REFLECTIONS.
As the value of men historically stands in close connection with the
ideas they represent, and with the movements in which they take part, it
is relevant to the present subject that we glance at the character of
the reformation in which Mr. Badger was the leading actor, and in whose
principles he lived and preached more than a third of a century. We read
the worth of a man in the value of the cause he aids. Mankind evidently
are saved, not by magic, but by principles. The moral benefactor,
therefore, is to be prized by the service he renders in making these
perfect in the knowledge, and effective in the practice of his fellows.
What, then, are the historical worth and characteristics of the
Christian Reformation, in whose ministry Mr. Badger was a star of
primary magnitude and brightness?
Its historical worth can now be stated but partially, as the half
century which has elapsed since the first declaration of principles is
too small a space of time for their determination in results. If, in all
reformatory movements, the conception, utterance, agitation, and
adoption of ideas, are the natural steps of progress by which new truths
become externized in permanent effects, we might well appropriate the
period of time here spoken of mostly to the preparatory stages of the
work, and look forward to the future for the final verdict which shall
declare its entire importance. This question cannot now be answered,
except by the ability which reads, in moral causes, the distant triumphs
they contain. As a future forest resides in present acorns, so great
future changes reside in present truths.
The religious sentiment has its eras in the world, its triumphs and
discouragements, as really as art and science have theirs; and between
its present state and final victories lie many great and earnest
revolutions. Three things may be safely premised on this subject: 1. The
religious sentiment is mighty and eternal in man, and therefore will
forever appear with prominence in human history. 2. There now exist all
the TRUTHS and all the PRINCIPLES that can ever possibly appear. 3. The
increasing _knowledge_ of truth, the _development_ of principles, the
revolutions that are needed for their establishment in the world--these
must continue. To truth no iota can ever be added, it being already
infinite; but its development in human history must, like human nature,
be progressive.
In looking over the world's religious phenomena, we notice, among the
defects, a mixture of truth with superstition, an ignorance of
everlasting law, which flows through all departments of being, and into
which all facts are resolved. In marking the particular line of religion
which forms the boundary of Christendom, we perceive, in the inclosure,
the abundance of sectarism, of intolerance and persecution, all growing
out of the immense importance which each sect attaches to its dogmas of
belief, to its name and organization. Prior to Protestantism, the
church, which has always boasted of its unity, imprisoned and burned the
heretic. The belligerent attitude of clergymen now conclusively proves
that theology, or divine science, is not understood; for it is
impossible that honest men should quarrel on any subject of which they
have a full comprehension. War, therefore, is the proof of ignorance,
and ignorance is the mother of intolerance and persecution. As these are
the most prominent evils the history of the church presents, we are
obliged to highly honor the principles which melt these asperities into
charity, as they shine from the effulgent heaven of a wider love. Under
the stern authority of creeds, a manly freedom will scarcely grow. The
Christian reformation, which began with the masses, and not with a
caste, in the first years of the nineteenth century, contained
principles which liberate the spirit from narrow and oppressive bonds,
which open comparatively a whole broad horizon over the man of faith,
and form a larger brotherhood than mere uniformity of belief can ever
create. In naming distinctly four elements of that reformation, the view
here offered will be clearly verified.
1. It cast aside sectarian names. To witness the power of names, whether
political or religious, to learn their efficiency in perpetuating a
division, one has only to look at the different parties into which men
are separated. Often, it is the name mostly that holds a party together,
and that forms the limit of sympathy and fraternization. But it was no
philosophical reasons that led the people to throw off all sectarian
names. It was reverence to the New Testament, and to the holy sympathies
of Christian fellowship, which perpetually pass beyond the artificial
boundaries of sect. In reverence to the New Testament, they assumed the
Catholic name--Christian, and conceded it to all of every class who
walked in purity of life.
