Like Richard Congreve, the first important English Positivist, Harrison accepted Positivism not only as a secular philosophy but also as the basis of a religion, which the two embodied in the Church of Humanity, founded in London. A practicing lawyer from 1858, Harrison was a member of royal commissions on trade unions and law digests. He was the author of Positivism: Its Position, Aims and Ideals (1901); The Positive Evolution of Religion (1913); and The Philosophy of Common Sense (1907).