He spent some time as a missionary in Ardentinny before being licensed to preach as a Church of Scotland minister by the Presbytery of Glasgow in 1845.

[2] In September 1845 he was ordained as minister at Newton-on-Ayr, translating to Lady Yester's Church in Edinburgh in May 1847, and to Errol, Perthshire in July 1849.

Caird was transferred to Park Church, Glasgow in 1857, being appointed Chaplain in Ordinary to Queen Victoria in the same year.

[5] A sermon on Religion in Common Life, preached before Queen Victoria, made him known throughout the Protestant world.

[6] Caird delivered the 1892–1896 Gifford Lectures at the University of Glasgow, entitled The Fundamental Ideas of Christianity.