He spent upwards of two years in the Princeton Theological Seminary, and was ordained to the ministry by the Presbytery of New York, in Oct., 1825.
The next winter was passed in the South as an agent for the American Bible Society, and the following summer in Massachusetts and on Long Island in a similar way.
He was obliged by his health to resign this charge in 1831, but a year later was able to resume work, and was settled over the Presbyterian Church in Hudson, N. Y., where he continued with great acceptance until he became, Sept 3, 1846, pastor of the Bowdoin Street Congregational Church in Boston, Mass.
While his health permitted, he was there engaged in city missions, and was Secretary of the Brooklyn and L. I. Christian Commission during the American Civil War.
He was the author of more than thirty larger religious works, and of several published tracts, sermons, and hymns.