He then served as a minister in
Greenwich, Connecticut and
Meriden, Connecticut. He also served as pastor of
Park Street Church in Boston from 1868 to 1874. He also delivered Sunday evening lectures about the Adirondacks in a Boston music hall that proved highly popular, and he published a series of articles based on the lectures in a Meriden newspaper. In 1869, they were published as a book,
Adventures in the Wilderness; or, Camp-Life in the Adirondacks. The book's literary tone made it extremely successful; it went through eight printings in its first year. Murray promoted New York's north woods as health-giving and spirit-enhancing, claiming that the rustic nobility typical of Adirondack woodsmen stemmed from their intimacy with wilderness. A subsequent printing, subtitled ''Tourist's Edition'', included maps of the region and train schedules from various Eastern cities to the Adirondacks. Although the book was to become one of the most influential books in the
conservation movement of the 19th century, paradoxically, within five years it led to the building of over 200 "
Great Camps" in the Adirondacks; "Murray’s Fools" poured into the wilderness each weekend, packing specially scheduled railroad trains. The book is cited as changing common parlance to use "vacation" instead of the British "holiday" for people vacating their city homes. == Death ==