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: