(ilarneU Hnwecaitg Sithratg LIBRARY OF LEWIS BINGLEY WYNNE A.S..A.M., COLUMBIAN COLLEGE. 'Tl. '73 WASHINGTON. D. C. THE GIFT OF MRS. MARY A. WYNNE AND JOHN H. WYNNE CORNELL '98 1922 The original of tliis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031170610 LIFE THOMAS CHALMERS D.D., LL.D, REV. JAIE8 C. MOFFAT, M.A., PBOJESSOa OF LATIN AND LSCTUBEK ON HISTOBY, IN TBI COLLEQE OF NEW JEESEY, FBINCETON. SECOND EDITION. CINCINNATI: MOORE, ANDERSON, WILSTACH & KEYS. 28 WEST FOURTH STREET. NEW YORK; — NEWMAN & IVISON. 1853. Entered, according to act of C!ongreas, in the year 1853, by MOOKE, ANDERSON & COMPANY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Ohio. ^2^(oSA CINCINNATI: A. MORGAN & CO., STEREOTTFEBS HAHUOND BT. MORGAN ft OTEBEin) PRIHTEKS. PKEFACE. The present volume lays claim to nothing above the fidelity of an abstract, designed for the use of those who -wish to know the outline of Dr. Chalmers's career ; but who either cannot afford to purchase, or have not the leisure nor the taste to peruse, many volumes on the sub- ject. In preparing it, care has been taken to present the principal facts contained in the Memoirs by Dr. Hanna, briefly and consecutively, retaining his own words in all cases, where consistent with the desired brevity : else- where, his narrative has been abridged, and only so much extracted from the letters, journals and speeches as seemed necessary to exhibit the character and spiritual growth of the man. Many readers will always prefer the whole work, and find therein nothing which they would willingly spare ; a large mimber, however, are practically excluded by its voluminousness from the benefit of the noble lesson it contains. The circumstances of our country, and the age in which we live, are such as urgently to demand that spirit of aggressive activity, which the influence of Dr. Chalmers's converted life is calculated to promote. Among the youth preparing for the gospel ministry a most valuable qualification is the virtue of prudent enterprise. The church needs men of energy to go forth into the mass of (vii) Vm P R K F A C E . the irreligious, and build up new outworks of the King- dom of God. Nor is such effort to be confined to the professional servanis of the church alone. When infi- delity, both openly and under many disguises, is so active, and the system of Komish idolatry is straining every nerve, the call is imperative on all who love the Lord to be also progressive. In this light it seems desirable that the example of a life devoted to the work of elevating the degraded, of instructing the ignorant, of animating the indifierent, and awakening in all the fire of christian enterprise, should be submitted to the public in an easily- accessible form. March 23, 1853. CONTENTS CHAPTEE I. BntTH — Childhood — College Life — ^License — Eesideuee at Edinburgh — As- sistantship at Cavers — Mathematioal Assistantship at St. Andrew's, fage 11 CHAPTER II. Ordination at Kilmaay — Winter at St. Andrew's — Chemical Lectures Ee- peated at St. Andrew's — Presbyterial Interference — Candidate for the Natural Philosophy Chair at St. Andrew's — And for the Mathematical Chair at Edinburgh — First Publication — Chemical Lectures at Kilmany and Cupar — Double Commission in the Volunteers — Incident at Kirkaldy ; His Brother George's Death — First Visit to London — Publication of Ma Work on Stability of National Eesources — Death of his Sister Barbara — Engaged to Contribute to the Edinburgh Enc;^olopsedia — First Speech in General Assembly — Death of Mr. Ballardie — Severe Illness and its Effects ........ Page 25 CHAPTER III. Efforts after a Pure and Heavenly Morality — Intention of abandoning Mathematics — Preparation of the Article Christianity'— Contributes to the Christian Instructor — Hospitality — James Anderson . Page 87 CHAPTER IV. Study of the Bible — Bible Society — Extracts from Journal — His Marriage — Missions — Visit of Andrew Fuller — Extempore Preaching . Page 47 CHAPTER V. Publication of the Evidences and Authority of the Christian Eeligion — Ori- gin of his Views on Pauperism — On the Moravians as Missionaries — Ap- pearance in Ecclesiastical Courts .... Page 58 CHAPTER VI. Ministry at Kilmany— First Seven Years — The Change— Visiting and Exam- ining—Class for the Young— The Pulpit— The Eesult^Funeral Sermon at Bendochy — Deputation from Glasgow — Election to the Tron Church of Glasgow — Farewell Sermon at Kilmany . . Page 66 CHAPTER VII. First Sermon in Glasgow — Attachment to Mr. Thomas Smith— Degree of Doctor of Divinity Conferred— Speech on Pluralities in General Assem- bly — Sermon before Lord High Commissioner . . Page Si CHAPTER VIII. Plans for Pastoral Work— Secularization of the Clergy— Denunciation of that Evil —Sabbath School Society— Excursion in Fifeshire— First Appearance before a London Audience— Visit to Mr. Montgomery — Sermons in London —Letter from Eobert Hall— Appointment at Stirling— Article on Pauper- ism — Highest Exhibition of his Power as a Preacher — His own estimate of Popularity— His Father's declining Health and Death. . Pago 99 CHAPTER IX. Publication of a Volume of Sermons — Translation to the parish of St. John's— Educational Efforts— Pauper Management — Eev. Ed. Irving- (ix) X CONTENTS. BadicalBiotB — ParqcMal Lodgings — Christian and Civic Economy of Lar^fe Towns— Chapel of Ease — Professorship at St. Andrew's— Appearance in Church Courts — Br. Chalmers in his Family, and in Society — Farewell Discourses at St. John's— Eesults of his Labors in Glasgow — Installment at St. Andrew's ..... Page 137 CHAPTER X. First Winter at St. Andrew's — Appearance in General Assembly— Overture on Theological Course of Study— Gaelic Chapel— Dr. Chalmers and Sir Walter Scott — Glasgow Eevisited — Preaching at Stoctport . Page 177 CHAPTER XI. Session of 1824-5 — Manner of Instruction — General Assembly of 1 825 — Extracts from Journal — Difficulties at St. Andrew's — Endeavors to. Excite a more Profound Religious Feeling — Death of his Mother and Sister Isa- bel — Professorship at London — Treatise on the Use and Abuse of Literary and Ecclesiastical Endowments — Standard of Scholarship in Scottish Uni- versities — Dr. Chalmers elected to the Chair of Theology "in Edinburgh — ■ ' Valedictory at St. Andrew's— General Assembly of 1828- Dr. Chalmers's Inauguration, and first Session at Edinburgh — Speech on Catholic Eman- cipation — Death of his Brother Alexander — Errors of Mr. Irving and Others — Examination in relation to the Irish Poor — Bible in Education — Meeting with Coleridge — Conversations reported by Mr. Gurnoy — Dr. Chalmers one of the Deputation to William IV — Last Meeting with Mi;. Irving — Death of Dr. Thomson . . . Page 188 CHAPTER XII. Publication of his Work on Political Economy — Bridgewater Treatise — Cholera — System of Popular Instruction forScotland— Dr. Chalmers Mod- erator of the General Assembly of 1832 — Patronage — Moderate and Evangelical Parties — Veto Law . . . Page 249 CHAPTER XIII. Excursion through England . . . Page 277 CHAPTER XIV. Annuity Tax — Sudden Illness — Missionary Operations — "Water of Leith" Village — Church Extension . . . Page 294 CHAPTER XV. Literary Distinctions— rEndowment of Theological Chair in Edinburgh — Lectures on Endowments — Visit to France — Eftbrts in behalf of Church Extension — Results . . . Page 808 CHAPTER XVI. Non- Intrusion Controversy . . . Page 314 CHAPTER XVII. Final Conflict between the Church and State — Disruption . Page 869 CHAPTER XVIII. Progress of the Free Churoh— Westport — Dr. Chalmers's Professorial Ca- reer — German Philosophy — The Famine . . Page 395 CHAPTER XIX. Domestic Habits — Times and Modes of Coinposition — Success of the Free Churoh — Visit to London — Last Sabbath — Death , Page 417 LIFE THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D., LL.D. CHAPTER I. Thomas Chalmers was born on the 17tli of March, 1780, at Anstruther, a small town in Fifeshire, Scotland. His pa- rents, John and Elizabeth Chalmers, were both persons of more than common force of character and of exemplary piety; and their standing in society was that which belongs to the household of a respectable merchant, who has risen to be pro- vost of his native town. Thomas was the sixth, in their large family, of fourteen chil- dren. His earlier years were marked by no precocity of attainment, nor were the means of instruction furnished by his native place of a kind to inspire love of knowledge or to mould him to habits of industry. Committed at the age of three years to the hands of a superannuated school tyrant, who retained little but the cruelty of his better days, it is not won- derful that the pupil, with his warm and noble impulses just bud- ding into life, should have been distinguished only as " one of the idlest, strongest, merriest, and most generous-hearted boys in Anstruther school." An assistant teacher introduced more lenient measures, but added nothing to the course of instruc- tion. The impulse of genius, untrained by adequate educa- tion, found exercise and enjoyment for itself. The ability to read, very early acquired, furnished him a means of indepen- dent self-instruction. Among the books which earliest enlisted (11) 12 ' LIFE OF DE. 0HALMEE8. 