In 1897 he received a call to go to Cavendish Street where there was a huge chapel just off Oxford Road in Manchester. Here they wanted him because they were seeing declining numbers as their congregation moved to the suburbs. He had built a reputation as being able to attract members of the working classes to his services. In Manchester he was much involved with Passive Resistance, the movement protesting about the Education Act 1902 and the requirement for ratepayers to support Anglican and Catholic schools. By 1904 it had all become too much for him and he resigned and took up what he thought would be a less onerous pastorate at Harecourt Chapel, in Islington, London. Here he remained until early 1908.