E. G. Holland

“ We feel such a strong attachment to the great Christian family for whom we have so long provided our humble repast, that the task is truly painful to take leave. You have been our friends and the friends of a noble cause; you have sustained us and advanced truth. You have frequently prayed for our success, and your prayers have been heard, and now, though our relation in one respect is changed, yet we still will be one in spirit, and unitedly labor for the advancement of the same common cause, keep our eye on the mark and meet in glory. ”

“ It was amidst scenery like this that the early unfolding of the mind of Joseph Badger occurred, where the spirit of beauty which everywhere finds mediums of influence and approach to man, found some romantic symbols of her presence, with which to impress the tender mind. Nature, which is everywhere the hundred-handed educator, is an agency not to be omitted even in speaking of childhood, for children see it from the heart and learn from it unconsciously. ”

“ Four kinds of religion are found in the world, Jewish, Pagan, Mohammedan, Christian, and but one of them is good. This accords with the parable Jesus spake of the sower. The good seed fell on four kinds of ground, the wayside, among thorns, on stony ground, on good ground; four kinds, but only one brings forth fruit. So 'our religion' 'Jews' religion' and 'vain religion' bring forth no acceptable fruit to God; but 'pure religion' is like the good soil which brings forth 'some thirty, some sixty, and some one hundred fold.' Thus do the facts of history and of Scripture correspond. ”

“ Religion has been the cause of wars; has divided kingdoms; has imprisoned the saints; has lighted the fagots about the disciples of Jesus, and has even in this favored city banished the Baptist and hung the humble Quaker; but this was not the religion of my text. But turn from those scenes of superstition and misery, and add to religion the word pure, and all is changed; all is meekness, simplicity and heaven. The horrors of death are dispelled, a world of glory and immortality is opened to the reflecting soul of man. ”

“ I have often thought of my first text, and have endeavored to make it my motto for life, for it is on the idea here advanced that the vital merit of ministers and Christians must forever depend. How important that the Gospel minister should have the mind of Christ! How can he otherwise preach Him to the world? How may he penetrate the centre of other souls and hold up the living evidence of Christianity without it? How important that all Christians have His spirit and temper! ”

“ No man, without a genuine experience and the constant influence of true piety upon his heart and life, is fit for an ambassador of Jesus Christ. Sin is odious in whatever form or place it exhibits itself. In the profane circle, in the gambler's group, in the drunkard's shop, in the vilest streets and haunts of wickedness in this great city, how hateful it appears. But it appears not so bad as it would in the parlors of the rich, in the circle of learned and refined society, in the halls of justice, the councils of the nation, or in the house of religious worship. ”

“ Our chapel to-day was crowded with hearers, who seemed to feel deeply the importance of religion, which alone can bring salvation to the soul. In the afternoon I met a multitude of solemn hearers, on the pleasant bank of the Conneaut, where, after a short address, I led four happy converts down to the watery grave, who all came forth with joy and strength, to witness a good profession and to shine as lights in the world. May God strengthen their young hearts to endure to the end, that they may be saved. I love the people. ”

“ Be patient; myriads of years, which are God's seconds, will do the work. Is not the earth now good enough for thee, thou latter-day saint? Be patient; it is now much better than you are; it flowers are more fragrant than your virtues, its fountains are purer than your actions, its music of bird and brook is sweeter than your Sabbath melody, and it rolls in its orbit far more majestically and truthfully than you have ever pursued the circuit of your duties. He who has divine life in him always sees a new earth and a new heaven. ”

“ One vital life pervades them all. Whilst the war was desolating the country, filling the minds of men with anger, jealousy, and irreverence to humanity, he, the heroic young soldier of the Cross, was successfully pouring into their hearts the great lessons of Reformation, Unity, and Peace. Such a ministry at such a time appears to the eye of history as a rainbow arching the black region of cloud and storm, or as life-clad rivers that flow along through the desert regions of the earth. ”

“ The commands and institutions of Jesus are trampled under foot, and brotherly love and Christian forbearance are banished far from the soul of the bigot. This, doubtless, is the time spoken of in the Scriptures, when the heavens and the earth are to be shaken. Now is the time for the man of God to be cool and candid. Never descend from your high and holy calling to the low pursuits of grovelling sectarism; never forsake the great message of love and salvation you are destined to proclaim, to mingle in the petty wrangles of party. ”

“ Brother Ladley,—It becomes my duty, by the arrangements of the solemn exercises of this day, in behalf of those ministers who have united in your ordination—this church and the whole body of Christians with which you stand connected, to deliver to you on this occasion, in the name of the great Head of the church, a charge to be faithful and to perform all the duties now devolving upon you as an administrator, with dignity and integrity. You now fill one of the most important stations ever occupied by a human being. ”

“ By its influence the sorrowful widow receives comfort, the weeping orphan smiles, circumstances of misfortune are sanctified, the poor are enriched, the sick are supported, and the chamber of death is illuminated with the gracious smiles of the Son of God. Pure religion requires no fagot to light it, no science to adorn it, no human arm to defend it, and no carnal weapon to enforce it. ”