1788-91. liis attention are mentioned Gaudentia di Lucca and the Pil- grim's Progiess. But chie'ly the beautifully simple narratives of Scripture had even then begun to shape his habits of think- ing for those pursuits which occupied his maturer powers. As illustrative of their hold upon his imagination even in child- hood, it is told of him that when not quite three years old, having heard his father read the story of Absalom's rebellion and death, and the subsequent lament of David, he was after- ward found alone in the nursery, walking backward and for- ward, excited and absorbed, repeating to himself the words "Oh my son, Absalom, oh Absalom, my son, my son !" Though not distinguished by any religious impressions, he very early declared his intention to be a minister. The call of genius preceded that of divine grace. The purpose to which the Creator had designed him was demonstrated even in his childish amusements. It is mentioned by a sister of one of his playmates, that one time breaking in upon them, she found the future orator mounted upon a. chair and discoursing with great zeal to his single auditor. Having mounted from class to class, until he had reached the highest in the school, in process of time, rather than of pre- paration, he was sent to college. He was entered as a student of the United College of St. Andrews while yet only in his twelfth year, and so ignorant of the elements of education as not to be able to write his native tongue with ordinary correct- ness. And from his defective knowledge of Latin, he was utterly disqualified to appreciate or profit by the prelections of " that distinguished philosophical grammarian. Dr. John Hunter, who was theii the chief ornament of St. Andrew's Uni- versity." As might have been expected from his age, these deficiencies were not compensated for by any unusual applica- tion to study. Too young to be left so much to the disposal of his own time, as college life permits, or to understand the value of its advantages, he spent the greater part of his first two sessions in boyish amusements, without making any respect- able advance in his education. At the same time, all those who then knew him best testify to the rectitude and purity of - ^T. 14. LITE OF DE. CHALMEES. 13 his character ; and even in those days of boyish idleness he gave evidence of his native strength of mind by enthusiastically persevering in everything that he undertook. He would often pursue some favorite idea in the midst of his noisy companions, unembarrassed by their laughter and efforts to interrupt him, and then, when he had followed to the end of his cogitation, join in the merriment with the most hearty good-humor. The survivors of that then youthful band fondly recall evidences of the warmth and kindliness of his affections. Such was Chalmers's life until his fourteenth year, when a new era dawned upon his intellect. In his third session at col- lege he took up the study of mathematics under the instruction of Dr. James Brown, assistant professor in that department, a teacher of more than ordinary success in awakening the interest of pupils in his favorite science, and one to whom Dr. Chal- mers, in after days, declared that he was more indebted than to all his other instructors together. The subject, in itself, was one to interest a mind like his, naturally prone to consecutive thinking, and firm and decided in its grasp of truth, and with the additional charm lent it by the illustrations of his eminent teacher, it is not wonderful that it succeeded in entirely absorb- ing his attention. " Pure geometry had especial attractions for him. With the higher powers of the modern analysis he be- came afterward familiarly acquainted, but he never lost his relish for the demonstrations of geometry, nor did he ever cease to think that from the closeness and consecutiveness of its successive steps, geometry furnished one of the very best instruments of mental training." To the same excellent instructor was due his introduction to various other subjects which afterward employed his matured powers. Being admitted to the friendship of Dr. Brown, he derived much instruction as well as healthy intellectual stimu- lus from his rich and eloquent conversation. In his company he frequently met with Sir John Leslie and Mr. James Mylne, the one afterward professor of Natural History in the Univer- sity of Edinburgh, and the other professor of Moral Philosophy in Glasgow, then both young men ; but so much older than 14 LIFE OF DK. CHALMBES. ^1^^- Chalmers, as, together with the real maturity of their thoughts, to give a predominant weight to their opinions in his mind ; and those opinions were most frequently connected with the subjects of ethics and politics. In his father's household he had heard nothing but the staunchest conservatism ; from whose narrow and uncompromising bounds his youig intellect was easily tempted by the charm with which young men of such talent adorned their free and more suggestive range of thought. The rigid Calvinism of his father's faith also became, in his estimation, under the same influences, " a religion of confine- ment and intolerance unworthy of entertainment by a mind enlightened and enlarged by liberal studies." Godwin's Political Justice became the object of his profound admiration, and the cold, religious formalism which then prevailed in the university, tended to check anything like the growth of piety in his soul. He himself testifies, that " St. Andrew's was, at this time, overrun with Moderatism, under the chilling; influ- ences of which, we inhaled not a distaste only, but a positive con- tempt, for all that is properly and peculiarly gospel, insomuch that our confidence was nearly^s entire in the sufficiency of natural theology, as in the sufficiency of natural science." His own clear intellect soon delivered him from the political errors "into which ne was thus temporarily seduced ; from the religious it needed many years, and other than human influences, to recall him." To the same period of his academical career belong also his first attempt in English composition. " Here he had to begin at the very beginning. Letters, written by him even after his second year at college, ezhibit a glaring deficiency in the first and simplest elements of correct writing ; and he had to be- come very much his own instructor ; guiding himself by such models as the prelections of Dr. Hunter and Dr. Brown, and the writings of Godwin or other favorite authors, presented. A few of his first efibrts in this way have been preserved. They exhibit little that is remarkable in style. The earliest compositions of those who have afterward become distinguished as poets, or orators, or eloquent writers have generally dis- played a profuse excess of the rhetorical or the imaginative. iET. 15. LIFE OP DK. 0HALMEE8. 15 which it took time and labor to reduce to becoming propor- tions. In the college exercises of Dr. Chalmers this order is reversed. The earliest of them are the simplest and plainest, with scarce a gleam of fancy or sentiment ever rising to play over the page. They give token of a very vigorous youthful intellect disciplining itself at once in exact thinking and cor- rect pe'rspicuous expression, never allowing itself to travel beyond the bounds of the analysis or argument which it is engaged in prosecuting, never wandering away to pluck a single flower out of the garden of the imagination, by which illustra- tion or adornment might be supplied. Those who, as the result of their analysis, have concluded that in Dr. Chalmers's mental constitution the purely intellectual largely predomi- nated ; that fancy was compai'atively feeble, and that imagina- tion, potent as she was, was but a minister of other and higher powers, might find historic verification of their analysis in the earliest of his college compositions. But his progress here was mai-velously rapid. Habit of accurate and easy composition, which, in many instances, it costs half a lifetime to acquire to the same degree, were acquired by him within two years ; and the ordinary difficulties of expression once mastered, that burning fervor, which glowed with such constant intensity within, got free and natural opportunity to outflow, and shap- ing spontaneously the language that was employed for the utterance of thought or sentiment, moulded it into forms of beauty and power. In the work of cultivating his talent for literary composition he derived great advantage from his connection with the Political Society, an association of students for the purpose of literary improvement. In November, 1795, while not yet sixteen years of age, " he was enrolled as a student of Divinity. Theology, however, occupied but little of his thoughts." Mathematics still retained the principal place in his esteem, and having now acquired enough knowledge of the French language to enable him to read easily mathematical works, therein new stores of delight were laid open to him in the beautiful and far-reaching analy- 16 LIFE OF DK. CHALMEES. 