paused and added the words “father here departed.”80 Much has happened since Wesley’s death as the “father in God” of the Arminian Methodists. The American Methodists had already begun to follow their divergent way. Wesley and Fletcher of Madeley had written against the American Revolution, and Fletcher had been offered preferment for his efforts, to which he had typically replied that he did not want promotion but “more grace.” Wesley’s stature, and Fletcher’s saintliness, survived their opposition
Page 60