Memoir of Rev. Joseph Badger Part 14

Messrs. Badger, Hathaway and Chapin, paused awhile at Williamsport, Pickaway County, where they gave seven sermons, and received the kind attentions of Rev. George Alkire, of whom he speaks in very respectful terms. Holding meetings in Platt and Highland Counties, he parted with Mr. H. on the 19th, who travelled to Cincinnati _via_ Kentucky, and pa.s.sed ten days with Rev. M. Gardner, in whose congregations he attended sixteen meetings and preached to large and respectable a.s.semblies. At Ripley, Brown County, he formed the acquaintance of Hon. E. Campbell, who had many years been a member of the United States Senate; of him and his father-in-law, Mr. Dunlap, a native of Virginia, and among the first settlers of Kentucky, a man who had emanc.i.p.ated thirty slaves and applied his own hands to labor, he speaks in honoring terms. "His colored people," says Mr. B., "still flock around him as their benefactor, and love him as their best friend on earth."

"On the 29th of November, I reached this pleasant city.

Here, and in the adjoining country, I have had glorious times, an account of which you may expect in my next number. I have succeeded in obtaining a history of the churches and conferences in the west and south beyond my expectations. The preachers appear friendly, and willing to lend every possible a.s.sistance. I shall be able, in a few weeks, to give your readers a general representation of the state of things west of the Alleghany mountains, in which vast extent of country are many thousands of happy Christians who renounce all party creeds and names, and, with their naked Bibles in hand, are rejoicing in the hope of immortality."

The next dates Ripley, 0., January 12, 1826. Our journalist says:--

"The prejudices, customs, ways, manners, and opinions of men, how various! But these are not the fruit of nature or grace, but the products of education. Nature and grace are the same in every country, and vary only in form and degree.

"Cincinnati is a beautiful city, situated on the north bank of the great Ohio river, and has a population of about 15,000 souls. It is surrounded, on the east, north and west, by hills, except the narrow but rich valley of Mill Creek, which makes its way through from the north. Its location is dry, healthy, and truly romantic. Its streets are wide and pleasant, and its buildings elegant, in eastern style. The manners of the people are a compound of southern politeness and generosity, and of eastern refinement, taste, and simplicity. The civility of every cla.s.s of people, down to the teamster and carman, exceeds that of any city I ever visited. The market, for neatness and variety, is equal to any in America, and its price only about one-half that of Montreal, Boston, and New York. The city council are making great improvements, and the city if fast populating. Its climate is mild and agreeable, and, as it is near the centre of American settlements, _I know not what it may yet become_."

Such was the Queen City in 1825. The state of religion there he describes as low, "if," says he, "we speak of experimental religion; many have profession, form and name, but we shall come short of heaven without something more." He speaks of Mr. Burk, a popular Methodist minister, as having renounced Episcopacy and taken with him a large congregation, as being so far illuminated as to "see men as trees walking;" Mr. Badger quotes the words of Franklin--"Where there is no contradiction there is no light," as applying well to agitations of this sort. Of the new reformers among the Baptists, he speaks as follows:--

"The Baptists in Cincinnati, also, have had revivals, but among them exists a great commotion, and a large congregation join with those in Kentucky and Virginia in the general dissent from creeds. Dr. Fishback, of Kentucky, and Alexander Campbell, of Virginia, are the champions in this cause. They oppose sectarian bondage with considerable ability and success. Mr. Campbell is truly a man of war, and acts the part of a Peter with his drawn sword; but, whether they will have humility, grace, and pure religion enough to 'revive the ancient order of things' in the original spirit and simplicity of the Gospel, or whether they will be laborious architects of their own fame, remains for their future conduct to prove."