1''85. ses whioli had then found no adequate interpreter m the English tongue. Even the able theologiqal lectures of Dr. Hill were unable to win him from his favorite science, and the most of the year was spent by him without making " entry upon the theological field." It is a striking proof of the light in which religion was regarded both by himself and the university, that, while thus professedly preparing for the work of the gospel ministry and utterly neglecting the necessary studies, and without any distinguishing marks of piety, he could yet com- pose prayers for oratorical effect and an audience would crowd to enjoy the literary treat. It was then the practice at St. Andrew's for the daily prayers in the public hall to be con- ducted by the theological students in rotation, and when it came to Chalmers's turn, the truly pious heart must have trembled for the boy of fifteen, yet ignorant of the power of the spirit of God, whose prayer is made an object of pubUc admiration. Though the greater part of that year was suffered to pass without much profit to the objects of the course, ere it came to a close a second era had opened in the intellectual life of the young student, induced by the celebrated treatise of Edwards on Free Will. The enthusiastic devotion which had previously been expended on mathematics was now addressed in still higher degree to the contemplation of the sovereignty of God, the grandeur of the Almighty government, and the beauty of that order according to which God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. Speaking of this period, Prof. Duncan says : " He studied Edwards on Free-Will with such ardor, that he seemed to regard nothing else, could scarcely talk of anything else, and one was almost afraid of his mind losing its balance ;" and he himself remarked of it, at a later time, " that not a single hour elapsed in which the overpoweringly impressive imagination did not stand out bright before the inward eye ; and that his custom was to wander early in the morning into the country, that amid the quiet scenes of nature he might lux- uriate in the glorious conception." For nearly twelve months this magnificent vision of the Godhead, and subordination of all things to the one sovereign will, continued. Yet it does not -ET. 18. LIFE OF DB, OHALMEKS. 17 seem to have interfered materially with the practicality of his views of inferior things ; for during a visit, in the summer of 1796, to his brother James, then residing near Liverpool, he recorded in his journal the particulars of his observations, with as much care and precision as if he had never entertained an idea above them — a true illustration of the manner in which the largest and most engrossing of his ideas ruled without obliterating the minute. From the transactions of a debating society, sustained by the theological students, it appears that the influence of the great thoughts of Jonathan Edwards upon his mind, was far from being of a superficial or ephemeral character; for, the next session (1796-7), he deUvered, in the society, "a sys- tematic discourse on predestination ;" and Prof. Duncan adds, that the subject of that discourse " occupied him intensely during that session." Again, in the session of 1798-9, he took out for the subject of debate, "Is man a free agent?" and chose the negative side. In the theological society he was associated with Lord Campbell, John Leyden, Prof. Duncan, and several others, afterward well known in the world of letters. It is a striking proof of the rapidity with which the mind and style of Chalmers came to maturity, after a stimulus worthy of his powers had roused him to activity, that part of an exer- cise written while he was a theological student, was, forty years afterward, adopted by him, word for word, before a convoca- tion of the evangelical ministers of the Church of Scotland, and of which Dr. Hanna says, that " no passage he ever wrote was uttered with more fervid energy, or a more overwhelming effect." In the last year of his college course, as it was not required of him to attend lectures more than three months, he resolved to employ the intervening time in teaching, with a view to opening up some field of independent effort, as well as to avoid imposing the additional burden of supporting him upon his father. Accordingly, he soon succeeded in engaging himself as a private tutor, and entered upon his duties as such in May, 2 18 LIFE OF DB. CHALMEKS. 1798. 1798. The disposition of the family was such as to render his situation anjrthing but pleasant. A haughty, supercilious man- ner on the part of the parents toward the tutor, was not likely to leave high esteem for him in the minds of his pupils, unless counteracted by some inherent dignity in his own character. Chalmers felt that, and correctly and manfully sustained him- self against overbearing aristocratic pretension. But the con- test was exceedingly disagreeable, and was relinquished at the end of about six months. Soon afterward, he applied to the presbytery of St. Andrew's for license to preach the Gospel. Though some difficulty was raised on account of his youth, yet, in consideration of the extraordinary promise of the latter years of his residence at college, the presbytery consented to his licensure, which took place on the 31st of July, 1799 ; four months after he had completed his nineteenth year. Iinmediately afterward, he made a second journey into England, and preached his first sermon in the ScQtch Church, at Wigan. At the house of his brother James, who was now settled in business in Liverpool, he met two other brothers, George, three years older, and David, about as much younger than himself, both of whom, as well as William had been for some time at sea, and had agreed upon this occasion of meet- ing. The last-mentioned was prevented from joining them, and within a year afterward perished in the destruction of the ship to whose crew he belonged. It had been the intention of Thomas to avail himself of that opportunity to instruct his younger brother, David, in navigation; he had even made some progress therein, when a summons, requiring his immediate presence in Edinburgh, broke up the lessons, which were never to be renewed. A situation had become vacant, which, if on the spot, he might procure. He obeyed, but was disappointed. He remained, however, in Edinburgh, during the whale t)f the ensu- ing winter, prosecuting his mathematical studies- under Prof. Playfair. At the beginning of the session, he had hoped l^hat, by taking pupils, he might keep himself from pressing upon his father's resources. In this particular, owing to the lateness of his appearance in Edinburgh, where arrangements for the session -ffllT. 21. LIFE OF DB. OHAiMEBS. 