Hester Ann Rogers: A Woman Above Rubies.

If it is difficult for Christian men to find godly role models in the church today, surely it is even more difficult for women; Paula White? Victoria Osteen? Hardly the epitome of Christian modesty and meekness! Just like the men, ladies find themselves looking to godly women of the past, who knew what it was to serve the Lord with holiness and personal sacrifice. One such woman was Hester Ann Rogers.



"Hetty" was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire on January 31, 1756. She said that even as a child, she "was early drawn out to secret prayer: I believed God was the author of all good, of all happiness; and sin the cause of all misery and pain. If therefore I wished for anything I had not, I asked God in secret to grant it to me."

After the death of her Father, she was troubled with grief and she tells of how her Mother sought to "raise my spirits" by encouraging her to dance and to engage with non-Christian friends and relations. This produced within her a lighter mood, however she began to grieve the loss of the presence of God."It paved the way to lightness, trifling, love of pleasure, and various evils," she writes. "I now aimed to excel my companions, not in piety, but in fashionable dress" and "what the world calls innocent amusement. I also obtained all the novels and romances I possibly could...in short I fell into all the vain customs and pleasures of a delusive world...Thus was my precious time misspent and my foolish heart wandering far from happiness and God." Convicted of sin, she vowed to get right with God, yet it was not long after that she was gripped by "a malignant fever." Gradually, the Lord brought a growing conviction on Hester and she found herself under the preaching of one Mr Simpson. She began to cry out, as if in agony at the thought of her own sinfulness and "made a solemn vow to renounce and forsake all my sinful pleasures and trifling companions." She must have took the vow seriously, because in the morning, she took all her "finery, high dressed caps etc. etc. and ripped them all up, so that I could wear them no more..."


Methodism

Hester was drawn to the preaching of the new "Methodists." She reports, "Mr Wesley's sermon on Justification was a great encouragement to me, on those words, To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is imputed to him for righteousness."
After much inner turmoil and wrestling, Hester Ann Rogers gave her heart to the Lord and was wonderfully born again. She writes, "In that moment my fetters were broken, my bands were loosed, and my soul set at liberty. The love of God was shed abroad in my heart; and I rejoiced with joy unspeakable."


Marriage

When itinerant Methodist Preacher James Rogers came to Macclesfield in 1782, after the death of his first wife, Hester married him. The two of them embarked as Missionaries to Ireland, ministering in Cork and Dublin. Hester ended up being John Wesley's housekeeper and one of the few people at his bedside when he died in 1791. Thomas Coke wrote of her:


"her maternal care and affection shone equally bright. Though she devoted much of her time to religious duties in public and private, yet nothing seemed to be left undone which could maker her children comfortable and happy. She even prevented all their wants; and was equally, nay, if it were possible, more attentive to Mr. Roger’s children by his former wife, than to her own."


In a letter to a friend, simply called "Miss D." she writes, "Go on, my dear sister: it is a blessed path: the goodly land is before-the land of sacred liberty, and glorious rest from all sin. Oh that that you may soon prove, by happy experience, "perfect love casteth out all (slavish) fear!"


Death

On the 10th October 1794, after giving birth to a son, at the age of 39, she went to be with the Lord. She remains one of the great women of evangelical Methodism.

"Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies." (Proverbs 31:10)

(Quotations taken primarily from "Life and Correspondence of Mrs Hester Ann Rogers.")

John Fletcher: His Life and His Legacy.

 

 

John William Fletcher (September 12, 1729 – August 14, 1785), was born at Nyon in Switzerland, his original name being de la Fléchère.

Fletcher was a contemporary of John Wesley (the founder of Methodism), a key interpreter of Wesleyan theology in the 18th century, and one of Methodism's first great theologians. He sometimes preached with John Wesley and assisted him with clerical duties in Wesley's London chapels.  Of French Huguenot stock, his given name was actually Jean Guillaume de la Fléchère. Fletcher was renowned in the Britain of his day for his piety and generosity; when asked if he had any needs, he responded, "...I want nothing but more grace."

In 1757 Fletcher was ordained as deacon (6 March 1757) and priest (13 March 1757) in the Church of England, after preaching his first sermon at Atcham being appointed curate to the Rev. Rowland Chambre in the parish of Madeley, Shropshire, whom he succeeded as Vicar of Madeley.

 

“His prescription for this success appears to have been a mixture of prevailing prayer, personal devotion to the Person of Christ, intensive study of the Scriptures, social concern for the flock, and a willing readiness to visit anyone who was in any form of trouble. He had a special corner in his study which he favoured as a place to pray; there he knelt for hours every day-the wall opposite bearing the mark of his agonised petitions. For two evenings a week he sat up reading, in order to obtain a better understanding of the Christian faith, until-just before dawn and overcome with sleep-he retired for a few hours. He organised, and played a large part in, care for the aged, the poor, the dying, widows and orphans. He showed a typical evangelical compassion for the social needs of those around him, and gave sacrificially in order that his vision might become reality. His giving was so extensive that little was left of his stipend for the maintenance of his house and for meals.” (An Appreciation of John Fletcher – David R. Smith)

 

In theology he upheld the Arminian doctrines of free will and unlimited atonement, against the Calvinist  doctrines of unconditional election and limited atonement. His Arminian theology is most clearly outlined in his famous Checks to Antinomianism. He attempted to confront his (and John Wesley's) theological adversaries with courtesy and fairness, although some of his contemporaries judged him harshly for his writings. His resignation on doctrinal grounds of the superintendency (1768–1771) of the countess of Huntingdon's college at Trevecca left no unpleasantness. Fletcher was characterized by saintly piety, rare devotion, and blamelessness of life, and the testimony of his contemporaries to his godliness is unanimous.

Fletcher became the chief systematizer of Methodist theology. Addressing Wesley's position on the sovereignty of God as it relates to human freedom, Fletcher developed a particular historical perspective espousing a series of three dispensations (time periods) in which God worked uniquely in creation. (This is not to be confused with Dispensational theology, which was fashioned long after Fletcher's death.) Through these dispensations, God's sovereignty was revealed not in terms of ultimate power but in terms of an unfathomable love. Fletcher sought to emphasize human freedom while connecting it firmly with God's grace.

He typically wrote of God in terms of divine moral qualities rather than in terms of power or wrath. His themes were:

"1. Man is utterly dependent upon God's gift of salvation, which cannot be earned but only received; and

2. The Christian religion is of a personal and moral character involving ethical demands on man and implying both human ability and human responsibility."

 

 John Fletcher himself summarized his theological position thus:

"The error of rigid Calvinists centers in the denial of that evangelical liberty, whereby all men, under various dispensations of grace, may without necessity choose life...And the error of rigid Arminians consists in not paying a cheerful homage to redeeming grace, for all the liberty and power which we have to choose life, and to work righteousness since the fall...To avoid these two extremes, we need only follow the Scripture-doctrine of free-will restored and assisted by free-grace."