2. They exalted the Bible to the exclusion and rejection of human
creeds. Creeds cannot be wiser than to men who made them; as these are
weak, fallible creatures, it is in vain to seek the Rock of Ages among
their products. It may be said that no one can attend to every branch of
business; that if one man makes ploughs he should be excused from making
coffins, and be supplied from his neighbor's shop; that the unthinking
masses, whose toil absorbs their energy, cannot form their own belief;
that each, out of the storehouse of creeds already made, should find
what fits his own dimensions. This may not be the worst advice to one
who, mentally, is ready to die, and needs wherewith to be entombed; but
to him who is resolved to live, it is the veriest mockery. If the Bible
is, according to the general concession, the firmament of suns and
stars, that bends morally and religiously over mankind, why should the
torch and taper lights of theological invention be substituted in its
place? In the daytime is not the radiance of the sun sufficient? The
cause which induced these reformers to reject the man-made creeds, was
simply reverence to the Book of books, and to the individual right of
every man to learn truth for himself, undictated by the authority of
men.
3. They claimed for each person a perfect, individual freedom. Romanism
denies this right; and, though Protestanism has usually admitted it in
theory, it has always Romanized in practice. Who is authorized to be the
master of my thought? Who is commissioned from on high to tell me what I
am to believe? Who or what is entitled to an arbitrary throne in this
free realm? To the fish God gave an element in which they are free; to
the birds and trees he was equally kind. Nothing grows proportionately,
truly, except freedom. To man the High One has given the boundless
element of TRUTH, a shoreless and fathomless ocean to swim in; and who
shall here compel his path? There was manliness in the words of Henry,
"Give me liberty or give me death."
4. EXPERIENCE they made the basis of religion. Their bond of fellowship,
therefore, did not say, What, sir, is your opinion? It asked the deeper
questions, Where is your heart? How do you live? Of the Holy Spirit are
you born? It is true that the doctrine of one God in one person, of
Jesus as his son, became with them a general belief, probably from the
fact that a full surrender of their minds to the Scriptures as exclusive
authority necessitated these convictions; but no notions of Trinity or
Unity were ever thought of as bonds of fellowship. The spirit and
doctrine of that movement cried to men and women of all sects and of no
sect, "If you walk by faith in the Son of God, if you love the Lord
Jesus, if you try to live the holy life, come to our embrace, come to
the symbolical supper of our Lord." The full history of these sentiments
in the world, the future must write. They are already introduced; and
from the democratic turn which thought and education are everywhere
taking, from the liberal spirit which every new, valuable work in
literature breathes, from the generally increasing aversion to dogmatic
theology, we opine that they are destined, through many agencies, to
triumph sublimely in the Christian world. These fathers, like those of
the Mayflower, wrought from reverence and duty, and no more than they,
foresaw the distant results of the principles they espoused. But time is
logical, and reproduces the proper fruit of every seed. The movement was
self-relying, but more especially was it God-relying. Human nature in
its view is not self-illumined even in its dutiful action, as the earth
by no majestic revolving can cause the day. This proceeds from the sun;
and from the Eternal Sun are all spirits lighted.
In the cause of education, Mr. Badger's interest and care survived his
ability to speak or write on general questions. On the new educational
movement, which has since resulted in the establishment of Antioch
College, at Yellow Springs, Ohio, under circumstances of much promise,
he looked with anxious and hopeful solicitude, always inquiring of the
success of the enterprise; and it may be justly said that his last years
were full of the conviction that more education is the strongly
available instrument of power. He lived to see the denomination with
whom his lot was cast, become enthusiastically awake in behalf of
culture. He saw it and rejoiced. Though his people, from the warm,
intense faith through which they had early looked to the region of the
spiritual and the supernatural for their resources of conquest, had
allowed human accomplishment to be in a degree eclipsed, they never
cherished substantially the least irreverence to science; for the
reverence of truth, native in all spirits, extends to science, which is
nothing more than truth made known. Against this precious light, which
comes out of nature to instruct us of her hidden property and law, no
antagonism ever appeared. Not culture, not science, but the
objectionable narrowness of the usual theological training; this was the
main centre of their established prejudice. The Seminary at Starkey, the
Graham Institute of North Carolina, and the College in Ohio, are earnest
monuments of their deep regard for the culture which belongs to
literature and to science; the last named success being, all things
considered, the largest movement under the guiding impulse of liberal
faith, that has ever occurred on the continent. The genius of the
nineteenth century is _to educate_. Even the elements are disciplined to
do for man, to prepare his timbers, to print his thoughts, to carry him
on his journey, to bring him tidings; and in no department of human
interest and enterprise are raw forces ranked in value with educated
power. From the ignorance in which life universally begins, and from the
infinity of unconquered truth that ever remains to be learned, it
follows, as by unyielding necessity, that the highway that leads from
man as a savage to man as the ripened glory of the universe, is none
other than education.
