"I am sensible," said he, "that my visit will be remembered by the shrine-maker's," for which he assigns as a reason that in the partisan zeal of his opponents, there were many who seemed ready to exclaim, "Great is Diana!" He speaks of Mr. W. True, then pastor of the society at Covington, as being both "a son of thunder and of consolation;" as an exemplary instance of self-sacrifice and of fidelity to the truth. As Mr. B. did not sail under doctrinal idolatries, he says, at the conclusion of his address, "Love is the badge of the Christian and the tenet of Heaven; may holiness be our motto forever."
Let us return, after this absence, to the social relations of Mr. Badger. We had seen his family dispersed, his home broken up by death in the early part of 1820. We have traced him in his subsequent travels, in his various public labors since that time, and found that amidst the sorrow and loneliness that enshrouded his spirit, his former home in Ontario County, the friends that there clustered about him as their religious teacher, formed the central attraction to which he turned with the deep and permanent feelings of home. The class of persons Mr. B. had there attached to himself, were the intelligent, the responsible and influential, which, added to the happy associations that still lingered in the bower of memory, and the presence there of the only remaining relic of his family, it is natural, it is reasonable, that this region of the State, to which he seems to have been providentially sent, should have attracted him more than any other place. A new period now arrives in his life. Not merely from a sense of duty to himself or daughter, but, if one may rightly judge from the sincere embodiment of the heart in a multitude of letters, written under various circumstances and at different times, in after life, from sincere, earnest and abiding affection, did he now form the marriage alliance which continued until his death, and which placed him at the head of a talented and moderately numerous family. March 21st, 1821, he was married to Miss Eliza Maria Sterling, a talented, respectable young woman of Lima, New York, daughter of Samuel Sterling, Esq., who was one of the early pioneers, and an honored citizen of that town. Again the star of his earthly destiny seemed to emerge from clouds, and to shine with promise on future years. Her parents were members of the society of which Mr. Badger was pastor, were acquainted with him from and before his settlement in the town of Mendon, and frequently had he been a guest in the family of Mr. Sterling. With new and respectable relations, with a companion whom he deeply and abidingly loved—one that frankly and wisely expressed the sentiments and opinions that became the responsible relation she had assumed; with his little daughter, Lydia Elizabeth, whom he now took from her boarding-house to his new home, Mr. Badger again felt that life to him was verdant in the promises of peace and happiness. Immediately is he at the head of a new and an independent home, where his cheerful and genial nature made the light of happiness to shine about him. From the particular cast of mind possessed by Mrs. B., in which the faculty of judgment, of clear-sightedness on matters of practical moment, was decidedly prominent, she became in a degree his counsellor in all the great and important enterprises of his life.
In the duties of his pastoral and his new social relations, the months of April, May, June and July passed away. Among his correspondence of 1818, 1819 and 1820, there are several requests from old acquaintances and friends in the Province of Canada, for him again to visit the region of his former labors. August 7th, 1821, he started on such a tour, taking passage in the steamboat at the mouth of the Genesee river for Ogdensburg. Leaving the river at 4 P.M., the vessel soon disappeared from the sight of land, but, through the violence of wind and storm, it was driven back sixty miles into the port of Oswego.
"On this occasion," said Mr. Badger, "I had the pleasure of seeing some profane wretches, who were blasphemers in the calm, cease their profanity, and grow solemn in the midst of danger. We arrived at Oswego just at daylight, where we spent the day. I visited several places, talked with many about salvation, and had a good time in solitude and prayer. We left there 12 o'clock at night, and, in seven hours, arrived at Sackett's Harbor; here I had an agreeable interview on shore with Judge Fields, who gave me an account of a glorious reformation in that village, in which a large number had found the Saviour to be precious; he said they were well engaged and united. The converts had, many of them, joined the Methodists and Presbyterians, and some of them remained simply Christians. The judge seemed to take a great interest in the work, which he said was still increasing.
"The 10th inst. we arrived at Ogdensburg. I made several visits on shore, and found it a wicked place; as St. Paul said of Athens, 'the whole city was given to idolatry.' The 11th, lodged at a place called the Cedars, on the St. Lawrence, a French village, and a people of strange language. The 12th, we spent the Sabbath on a small island in Lake St. Clair, but, at evening, we reached a small village at the mouth of the Shatagee River, which of the most wretched places I ever saw. A gentleman told me that the inhabitants were part of them French, a part Indian, and a part Devil. I had reason to believe it. Early in the morning I visited the Indian town, Cogh-ne-wa-ga, and found some of them willing to hear of the crucified Jesus. I have just arrived in this pleasant town, Montreal, but shall leave it soon for the townships east, as I intend to visit my father's house, which I have not seen for five years. A gentleman from England has just informed me that he has discovered a general belief among all sects in England, for ten years past, that God is about to work an overture in Christendom, for the union of all sects of Christians. Happy is every person who possesses that spirit."
The English gentleman here alluded to was probably Commodore Woolsey, who had been his company from Sackett's Harbor to Ogdensburg, of whom in another letter, he says:—
"One afternoon, after a long discussion on different religious societies, and on pure religion, the Commodore, apparently with a feeling heart, observed, 'Sir, I am sensible that our variety of belief and forms of worship are principally owing to our education; but pure religion is one thing wherever you find it; it is the work of God in the heart, a principle of godliness implanted within.'"
In a very easy and happy manner, Mr. Badger, in travelling, won the attention of strangers, and drew out a free expression of thought from the best minds; and this sentiment—that pure religion is substantially one thing over all the earth, was one which met the deepest response in the entire life and philosophy of the subject of this memoir.
September 12, 1821, from Compton, L. C, in the district of the Three Rivers, he writes that from Montreal he took passage for Sevel, a French village, at the head of Lake St. Peter's; that from thence he made his way to the Indian village on St. Francisway River, where, eight years before, he had formed some acquaintance with their chief, through whose influence he now hoped for an opportunity to preach to those unsophisticated sons of the forest, children of wild and beautiful traditions, soul-taught worshippers of the Great Spirit. The absence of the chief at court frustrated his plan.
"I found the village in a flourishing situation; a large meeting-house was being built; an English school had already been established, and the natives were fast improving in the arts and sciences. Capt. St. Francisway is an interpreter of several nations, and can speak in eight languages."