Kirk was educated at
Princeton Theological Seminary under
Dr. Archibald Alexander, and after graduating worked as an agent for the
Board of Foreign Missions. In 1824, he helped to create the
Chi Phi Society, a semi-religious, semi-literary organization, which ceased activity the following year when it merged with the Philadelphian Society. In 1827 he was appointed assistant pastor of the Second Presbyterian church in
Albany, New York, where
William Sprague later ministered, and in 1828 he organized the Fourth Presbyterian church in Albany, after controversy at Second church resulted in a church division partly due to the revivalism techniques then being popularized by
Charles Grandison Finney. With Dr.
Nathan S.S. Beman of
Troy, New York, Kirk established a training school which taught theology for aspiring evangelists. After a time preaching in
London and
Paris, Kirk returned to the United States and took up the pastorate at Mount Vernon which he held for nearly 30 years. He was invited by the American Foreign Christian Union to "proceed to Paris for five months as a special commissioner to attend to the establishment of an American congregation and house of worship" in that city. Dr. Kirk sailed on the steamer "Asia" arriving in Paris February 6, 1857 and during his time there until September was able to secure the charter for the
American Church in Paris from
Napoleon III and secured the purchase of the first building of the American Church in Paris located at 21 rue de Berri. He returned to Boston in September 1857. Although the American Foreign Christian Union urged him to consider the acceptance of the post of Chaplain to the infant church, he felt the claims of his church in Boston were pressing. He remained with the Mount Vernon congregation until his death, March 27, 1874 in Boston. ==Works==