Mr. Badger, in his time and way, was indeed an educator (_e-duco_, to
_call out_), and his whole action tended to impart discipline to the
means and forces about him. His position on this subject was one he
never changed; and it is remarkable that through his long life there are
no contradictions between his avowed opinions at different times. In the
thorough retrospect, from the close to the beginning of his public
career, one is impressed with the idea of matureness, of an
extraordinary consistency. Each part agrees with the rest. So strikingly
manifest is this trait, that we are not surprised at the words of Mr.
Wellons, of Virginia, who said, "I have read his writings from my
boyhood, and I must say he was the most consistent man I ever knew."
Though science is entitled to reverence from its sacredness, and to
regard from its ministry of uses and its utility in breaking up the dark
empire of superstition, it was religion in its great and catholic
elements, that won the central worship of his heart. The one God, the
one Christ, the one Spirit, the one Gospel, the one brotherhood, the one
salvation, freedom, and fellowship of saints; these were his themes. He
loved these principles with a firm and steadfast affection. As long as
he could walk, even with assistance, he urged his way to the sanctuary
of their proclamation. These pioneers were indeed strong, invincible
spirits, who prove that the men who make a people are greater than those
whom the people make.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mrs. Peaslee Badger died 1834, at Compton, Lower Canada. Major
Peaslee Badger died at Gilmanton, N. H. M. P. Cogswell, in transmitting
the news of his death, says--"I now have the painful duty to perform of
giving you information of the decease of your honored father, who died
at Gilmanton, October 13, 1846, at 12 o'clock at night, and was buried
on this day, the 15th, in the old family burial ground, by the side of
his father and mother. The Rev. Daniel Lancaster preached a good
discourse at our old Smith Meeting House, from Ecc. 12: 7; he spoke well
and feelingly of the Major; of his high order of talents, of his
remarkably retentive memory of the Scriptures, and so forth. Thus has
our honored father gone down to the grave, as said Mr. Lancaster, like a
shock of corn fully ripe in its season, at the age of 92 years and six
months, lacking ninedays. The day was beautiful for the season; Gov.
Badger and family, as likewise all the relatives in Gilmanton and
vicinity were present, and the whole scene was solemnly impressive."
[2] The History of Gilmanton, from the first settlement to the present
time, 1845. By Daniel Lancaster, p. 256. Also, Memoir of Hon. Joseph
Badger, p. 1.
[3] See American Quarterly Register, vol. xiii, No. 3, p. 317.
[4] 3,450 ft. high.
[5] 3,320 ft.
[6] 4,636 ft.
[7] 1000 ft.
[8] 6,314 ft.
[9] This title was then very commonly given to all Baptist ministers.
For some years, however, it has been gradually growing obsolete.
[10] This and its accompanying stanza.
[11] At Ionia, Onondaga Co., N. Y., 1835.
[12] Rom. 1: 16.
[13] This part of the journal was written in 1816.
[14] His brother, Peaslee Badger.
[15] The one that coerced him to pray when a child.
[16] This letter, and another signed by two deacons in Newhampton, are
before me. They witness to the great power and success of his ministry;
also to his Christian life.
[17] Proverbs, 27: 7.
[18] The same mentioned on page 21.
[19] Zech. 14: 7.
[20] In a sense that to you needs no explanation.
[21] Ps. 7: 16.
[22] Ps. 9: 15.
[23] Ecc. 10: 8.
[24] Acts 20: 31.
[25] John 17: 3; John 1: 18; Matt. 11: 27.
[26] Then Ontario County.
[27] In 1818, this town was constituted out of the town of Pittsford.
