[CHAPTER IX.]
PUBLIC LABORS, MARRIAGE, TRAVELS.—1816.
Renewing his zeal in the reflections of the opening year, Mr. Badger continued to be active in the field according to his ability, intellectual, moral, and physical. He acted up to his faith. He was no idle dreamer, but was a lover and an inspirer of lively times. The variety in him naturally called up variety in his outward life. People everywhere are agreed in preferring the man who throws himself into the circle of human action and living interests, honoring always the courageous actor whose sword and helmet are bright with use; and they are equally unanimous in rejecting the isolated ones, who would be great through separation from their fellows. Having experienced the summer bloom of the religious sentiment in his own heart, he casts himself upon the same sacred fire in which his own sins were consumed, and carries the flame to others.
This was indeed the most popular way of taking hold of the religious interest, for it is feeling that proves contagious, and thought immersed in feeling. Intellectual abstraction, even of the highest order, never was very popular, and never can be, unless mankind should arrive at some age when philosophical intellect shall be general—an age which, in all probability, is at least as far off as the millennium; whilst it is equally evident, that the man whose thoughts have an eye toward practical results, and toward the living heart of the active millions, is the one whom the people understand, and the one whom they willingly crown.
In January of this year, Mr. Badger continued to hold meetings in several towns, often from one to three in number per day, and as usual witnessed the effects of his labors. He speaks of being present at the death of Dr. Gray, a man of deistical principles, and whose life had been wicked. He visited him on Sunday, and remained till his death on Monday evening; and never did he witness more earnest prayers and pitiful expressions of grief than here by the bedside of the dying unbeliever, whose "philosophical fabrics all seemed to fail him in the trying hour;" on the 18th he presided at his funeral, and endeavored to console his disconsolate widow, and his "four weeping orphans." "Strange," says Mr. B., "that souls will live without faith, and strange that they will neglect the salvation of their souls to the last earthly day." In the early part of this month he spoke to an assembly from the merciful plea of the dresser of the vineyard, Luke 13: 18: "Let it alone this year also;" and some eight or ten were baptized this month. At Rochester, N. H., one of his "small friends," as he styles him, attempted to draw away the audience by the alarm of fire, crying to the utmost of his voice; but the more sacred fire of the speaker and of the meeting proved the stronger attraction, so that no essential disturbance ensued.
We might take the month of February as a sample of the manner in which his days and nights were used. In glancing over the dates of his appointments, the following figures stand out for this month: they were on the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22d, 23d, 24th, 25th, 26th, and the remaining two days, which were passed at Lee, the place of his last appointment, are the only ones in which there is no record either of an appointment to preach or of time spent in visiting the sick. On his way from Farmington to Newmarket, he speaks of stopping at Capt. Richardson's tavern, at Durham, where he saw many strangers, and heard a conversation on political topics between two distinguished gentlemen, a conversation that ran quite high, as it just preceded the election.
"I thought," says Mr. B., "that they placed Mr. Plummer on a very low seat, much lower, indeed, than their fellow-citizens placed him a few days after; and they extolled federalism exceedingly high. Capt. T. spoke out with an air of consequence, and said: 'These runabout preachers, I find, are continually propagating the devilish doctrines of democracy.' 'O yes,' replied Col. R., 'that is their business.' I was indeed sorry for them. They little supposed that I was one of the persons they had spoken of, who, unlike themselves, had faith in the ability, good sense and integrity of mankind. I then rode to Lee, where I breathed a different atmosphere in the society of saints.
"The 1st and 2d of March I stayed at Newmarket; the 3d, held meeting at Mr. Sanborn's, of Epping; the 4th, at Newmarket, I was taken sick with the measles; the 5th, rode to Lee and preached a funeral sermon, also baptized one; the 6th, attended meeting in the evening at Nottingham; the 7th, through much infirmity, arrived at Deerfield and preached at the house of J. Hilton, where I received the kindest attentions during my severe sickness of one week. May their generosity be largely rewarded! As soon as I was able to ride, I started for Farmington, where I arrived on the 17th. After tarrying a few days, I went to Middleton and Brookfield for the first time. At the latter place, my first meeting was held on the 24th, at which time several afterwards dated their convictions. The 26th, held meeting at Middleton Corner. It was a solemn time. That night I could not sleep, as the people of Brookfield were so much in my heart and mind. The 28th, I attended the ordination of J. L. Peavy, at Farmington, and heard an appropriate sermon from Rev. Elias Smith, of Portsmouth. It was a glorious time."
A sickness like the one here narrated would in these days have made a greater break in the journal of a month than it did with this hardy young minister. His body does not rest at the mere assault of disease, but moves on till the heavier blows fall; then surrenders but a week—is up again and doing as ever. Though his command of Greek and Latin may have been incomparably less than those who have passed their years in careful study, it would terrify the mass of graduates to attempt his labors.
The month of April was busily and successfully employed, each day being occupied with an appointment to preach, or with visiting from house to house, in which he carried a countenance of calm and cheerful light to all he met. Sometimes three meetings a day was his order of action. At Wakefield he spoke on the 28th to hundreds of attentive hearers, among whom was a respectable young woman, Miss Lusena Guage, and who within seventeen hours of the time of his public address, departed this life; a circumstance that impressed itself on all, from the fact that the speaker that day had uttered, almost in an oracular manner, that the whole of his assembly would never meet him again. In Brookfield, he ended this month in the same evangelical spirit that brightened all his arduous labor, thanking God for what he had seen among the people.