In Preble County, fifty miles north of Cincinnati, Mr. B. preached several sermons at Eaton, the county seat; the sheriff of the county was his chorister and host, whose house, owing to the good order of the country, was dest.i.tute of a prisoner; the rooms usually occupied by criminals being now used to keep the earth's productions. On the authority of two ministers and several other persons who were eye-witnesses, Mr. Badger relates that he spoke in the house where, in 1821, during a great reformation, Jacob Woodard, a Deist, was struck dead by an unseen power while in the act of forcing his wife out of the meeting; that he never breathed or struggled after he fell--a phenomenon that belongs to many other marvellous instances of nearly inexplicable events we have heard of in connection with the earlier religious revivals in Ohio. Mr. Badger thoroughly explored that State, and with great satisfaction visited Kentucky. Indeed, the easy and courteous manners of Mr. Badger, his happy extemporaneous gifts, his love of society and generous sentiments, peculiarly adapted him to the admiration and acceptance of the South. Of Rev. B. W. Stone and lady, he speaks in the most exalted terms; and, whatever may have been the speculative differences between Mr. Stone and his brethren in later years, all must unite in one concession to the soundness of his learning, the clearness of his criticisms, and in what is eternally above all other things, the beauty and excellence of his Christian character. Mr. B. now returned home to Mendon, Ontario[39] County, New York, and further narrates the particulars of his adventures. He surveys with grateful pleasure the scenes he has witnessed, the kindnesses he has received, the new acquaintances and friends he had gained; and from experience and observation he was prepared to speak in the most friendly terms of his brethren in the south and west, and the tidings he brought when formally announced was, to use the language of Mr. Millard, "received with much joy." The brethren of the West were reported as having no creed but the Bible, and they "wear no name but such as the Scriptures authorize, that they uniformly believe in the simple doctrine that there is ONE G.o.d, the CREATOR, ONE JESUS, the Redeemer, ONE HOLY GHOST, the Sanctifier;" that they generally favor the preexistence of Christ, regarding the Socinian view of him as derogatory to the character of the Christian religion.

"Free salvation," says Mr. B., "is sounded through all their congregations, and Gospel liberty is the key-note of every song. No point of doctrine is made a criterion of fellowship, but Christian fellowship rests alone on the true bias of _spirit_ and _practice_. They are simple, una.s.suming, and spiritual in their preaching and worship; the labor of the ministers is to make their hearers good: a great share of singing and prayer is interspersed through their meetings. For twenty years they have been in the way of holding camp-meetings, but the practice is fast declining, though in many cases good has resulted from them. Our brethren in the west and south are as well supplied with preachers as our churches are in the east, if not better,--preachers who are acquainted with the manners of the people, and are in a capacity to do much more good than eastern men can do among them."

Under date of April 1, 1826, Mr. Badger gives a very lengthy, interesting, and we should judge faithful account of his visit in Ohio and Kentucky, of the proceedings of a Conference in each of those States, convened for the purpose of receiving and answering his message for the east; both of which were hearty in their responses of friendship, and both furnished him with materials for giving their true history to their brethren of the east and north. He speaks of three denominational centres, which he thinks the future will witness, each having a periodical and a book-store connected with it, Cincinnati the centre for the west, New York for the east, and some place in one of the Carolinas for the south. From Rev. William Kinkade, that able, strong-minded and heroic divine, who had served his country in legislative councils, and humanity by his ministry, Mr. Badger received a strong letter, giving an account of the rise and growth of the Christian Conference on the Wabash, of one in Indiana, and touching on some of the larger points of primitive faith. He says:--

"While it gives me great pleasure to hear from you that primitive Christianity is reviving in the east, I hope you will be no less pleased to hear of its success in the west.

This vast country, which was lately a howling wilderness, now blossoms as the rose. On the big and little Wabash, which is still the haunt of savage men and wild beasts, there are now large churches of happy Christians. Along the Ambarra.s.s and b.u.mpa.s.s, where twelve years ago little else was heard but the howling of wolves, the hooting of owls, the fierce screams of panthers and the fiercer screams of wild Indians, painted for war and thirsting for human blood, are now heard the songs of Zion, the sound of prayer, and the voice of peace and pardon through a Redeemer. Among us the demon intolerance has been exposed in its multifarious character, and banished from the congregation of the faithful. Ignorance has given way to investigation; and love and union are daily triumphing over prejudice and partyism. But still I see, I feel, I lament a great want of that holiness and divine power which characterized the followers of Jesus in the first ages of Christianity."

