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year and a half, putting his qualifications for the ministry to a 
thorough test, and gradually coming to feel that he had found his 
true vocation. He afterwards went to Germany, and studied 
theology for a short time in Halle and Leipsic. 
On 5th February 1835 he was ordained to the ministry, and 
became the pastor of the congregation meeting in what was then 
called “North College Street Chapel,” Edinburgh. The connection 
then formed lasted somewhat over forty-two years. Mr Alexander 
at once gained, and to the last retained, great popularity as a 
preacher. In stimulating and guiding the Christian energies of his 
congregation he was also eminently successful. Gradually he 
attained in his own denomination an influence with which that of 
no one else in Scotland could he compared, while his services to the 
common Christian cause, his genuine catholicity of spirit, and his 
candour and courtesy even as a controversialist, made his name 
honoured in all denominations. His scholarship, literary talents, 
and theological acquirements became attested by writings which 
spread his reputation far beyond the limits of Britain. Notwith- 
standing a certain shyness and reserve of manner, his amiability and 
affectionateness of nature attracted to him numerous warmly attached 
friends. Among the events and dates of his life during his 
ministry in Edinburgh, these may he specified, — his marriage in 
August 1837 ; his delivery of the Congregational Lecture at London 
in 1840; his editorship of the Congregational Magazine from 1836 
to 1840 ; his receiving of the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the 
University of St Andrews in 1845 ; his candidature for the chair of 
Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh in 1852; his 
appointment to the Professorship of Theology in the Congregational 
College in 1854; his removal with his people from Argyle Square 
to Queen Street Hall in 1855, and thence to the new church (St 
Augustine Church) on George the Fourth Bridge in 1861 ; his 
election as examiner in philosophy at St Andrews University in 
1861 ; his visit to Palestine in 1869 ; his selection as a member of 
the Old Testament Revision Company in 1870 ; his appointment 
by the Council of Edinburgh University assessor to the University 
Court in 1871, and reappointment in 1875 ; and “ the greatest sorrow 
of his life,” the death of Mrs Alexander in the last-named year. 
He published The Connection and Harmony of the Old and New 