19 had already been made, he did not succeed to his expectation. During two months subsequent to his return to Scotland, he preached only once, and in January, 1800, expressed himself as so fully occupied with his mathematical studies, that he should regret anything occurring as an interruption to them. That whole winter was detoted to mathematics, under the instruction of one of the ablest professors in Europe. In the succeeding summer, nothing occurred to prevent his continuation of his favorite pursuit in the retirement of his native place. The next winter he returned to Edinburgh, with a view to attend the classes in natural science and in moral philosophy. - His attention to chemistry, especially, was indefatigable. The lectures of Professor Stewart he attended regularly ; but the subject seems to have had fewer attractions for him at that time, and with the methods of the lecturer he expressed him- self somewhat dissatisfied. There seemed, to his close mathe- matical turn of mind, a want of firmness and convergency in the arguments, and a careful avoiding of points involving difii- cult or lengthened disquisition, and a desultoriness in the in- structions of that celebrated philosopher. " The Edinburgh professor, of whom he at once entertained the profoundest admiration, and to whom he was most largely indebted, was Dr. Kobison." Mr. Chalmers had now been licensed about two years, and yet had given no particular attention to his profession, and seems never once to have thought of his duty to immortal- souls. Ambition to excel in mathematical science burned within him, to the exclusion of those higher motives which ought to have dictated his choice of the gospel ministry. It is clear, however, that such motives were yet entire strangers to his heart. For some years he had even been more or less under the cloud of a secret infidelity. In addition to the erro- neous notions- contracted while in college, and which were after- ward, to some extent, counteracted by Edwards on the Will, in 1798, a work by Baron Holbach, entitled the System of Na- ture, and published under the assumed name of Miraband, came into his hands, and for a time unsettled his faith in the 20 LIFE OF DB. CHALMEKS. 1801. " Stability of the foundations on which all truth, moral and W^ ligious," rests. After suffering much distress from his accumu- lating doubts, upon leaying the family in which he had been residing as private tutor, he went to live at St. Andrew's yitb Mr. Miller, who states of him that, "'His mind was at that time in a most interesting, but unhappy condition. He was, ear- nestly searching for the truth, saw some things very clearly and satisfactorily, but could not find his way to the understanding and belief of some of the most obvious doctrines of natural and revealed religion. Those who were not particularly ac- quainted with him, thought him fast going into a state of derangement. One very common expression in his public prayers, and which showed the state of his mind at that time — ' Oh, give us some steady object for our mind to rest upon,' was uttered with all his characteristic earnestness and empha- sis. I knew that he was exceedingly earnest in seeking the light of truth at that time in his private devotion, and was often on his knees at my bedside after I had gone to bed." To a mind like his, enthusiastically fond of the study of nature, and incapable of repose in vague notions, the book of Holbach was the most ingenious machine of torture, convertiiig his daily pursuits into instruments of continual irritation, and meeting him at the very foundations of all belief with a regu- larly constracted system of doubt. The infidel labored to prove that what we call intellect, is only the result of organi- sation ; that organization and every other phenomenon, having the appearance of design, was only the multifarious effects which flow from the natural development of the essential pro- perties of matter ; that truth is only the accidental relation thus arising between the character of the thinker and the sub- ject of his thoughts, and that it is quite possible that to minds differently constituted, our truth may become falsehood, and falsehood truth. It is possible that the terrors of this philo- sophical skepticism drove Mr. Chalmers to labor with the greater zeal in the field of natural science, conscious that be could obtain rest only by thoroughly investigating and settling hi| opinions. Here the instructions of Dr. Robison were of ^T. 21. LIFE OF DK. qHALMEES. ^ 21 incalculable value to him, setting over against the views of the skeptic, the harmonious and spontaneous lielief of all mankind, in which the native faith of, all" minds is confirmed by the evi' dence of sense and the hourly experience of all living beings; demonstrating that both human minds and -jjjaterial things are real and of independent existence, and consequently, their adaptation, the one to the other, must be the work of express design to that effect, Chalmers's own struggles with this arti- fice of unbelief, led him frequently, in his pnhli^ed writings, to recur to the argument by which it was dissijiated from his own miad. In the summer of 1801, he made another visit to Englaiid, and upon his return, through the kindness of his friend, Mr. Shaw, he was selected to fill the place of assistant to the Rev, Mr. Elliot, of Cavers, a "parish in Roxburghshire, lying along the southern banks of the- Teviot, a few -miles below Hawick." Mr, Shaw had himself occupied that situation, but was now removed to the neighboring parish of Roberton. His residence was about seven miles from the church of Cavers, and it was soon arranged that they should li^ together in the manse of Roberton, which meeting no opposition from Mr. Chalmers's principal, enabled the young pastor to enjdy the counsel and society of a valuable and congenial friend. While this arrangement was y«t maturing, the professor of Church History in St. Andrew's,- died, and it seems that Mr. Cook, of Kilmany, was 'iuonaediately thought of as his succea| sor. In that case, the church of Kilmany, one of those in the gfiffc of the united college of St. Andrew's, would become vacant. It was a njatter of no great difficulty' to obtain, among the fadjilty of the college, a majority of votes in favor of Mr. Chalmers ; but as some time might elapse before that could be settled, he continued his services in Cavers. In the course of the winter, another prospect opened up before him, still more accordant to his then predominant Ijkings. Professor Vilant, who held the. mathematical chair in St. An- drew's, had long been an invalid, and conducted his. classes by the intervention of assistaats. Dr. Brown, the assistant during 22 UFE OF :DB. CHAMIEES. 1808. Mr. Ohalfttfers's imdergraduat^ course, had been rem«rved to the professorship of Natural Philosophy, in Glasgow. The assistajitslnp had since passed, into othef h3.nds, and was again, vacant. Had Mr. Chalmers's "aims-ibeen purely professional, the certainty of the appointment to Kilmany might have .satis- fifed him. . Nay, if amything like the same feeling of ministe- rial responsibility which he afterward entejrtained,. had been then experienced, he would never have thought of undertaiing an oflSce requiring such Very laborious preparations, and that on the eve of his entrance on^the christian ministry. But, as yet^ unvisited with those profounder sentiments, as to the ob- jects and responsibilities of that ministry, science still swayed it over theology. His thirst for -literary distitfction was in- tense. To fill the mal3iematical chair in one of. our universities, was the high object of his ambition. To this, the aasistantship at St AYidrew's, might prove a stepping-stone. It would give him, at least, the opportunity so ardently longed for, of prov- ing and exhibiting his capabilities for such an office. • In spite, therefoi'e, of the peculiar circumstances in which he was placed, he resolved to make a vigijrous effort to obtain the appoint- ment. Informed that his presence at St. Andrew's was desira- ble, he left Roberton in the end of April, to return in a few weeks, not only with the assurance reiterated and confirmed, of his receiving the presentation to Kilmany, but with the mathe- matical assistantship secured. It might not be until Whitsun- tide, of the foUovfing year, that he would be ordained as a min- ister; in November he would enter upon the duties of the mathematical class. Inflamed by the literary ardor which the prospect now before him had kindled, he returned to Tetiot- ^ale, resolved ta devote the summer months to strenuous study;" and so faithfully did he carry out his resolution, that -when November arrived, his preparations were nearly com- plete. As early as the beginning of September, he left his country congregation, in order to pursue his studies more favorably at St. AndreVs. "Early in October; Mr. Cook resigne(^4he living of Kilmany ; and on the 2d ©f November,' the principajs- ^Tl-28. LIFE OF DR. OHAIMEEa. 