"It is the word of G.o.d alone," said these stout, honest-hearted men of Ohio, when a.s.sembled--"the word of G.o.d alone, on which the Church of Christ will finally settle, build and grow into a holy temple of the Lord." Mr. Badger, after taking a list of the names of ministers in Kentucky and Ohio, and with a characteristic orderly minuteness, ascertained the number of churches and of meeting-houses they erected, the names of such as had died in the active duties of the ministry, returned home, rich in the benedictions of the regions he had visited, and with the resolve at some other season to penetrate the south further than he yet had gone. Perhaps the good impressions made on his mind by these journeys may be plead in conjunction with the wide sympathies of his nature, and the well-balanced cast of his intellect, as the reason why in all his life he was uncontrolled by local prejudice, and it may be a part of the reason why, that to him, and to the cause of free and Apostolical Christianity which he represented, there was no east, no west, no north, no south, as forming any limit to his friendly regards and Christian fellowship. At Cincinnati he gathered the few who held to like faith into a convenient place of worship, made arrangements with ministers for their supply, and before his return a general Conference was agreed upon at Cincinnati the last of October, 1826.

June 23d, at the Annual Session of the New York Western Christian Conference, he was, with Rev. A. C. Morrison, appointed a messenger to the United States Conference, to be holden at Windham, Ct., the first days of September, where among the responsible trusts committed to him, was that of acting as their messenger at the autumnal a.s.semblage of delegates and ministers who were to convene at Cincinnati. From April to August of this year, Mr. Badger was constantly engaged in the vicinity of home; at South Lima additions were made, the a.s.sembly was large; the society at Royalton he consigned to the care of Rev. E. Shaw, an able minister of the New Testament. August 18th, he visited New York city where he stayed two Sabbaths, and spoke to increasing a.s.semblies. His remarks on the commotion and dissent which at that time appeared among the Friends under the preaching of Elias Hix, his close and practical a.n.a.lysis of the state of society in New York city, though interesting, we must pa.s.s by; also his remarks on the general meetings he attended at Beekman and Milan, Dutchess County, and of one at Canaan, Columbia County, N. Y. Something tragical developed under his four sermons at Beekman. A minister of another sect, who had violently opposed the people and sentiments to which Mr. Badger belonged, was observed to weep much under his discourse, and afterwards was heard to say that it was the truth of G.o.d, and that none could deny it--the same night he went into a grove near his residence, and hung himself.

In Columbia County, Mr. Badger became acquainted with the venerable old minister, John Leland, of whom the world has heard much, a man then between seventy and eighty years old, but possessing the brilliancy of youth. Though local at the time, he said that his travels as a minister would measure three times around the globe. From Rev. Mr. Gardner, a prominent minister in Ohio, Mr. B. received these lines of invitation: "A second visit from yourself in this country will be well received. Our hearts and our houses are open to receive you, and many are inquiring, 'When will he return?'" Rev. Mr. Adams also writes: "The friends remember you with affection; they have not forgotten your sermons and good counsels; they are anxious to receive another visit from you, and think that you would do much good in this country. I am confident there is not a society you visited here but would unite in inviting you to return." Several such invitations were kindly showered upon him. He did return. We may ask where were _his_ idle days? It was one of his chosen maxims that "an idle person is the devil's playfellow." In all these labors we see a spirit that surveys the _general_ interest, plans for the general good, and leads along easily the minds of others into the possession of his own views and feelings. In the southern and western journey, narrated in this chapter, there were revivals in almost every place he visited, as we learn not only from his own journal, but more particularly from other and reliable sources.

His second tour through Ohio and Kentucky, in which he renewed and greatly enlarged his acquaintance, gave him a still larger estimate of the success of liberal principles in the west and south. By the advices of the best informed ministers, he learned that the account he had published the previous spring in relation to the number of ministers and brethren in the west was much too small, and that, using his own language, "it is a safe and moderate calculation to say, that in the several Conferences situate in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky, there are three hundred preachers and fifteen thousand brethren. They all worship ONE G.o.d IN ONE PERSON, and have NO CREED BUT THEIR BIBLE." He says:

"I have again pa.s.sed through the lofty forests and beautiful plains of Ohio; have seen the herds of wild deer sporting on the lovely prairie; have heard the screams of the fierce wolf, and have turned aside from these romantic beauties and terrors of nature to the wigwam of the savage to hear the praises of the Redeemer. Also, I have again visited the pleasant land of Kentucky; have seen the smiles of the convert, the tears of mourners, and have joined in worship with thousands of happy Christians in the west who are rejoicing in hope of immortality.

