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
his followers; also his pretended illumination extended to
marriages and to the intercourse of the sexes, and when his
_ipse dixit_ was given on these points, immorality was
unblushingly practised. Pretending to have personal
interviews with angels he had six followers, who, at his
command, would fall upon their knees, lie prostrate upon
the floor, or walk in a pretended labor for souls.
Sometimes he kept them walking for several days and nights
without eating or sleeping, when they would frequently
faint and fall upon the floor. They often screamed, howled,
and barked, making various strange noises, and bending
themselves up into many shapes. They most tenaciously held
that they were the only true church on earth, and that no
person out of their pale was capable of giving them the
least instruction. Like all the fanatics I ever saw, they
evinced great hatred and spite when opposed, and sometimes
they were full of the spirit of mocking. As I had known
them when they were respectable young people, and had
enjoyed with them the best of Christian fellowship, I could
but deeply mourn over the delusion in which they were lost.
After spending eighteen hours with them, I bore the most
decided testimony I could against their sentiments and
procedure. How many are carried away by every wind of
doctrine, and allow the pure religion of Jesus, with which
they begin, to degenerate into an alloy of earth and
passion! Ever may I be kept in the Mediator, where I shall
be permanent and uncontrolled by the wild extremes of the
age. The week following I spent at Compton, holding
meetings in different parts of the town. On Sunday, the
29th, the assembly was large, and we had a weeping time, as
I bade them farewell in the name of Him in whom is our hope
and love; and on Monday visited from house to house. Being
ready to depart on the morrow, and thinking that it was the
last time I should repose under my father's roof, my
thoughts and feelings were deeply solemn, as I looked out
upon the world-wide field of my future labors. My very
heart was pained, and the night passed away in almost
entire sleeplessness. Here closes the month, and in
feelings of the greatest solemnity."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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