"My Fathers and Brethren in the Ministry: I consider myself highly honored to be called to speak in this meeting of delegates and ministers, which I deem one of the most enlightened bodies of men on earth. When I reflect on the name you espouse, the sound doctrine you inculcate, the Christian liberty you enjoy, and the reformations that have everywhere attended you for twenty years past, I am justified in the sight of God and men in congratulating you as a favored and an enlightened people.
"Though you have been called to face the storm of persecution in every step you have taken; though many of you have sacrificed both property and health for the cause, you have the pleasure of reflecting that your labors have not been unsuccessful, and that the cause in which you suffer is good, and will eventually triumph over everything unlike to God. The persecution you experience, I consider a clear evidence that you are the people of God, and are useful to his cause. When the time comes that we bear no decided testimony against error and sin, then there will be no reformation to attend our labors, and no persecution will be seen. But I pray God that such a time may never come.
"You take the Holy Scriptures for your rule of faith and practice. This is all sufficient, and far preferable to the numerous law-books which designing creed-makers have imposed on the disciples of Christ. You reject all party names, and take upon yourselves the name given by Christ to his disciples in the New Testament. This is highly commendable, and if we are Christians in name, spirit, and practice, we are what we should be, and what all denominations profess to be.
"Your church government establishes liberty and equality through all the flock of God. Every church has an equal right to a voice in this body. Here ministers and people stand upon the level, and there is none to lord it over God's heritage. We here confer on the welfare and prosperity of the whole, and take sweet counsel together. I consider your dissent from several popular errors as a great virtue; though it exposes you to much persecution, it will lay the foundation for your prosperity. In government you discard all monarchy and aristocracy, which principles have been the ruin and overthrow of many sects and kingdoms. In theology you dissent from the cold and chilling doctrines of Calvinism. You reject the mysterious doctrine of the Trinity as inconsistent. This is a bold step, yet your ground is tenable, and it defies the assault of the most learned. The doctrine of the Trinity, which has kindled such deplorable contentions throughout the Christian world, is of human origin, and was brought into the Church in the fourth century. There is no sentiment in theology more contested than it. In Europe the controversy is conducted with great ability, but the Unitarian cause is fast gaining. In England, four hundred congregations have rejected it; in America, several colleges and many of the principal men of the Union have discarded it. I am informed that the Hon. John Quincy Adams, the President of the United States, is a bold Unitarian, and is valiant for the truth. In this country, the alarm which Trinitarians manifest, the precaution they take, and the combination of different sects on this subject, are sure proof of the weakness of their cause, and though we now hear the cry from every Trinitarian church in the land, 'Great is Diana,' 'Great is Diana,' be assured that her temple totters, her pillars are shattered, and this idol must, ere long, fall like Dagon before the Ark of God. It lays the foundation of Deism, is the first argument of the Jew, the Pagan, the Mohammedan and the Infidel against the Christian religion.
"A cold, formal, spiritless worship must also be rejected. A fashionable conformity to anti-Christian practices would give us the applause of men, but not the approbation of God and our own consciences. Let that preaching which is the most spiritual receive your most cordial approbation, and let the saints in all our congregations be encouraged to improve their gifts.
"It will also be well to keep up a friendly correspondence with other Conferences. For this purpose, let our clerk be instructed to officiate as corresponding secretary, that we may act in the light of the whole body. As we are more nearly allied to the Eastern Conference in this State than to any other, I recommend to have one delegate appointed every year to sit with them, that our business may be conducted in harmony. As our churches are extending to Georgia on the South, to Maine on the East, and to Canada on the North, it must always keep this State as the centre of the connection, and we have grounds to anticipate much from a correspondence between our brethren of the North and the South. There are now about one hundred ministers in the Eastern and Western Conferences; but when I came into this country eight years ago, there was not over ten or twelve free preachers in the State, and many of our present number were then strangers to God. We now have nine or ten convenient meeting-houses built by our own people, besides many others which have become free. Three temples of worship at least are being built this year within the bounds of these Conferences; one in the city of New York, where Simon Clough is laboring with success; one at Bloomfield, one at Salem, Ohio, and several congregations are preparing to build another year. Although we have witnessed so much prosperity, our work is just begun. Never did we witness such a time as the present. The cry, 'Come over and help us,' is now heard from all parts, and did you, my brethren, ever witness such throngs to attend upon your ministry as now? Did you ever know such a general inquiry for light and liberty? Truly the fields are all white and ready to harvest. My aged brethren, as you look upon the young men by your side who have devoted their juvenile years to God, and have just entered upon the great and arduous duties of the ministry, let every power within you rejoice that you have lived to see this good day, that you behold the evidence that the ranks will yet be filled, when you and I shall sleep in death. And you, my young brethren, look upon your fathers in the ministry, who have spent their time, property, and health in publishing salvation to sinners; view with reverence those venerable heads which have become hoary in the way of righteousness, and be stimulated by their example to end your days in honor of the sacred cause you have espoused. May you have many souls as the seals of your ministry, and hereafter shine as stars of the firmament forever and ever!"
Immediately Mr. Badger began to fulfil his part of the duties devolving on the newly appointed ministry. Between July 13th and August 9th, he travelled four hundred and sixty-five miles, preached twenty-one sermons, and baptized thirteen persons; between August 12th and 31st, he journeyed three hundred and fifty-seven miles, attended twenty-one meetings, preached at Covington, N. Y., at the ordination of Rev. Elisha Beardsley, on the 21st, from Rev. 10:10; and from this period to September the 24th, the time of his departure for his western and southern tour, the days and evenings were industriously used in his mission, completing in all nine hundred and sixty-six miles from July 13th. As Mr. Badger published hasty sketches of his tour from this time, in the "Gospel Luminary," I shall occasionally quote his printed paragraphs. He heads his notes of travel with the scripture injunction, "Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost," and with a rapidity that neither knew nor cared for elaboration, he threw off the descriptions of the scenes and events that lay in his way. Also two or three small blank books accurately narrate every mile he travelled, every town he entered, every sermon he preached, and every farthing he expended. Such was his accustomed order. These memorandums are sometimes prefaced with significant mottoes; on one is the text, "Keep thyself pure;" on another, and perhaps, indicative of the rough and various treatment the travelling missionary is sometimes liable to receive, are the words of Johnson:—
"Of all the griefs that harass the distressed,
Sure the most bitter is the scornful jest;
Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart,
Than when the blockhead's insult points the dart."
Also from Gray:—