"It is now a more general time of reformation in the west than has been witnessed for many years past. At Dublin, Elder Isaac N. Walters has been very successful in winning souls to Christ. In Elder Alkire's vicinity the churches have received large additions of late. In Elder Gardner's congregations the number was increasing, and a new church had been organized within a few weeks. In Elder Rogers's neighborhood some sixty or seventy were hopefully converted; and from Elders Simonton, Vickers, Kyle and Miles I heard a good report. In Kentucky the prospect has not been so good as it now is for many years. News from the west part of Virginia, and east of Tennessee, by Elder William Lane, was very refreshing. Sectarianism there is fast falling. In Alabama the Lord is doing wonders, and the knowledge of _one_ G.o.d is fast increasing; in those regions he has raised up many able advocates for his pure doctrines. In Kentucky, my interview with the preachers, brethren and friends was very agreeable, and their kindness and friendship can never be forgotten by me. A message was sent to me by order of the church at Georgetown, seventy miles distant, inviting me to visit them. In Ohio, my visit was everywhere received with joy. At Cincinnati, the congregation was large and the prospect is good. Our friends there will probably build a brick meeting-house for the worship of ONE G.o.d IN ONE PERSON, in the course of next summer.

"Since July I have travelled about three thousand miles, and attended about one hundred meetings. My present tour has been attended with more fatigues than any journey I have ever performed. My preaching has been constant; and after meeting I have many times been constrained to engage in debate in which I have continued until morning. I have had to preach many sermons on disputed subjects, one at Cincinnati of three hours' length; though I had opponents present, they made no reply; one at Dublin of more than two hours; eight preachers present, but no reply; one at Richfield of two hours. G.o.d has stood by me in all my conflicts thus far, and many instances of his mercy have I witnessed of late. I have been once overturned in a stage, and in Kentucky I fell from my horse; in both instances narrowly escaped death."

In Columbiana County, the two colleagues of Mr. Badger, L. Hathaway and Asa Chapin, met a great excess of enthusiasm in public worship, against which they directed the cooler power of reason; and it seems that a strong paragraph in Mr. Badger's printed journal, in which he sharply and most independently reproved (as he always did under such circ.u.mstances) disorder and fanaticism in the house of G.o.d, caused a lengthy, explanatory, and complaining reply, to which Mr. B. very ably responded. Speaking of the one who had led the way in this wild enthusiasm, and whom he regarded as having been egotistically unpleasant to his colleagues, he applies the words of Johnson:

"Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart, Than when the BLOCKHEAD'S insult points the dart."

At a meeting of the General Conference held at West Bloomfield, September 7, 1827, a resolution of hearty approval was pa.s.sed in relation to what Mr. Badger had done for uniting the different branches of the Christian connection, east, west and south, and expressive of much gratification in the news obtained of the churches west of the Alleghanies.

CHAPTER XV.

MINISTRY AT BOSTON.

It is evident from what has already been developed in the character and public life of Joseph Badger, that his sympathies were extensive, that the cause which he always avowed to be dearer than life was everywhere a sacred unit, its wants being near, though located in a distant region.

Some men root so firmly in particular locality, that no considerations ever draw them to meet the emergencies of a distant post. Though strong in certain local attachments, though firmly persuaded of the value and necessity of permanent pastors, he believed in the utility of an evangelizing ministry for dest.i.tute places, for the breaking of new ground, and was ready at any time to hear the Macedonian cry, "Come over and help us."

The Christian Church in Boston, const.i.tuted July 1st, 1804, under the ministry of the venerable Abner Jones, whose preaching in 1803 in the Baptist churches of that town was attended by one of the greatest revivals ever known in that community, was, in the year 1826, left without a stated ministry, owing to the removal of their pastor, Rev.

