Without dwelling on the labors that immediately engaged his attention, which for the most part pertain to a field already described, I offer a few paragraphs for the month of December before opening the chapter for 1816. The variety of incident that blossomed on either side of his path was evidently schooling the naturally sagacious mind of the young missionary for wider usefulness and for higher position; and as no scholar who has conquered a language can tell when he learned each rule and word, but knows that his conquest numbers uncounted hours and struggles, so he who arrives at the true knowledge of mankind, so as to command a wisdom that shall be equal to every practical demand, cannot say from what place or which events his ripened energy has flown; he knows that his kingdom, like the broad-breasted river, dated back with various preceding sources. These early experiences were victories themselves; but they were also unconsciously the seeds of other victories.
Mr. Badger was beautifully gifted with extemporaneous powers. There was a charm in his voice, and a rich command of plain, apt, and elegant language in his speaking, that, all in all, I never saw equalled by any other man. His voice was soft and clear; and though not great in tone, was exceedingly distinct, and often thrilling. There was music in his discourse. Though the period of the labors here narrated is many years previous to the writer's acquaintance, I am told by those who heard him in 1816 and '17, that he possessed the same natural eloquence, the same ease and attractive grace in speaking then, as was characteristic of his public manner in later times. That such a man, both from natural preference and association, should adopt extemporaneous preaching as his favorite and only mode, is not strange; nor do we particularly wonder at his avowed dislike of note-preaching, when we think of the lifeless character of much of the sermonology that then passed for the Word of Life. Accordingly, he said:
"When I see men going forth avowedly to preach the Gospel of the grace of God, and substituting in its place the doctrines and commandments of men, I am grieved. How many have I met with in my travels who would stand up and pray that they might be assisted to bring something, new and old, out of the treasury, that the word might come from the heart, and reach the heart, and then take, not out of the 'treasury,' but out of their postbags or pockets, spiritless notes, which they would read to the people. Oh, that men felt more as the Apostle did when he said, 'Remember that by the space of three years, I have not ceased to warn every one of you, night and day, with tears;'[24] then they that bear the eternal word to men would be more clearly manifest to the conscience of each and all."
He also narrates the following for this month:
"On Friday, the 8th, I rode to Mr. Rundle's, at Lee, where I held a meeting in the evening; Saturday to Newmarket, where I was comforted in visiting the saints; Sunday, held meeting at Mr. N. Gilman's, rode to Exeter in the evening, and spoke at Lieut. Thing's, which was a time of serious thought, and of weeping among the youth. I remember the kind treatment and the good spirit of this respectable family. On my return the next day to Newmarket, I met a young man whose appearance in every respect struck me as being a gentleman until he spoke. His first remark was a challenge to swap horses; and though my answers to his several bold and sportive remarks left him somewhat ashamed of his familiar assault upon a stranger, I felt sad to think of the way in which the young men of our land, who might be respectable and useful, destroy themselves, and dishonor their connections, by corrupting their own hearts with evil manners. The 12th inst., went to Brentwood and preached to an attentive assembly; the 13th, at Esq. M.'s, of Lee; the 14th, at Mr. Laton's, of Nottingham, to a full audience, from Ps. 89: 15: 'Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound.' Many spoke afterwards, whose words were as falling showers. The meeting lasted till about 12 o'clock; and with the exception of a few North River gentlemen, whose behavior was not so modest and civil as it ought to have been, the minds of the people were seriously fixed on divine things. The 15th, at Mr. Hilton's, of Lee, I spoke from Luke 2: 11; the next day, as I arrived at Newmarket Plains, where my appointment was for the next first day, I heard that Mr. Richardson would preach in the evening. I went to hear him. His text was Isa. 61: 1, 2; which was so good that it was with difficulty that the speaker spoiled it by causing it to speak Calvinism, which seemed to have been his whole aim. After he had spoken two hours, several of us addressed the people, not on doctrine, but on the love of Christ in the heart, which soon caused a change in the atmosphere of the meeting. Dea. Chatman wished me to speak the next day, to which I consented, though my invitation to preach was from three of the committee. In the forenoon I spoke from Zech. 3: 9. 'Upon one stone shall be seven eyes.' I spoke of the stone as meaning Christ, and the seven eyes of intelligence that gave a comprehensive vision on every side, I represented by his character, which looks every way towards the satisfaction of human wants; also, in another sense, seven eyes were upon him, the eye of God, of Angels, of Patriarchs, of Prophets, of the Jewish nation, of Apostles, and of believers, all which disclose him as the Mediator, as the fit medium of divine blessing. In the afternoon Mr. R. began to speak from the words, 'I will make thee a sharp thrashing instrument,' and proceeded to prove election from the parable of the wheat and the tares; likewise from Gen. 3: 16, the sentence against the woman; but the people, in small parties of four and six, began to leave the house, being tired of hearing nothing over and over; even two of the committee could not stand it through. At the close I offered a few words, not on the discourse, but on practical things, and never did I see a meeting so unsatisfactory to the people. One person after meeting asked me if Mr. R. was not a deceiver. I told him that he could not be so considered, for one that has neither tact nor skill to deceive anybody is not entitled to so hard a name, whatever may be his errors.
"The 19th, rode to Lee and baptized four happy converts; the 20th, rode to Stratham to attend a meeting at Mr. Brown's; the 21st, to Portsmouth; the 22d, started with Elias Smith for Boston; went as far as Greenland, where we parted, as I received an especial invitation to visit Farmington, N. H.; on the 23d, arrived there, and received a kind reception at the house of Mr. A. Peavy; held meetings on the 24th; 25th, held meeting at Chestnut Hill, Rochester; the 26th, at the Tenrod road, Farmington, where I spoke from Amos 4: 12: 'Prepare to meet thy God.' I continued in the town through the week, held meetings every evening, which I trust were useful to many. The 31st, which was the first day of the week, I met a large assembly, and in speaking the word of life, my spirit was greatly refreshed. Thus ends the year."
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.