[75] After leaving the Divinity School he preached a few times at Albany, New York, and wrote thence: ‘I have been attending a course of anti-slavery lectures by Frederick Douglass, the fugitive slave, and have become greatly interested.’ Then he supplied the pulpit, for three months, of ‘Father Taylor,’ the celebrated Methodist sailor-preacher in Boston. He was afterwards settled as minister over the Unitarian Society in Manchester, New Hampshire, then over the New North Church in Boston, and then in Watertown, Massachusetts. In all these positions he worked for years with the zeal of a revivalist; and he also took active part in the usual collateral duties of a New England minister, rendering important services on school committees, and in temperance and antislavery reforms. He was also twice chaplain of different branches of the Legislature of Massachusetts. He was twice married,— to Miss Elizabeth G. Davenport of Mendon; and, after her death, to Miss Emma L. Reeves of Wayland. The latter, with several children, survives him. He devoted much time at this period to revising and editing, in their final form, the writings of his sister Margaret; interweaving in the work a great deal of new matter from her manuscripts. This work was admirably done, especially when we take into consideration the wide difference in temperament, habits, and aims between the sister and the brother. He thus speaks of this affectionate labor:—
I have done my best and hardest work on this book. The labor of compiling and superintending such a publication and correcting the proof is greater than I could have conceived possible. It is done; and I thank God for giving me strength to do it. I pray that it may contribute to do justice to her merits. That is all the reward I can expect; and that reward would be so noble, so holy!And again:—
This has been a labor of love, which I have joyed in, and have esteemed a privilege, and not a burden. If I only live to send forth Margaret's works from the press, as they should appear, I shall not have lived wholly in vain.All the profits of these volumes were sacredly devoted to
