Early in his ministry he gained the reputation of being one of the outstanding Welsh preachers. He took a leading part in the educational, social, political, and religious movements of his country and, because of his services in the cause of education and social progress, was made J.P. He received the highest honours his denomination could give — the chairmanship of the Union of Welsh Independents, 1886, and the chairmanship of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, 1892. He was first, last, and above all, a preacher, and was in greater demand as a lecturer and preacher than anybody else in his generation. As a lecturer, he was in the line of Gwilym Hiraethog (William Rees, 1802-1883, q.v.). His lectures were models of pure oratory, his sermons, of consecrated eloquence. He was appointed one of the joint editors of Y Dysgedydd in 1874, and was editor-in-chief of that periodical from 1880 until his death. In the last years of his life the greatest boon he bestowed on his denomination was his acceptance of the principalship of the Bala-Bangor College. He had lectured in the college on ‘Preaching’ (1889-93), and was its principal, 1893-6. His care of his students was unremitting, and his whole energy was concentrated on making them fit for the profession of which he himself was such an ornament.