Under many disadvantages, he laid for himself the foundation of a professional education. He intended to qualify himself for the law, but a superior wisdom and will called him to the Christian pulpit. At the age of eighteen, while a school-teacher in New Hampshire, he was a talented advocate of Christian Universalism. At twenty-two he preached his first discourse. He travelled extensively as a missionary in Maine, encountering the reproach which awaited the advocacy of his faith in those days in many parts of New England, and having the honor of being stoned once while preaching in a Christian house of worship, and by a zealous member of a church. With him, however, opposition was an incentive to new earnestness in his work. He was singularly gifted as a preacher. He despised all garishness and affectation, and was usually full of his theme. There was in him a latent fire of eloquence, which when kindled stirred his audience to the depths of their souls. The writer calls to mind occasions of his preaching: one, while the hearer was standing in the doorway of a church at a meeting of the General Convention in Vermont. The pulpit was between the doors that opened upon the faces of the congregation. The preacher was in the heat of his discoursing on the words of Jesus, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." There were no indifferent listeners, and but few dry eyes to be seen. The remembrance has often been an inspiration. The other was at the session of the Rockingham Association, in Nottingham, N. H., in 1833. Mr. Streeter delivered the occasional discourse, an able and a timely one. He was speaking of reforms and reformers, and was all aglow with his theme. He thus came to a climax:-- "We know of a revivalist and reformer infinitely superior in skill and power to those of all sects combined; one who will continue to move onward, 'conquering and to conquer,' till he has 'renewed a right spirit' in every heart, till he has reformed fully and forever the countless millions of our race. Yes, blessed be God, we know his name. It is Jesus of Nazareth; the Lion of the Tribe of Judah; the Son of God; the Saviour of the world!" ["Amen!" from a brother minister.][40] The preacher responded: "Hallelujah! Glory to God in the highest! Jesus will make all things new. Let heaven proclaim his honor; let earth echo and re-echo his praises; and let eternity respond them through the long and lofty roll of its interminable ages!" Said Mr. Streeter to a friend, one Monday morning:--