While at Harrow he also accepted a number of clerical positions, having been ordained as a deacon in 1883 and as a priest in 1885, including the select preacher before Cambridge University (in 1885, 1888, and 1893) and the select preacher before Oxford University in 1886 and 1887. He was honorary chaplain to Queen Victoria from 1888 to 1892, and Chaplain in Ordinary from 1892 to 1898. He was the Hulsean Lecturer at Cambridge in 1897. In 1898, he became a Doctor of Divinity.