[28] It is stated that the first regularly organized Conference in the
United States, occurred at Hartwick, Otsego County, N. Y., 1818. See
Pall., vol. ii., p. 169.
[29] Now Stafford, Genesee County, N. Y.
[30] Christian Herald, Portsmouth, N. H., Vol. II, p. 61.
[31] Christian Herald, Portsmouth, N. H., Vol. II, p. 63.
[32] Both were active members of the Union Convention held in Covington,
Genesee, January, 1820.
[33] His degree in Masonry was the Royal Arch.
[34] At first, it was a voluntary assemblage, called general because all
denominations were invited to participate; later, delegates from local
Conferences were appointed.
[35] Mr. Church lived in the town of Friendship, six miles west from Mr.
How.
[36] Her mother, Mr. How's first wife, died 1816.
[37] The La Fayette Ball given at that time, he says, cost $100,000; and
about 12,000 persons were said to have been present.
[38] This spring emits carbureted hydrogen gas. It has not only lighted
the apartments of the citizens, but has been used in cooking.
[39] Then all the towns east of the Genesee, in this section, were in
Ontario County; Monroe County was not then formed.
[40] In a later address of Mr. Loring, than the one whose statements
were quoted by Mr. Himes, published in 1844, which was the 40th
anniversary of the Boston Church, Mr. L. observes--"Elder Badger arrived
in September, and commenced preaching. His labors were successful, and
many gathered to hear the word. In the winter following, a considerable
number professed conversion, and were received by the Church. Under date
of Lord's day, March 23, 1828, there stands on the Church record the
following entry:--'At the close of the afternoon service, Elder Badger,
with the candidates for baptism, previously prepared, proceeded in ten
carriages to South Boston, where they were followed by a large portion
of the congregation. After solemn prayer, the ordinance was administered
after the example of our glorious Lord.' Elder Badger remained with us
about a year, and during his stay I believe this house was generally as
well filled as at any period since its erection."--p. 18.
[41] J. G. Loring and Wm. Gridley are deceased; the former but recently.
[42] Mrs. Badger.
[43] His answer to the committee, in which he declines their invitation,
is dated at Boston, August 14, 1828.
[44] Gospel Luminary, Vol. III, p. 95.
[45] The name of his residence in Mendon.
[46] Bible Doctrine of God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Atonement and
Faith; to which is prefixed an Essay on Natural Theology and the Truth
of Revelation. By Wm. Kinkade. Revised by J. Badger.
[47] Pall., Vol. II, p. 287. A general convention from the different
States.
[48] In the town of Broadalbin.
[49] Now Fulton County.
[50] Pall., Vol. II, p. 387.
[51] The leading men in starting the general association and the
publication of the Christian Palladium were O. E. Morrill, J. Badger, J.
Bailey, B. Miles, and others. O. E. Morrill was particularly active and
prominent in this useful movement.
[52] The _debate_ with R. D. Owen, as it was called, was evidently no
_debate_. No direct issue was formed between them, and there was no
direct conflict of mind with mind on any essential question. It was
mostly the rare phenomenon of two men talking alternately in the _same
place_ on _different_ subjects.
[53] Debate on the Roman Catholic religion, pages 59, 186, 172.
[54] Editor of the Christian Teacher.
[55] J. J. Harvey.
[56] At Marion, Wayne County, N. Y.
[57] 1828.
[58] January, 1844.
[59] To Joseph Marsh, Editor of the Palladium.
[60] The Christian Church at Royalton, N. Y., was the first erected in
the State west of the Genesee river.
[61] One of the means of torture in the Spanish Inquisition.
[62] Faust, p. 89.
[63] The first local Conference regularly organized in the United
States, for the transaction of general business and for the keeping of a
pure ministry, was called by him at Hartwick, N. Y., 1818. He was the
leading spirit of that body, and ably met the objections that were
raised against its objects. In 1817 he wrote some letters to individual
preachers, pleading for an association of churches and ministers, to
which ministers should be responsible for the characters they sustain.
End of Project Gutenberg's Memoir of Rev. Joseph Badger, by Elihu G. Holland