This ecumenism was later evidenced in 1860 when he attended a conference of Protestant missionaries in Liverpool and pleaded with those present to set aside their doctrinal differences for the greater good of serving the cause of Christianity in India.
His efforts in producing statistics relating to work done in India were significant to the fundraising abilities of missionary societies in Britain.
He undertook a tour of the society's missions in India and China during that year and the next, and in 1868, having been awarded a further honorary DD, this time from Edinburgh University, he became the sole foreign secretary of the LMS.
He caught a cold and died on 10 July at Chakombe, being buried at a mission run by the Church Missionary Society at Mpwapwa two days later.
From these studies, he was able to write works such as Vedantism, Brahmism and Christianity Examined and Compared (1852) and The Religious Aspects of Hindu Philosophy (1860), which enabled other missionaries to benefit from his learning.