classes etc…’
Rhodes did feel some disquiet at the thought of her disobedience and were in not for the Lord’s intervention, she would have sunk under the weight of her remorse. ‘Some four or five years ago, I had a particular dream which of late has often been brought to my mind and I believe was from God; and might if I had attended to it proved a means of escaping much of the exercises I have passed through. I thought I was in the Leeds preaching house with a tolerable congregation. An elderly man in the habit and character of a physician came into the pulpit and began the meeting as usual with prayer. He then stood up and said he had brought a receipt to cure the leprosy and had many of them in his pocket. Immediately I looked upon the congregation and was astonished to see them all…covered with the leprosy. The very air also was offensive with the infection. He then moved forwards towards the gallery and gave everyone a receipt, I reached out my hand for one, and observed a spot upon the side of my hand. I said to him see I have a spot on my hand, what is this? He said in a most solemn manner, it is the leprosy, and if you do not get out of this place you will be covered in it. I immediately felt as if moved by an invisible power…and found myself in a country village in a pure air speaking of the new birth and salvation to all that came near…’
Recent events have proved to her that when she settled down at Leeds, her soul has not prospered although she has many friends and privileges there – perhaps too many. ‘Yet now I can give up my will to the Lord, the providence of God opens my way to many places and I have now been from home seven months, and blessed be God my soul prospers…I have lately been permitted to pass through some close and severe attacks from the powers of darkness…I see I must enter into life by death, the old man must be crucified before I can fully live by the power of Christ’s resurrection…’ Spiritual matters are discussed in detail.
Rhodes has been in Nottingham for over three months and is now staying with [William] Bramwell. He is one of the most holy men of all the Methodist preachers and has been made extremely useful. God’s work has been much revived in this place and the wider circuit – there have been many conversions during the winter ‘and there has been a very great increase of the work of sanctification amongst believers.’ The Nottingham society has never been in a more prosperous state.
In a postscript, she asks that if Fletcher were to write to her during the next fortnight, the letter should be sent to her at [William] Bramwell’s house in Coal Pit Lane, Nottingham. After that time, she can be reached at the house of Mr [Thomas] Holy, ‘upon the moor, Sheffield.
Notes
- Thomas Holy (1752-1830) was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, the eldest son of a businessman Thomas Holy and his wife Sarah. His family had early connections with Sheffield Methodism. His maternal uncle John Wilson was closely involved with the erection of the town’s second chapel in 1746 and Holy’s mother Sarah was also a devout member of the society. Holy was educated by Revd. John Ryland of Northampton and in 1766, just after leaving school, he joined the Wesleyan society. The well-known itinerant Matthew Mayer of Stockport, a close friend of the Holy family, was a particularly strong spiritual influence. Holy’s father died in 1760 and his mother passed away when the boy was sixteen, leaving him in charge of the family business and with care of his brothers and sisters. Despite his youth, Holy quickly proved himself an astute and principled businessman. During the course of his life he amassed a very large fortune. Holy remained a staunch Methodist throughout his life, although the press of business prevented him from taking on lay offices. John Wesley stayed with him during his visits to Sheffield and used to preach in front of Holy’s house. He was generous in his giving and was particularly concerned with the needs of Methodist ministers and their families. It was one of his customs for example, to present five guineas to preachers called into the itinerancy from the Sheffield circuit He was also a supporter of overseas missions and presided at one of the first public meetings of what became the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society. His greatest contribution was however the erection and maintenance of chapels. It was stated in his obituary that ‘there are few Methodist chapels…within twenty or thirty miles round Sheffield, to whose erection, or subsequent relief from debt, he did not contribute.’ His generosity was not confined to Methodist causes but encompassed all the major Protestant denominations. Holy died after a long decline on 9 November 1830 and was buried in a family vault close to Carver Street Chapel. Source: Arminian Magazine 1832, 1 and Revd. T. Alexander Seed, History of Norfolk Street Chapel and Wesleyan Methodism in Sheffield (London, [1907])