Charles Morgridge, to New Bedford, for the purpose of taking the pastoral charge of the Purchase street church in that city. Their position at this time was very critical. Though they had succeeded in building a commodious house of worship, they were, from the nature of their sentiments, somewhat unpopular in a city where the Calvinistic theology had not as yet fully learned the lessons of becoming humility; and also were they embarra.s.sed by the influence of Dr. Elias Smith, whose popular eloquence was at this time employed in a way to injure the cause, which, in other years, he had done much to promote. The society had been for some time dest.i.tute of a stated pastor; and by the information obtained of their condition in the persuasive letters he received from Rev. Simon Clough, of New York, and from some leading members of the church in Boston, Mr. Badger was induced to leave his pleasant field of labor in the State of New York and to take up his residence in that city, where he intended to remain until their prosperity and the voice of higher duty should render it proper for him to leave.

Proceeding by the way of New York, where he preached four sermons to Mr.

Clough's congregation, he arrived at Boston on September 28th, where he received the cordial welcome and generous hospitality of his friend William Gridley, a man of n.o.ble spirit, good ability, and useful activities in the Christian cause. On the 30th, Mr. Badger preached three sermons in the Summer and Sea street Chapel, having, as he states, congregations that numbered about 400 in the morning, 800 in the afternoon, and 600 in the evening. Surveying the new field before him, he says, though informed by his friends that it was a low time, that "the prospect is good." Though Mr. Badger's letters do not state the exact time of his residence in this city, I find in a pa.s.sing notice from the able and truthful pen of John G. Loring--a man whose life, precepts, intelligence, and uniform fidelity to religion, rendered him one of the best citizens of Ma.s.sachusetts--that the time spent there was about one year.

In narrating the history of that society about the time that Mr.

Morgridge left them, Mr. Himes observes--"Some time now elapsed in which they had no stated pastor. They procured, at length, the services of Elder Joseph Badger; he labored with them between one and two years.

Much good was done. The church and society were built up, and sinners were converted."[40] This statement is the same that the people of Boston who attended his ministry have, so far as my recollections serve, invariably made; the common opinion is, that the church and society were never more uniformly prosperous, that the meetings were never better attended, and that the mind and heart of the audience were never more satisfactorily influenced and edified than they were under his ministry.

The strong and stable men who were _then_ the pillars of strength in that society have been its pillars ever since;[41] and though additions of value at different times have been made, it is certain that there was a largeness and n.o.bility to the timbers of the olden forest that it might be difficult to surpa.s.s in more recent growths.

As a pastor, Mr. Badger was attentive to the wants of his flock, for whom he cherished a tender care. "Though the situation is a trying one,"

said Mr. B., in a letter addressed to his wife, "I feel in duty bound to stay for the present, for this church must not perish. All my days and evenings are taken up by the duties of my present station." Writing from b.a.l.l.stown, N. Y., June 8, 1828, where he was attending a general meeting, after he had been at Boston for more than six months, and at his home in Mendon about two, he said--

"This hasty note, my dear Eliza,[42] which will no doubt be an unwelcome message, will inform you that I am pressingly urged to return immediately to Boston. The call is irresistible. And my agreeable home must for the present be abandoned, as the care and conflict of the Boston church are continually upon my mind."

The main element of success in any calling for which one has suitable capacity, was his, namely, a deep interest in the station he had taken.

In a letter addressed to Mrs. Badger, February 4, 1827, he narrates very affectingly his visit to Farmington, the sacred memories of the heart that revived in his mind as he visited that place, and Gilmanton, where, with relatives and many former friends, he enjoyed the bliss of a friendship to which years of time had added a new degree of sacredness.

It is impossible to read these pa.s.sages, which were the spontaneous and unstudied utterances of his mind thrown into his domestic correspondence, without seeing a sincere wealth of heart, which his light and buoyant manner in the world was often calculated to conceal rather than to express. In addressing the Luminary, May 9, 1828, he says:

"I intended in this number of my Journal, to have given a general account of all the religious societies in Boston, but other things have prevented my giving that attention to the subject which would be necessary in this case; I must therefore omit it till some future period. The Calvinistic Baptists, the Methodists and the Unitarians, have made many disciples to their several parties the year past; a number of whom we hope are experimental and practical disciples of Jesus Christ. Four new chapels have been opened in Boston the winter past, and while other societies have been favored with revivals through the goodness of G.o.d, the Christian Society, which has withstood all opposition for more than twenty years, has of late experienced some of the rich mercy-drops. I have been laboring among them some over six months, and have been enabled with divine a.s.sistance to gather up the fruits of my brethren's labors who went before me. The names of Clough and Morgridge were mentioned by some whom I baptized, as the means, under G.o.d, of calling up their attention to the concern of the soul. I will name one instance: I baptized a very respectable young lady who had always attended a Unitarian meeting until a few months since, when she found in a pew of her chapel Clough's letter to Mr. Smallfield, which excited her inquiry and finally became the means of her awakening.

