In the month of August he attended some general meetings, as they were called, in different parts; one as far off as Clinton, N. Y., not less than a hundred miles. By a general meeting, in those times and since, is meant a meeting of about two days, at which ministers and people came from a considerable distance around, general notice and invitation being given. Very frequently, when the weather and season would permit, the people repaired to the overshadowing groves, where, in the free and open air, they sang hymns, offered prayers, and devoutly listened to successive sermons. Often, with an eloquence as natural as the trees whose leaved branches shaded the multitudes, has the clear musical voice of Mr. Badger held thousands in listening silence, enchained as by a resistless spell, whilst he unfolded some great theme of the Christian doctrine and life. No man who heard him on such occasions would be apt ever to forget the topic or the speaker. On the 30th and the 31st of August, such a meeting was holden at Pittsford, at which time Mr. John Blodget was by suitable services ordained to the work of an evangelist. Also, in accordance to the usages of the time, a ministerial conference succeeded it September 1--an association which acted simply as an advisory body, and for purposes of mutual discussion and consultation. Such bodies in after years exercised the right of receiving new members, who were ordained ministers of the gospel, or licentiates. They also claimed and exercised the right of preserving their own moral purity, by examinations of character and by expulsion.[28] In this month he preached much in his own town, a few times at Mendon, attended funerals at Pittsford and Avon, and baptized at Mendon a few young men who had in the freshness of life's morning consecrated themselves to pure religion. As the brown leaves of October were silently admonishing the world of human frailty, as nature was pouring out the influences of a calm and holy peace, Mr. B., untrammelled by creed, and with an Old Book in his hand, whose leaves had ever held the greatest spiritual lessons for the human heart, was preaching the salvation of God with a grace and composure that, in naturalness, would compare with the spirit and scenes of the creation around him; for emphatically was he a son of Nature, owned and blessed of her. In this October month, he says: