and he laboured for its well-being and well-doing in season and out of season. His earnest public and private appeals brought to its aid liberal contributions. He was a father to all the young men it educated for the ministry, and watched over, counselled, and encouraged them with the kindliest suavity of Christian affection, and assisted many of them in time of need from his own purse.
But his executive and originating talent was next brought into action on a larger field. He now became virtually the founder and father of "The Evangelical Alliance," of whose objects and operations the whole civilized world has heard much in the last twenty years. He had long been exercised with grief at the alienations or seeming estrangements existing between different branches of the Christian church holding the same fundamental doctrines of religious faith. He writes, "One morning, at my private devotions. I was much led out in prayer on this subject, and a suggestion came forcibly to my mind to do something to effect a union of Christians in some visible bond. I rose from my knees and sketched out a rough scheme of union. The May meeting of the Congregational Union soon followed. At that meeting. I called the attention of the brethren present to the subject before them. Indeed, this was my chief object in going
