[2] He was ordained in 1846, and after a curacy at Kidderminster, began more than thirty years actively engaged in parish work in Shropshire, as curate at the Abbey Church in Shrewsbury in 1848.

[4] Published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge during the 1890s under the title "Holy Communion, Preparation and Companion...together with the Collects, Epistles and Gospels" this book was widely distributed and many copies still survive today.

He founded the East London Church Fund, and enlisted a large band of enthusiastic helpers, his popularity among all classes being immense.

The LDDI sent its Sister Louisa in autumn 1880 and the East London Diocesan Deaconess Institution was founded at Sutton Place, Hackney.

[10][full citation needed] After being offered, but declined, the Bishopric of Manchester in 1885 and after his wife's death, he was in 1888 made the first Bishop of Wakefield,[11] and in the north of England he continued to do valuable work.

His sermons were straightforward, earnest and attractive; and besides publishing several volumes of these, he wrote a good deal of verse, including such well-known hymns as Who is this so weak and helpless, Lord, Thy children guide and keep[4] and For All the Saints.

[14] There is also a memorial plaque to him inside the London city church of St Helen's, Bishopsgate, bearing the line "Sweet is the calm of Paradise the blest" from his hymn, "For all the saints".