"Free salvation," says Mr. B., "is sounded through all their congregations, and Gospel liberty is the key-note of every song. No point of doctrine is made a criterion of fellowship, but Christian fellowship rests alone on the true bias of _spirit_ and _practice_. They are simple, unassuming, and spiritual in their preaching and worship; the labor of the ministers is to make their hearers good: a great share of singing and prayer is interspersed through their meetings. For twenty years they have been in the way of holding camp-meetings, but the practice is fast declining, though in many cases good has resulted from them. Our brethren in the west and south are as well supplied with preachers as our churches are in the east, if not better,--preachers who are acquainted with the manners of the people, and are in a capacity to do much more good than eastern men can do among them."
Under date of April 1, 1826, Mr. Badger gives a very lengthy, interesting, and we should judge faithful account of his visit in Ohio and Kentucky, of the proceedings of a Conference in each of those States, convened for the purpose of receiving and answering his message for the east; both of which were hearty in their responses of friendship, and both furnished him with materials for giving their true history to their brethren of the east and north. He speaks of three denominational centres, which he thinks the future will witness, each having a periodical and a book-store connected with it, Cincinnati the centre for the west, New York for the east, and some place in one of the Carolinas for the south. From Rev. William Kinkade, that able, strong-minded and heroic divine, who had served his country in legislative councils, and humanity by his ministry, Mr. Badger received a strong letter, giving an account of the rise and growth of the Christian Conference on the Wabash, of one in Indiana, and touching on some of the larger points of primitive faith. He says:--
"While it gives me great pleasure to hear from you that primitive Christianity is reviving in the east, I hope you will be no less pleased to hear of its success in the west. This vast country, which was lately a howling wilderness, now blossoms as the rose. On the big and little Wabash, which is still the haunt of savage men and wild beasts, there are now large churches of happy Christians. Along the Ambarrass and Bumpass, where twelve years ago little else was heard but the howling of wolves, the hooting of owls, the fierce screams of panthers and the fiercer screams of wild Indians, painted for war and thirsting for human blood, are now heard the songs of Zion, the sound of prayer, and the voice of peace and pardon through a Redeemer. Among us the demon intolerance has been exposed in its multifarious character, and banished from the congregation of the faithful. Ignorance has given way to investigation; and love and union are daily triumphing over prejudice and partyism. But still I see, I feel, I lament a great want of that holiness and divine power which characterized the followers of Jesus in the first ages of Christianity."