23 and p*&fessors reordially and unanimously agreed to elect Mr. Chalmers 'his successor." His ordination was not to take place until next spring, and in the meanwhile, he devoted himself with the most ardent en- thusiasm to the business of his classes. Instead of contenting himself, as mathematical teachers commonly do, with the bald abstractions constituting the science, he labored to exhibit them in all the interesting associations with which they were connected in his own mind.' The connections of mathematics "with the various fields of natural science and the arts,< were habitually presented before his pupils, rendering the study, as one of his pupils writes, " hardly less a play of the fancy than a labor of the intellect ; the lessons of the day being continu- ally interspersed with applications and illustrations of the most lively nature : so that he secured, in a singular manner, the confidence and attachment of his pupils." From the frag- ments of his lectures delivered this session, it is clear that, with all his passion for science and remarkable success in its pursuit, the orator in his intellectual character overruled the mathematician. . The old professor was astonished and alarmed at the reports which reached him of the eloquence and enthu- siasm which, under the influence of his new assistant, were lighting up the subject over which he had so long presided in dignified apathy. His disapprobation was expressed, and attempts were made to interfere and to dictate to the assistant a method more consistent with the dull routine of other days. It was granted that the classes were more thoroughly instruct- ed, and interested in the study to an unprecedented degree ; but because they had not gone over the same extent of ground as in former years, occasion was taken to malign the profes- sional character of the instructor. It was not to be expected that one of Mr. Chalmers's ardent temperament, and "so keenly alive to everything which he considered ungenerous and unjust," should endure in silences. In closing the session, he expressed his opinion of the conduct of his superior both before his (Sass and before the professors assembled at examination. On the latter occasion, he was so sarcastic and vehement in his 24 LIFE OF PB, CHALMEES. 1808. remarks on the conduct of professor Yilant, that the chajrman of the board found it necessary to call him to order. " Mr. Chalmers had already intimated to his father that he meant to devote to a visit to Edinburgh the short interval whi(jh would occur between the breaking up of the classes al St. Andrew's and his settlement at Kilmany. His father dis- liked the proppsition. He knew how engrossed hi% son had been throughout the winter -with mathematics. He looked forward with anxiety to the commencement of his ministry. He feared .that science had the hold which he wished so much that the gospel. of God's redeeming grace should have; and thinking fliat the short season, which* now remained ere the sacred duties of an ambassador of Chrigt were entered on, might be more fitly asd pr9fitably employed, he ventured to remonstrate with his son, suggesting that, as they had seen so little of him during the winter, he might give ttiis interval to Anstruther, where he could find seclusion and repose." The reply was more in the spirit of self-righteausness and assumed superiority than any other of its author that has yet been pub- lished. It took for granted that Tie was fully prepared for the work of the ministry an4 -stood in no need of any special season of preparation, and that regarding his literary motives they were of a kind above thp reach -oi his father's comprehension. It would be most painful to read but for tlie consideration that the time came when no one would have condemned it more than its author. CHAPTER II. Mb. Chalmers was ordained to the work of tte gospel min- istry in the parish pf Kilmany, on the 12th of May, 1603. Notwithstanding the low estimate he had formed of his proies- sion, he proved by no means neglectful of the external duties belonging to it. His preparations for the pulpit were made with care, and the work of pastoral visiting and catechizing was performed with all fidelity to established form, while the zeal and warmth of his character won the esteem and afiections of his parishioners. Still he did not resign his hopes of distinction and had counted upon retaining his place at St. Andrew's. In coilse€[uence, however, of the assault made by him upon his principal, professor Vilant, at the close of the term, and perhaps of the professor's dissatisfaction with his manner of teaching, he had received information that his ser- vices would not be required there any further. This step, on the part of his principal, he considered as an attempt to blast his reputation and to put him down as incompetent, with^t affording^ him an opportunity to vindicate himself from misre- presentation : an indignity and injustice to which he was determined not to submit. The setting up of a private class, in opposition to those in college, was somewhat new in Scot- land, and would excite much hostility as well as astonishmejit ; but conceiving such a step necessary to his reputation as a teacher, he resolved to adopt it. Accordingly he declared his intention to open mathematical classes of his own in St. An- drew's, under the very eyes of the man who had attempted to dishonor him. The attendance, notwithstanding the opposi- tion of the college faculty, was such as to encourage the young adventurer to further enterprise, and toward the end of Decem- ber Jie commenced a course of lectures on chemistry, which were still more fully attended. He had now three classes of stu- dents in mathematics and one in chemistry, as well as his 3 (25) 26 LltE OF DE. CHAUVIEES. 1804. pulpit in Kilmany, to supply any one of which, to most young men of three-and-twenty, would have been work of abundant toil. Yet he writes of it as "just the life for which he was formed -^ a life of constant and unremitting activity." He spent most of the week in St. Andrew's, going out to Kilmany every Saturday and returning early on Monday. Such was the excellence of his instructions, and perhaps, more than all, the eloquence with which they were enforced, that his popu- larity as an instructor rapidly increased, and the opposition which bitterly encountered him at first, gradually yielded to the course of the tide. The youth who, unfriended an^ single-handed, had entered the lists with the university, not out of wanton bravado, not from selfish obtusion, but in order to remove a stain unjustly cast upon his reputation, had completely triumphed. A journal kept during that winter goes to prove how thor- oughly scientific ambition thfen engrossed all the warmest feel- ings of his soul. His church and the cause of God in the soul of man, certainly occupied the inferior place in his esteem; and it only sets the matter in a m«re unfavorable light, if his con- gregation perceived in his conduct no particular reason to be dissatisfied. Some of the ministers of his presbytery, how- ever, saw the impropriety of it, and determined to use their influence to impose a check upon it. If they had previously indulged other ministers in a similar course, they were to be pitied for that, rather than blamed for the juster views which they now maintained. His defense was ably written ; but presents no argument higher than his literary reputation, and indeed assumes that in vindication thereof, he was fully justi- fied in neglecting, to such a degree, the high responsibilities he had assumed to the souls of men. The case was not brought before presbytery so soon as he expected, and next winter he determined to repeat his chemical lectures in St. Andrew's, deeming it su:^cient concession to the objections of his breth- ren to have relinquished the intention of re-opening mathemati- cal classes. In view of this determination, " at a meeting of the presbytery of Cupar, held on the 4th of September, 1804, MS. 24. LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 27 Dr. Martin begged the presbytery to insert^ in their minutes lihat, in his opinion, Mr. Chalmers's giving lectures in chemistry is improper, and ought to be discontinued. To this request the presbytery acceded. On which Mr. Chalmers begged it to be inserted in the minutes, that after the punctual discharge of his < professional duties, his time was his own ; and he con- ceived that no man or no court had a right to control him in the distribution of it." In his defense there was no better spirit manifested than that of a high-minded man of the world. He challenges comparison with other clergymen — maintains that he had fully satisfied all the demands of his profession, and defies his opponent to " find a single individual " of his parishioners who would say that he had been outstripped by any of his predecessors in the regularity of his ministerial atten- tions, or that anything had been discovered in his conduct be- tokening a contempt for religion, or indifference for its sacred interests ; and closes with an expression of hightoned resent- ment of the interference with what he deemed his rights. He " spurns the attempt as he would the petty insolence of a ty- rant," and declares that to the, last sigh of his heart he "would struggle for independence, and eye with proud disdain the man who presumes to invade it," with other expressions char- acteristic of the impetuous youth of noble feelings and lofty ambition ; but not one trace of the Christian. Accordingly, in utter contempt of this remonstrance, he resumed his chemi- cal lectures at St. Andrew's in the succeeding November, spend- ing two days every week in that way — spare time, which he says, in a letter of that day, would otherwise have been fret- ted "away in indolence and disgust." In the meanwhile, upon the death of Dr. Rotheram, professor of Natural Philosophy in St. Andrew's, Mr. Chalmers presented himself as a candidate for the vacant chair, but without success. Again, in the fol- lowing January, when Dr. Robison, Professor of Natural Philos- ophy in the University of Edinburgh died, and Professor Playfair was removed to that department, he entered the lists as a com- petitor for the professorship of mathematics ; but there also failed to obtain the favorable notice of the electors, who were 28 LIFE OF DK. CHALMEES. 1805. divided between Mr. Leslie and Mr. Macnight, one of the min- isters of Edinburgh. Though the former was the successful candidaite, the design of the latter to retain his pastoral charge, in case of his election to the professorship, gave rise to a dis- cussion, in which Mr. Chalmers, as might have been expected, took a prominent part. Professors Playfair and Stewart had each addressed letters to the lord provost, in which they remon- strated against ministers, in possession of a pastoral charge, holding also a professorship ; and Mr. Playfair had also urged that not only were few clergymen in the church of Scotland competent to the dilties of a mathematical professorship, but that the successful pursuit of science was " incompatible with clerical duties and habits." . Mr. Chalmers resented this as a " cruel and illiberal insinuation " against " the whole order of churchmen," and responded at length in a pamphlet published under the title, " Observations on a Passage in Mr. Playfair's Letter to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, relative to the Math- ematical pretensions of the Scottish Clergy," in which, by his zeal to vindicate the science of his brother ministers, Jie pre- sents a lamentable view of their professional fidelity. " The author of this pamphlet," he said, " can assert, from what to him is the highest of all authority, the authority of his own experience, that after the satisfactory discharge of his parish duties, a minister may enjoy five days' uninterrupted leisure for the prosecution of any science in which his taste may dis- pose him to engage ;" and his estimate of the dignity of his profession may be inferred from the fact that he speaks of one confined to it and excluded from literary and scientific distinc- tion, as "a being who must bid adieu to every flattering anticipa- tion, -and drivel out the remainder of his days, in insignificance." His ambition was also apparent in the zeal with which he urged the sale of his pamphlet, and the obvious desire to earn a little literary reputation from it. The succeeding winter (1805), he delivered a course of chemical lectures to his parishioners at Kilmany, and also at the neighboring town of Cupar. His intensely energetic mind, yet unenlightened as to the resources and full demands of his sa- JET. 25. LIFE OF DE. CHALMSES. 29 cred calling, craved occupation from other fields of effort, and labored from the mere love of activity. Nor were these intellect- ual enterprises enough to exhaust his exuberant energy ; the great public events of that stirring time occupied their full share of his attention. The career of Bonaparte, from the first, had been to him an object of profound interest ; and when the threat of invasion impended over the country, he did not con- tent himself with lifting up his voice in the pulpit against the national enemy, but also enrolled himself in the St. Andrew's corps of volunteers, " holding a double commission as chaplain and lieutenant." While on service in that body in 1806, an incident occurred which goes, together with many other things, to prove the impulsive generosity of his nature, even before it was actuated by the holier motive of pious benevolence. In the outskirts of the town of Kirkaldy, " where his corps was then on permanent duty, he recognized an old acquaintance, a member of the secession church, whose family was sunk in poverty, and visited with fever. Anxious to contribute to their relief, Mr. Chalmers requested Mr. Fleming, the minister of Kirkaldy, to give him the use of his pulpit, that he might preach a sermon, and make a collection on behalf of the suf- ferers. Knowing the applicant only as the author of the recently published pamphlet, and as one addicted more to lec- tures on chemistry than to purely professional effort, Mr. Fleming refused. The will, however, was too strong not to find for itself a way. Although Mr. Chalmers could not get a pulpit to preach, he could find a room to lecture in. A suit- able apartment was forthwith engaged; a course of lectures on chemistry was announced. Though the admission ticket was somewhat high in price, goodly audiences crowded nightly around the lecturer ; and at the close, he had the exquisite satisfaction of handing over-to a respectable, but unfortunate family, what not only relieved them from present distress, but supported them for some time afterward in comfort." The same feature of his character appeared also in his intercourse with the people of his pastoral charge, and his kindness to the poor old man who had been the imperfect teacher of his 30 LIFE OF DK. OHALMEES. 1806. boyhood. His house had generally as many of his yonnger brothers and sisters in it, as it could conveniently accommo- date, and of the education of some of them, he assumed the princigal care as well as expense. Though he had ceased to lecture at St. Andrew's, he still continued to spend most of his time during the winter in that place, superintending the edu- cation of his youpger brother, Charles. In the spring of 1 806, his brother George, who had been at sea for several years, returned with a constitution already un- dermined by the progress of consumption. For some time he resided at Kilmany, but in October, removed to his father's house, at Anstruther, where Thomas followed him, and never left him until he died. The calm resignation and elevated piety of that favorite brother, seems to have had a most salu- tary efiiect upon Mr. Chalmers's mind. Although in the end of October he wrote of him as having " all the manly indiffer- ence of his profession," and as being " perfectly resigned under the confident idea that his death is inevitable," he must have felt compelled, ere the earthly career of that pious brother was closed, to refer his composure to something higher than manly indifference or blind resignation to inevitable destiny. "Every evening, at George's own request, one of Newton's sermons was read at ^his bedside, by some member of the family in ro- tation. It was one of the very books which, a short time pre- viously, Thomas had named, and denounced from the pulpit. Bending over the pulpit, and putting on the books named the strong emphasis of dishke, he had said, " Many books are fa- vorites with you, which, I am sorry to say, are no favorites of mine. When you are reading Newton's Sermons, and Baxter's Saint's Rest, and Doddridge's Rise and Progress, where do Matthew, Mark, Luke and John go to ?" As he now read one of these books to his dying brother, and witnessed the support and consolation which its truths conveyed, strange misgivings must have visited him. He was in the room, when those pale and trembling lips were heard to say, " I thank thee, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes." Per^ ^T. 26. LIFE OF DE. OHALMEES. 