"Here lies the body of Mary Jane, wife of Joseph Badger, who, in memory of her virtue, has erected this Monument. She died a Christian, April 4, 1820, aged 22 ys. 1 m. 9 d.
"Her race was swift,
Her rest is sweet,
Her views divine,
Her bliss complete."
It is with entire calmness Mr. Badger surveys the clouded skies that shut down upon his loneliness; a calmness that never ostensibly forsook him whenever great grief was at the door. He had a heart of great affections and of fine feelings. His strong nature was also extremely sensitive. Few could suffer so much, and few would weep so little when a great sorrow entered his dwelling. He is again alone in the world; his little daughter, Lydia Elizabeth, was all that remained of his family, the only tie that would seem to bind him to earth, and one indeed in whom his affections strongly centered. Letters of sympathy from numerous sources came in from different parts of the country. But sorrow, though it might soften and enrich, could never subdue the energies of his manly spirit; and in the ministry of the holy Cross he applied his force with a renewed consecration of every ability.
Though a resident of one place, it was not his nature to be a local man. His sympathies went abroad, his eye caught the signs of real and of possible success over a large area, and the public, far and near, responded with a feeling of interest equally general. At ordinations, and consecrations of "temples made with hands," he was ever a favorite with the people; and very frequently he journeyed large distances to attend to calls of this nature. His family now being broken up, after securing the pastoral labors of Rev. Oliver True, he resumes the work of a missionary.
There are indeed two classes of successful ministers, though they succeed in different ways. I refer to the class who have simply great power in preaching, who can be instrumental in the conversion of great numbers; who, when they have reached the moral depths of the sinful heart, and filled it with the new and heavenly light, have ended their mission. They leave no nucleus about which the new strength may organize itself. If such ministers belong to a denomination well organized, and if they labor in the spirit of such denomination, the results of their efforts will very likely be absorbed in the body which already contains the speakers. These can create material, but they have no constructive power to permanently unite it. There is another class, who seem to be natural husbandmen of the grounds they sow; they build, they gather, they bring everything into order and system, they fence and harvest the ripened fields. These last men are seldom if ever idealists; they see the world as it is, are men of order and of accumulative tendency. Perhaps George Whitfield and John Wesley may be taken as just examples of these two kinds of ministers. Mr. Badger was certainly a constructive, and also was he a gifted creator of material. He was, in one, both these orders of ministerial power; perhaps we should say that if either predominated it was that of conserving the wealth which his creativeness and the creativeness of others might produce. Whitfield was the powerful, the eloquent preacher, under whose word converts were multiplied "as dews of the morning;" but under his peculiar genius Methodism had never become an organic system, to last its centuries. Wesley, though not a great man in thought or language, was the master builder without whom the labor of men like Whitfield had been, as it were, "scattered unto strangers." He gave to his cause the character of a permanent institution. Mr. Badger was no disorganizer. He believed in organization, in system, though he sought to organize with simplicity and on large and catholic principles of Christian brotherhood.
At Milo, N. Y., at a general meeting which, on Sunday, September 3, 1820, was held in one of the pleasant groves of that rural town, Mr. Badger preached the ordination sermon of Benjamin Farley, James Potter and Stephen Lamphere, from Rom. 10: 14: "How shall they hear without a preacher?" The week following he spent chiefly at and in the vicinity of the village of Aurora, where he preached several sermons and administered baptism to a few believers. He then returned by way of Auburn, preached twice to large assemblies in the Presbyterian church at Brutus, visited his devoted friend Dr. Beman, and in the evening spoke to the assembled citizens of Elbridge. On the morning of the 11th he called at the bedside of Dr. Ayers, who was in the last stage of consumption. "After much conversation," says Mr. B., "I asked him if he desired us to attend prayers. He paused and said, 'Can you pray?' (What an important question!) I answered in the affirmative. Said he, 'Does God hear you and give you answers?' I told him 'Yes.' He then burst into tears and said, 'Once he heard me, but does not of late.' Every heart present was moved. He was a man beloved. He bowed with us in prayer. At nine o'clock we left him and proceeded to Camillus, where I baptized the wife of Esquire Benedict and Mrs. McMaster, his daughter. At evening I spoke to a multitude of weeping auditors. On my return, agreeable to promise, I called on Dr. A., who again knelt with me at the altar of mercy, and when I gave him my parting hand he said, 'I shall meet you in heaven.' His countenance was as serene as a morning without clouds."
At Charleston, Montgomery County, N. Y., on the 10th and 17th of September, he attended a general meeting, at which between one and two thousand people were present. He speaks of the Conference business that was done on the 18th and 19th as very important; but most of all was he interested in the public improvement of three female speakers, who occupied the time on Monday evening, Mrs. Sarah Hedges, Mrs. Abigail Roberts, and Miss Ann Rexford, each of whom was more than commonly gifted in public speaking, and proved the fitness of their mission by indisputable success in their respective spheres of labor. Miss Rexford, then but nineteen years of age, a young woman of polished manners and accomplished mind, had a clear knowledge of the Scriptures, a winning voice, a fine command of language, and withal a liberal religious experience. An article among Mr. Badger's papers, written a year earlier than this, is devoted to the gifts and sphere of woman in the church, which, though it does not parallel the claims made by the modern Conventions, proves the mind of its author to be free from the Oriental bigotry, and in sympathy with the nobler aspirations of woman's mind. On the 24th of this month, at a general meeting held at Greenville, Greene County, N. Y., in the presence of several ministers, of an assembly of about two thousand people, and under the umbrageous veiling of forest leaves, he spoke from Ps. 40: 1, 2, 3; "in which," says the reporter of the sermons given, "he noticed fifteen distinct particulars, and we could say the word was rightly divided and a portion given to each in due season. He proved himself a workman that needeth not to be ashamed." Speaking of this discourse, Mr. Spoor, who reported the order of the meeting to the public press, said that he appeared before the people "like a cloud full of rain;" and probably there are few men in the ministry anywhere whose "doctrine" dropped more "like the rain," or whose speech "distilled" more "like the dew," than his. His manner was dignified and gentle.
About this time Mr. Badger related the substance of his missionary adventures to his intimate friend, Hon. Ezra Wate, of West Bloomfield, N. Y., in a series of letters, written hastily at snatches of time whilst on his way. From these we learn the events of the few months that remain of 1820. To him he says:
"I am happy in a travelling capacity, as I like the work of a missionary; but I am troubled with the unsettled state of what I may call my own affairs;—my home in Mendon, my dear little daughter in Lima, and I, everywhere. I can now see how true my friends have been to me in Ontario County, and oh, that Providence had favored me with the blessing of living and of dying among them! How painful the remembrance of departed joys that may never be recalled! Though surrounded with the best society, though often thronged with company, I am constantly alone, and I have many lonesome, disconsolate and dejected hours. No chastisement for the present seems joyous."
He speaks of a great meeting held at Cortright, Delaware county, at which he spoke twice, heard five discourses from other ministers present, namely, Uriah Smith, O. E. Morrill, and Jesse Thompson,—a meeting at which the converting power of God was signally displayed among the people. Under date of October 5, he says: