Memoir of Rev. Joseph Badger / Fourth Edition

by E. G. Holland

Only observing that since the world begun, such men have always seen and made others see the fruits of their labors, that the power to make the frozen soul of the world melt and run in liquid streams, is one that never leaves its owner friendless or without a sceptre and a helm, I would proceed to lay before the reader more of his truthful narrative. From letters received, bearing date 1817, we judge that considerable success attended the efforts of his fellow laborers abroad; letters from the Peavys, from Blodget, King, Martin and Shaw; and if space would permit, we might quote largely from two or three of his own controversial letters in which he kindly and candidly corrects the misrepresentations of some opposing clergymen, and with his peculiar faculty for making others feel the point of his pen when he chose to do so, he reasons on the principles of his faith. We venture only a couple of paragraphs from nearly the close:

"That, Sir, which bore with the greatest weight on my mind, was your manner of introducing this subject before the people. You say that Mr. Smith, of Boston, is the founder of the people called Christians, and that I get my doctrine from his Bible Dictionary. But, Sir, Mr. S. was never the founder of any doctrine that ever I preached; nor is his dictionary any more a criterion with me than is that of Mr. Wood a criterion with you and with your brethren. To me, Brown's, Barclay's, Butterworth's, Parish's, Smith's, and Wood's are all alike; there is valuable information, and there are errors in them all, for which I am wholly unaccountable. For Mr. Smith's errors I am no more responsible than you are for Mr. Wood's. I am not his counsellor. I am accountable, Sir, for no errors but my own; for these I am willing to answer now and at the Judgment. Still, I shall notice your quotation of Mr. Smith's writings, for I esteem them incorrect and unfair. His writings, some of them, are undoubtedly very erroneous; so are some of Mr. Wesley's and Mr. Fletcher's; but can this prove that there is nothing good in them, or that their writings are all bad? Had I selected some things from Mr. Wesley's Notes on the New Testament, or some sketches from the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and told the people that these were the faith of all the Methodists, I should certainly have been unfair, for many have discovered greater light and have offered their dissent from these writings. Yet these men were luminaries for the day that brought them forth. I would not injure the kind feelings of my numerous Methodist friends; but what would Mr. R. say, should I go into a place holding in my hand Mr. Wesley's sermon on Rom. 8: 21, which proves that the beasts will go to heaven and share in immortality?—or his sermon on the Lord's Supper, which proves it right, or which admits the unconverted to the communion?—then should I say that Mr. R. believes exactly thus, before I had seen or heard you, would you not call it unfair? This is the light in which I view your recent conduct.

"In quoting Mr. Smith, you have taken two whole sentences and part of another, and have so put them together as to make but one sentence. I think I can satisfy you that this is wrong, incorrect and unfair. By the same method I can prove that Joseph Badger should go and hang himself; yet we both know that the act would be criminal. You find the word Joseph in Gen. 45: 28, the word Badger you meet in Ezekiel 16: 10th verse; Matt. 27: 5, affirms of Judas that 'he went out and hanged himself;' this is Scripture. 'Go and do thou likewise,' is also Scripture. Now, Sir, were you to collect these Scriptures by using boldly the principle of which I complain, you have the following, viz., 'And he went out and hanged himself'—'Joseph Badger, go thou and do likewise.' By splitting a sentence of one of David's Psalms, you have the saying, 'There is no God,'—but who would dare to charge the king with atheism? I hope, dear Sir, that the plain remarks I have made will teach you the impropriety of your course, that you will be constrained to make some handsome retraction, and that you will never again descend from your high and honorable station to awaken the prejudices of the ignorant against those whom God delights to honor and to bless."

In the present day of both genuine and of boasted liberality, we are apt to think of the old pioneers as more narrow than ourselves. We may be unjust in this. Mr. Badger and his coadjutors stood on very broad grounds, their liberality being the liberality of vital religion, not the liberality of mere intellectual speculation and of doubt. They feared being a sect. The following lines from Rev. Elijah Shaw, dated Camillus, December 17, 1817, are an index of the unsectarian freedom of many minds:

"I will do the same about a Conference that I said I would do in my recent letter. I am, and have been for many months, about dead to all denominations on earth. There is so much done to build up and keep up denominations that I am sick of it. Many have spoken against 'our religion;' but are not 'Christian brethren,' 'Christian preachers,' &c., as much 'our religion' as anything else? Those who want such sectarianism may have it. I hate it and leave it forever."

Perhaps, indeed, it may be said, that the nearer we get to the origin of denominations, the more catholic we shall often find them. Methodism at first was not a creed, but rather a large revival of religion in the world, which asked no man, whether minister or layman, a solitary question concerning his belief. Age may tend to contract sects, as coal contracts iron and water. The denominational paths of the world are apt to open somewhat largely; nor in their ending would we say that they exactly fulfil the descriptions of a tourist, concerning our western roads, which, he said, opened widely and promisingly under the umbrage of magnificent trees, but gradually grew narrower and narrower in the pursuit, till they at last terminated in a squirrel track, and run up a tree.