Thus a good thing may come out of a despised and persecuted Nazareth.

"The 23d of March was a day of great interest to myself and the Christian Society of Boston: the day was fine, and the a.s.sembly large. On this memorable day twenty-four happy converts presented themselves for baptism. Thousands a.s.sembled at the sea-side in South Boston: and though some confusion was visible amidst the thronging mult.i.tude, yet G.o.d was with his children to own and bless his holy ordinance. This was a day of unusual strength and comfort to me; I preached three sermons, was in the water forty-five minutes, and through the whole was scarcely sensible of fatigue. G.o.d's strength has. .h.i.therto been sufficient: in Him I put my trust. I would not wish, however, by this, or any other communication of mine, to carry the idea that we have had a _great_ reformation in Boston, for we have only a small addition to our numbers, and have been blessed only with occasional conversions; but I hope that those who have professed faith in Christ are converted to G.o.d and not to creeds, or to a party, or to man; and that the work is so effectual that it will endure in time of trials. All the New England States are abundantly blessed with the outpouring of the Spirit of G.o.d at the present time. A cloud of mercy is hanging over the happy land. If the ministers keep humble and stand in the counsel of G.o.d, if the saints live in union and stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made them free, the pure testimony must and will prevail, and reformation everywhere will abound. What we have seen will be only the beginning of good days; the petty wrangles of frail mortals will subside; the darkness in which the Church has long been groping will be dispelled; and she will come forth from the wilderness on the breast of her beloved, and will fill the world with her majesty, glory and beauty."

The first days of April, 1828, Mr. and Mrs. Badger improved in returning home to Mendon, N. Y.; in their absence, William, their youngest son, had died; in the region of Mendon he chiefly remained until his June meeting at b.a.l.l.stown, already spoken of, when the united request of the committee, William Gridley, John G. Loring, Abner H. Bowman, in behalf of the society in Boston, arrived, inviting him to return as soon as possible to their a.s.sistance; which request, together with an invidious article published in Dr. Elias Smith's paper in relation to Mr. Badger's position in regard to him, induced his immediate return to that city, where he boldly and successfully vindicated his premises, whether theological or personal. Within the three months succeeding his arrival on June 21st, are several valuable letters from his pen. A few extracts we will here subjoin:--

"BOSTON, July 8, 1828.

"My dear Wife: I am this moment much refreshed in receiving a letter from you, and I would now make such returns as become an affectionate husband. I spent one week agreeably in New York, and had a pleasant pa.s.sage to this city, where we arrived in good health, June 21st. The 22d, my a.s.sembly was large, and all greeted me with the same joy and affection as when we parted with them, at a time you must well remember--the past spring. My first text was Acts 15: 36: 'Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do.' The brethren have lost much since I left them; but we have already seen their strength and courage revive, and several are now under awakening."

"BOSTON, July 19, 1828.

"Brother Millard: I have received yours of June 28, and was glad to hear of your success in Canada and at the Central Conference. The truth must prevail, and error must fall.

Since my return our a.s.sembly is fast coming back, and we are getting many new hearers. A revival is now commencing.

Several are under conviction, and the saints begin to offer 'the pure testimony' in the house of the Lord. Elders Kilton, from Eastport, and Green, from Hartford, have visited me. I have visited the colleges at Cambridge, and the venerable Noah Worcester, of Brighton. He is one of the purest men I ever saw. His theme is peace, peace, peace! I would also say, that for young men among us who should wish to have a liberal education for the ministry, they can have board and tuition gratis, if properly introduced at Cambridge.

"I have been much out of health for a few weeks past; the hot weather overcomes me very much. If I do not get better I shall spend the week time in the country, though it seems as if I could not be spared a day from the flock of my care."

"BOSTON, August 4, 1828.