In short, Mr. Badger was a man of a rich and many-sided nature; not of one idea nor of one fortress of energy. His intellect was clear and strong. His passions also were strong. His physical power and dignity of person far surpassed the average of men. His kindness was great; his courage and decision were also great. His social feelings and social power were of uncommon vigor; few indeed could entertain company with so much satisfaction as he. Though familiar, none could approach him irreverently. He had deep and abiding faith in God. He also honored reason, and asked her light through the darkness of life. He loved a denomination; yet through it he sought to impress for good the human family. He loved ideas, and was a strong dealer in facts. He could dissolve assemblies in tears, and if he chose, illumine their countenances with joy and mirth. He could unfold the holy meaning of Scripture, could draw from the deep wells of the religious life, could lead the repenting sinner into the inner sanctuary of spiritual rest and peace. He could also make the most effective speech at a railroad meeting, or on any enterprise in which practical sagacity and foresight were essential to success. He had self-care; he knew how to provide for his own wants, and how to extend his manly sympathies to others. He was keenly sensitive; and, under the greatest troubles, his eye was calm and his countenance unchanged. He loved a sermon; he also loved a song. He was, in brief, a natural man, a natural minister. No clerical tones could be detected in his voice. He spoke like a man, who had a definite knowledge of what he intended to say. His bearing in society well sustained the dignity of his calling. He was true to the main purpose of his life. The needle vibrates, but through all the years of its being the true magnet turns to the pole. In 1812 he began his ministry; in 1852 he bade farewell to earth. Through this long period, whilst his ability lasted, he adhered to the work of preaching salvation and of building up the holy interests of Zion. The true magnet was he, or we should not have witnessed this long and faithful adherence to the fixed star of his faith. He indeed had errors. He had faults; for he was only a man. Men constituted as he was, in erring, often err strongly. But when such persons err, there are large resources of honor and goodness left, by which they arise and shine. The errors of superior men, said Confucius, are like the eclipse of the sun and moon. All men observe them, and all look for their reformation. Also it happens, in the order of creation, that great natures have strong opponents and strong enemies. The lion is assailed by the wild boar; the whale is opposed by the sword-fish and the thrasher. Thus Washington and Webster, in their day, were followed by mighty assailants, in the form of prejudice and calumny. Though Mr. Badger's sphere of action was unpolitical and sacred, it was his fortune to have many strong friends and at times a few strong opponents. But all, we believe, who knew him well, regard his memory and revere his name. He was a good man.
Genuinely, he was a great man, capable by nature of acting successfully on a wider theatre than the one he filled; but, we think he occupied the best position for usefulness. Admitting that he had natural powers, which, if trained in the widest field of the world's action, had equalled in policy a Talleyrand, or, in the creation of great and successful plans, a Napoleon or a Wellington, how much better is the retrospect, in the eyes of all heavenly wisdom, to survey his labors as being directed to the salvation of men, to the establishment in the church of order and prosperity, and to the dissemination of a great truth in Christendom, which, though it may have been a century in advance of the age, is destined to fill the whole earth. This truth is the declaration that true religion and the right bond of union among Christians, are a divine life, and not a mental assent, a theological belief. We own the hand of Providence in the gift of such men to the world; and whether appreciated now or not, according to the demand of justice, we boldly affirm that Joseph Badger has declared truths, made sacrifices, and exerted influences on earth as a theological reformer, whose effects shall not die away in centuries. They who help the world's progress are doubtless its first benefactors; and we have this firm faith, that the world is now, and ever will be, the wealthier from his having lived in it.
"No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
Where they alike in trembling hope repose,
The bosom of his Father and his God."
[CHAPTER XXII.]
ADDRESSES, SERMONS, REMINISCENCES, VIEWS OF CONTEMPORARIES.
Elsewhere allusion has been made to the extreme difficulty, to the impossibility even, that accompanies an effort to imbody a speaker like Mr. Badger, entire, in written words. Yet it is due to the readers of his Biography that some definite attention be called to this part of his ministerial accomplishments. There was nothing of the trumpet-blast in his oratory. It was liquid. It flowed as a current from a fountain, and, like a current, at times was brisk and playful in movement. Simplicity, ease, dignity, clearness, were his graces. A power to command the entire attention, to deal in surprises in unfolding a subject, to keep an audience for hours without weariness, was, in a rare degree, his possession.
The earliest written address I have noticed is an oration delivered July 4, 1819, at Penfield, New York. Its text is, "Righteousness exalteth a nation," and its motto, the words of Barbauld,
"August she sits, and with extended hands
Holds forth the Book of Life to distant lands."
Instead of beginning as gaseous orators usually did and do on such occasions, with a patriotic vaunting, he alludes to the nobleness of man's nature, which originally was designed for self-government.