Memoir of Rev. Joseph Badger: Fourth EditionHolland, E. G. (Elihu Goodwin)
History
Memoir of Rev. Joseph Badger: Fourth Edition
Holland, E. G. (Elihu Goodwin)
Badger, Joseph, 1792-1852
A controversial document, in which he answers the charge of one who
accused him of holding in too light a manner the authority of the
Sabbath, lies before me; also a few letters from his ministerial
coadjutors, that allude to the success of his labors in the same manner
that they are recorded in his own journal. Said one of the ministers,
who officiated at his ordination, under date of April 15, 1815: "I have
often heard of you since we last met, and it has rejoiced me to hear
that the work of God is going on in the towns where you have been
preaching, and I have been in hopes to have received a letter from you
before this." This is the tone of the addresses he received. One is
reminded of the itineracy of St. Paul, as he follows the course of his
labors, of the piety, self-sacrifice, bold energy, tender sympathy, and
withal, the shrewd and masterly management which belonged to that
Gentile missionary, who, unsalaried by sect, went out to preach an
unsectarian religion, not the religion of dogma, but of the heart and
the life. Each had to encounter the scorn of the formalist, of the vain
boaster of worldly wisdom, and each had to plead the catholicity and the
spirituality of the Christian religion against the stern bigot and the
creed-loving sectary.
CHAPTER IX.
PUBLIC LABORS, MARRIAGE, TRAVELS.--1816.
Renewing his zeal in the reflections of the opening year, Mr. Badger
continued to be active in the field according to his ability,
intellectual, moral, and physical. He acted up to his faith. He was no
idle dreamer, but was a lover and an inspirer of lively times. The
variety _in_ him naturally called up variety in his outward life. People
everywhere are agreed in preferring the man who throws himself into the
circle of human action and living interests, honoring always the
courageous actor whose sword and helmet are bright with use; and they
are equally unanimous in rejecting the isolated ones, who would be great
through separation from their fellows. Having experienced the summer
bloom of the religious sentiment in his own heart, he casts himself upon
the same sacred fire in which his own sins were consumed, and carries
the flame to others.
This was indeed the most popular way of taking hold of the religious
interest, for it is feeling that proves contagious, and thought immersed
in feeling. Intellectual abstraction, even of the highest order, never
was very popular, and never can be, unless mankind should arrive at some
age when philosophical intellect shall be general--an age which, in all
probability, is at least as far off as the millennium; whilst it is
equally evident, that the man whose thoughts have an eye toward
practical results, and toward the living heart of the active millions,
is the one whom the people understand, and the one whom they willingly
crown.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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