“ I have baptized about forty who have become ministers of the Gospel, several of whom have entered upon their rest. I now stand upon the isthmus between two worlds, ready to depart and be with Christ, or still to toil on amidst the ills of life as the great Master may direct. While I do live, I am determined to stand firm against what I know to be the delusions of the present age, which are spreading death and devastation among the flock of Christ, and to hold fast that system of revealed truth on which the hopes of this lost world must rest for salvation. ”

“ Character substantially is the end of life, the purpose of nature, Providence, revelations, trial, conscience, and temptation. The universe came from it, reveals it, and strives, through all its teachings and influences, to reproduce it in man. The worship of God, and the various reverence which centres in man, at once resolve themselves into the supreme worth for which the word character stands as a sign. This, then, is the true centre of all biography, that into which the whole life is merged, and by which it may be judged. ”

“ While this exists, division, misery and ruin are spread through all the flock of God. While a party name or creed is valued higher than experience, it is no wonder that we are divided. But whenever the scene is reversed, when rectitude of spirit and practice shall outweigh the poor inventions of men and become the criterion of fellowship, there shall then be one fold and one shepherd; watchmen shall see eye to eye, and the people shall lift up their voice together. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Your church government establishes liberty and equality through all the flock of God. Every church has an equal right to a voice in this body. Here ministers and people stand upon the level, and there is none to lord it over God's heritage. We here confer on the welfare and prosperity of the whole, and take sweet counsel together. I consider your dissent from several popular errors as a great virtue; though it exposes you to much persecution, it will lay the foundation for your prosperity. ”

“ To every work there is a crisis which openly exhibits success or failure. To every growth there are certain perceptible changes by which we note the progress from incipiency to the mature state. There is a symbolical new birth in nature when the rose-tree blooms, when leafless wintry trees are green with foliage and white with blossoms. Summer is a regeneration in the state of the earth, and it is none the less so because we cannot point out the moment, hour, or day, in which the actual summer assumed its effective reign. ”

“ I had aspired to be a missionary of another school, a missionary to men and not from men, having only the Gospel of the world's salvation to uphold, looking on high for the mission, and to the just and careful operations of His providence for all necessary support. For one so conditioned to consider the awful and immense responsibility he assumes before God, to think of the account he must soon render of his stewardship, is enough to humble him in the dust. ”

“ A young man, alone, with resolves and feelings unknown to man, longing for the clouds of his being to disperse, and for the influx of the immortal light to crown his life! This spectacle, however it may strike the mere formalist and the seeker of material good, is one which, to us, joins with myriads of heart-histories in different climes, to attest the derivation of the soul from God, to declare its yearnings and struggles against the obstacles of sin and sense, that it may regain the atmosphere and light of its native original heaven. ”

“ In good old Connecticut it was once believed that the use of tobacco was the great and crying sin of the world. Accordingly, an edict was passed that if any man was known to use it within a mile of any house, he should be subjected to a heavy fine. How undignified government may become when it abandons its legitimate aims! True religion never needed the aid of the sword, nor the authority of human law to enforce it. It is able to support itself and all who embrace it.
"No country has risen to rank, power, and respectability so rapidly as the United States. ”

“ Character and genius appear in small as well as in great things. Often, in letters of one short paragraph, have I been reminded of Napoleon, of the clear, brief, pithy statements by which that commander expressed himself, both in vocal and in written messages. Since the world stood, we are satisfied there has been but one Joseph Badger, and we will risk our credit at prophecy in the declaration that another will never appear. Not, indeed, that the creative resources of divinity or humanity are in the least abated, but the pure originalities of the Creator in human history are never repeated. ”

“ He was always very fond of young people; and nothing more readily enlisted his attention than the appearance of a young man of promise just entering the Gospel ministry. He cordially took him by the hand, welcomed him to his own fireside, and invariably and reverently taught him that there is no station in the universe, that can be occupied by a human being, which is in itself so truly honorable and so sacredly responsible as that of the Christian minister. The same genial power of development here spoken of in regard to young ministers, was equally manifest in relation to young writers. ”

“ No man, probably, ever had a stronger individuality. He was Joseph Badger, and no one else. He was quite free from personal eccentricity; was easy and graceful. But on whom was the impress of individuality ever more decidedly made? Who did he imitate? Look at his language, his manners, his modes of treating a subject, his voice, his entire action, and tell us who was his pattern. What original stood on the foreground of his reverence, commanding even an unconscious conformity? ”

“ I have concluded, Sir, that a great amount of the divisions that now exist arose very much from tradition and the different ways in which men have been educated, though we must confess that the instructors or preachers are the principal cause of the divided state of the Church. The censures to which I allude flow often from ignorance, from self-righteousness, from a lack of the 'fear of God before their eyes;' and we may say that true brotherly love will remedy all the imprudent conduct by which brethren of the Christian profession annoy and perplex each other. ”

“ Thus the work spread until it was thought that upwards of one-half of the grown people had experienced religion; I say experienced religion, for religion is not a matter of theory but of life. Its home is not in the dry speculation of the brain, but in the field of experience. Religion in theory is like the pictures of trees and flowers; they may win the eye and the fancy ”