"The prejudices, customs, ways, manners, and opinions of men, how various! But these are not the fruit of nature or grace, but the products of education. Nature and grace are the same in every country, and vary only in form and degree.
"Cincinnati is a beautiful city, situated on the north bank of the great Ohio river, and has a population of about 15,000 souls. It is surrounded, on the east, north and west, by hills, except the narrow but rich valley of Mill Creek, which makes its way through from the north. Its location is dry, healthy, and truly romantic. Its streets are wide and pleasant, and its buildings elegant, in eastern style. The manners of the people are a compound of southern politeness and generosity, and of eastern refinement, taste, and simplicity. The civility of every class of people, down to the teamster and carman, exceeds that of any city I ever visited. The market, for neatness and variety, is equal to any in America, and its price only about one-half that of Montreal, Boston, and New York. The city council are making great improvements, and the city if fast populating. Its climate is mild and agreeable, and, as it is near the centre of American settlements, I know not what it may yet become."
Such was the Queen City in 1825. The state of religion there he describes as low, "if," says he, "we speak of experimental religion; many have profession, form and name, but we shall come short of heaven without something more." He speaks of Mr. Burk, a popular Methodist minister, as having renounced Episcopacy and taken with him a large congregation, as being so far illuminated as to "see men as trees walking;" Mr. Badger quotes the words of Franklin—"Where there is no contradiction there is no light," as applying well to agitations of this sort. Of the new reformers among the Baptists, he speaks as follows:—
"The Baptists in Cincinnati, also, have had revivals, but among them exists a great commotion, and a large congregation join with those in Kentucky and Virginia in the general dissent from creeds. Dr. Fishback, of Kentucky, and Alexander Campbell, of Virginia, are the champions in this cause. They oppose sectarian bondage with considerable ability and success. Mr. Campbell is truly a man of war, and acts the part of a Peter with his drawn sword; but, whether they will have humility, grace, and pure religion enough to 'revive the ancient order of things' in the original spirit and simplicity of the Gospel, or whether they will be laborious architects of their own fame, remains for their future conduct to prove."
In Preble County, fifty miles north of Cincinnati, Mr. B. preached several sermons at Eaton, the county seat; the sheriff of the county was his chorister and host, whose house, owing to the good order of the country, was destitute of a prisoner; the rooms usually occupied by criminals being now used to keep the earth's productions. On the authority of two ministers and several other persons who were eye-witnesses, Mr. Badger relates that he spoke in the house where, in 1821, during a great reformation, Jacob Woodard, a Deist, was struck dead by an unseen power while in the act of forcing his wife out of the meeting; that he never breathed or struggled after he fell—a phenomenon that belongs to many other marvellous instances of nearly inexplicable events we have heard of in connection with the earlier religious revivals in Ohio. Mr. Badger thoroughly explored that State, and with great satisfaction visited Kentucky. Indeed, the easy and courteous manners of Mr. Badger, his happy extemporaneous gifts, his love of society and generous sentiments, peculiarly adapted him to the admiration and acceptance of the South. Of Rev. B. W. Stone and lady, he speaks in the most exalted terms; and, whatever may have been the speculative differences between Mr. Stone and his brethren in later years, all must unite in one concession to the soundness of his learning, the clearness of his criticisms, and in what is eternally above all other things, the beauty and excellence of his Christian character. Mr. B. now returned home to Mendon, Ontario[39] County, New York, and further narrates the particulars of his adventures. He surveys with grateful pleasure the scenes he has witnessed, the kindnesses he has received, the new acquaintances and friends he had gained; and from experience and observation he was prepared to speak in the most friendly terms of his brethren in the south and west, and the tidings he brought when formally announced was, to use the language of Mr. Millard, "received with much joy." The brethren of the West were reported as having no creed but the Bible, and they "wear no name but such as the Scriptures authorize, that they uniformly believe in the simple doctrine that there is one God, the Creator, one Jesus, the Redeemer, one Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier;" that they generally favor the preëxistence of Christ, regarding the Socinian view of him as derogatory to the character of the Christian religion.
"Free salvation," says Mr. B., "is sounded through all their congregations, and Gospel liberty is the key-note of every song. No point of doctrine is made a criterion of fellowship, but Christian fellowship rests alone on the true bias of spirit and practice. They are simple, unassuming, and spiritual in their preaching and worship; the labor of the ministers is to make their hearers good: a great share of singing and prayer is interspersed through their meetings. For twenty years they have been in the way of holding camp-meetings, but the practice is fast declining, though in many cases good has resulted from them. Our brethren in the west and south are as well supplied with preachers as our churches are in the east, if not better,—preachers who are acquainted with the manners of the people, and are in a capacity to do much more good than eastern men can do among them."
Under date of April 1, 1826, Mr. Badger gives a very lengthy, interesting, and we should judge faithful account of his visit in Ohio and Kentucky, of the proceedings of a Conference in each of those States, convened for the purpose of receiving and answering his message for the east; both of which were hearty in their responses of friendship, and both furnished him with materials for giving their true history to their brethren of the east and north. He speaks of three denominational centres, which he thinks the future will witness, each having a periodical and a book-store connected with it, Cincinnati the centre for the west, New York for the east, and some place in one of the Carolinas for the south. From Rev. William Kinkade, that able, strong-minded and heroic divine, who had served his country in legislative councils, and humanity by his ministry, Mr. Badger received a strong letter, giving an account of the rise and growth of the Christian Conference on the Wabash, of one in Indiana, and touching on some of the larger points of primitive faith. He says:—
"While it gives me great pleasure to hear from you that primitive Christianity is reviving in the east, I hope you will be no less pleased to hear of its success in the west. This vast country, which was lately a howling wilderness, now blossoms as the rose. On the big and little Wabash, which is still the haunt of savage men and wild beasts, there are now large churches of happy Christians. Along the Ambarrass and Bumpass, where twelve years ago little else was heard but the howling of wolves, the hooting of owls, the fierce screams of panthers and the fiercer screams of wild Indians, painted for war and thirsting for human blood, are now heard the songs of Zion, the sound of prayer, and the voice of peace and pardon through a Redeemer. Among us the demon intolerance has been exposed in its multifarious character, and banished from the congregation of the faithful. Ignorance has given way to investigation; and love and union are daily triumphing over prejudice and partyism. But still I see, I feel, I lament a great want of that holiness and divine power which characterized the followers of Jesus in the first ages of Christianity."