He was ordained in 1864, and became a member of the Church Missionary Society. He returned to India in 1865 as a missionary posted in Mirat. He requested a transfer from active missionary service, and accepted a teaching position at the Jay Narayan college in Varanasi (Benares Hindu University), coming in contact with Dayanand Saraswati of the Arya Samaj movement. In 1878, he moved to Cathedral Mission College in West Bengal as its Principal (University of Calcutta). He joined the Indian Education Service, where the Government engaged his services to inspect coins and archaeological deposits, a role expanded to the study of discoveries related to India in Central Asian archaeological sites.