On foot, Mr. B. continued his journey up the river through a wretched country, until he arrived at a settlement formed by the remnant of an old British army, to whom the government had given lands. Mr. B. considered them in nearly a state of starvation, and after almost exhausting himself with hunger and fatigue, he sat in lonely meditation beneath a sturdy pine, reflecting on the divine goodness and the dangers he had tempted in this new wilderness way.
"In the evening I arrived at the cottage of an old soldier. They had neither meat, bread, nor milk to set before me. I obtained permission to sleep on the floor, but I had some reason to suspect that they were thieves and robbers; and I thought that the surest way, and finally the only way for my safety, was to preach salvation to them. Accordingly I gave them a long discourse, which was so far attended by the power of God as to enable me to make friends in this instance of the mammon of unrighteousness. I was glad to see the morning light, and walked eight miles before I could get my breakfast."
He visited his father's residence in Compton, stayed some weeks, gave three funeral sermons in that town, visited the old parishes where he had formerly preached, wept at the grave of many a fallen friend, heard the prayerful voice of repenting sinners, and the rejoicing songs of converted ones.
After completing his visit in the king's dominion, Mr. Badger, about the middle of September, started for home, proceeding through the State of Vermont over the Green Mountains to Ballston and Saratoga; thence, after a visit at Amsterdam, where he informs us several hundred had entered into the enjoyment of the religious life during the past year, he advanced up the Mohawk to Utica; and spending the Sabbath at Westmoreland, with Rev. J. S. Thompson, and attending appointments on the way at Brutus, Camillus, Auburn and Geneva, he arrived at home October 5, which completed a journey of 1200 miles, "in which time," said he, "I have witnessed the most stupendous displays of God's mercy and salvation." At the city of Rochester, he attended several meetings before the commencement of the next year, where he gained the attention of the people.
The year preceding 1821, Mr. Badger became a member of the fraternity of Masons, an institution which he always prized for its wisdom, morality and benevolence, and one in which he made superior advancement.[33] Not given to ultra rashness, he did not extol the institution beyond its evident merits when glory and influence were on its side, nor did the temporary storm that assailed it draw from him violent resistance, or concessions that could be construed into disesteem for the great designs, general rules and customs of Masonry. He not unfrequently gave public addresses to the Masonic community in his own State, occasionally assisted in the ceremonies of initiation and of progress in the Order, and in other States of the Union he sometimes gave addresses.
Traces of writings are left, from 1821, that embody an effort to systematize the facts of history, and to retain what struck him as most important,—history relating to Egypt, Persia, Palestine, Rome, Arabia and China. But usually, such was the fulness of the active life of Mr. Badger, and of his reliance on the resources of his natural ability and experience, that he was not a close, laborious student, though he was never at a loss, when occasion required, in showing an accurate command of the substantial facts of history and of science bearing on the subject in hand.
In 1822, in addition to his local labors, Mr. Badger visited Saybrook and Lyme, Connecticut, attended the United States General Conference holden at Greenville, Green County, N. Y., besides attending to several calls at a distance from home. I would here remark that a United States General Conference,[34] though its origin was rather informal, was at last a body composed of ministers and delegates from different local Conferences, that its object was to discuss and advise in relation to subjects of general interest to the cause in which the promoters of a liberal and an evangelical Christianity were engaged. It was not uncommon for them to discuss abstract themes of faith and church polity, for the purpose of gaining greater light in the multitude of counsel. Such convocations dictated no articles of faith, presented no formula of belief except the generally conceded revelations of God. In the annual meeting here named, held September 5, 6, 7, the second resolution adopted was, that Christian fellowship arises from satisfactory evidence of being born of the Spirit of God, and that it properly extends to all who walk after "the rule of Christ." This body, though in many things it proved useful, especially in its free discussion, was, by mutual agreement, finally dissolved at Milan, Dutchess County, N. Y., October 2, 1832, chiefly from the considerations that the wants it had met might now by other methods be more successfully reached, that it was inconvenient to assemble annually from parts so remote, and that in time it might outstrip its original intentions, and become a centralization of power to the injury of congregational sentiments. At the meeting which followed the Conference, Sunday, September 8, Mr. Badger preached the third discourse from Deut. 32: 10: "He found him in a waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye." To a people who regarded the church as being still in the wilderness, as merging by slow degrees out into light and liberty, and as always dependent on Him who led, taught, and guarded the ancient Israel of his choice, such a text and sermon were suited to the time and the occasion.
In 1823, he made a tour into Pennsylvania, accompanied by S. D. Buzzael, a minister of whom he speaks as being well engaged in the cause. Preaching on the way in several towns, in Dansville, Naples, Cohocton and Bath, he arrived, in the early part of the month of March, at the pleasant village of Lewisburg, in Union County, Pa., a village that lies embosomed in the wild and attractive scenery of the Susquehannah, between the towns of Milton and Northumberland. On the way, he held a quarterly meeting which he had previously appointed among the Methodists in the town of Cohocton, Steuben County, where he met about forty church members and two ministers who had thrown off the authority of bishops, and styled themselves Methodists, rejecting episcopacy both from their name and their doctrine. To them, in company with D. Millard, of West Bloomfield, he preached and administered the communion to a free and happy people, learning at the same time that in New York there were about six hundred members in connection with them in this their new and reformatory position.