 Later on he held a Bible Class for young men on Sunday afternoons, and until the end of his life he was intimately connected with the work of the Young Men's Christian Association founded by George Williams.For many years he was the chief organiser of the Sunday afternoon devotional meeting held annually at the meeting of the British Association.In 1850 Gladstone was appointed Lecturer in Chemistry to St. Thomas's Hospital, a post which he held for two years, and in June 1853, at the unusually young age of 26, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.