31 haps, as the words were uttered, the thought arose, that in his own case, as compared with that of his brother, the words might be verified. In company with a weeping household, he bent over the parting scene, and heard the closing testimony- given, " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." George died on the 16th December, 1806. It was the first death of a near relative which Thomas had witnessed, and the deep impression which it made, was the first step toward his own true and thorough conversion unto God." A few weeks after this event, Mr. Chalmers paid a visit to his brother James, who had now taken up his residence in Lon- don. The journal kept during that trip, bears evidence to the range and minuteness of his - observations, and the practical turn of his mind. It discusses the characters met in traveling, descriptions of scenery, of mechanical operations and inven- tions, of chemical apparatus and lectures, of works of art, of plants, of natural scenery, of landscape gardening, manufac- tories, antiquities, objects of historical interest, life and man- ners, preachers, political speakers and speeches, the palaces, the royal family, the theater, and actors. In short, no class of objects seems to have escaped his attention, except those, which a few years later, absorbed the whole enthusiasm of his nature. He also visited the great universities of England, but was most interested in Cambridge, from its association with the name of Sir Isaac Newton, who was the object of his highest admiration. On his way home, he delayed at Alnwick, to look upon the ancient halls of the Percies, and the ruins on Holy Isle ; after which, making his way on foot along the banks of the Tweed and the Teviot, in about a week he reached the house of his friend, Mr. Shaw, of Eoberton. In that hospita- ble family he was detained longer than he had intended. Mr. Shaw's account of this part of his journey admits us to an in- teresting view of some features of his character : " I proposed when he left, to accompany him to Dr. Hardie's (about six miles distant), whence he intended to get to Penny cook next day. We set out accordingly on a Monday after breakfast. 32 LIFE OF DB. CHALMEKS. 1307. The next morning, I expressed a wish that we should go as far as Galashiel's, and call on Dr. Douglass, to which he consented, on conditioji that it must be only a short call. There, however, we were induced to spend the day. Next morning, we took our departure on the way to Peebles ; but in passing the hos- pitable residence of a family, 'with whom I was intimately con- nected, I prevailed on him to call, and being much delighted with our kind reception, we remained till next morning, when we took our leave, after breakfast. On our way up the Tweed, I suggested the propriety of our calling on my friend, Mcol, of Traquair, whose manse was situated only about half a mile oflf the road ; ' Well, sir,' was the reply, ' but it must be only for a minute or two, as I must get to Pennycook this night.' There, however, we spent the day most comfortably, and in the evening, were so delighted with the music of the piano, tha*t we could not refrain dancing a few merry reels. At last, Chalmers took hold of my arm, and exclaimed, ' It's out of the question, my getting home this week. You have a good horse, so you must just proceed to-morrow morning to Kilmany, and I will go back to Roberton.' To this proposal I readily agreed. Nicol was amazed, and seemed to think we were both' getting deranged. On awakening next morning, and perceiving that it rained, I began to groan a little, when my friend pulled me out of bed, and ordered me to set off with all convenient speed. Off, I accordingly rode, and reached Kilmany about eight o'clock at night. Chalmers went from Nicol's to Hardie's on Friday — we parted at Traquair — and on Saturday, to Roberton parish, where he wrote a poetical farewell to Teviotdale, and preached a brilliant sermon on ' Look not on the wine when it is red.' (Prov. xxiii, 31). Afterward, on his way home, he called at Abbotshall, and gave me a minute and amusing ac- count of all his proceedings, concluding with high glee and emphasis, ' This famous exploit will immortahze us, sir.' I regret that I cannot find his Farewell to Teviotdale, which I must have somehow mislaid." From this time forward, his conduct is marked by more steady residence in his parish, and attention to his pastoral MI. 27. LIFE OF DE. CHALMEE3. 33 duties, but without any apparent change in the state of his aflfec- tions toward God. Lectures on chemistry were discarded for discussions on political economy. The new subject could be treated without wandering from the bounds of his, own study, and naturally awakened a warmer interest in men and their tem- poral well-being in his mind — a mind that never suflFered any of its ideas to slumber in the abstract." He was now employed dur- ing the latter part of the year 1 807, in preparing his work on the " Stability of National Resources," called forth by the then existing circumstances of the British nation. Napoleon, by means of his continental system, had excluded British com- merce from all the ports to which his influence extended, cut- ting off, as it seemed, the principal resources of his enemy, at a time when she was involved in a most expensive war. The fears excited on this occasion, Mr. Chalmers considered en- tirely groundless, and endeavored to prove that if his country were without commerce, she would only be deprived of some expensive luxuries, but not of the wealth whereby they are bought, and therefore, really stronger in internal resources, and better able to sustain the government in keeping up the war, than before. The topics treated were of great and im- mediate importance, and at that time, occupied much of public attention, and were treated by the ablest political writers of that day, yet the work of the young minister of Kilmany is distinguished among them all for largeness of view, and the practicalness of its suggestions. Some of its propositions, though undervalued at the time, as the offspring of an unknown author, have since become operative principles of the British government. He was impeded in the completion of this work by a protracted illness, so that it was not brought out until the spring of 1808. A small edition was printed in Edinburgh, and the sale being very fair, suggested the idea of a new edition from the London press. On this point, he manifested considerable anxiety, and interested both his brother and Mr. Wilkie in its behalf; but their negotiations with booksellers were not successful. He concluded to go up to London, and attend to the management of the business himself, but Provi- 3i LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 1809. dence ordered it otherwise, and he was detained in a place more conducive to the growth of reUgion in his soul — the sick, dark room of a dying sister. The same disease which had remdved his brother George, had now laid its inexorable hand upon his sister Barbara, and another beautiful proof was set before the ambitious man, of the value of that heavenly hope, which is as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, of the reality of the believer's possession amid the imperfect and fleeting objects of temporal desire. His sister died on the 19th of August, 1808, and next day, in a letter to his brother James, he declared that he had no decided intentions regarding his book. Some months previous to his sister's death he had been requested by Dr. Brewster to become a contributor to the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and had chosen the article Trigono- metry. But after his sister's death he wrote again to Dr. Brewster, requesting that the article Christianity might Be committed to him, and Dr. Andrew Thomson, to whom it had been already assigned, consented to give it up upon learning Mr. Chalmers's desire to undertake it. He expressed extreme desire to do the subject justice and resolved to take up his abode for three or four months at St. Andrew's for the purpose of having access to the necessary authorities. On the 8th of February, 1 809, he preached his sermon on the occasion of the battle of Corunna, to a small body of his parishioners, collected through the storm in his own dining-room at Kilmany. On the 25th of May succeeding, he made his first speech before the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in support of an overture from the Presbytery of Cupar relative to the act regulating the augmentation of clergymen's salaries. Through neglect of the necessary formalities the motion was lost ; but the power of the address had awakened the attention of the Assembly to the fact, that a master-mind was rising up among them. " Do you know anything of this man ?" said Dr. Campbell, a minister who sat near him, " he is surely a most extraordinary person." The question was on many lips beside Dr. Campbell's as the speaker sat down. He was beset with solicitations to publish his address, and when these were iET. 29. UFK OF DK. OHALMBES. 