314 OUR HYMNS :
before him a path to the highest honours, but he preferred to be useful in an humbler circle. He was a county magistrate for many years, but declined to be a candidate for a place in Parliament. Possessed of great wealth, he gratefully acted as a steward of God, and freely gave what he had freely received. The writer of an interesting sketch in " Good Words," July, 1864, says, " the present writer speaks from knowledge, and strictly within the limits, in saying, that for a series of years Mr. Fletcher s annual benefactions amounted to nearly thirty or forty per cent, of his income." To the Bible and Missionary Societies he con tributed very largely, and also to the Manchester City Mission, paying the annual stipend of one missionary. To the various institutions of the Congregational Church, Grosvernor Street, he was also for more than half a century a very liberal contributor. He had begun his membership there in 1806, under the Rev. W. Roby, during whose ministry he was also a deacon of the church. In all his benefactions, Mr. Fletcher exercised a careful discrimi nation ; not unfrequently surpassing the expectation of those who needed his help by the munificence of his gifts, and sometimes seeking out for help ministers and others who were sorrowing in secret over their pecuniary embarrassments : and his munificence was without pride as it was without ostentation. A sentence in his diary, penned when he moved to Broomfield, is characteristic of his humble Christian "walk with God." " This day I removed with my family to Cheetham Hill, and took possession of a house more spacious and costly than I .ever expected. I pray to God that my heart may not be lifted up on this account, and that I may not be permitted to indulge proud and vain thoughts of my own sufficiency and stability ; and disposed to be less earnest in seeking a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, " He died, October 13th, 18G3, in his seventy- ninth year.
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