Opening the pages of 1818, we find Mr. B. breasting the wintry storms and treading the snows of January, preaching to his flock at Pittsford, administering the communion at Leroy, holding forth at Lima and at Mendon, and attending to the funeral obsequies of departed friends. He speaks of the funeral he attended on the 19th, of the wife of Capt. Dewey, at Mendon, as to him a solemn and a joyful day. In the Christian Herald, January 24, he said:

"It is now glorious times in different parts of this country. In Mendon, Lima, Groveland, Bloomfield, Leroy, Hartland, Covington, Cato, Camillus, and Livonia, the Lord's work is now spreading. I intend in a few months to give the names of the ministers and churches in this part of New York. Within one year I have baptized about 100 in this region of the country. A few of us in these parts are about to adopt the mode of ordaining elders in each church to 'rule well,' not merely to see to the 'widows' or temporal cares of the church, but to have an oversight of the flock, without being called to labor in word and doctrine. See 1 Timothy 9: 17; Acts 15: 6; Titus 1: 5; Acts 14: 23. I have learned that it is a small part of a minister's duty to preach and baptize."

He made a visit to Niagara County in the month of February, which was attended with good results, whilst his success at home, at Lima and Mendon was unabated. "A large number was added to the company of the prayerful." In the month of March, he again preached in West Bloomfield, a town that seemed to have in it several free and inquiring minds. At South Lima he baptized five persons on the 11th, the 15th preached at Mendon, where the prospects of his cause were growing continually brighter, and on the 22d preached and administered baptism at Livonia. He now found from a survey of the field of his success that it was best to change his residence, to take up his abode in the adjoining and flourishing town of Mendon; and never delaying the execution of purposes that once were thoroughly formed in his mind, he, with the coöperation of kind friends, was conveniently located in this town as early as the 20th. The last days of March were devoted to the people of Hartland. April, May, and June witnessed additions to the fraternity he had gathered—a fraternity whose aim above everything else, would seem to have been the cultivation of the powers and the joys of the spiritual life. They were evidently inspired by sacred feelings, by inward joys of experience, and so strongly did they love religion, that theology in the common sense, was to them a very subordinate matter.

In the month of July, in company with ministers D. Millard, E. Sharp, and J. Blodget, he journeyed to Niagara Falls, attending on the way three general meetings, one at Covington, Genesee County, N. Y., the others at Murray and Royalton. At the great cataract, which less at that time than now, drew travellers from every part of the country, we have not a distinct record of his impressions. At Covington, June 21st, he gave a discourse in the grove, from Isaiah 42: 1: "Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth: I have put my spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles"—a sermon which was reported in the religious free press of that day as one well adapted "to confirm the people in the truth," as one that exhibited Christ as the elect alluded to in this passage. "Many of the doctrines of men," said two reporters, "were proved absurd, and ingeniously set aside. The exhortation," said they, "was as arrows to the unconverted." August was passed chiefly at home; in September he journeyed to the East as far as Cooperstown, gave five discourses in Hartwick, and in adjoining villages preached to large and attentive assemblies. In this region of Otsego there still flourish societies of the Christian name and sentiments. In the published reports of the meeting at Hartwick, I find it stated that Mr. Badger, in a pleasant grove, September 27, preached the third discourse from James 1: 25: "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." The reporter adds, "The end of the old law was first noticed, and the imperfection that pertained to it. 2. The perfect law of liberty was then portrayed, and the manner in which people might look into it and continue therein. 3. The blessing promised to the doer of the work. This discourse was to the saints comforting, and to an attentive assembly enlightening. The meeting then closed with songs and prayer." Sunday morning the assembly again convened under the kindly shadows of the primeval trees. The morning passed away under the speaking of a somewhat popular orator, Mr. Howard; "in the afternoon," continues the writer, "J. Badger spoke from Rev. 7: 17; a most glorious theme. When speaking of the Lamb in the midst of the throne—of his feeding the saints—of his leading them to fountains of living water; that God, even the Father, should wipe away all tears from their eyes; the saints rejoiced in hope of the glory of God, and strangers wept, desirous to share in the great salvation. The meeting then closed, though the people seemed unwilling to depart." There is something beautiful in turning nature into a temple of worship, in mingling hymns with the voices of the breeze, in speaking and hearing truth within the innocent gaze of flowers. Their latent influence is a gleam of divinity to all, and easily mingles with every sincere note that may ever be struck from worshipful hearts. As I passed through that region of the State in 1850, there were still many to remember the golden times of the past, and to them the name of Joseph Badger was still a reverence and a charm.