35 urged by such men as Dr. Brewster and Dr. Andrew Thom- son, it would have been the falsest delicacy to decline. The speech was accordingly committed to the press. On his return from Edinburgh he was met by the tidings of the death of an uncle who had long been a " kind of second father to his nephews and nieces." " Mr. Ballardie's wife had been dead for many years, and his house had been kept by her sister." One evening he retired to his room after tea. He remained longer than usual and his sister-in-law, entering his room, found him kneeling by a chair. His spirit had passed away in the very act of prayer. He left his nephew, Thomas, the heir of his house, and, along with his father. Constituted him his trustee. But Mr. Chalmers had contracted a severe illness on his way home from the Assembly, which prevented his leaving Kilmany till the beginning of August. He visited Anstruther in the close of September, but some exposure, on his return, threw him into a long, sickness, in which, for four months, he never left his room ; for half a year he was unable to appear in his pulpit, and twelve months elapsed before he could again discharge all the duties of his office. At the time he was residing at the farm-house of Fincrags while the manse of Kilmany was undergoing repairs. His illness, which was a disease of the liver, requiring the application of the strongest medicines, reduced him to the last degree of bodily debility ; " but the mind was left in untouched vigor, and into it, now left to its own profound and solitary musings, there sunk the deepest and most overpowering impression of human mor- tality." The repeated deaths of those whom he loved, and now the belief that his own end was near bore forcibly in upon him the truth of the shortness of mortal existence and the conviction that all of it is needed for the accomplishment of all its duties. In February of the next year, he thus wrote to his friend, the Rev. Mr. Carstairs, of Anstruther : " My confine- ment has fixed on my heart a very strong impression of the insignificance of time ; an impression which, I trust, will not abandon me though I again reach the heyday of health and vigor. This should be the first step to another impression still 36 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 1810. more salutary, the magnitude of eternity. Strip human life of its connection with a higher scene of existence, and it is the illusion of an instant, an unmeaning farce, a series of visions and projects, and convulsive efforts, which terminate in nothing. I have been reading Paschal's thoughts on religion : you know his history ; a man of the richest endowments, and whose youth was signalized by his profound and original spe- culations in mathematical science, but who could stop short in the brilliant career of discovery, who could resign all the splendors of literary reputation, who could renounce, without a sigh, all the distinctions which are conferred upon genius, and resolve to devote every talent and every hour to the- de- fense and illustration of the Gospel. This, my dear sir, is superior to all Greek and to all Roman fame." CHAPTER III. Me. Chalmers had now entered upon a new era of exist- ence. Those long months of 'sickness and hourly contempla- tion of impending death, deepening the solemn impression already made by ^he last hours of his brother and sister, and bringing up before him in strong contrast the littleness of time, and grandeur of eternity, caused him to look back upon his past life with profound regret and condemnation. He perceived that, while holding the place of a minister of Christ, he had been pre-eminently attached to the pursuits and honors of the world ; that he had not labored for eternity ; that although his views of God had been sublime, and in many respects scrip- tural; though he had enjoyed large adoring thoughts of the Creator and sovereign ruler of all, he had never known that humble, childlike faith and love by which the renewed soul reposes upon God ia Christ as the gratuitous giver of a com- plete salvation to which the sinner can add nothing of his own. He felt that he had been proud and self-righteous, and that he had not given himself to the work of the Lord with singleness of purpose. Now recognizing his Almighty Master's right to the service of all the powers of his being, he resolved, if life should be prolonged, henceforth to hve for God, and to de- vote himself more assiduously to all the duties of his sacred calling. With this change of feeling a corresponding change took place in his speculative belief. Views of the depravity of hu- man nature, which previously he would have rejected with dis- dain, grew up before him, and enlarged, though stiU imperfect conceptions of the atonement occupied his mind. For some time longer he relied upon his own determination to conform to the principles of divine law. It cost the struggle of another year before he could assign the whole credit and work of salva- tion to the Saviour, and that only after humiliation had been (37) 38 LIFE OF DK. CHALMBKS. 1810. induced by frequent and conscious failure of his eflfbrts to con- form to the requisitions of the law. In the journal kept dur- ing a part of that time, there appears the proof of a continu- ous endeavor to subdue the impetuous and haughty spirit of former years, wherein self-reliance, most prominent at the be- ginning, gives place afterward to earnest and increasing sup- plication for divine aid, and aspirations after honors yields to the desire to " secure a quiet and virtuous passage through this the country of his pilgrimage," and that his chief ambi- tion may be to please God and maintain the life which is hid with him in Christ. Mathematical studies still occupied a part of his time. In March, 1810, he suspended them, in order to prepare a review of Dr. Charters's sermons. On the sixth of May, 1810, he preached for the first time in thirty-one weeks. A few days later he made a visit to his father's house, and found his sister lying dangerously ill. His brother Alexander had also been sick for some time. ^ These sources ot sorrow increased the so- lemnity of his feelings; and writing from St. Andrews, not long afterward, he records a growing indifference to university pre- ferments. In mentioning his own quiet country residence as a better theater of moral discipline than Anstruther, his own journal recognizes that peHod as the infancy of his religious course. Under the date Of August 21st, he mentions his inten- tion of abandoning severe mathematics, and of expending his strength upon theological studies. He confesses the painfiil- ness of the sacrifice, but resolves to " leave himself entire fol- all those discussions which are connected with the defense of Christianity, the exposition of its views, and the maintenance of its interestss as affected by the politics or philosophy of the times." Still, He did not yet entirely lay aside mathematical reading, but confined it to a very subordinate place. Prayers like these frequently occur in his journal : "Let me never for- get the pre-eminence of religion ;" " Let me give my strength to the grand business of being useful in my profession," and " God, give me the spirit of prayer and the spirit of watch- ing." ^T. 80. LIFE OF DE. CHALMEBS. 39 His sister Lucy died on the 23d of December, 1810, upon which he returned to Anster to comfort his father who was now sinking under repeated affliction and increasing blindness. At the same time he took up Wilberforce's " Practical View of religion," a book destined to mark an era in his spiritual his- tory. So far, under deeply solemnized feelings, and the pur- pose of a holier life, he had been struggling to his purpose by means of virtuous principle. The result was, a restless dissat- isfaction with all his efforts. He had failed in attaining that heavenly excellence and calmness of spirit at which he aimed. Wilberforce showed him that, correct as was the end he had in view, the path he was pursuing would never lead him there. That he must abandon th& hope of recommending himself by his own good deeds, and submit to trust the whole work of his salvation and acceptance with God to the Lord Jesus Christ. Fully prepared to confirm the position of the author, that re- pose was not to be found in attempts to secure a leg'al right- eousness, he felt as he never had felt before the force of that fundamental injunction, " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." " For upward of a year he had striven with all his might to meet the high requirements of the divine law; but that law rose in its demands as he rose in his endeav- ors." In his own words; " It still kept ahead of him, with a kind of overmatching superiority to all his efforts. His attempts to scale the heights of perfection, to quell the remonstrances of a challenging and not yet appeased commandment. Were like the laborious ascent of him, who, having so wasted his strength that he can do no more, finds that some precipice still remains to be overcome, some mountain brow that scorns his enterprise and threatens to overwhelm him. " He repaired to the atone- ment to eke out his deficiencies, and as the ground of assur- ance that God would look upon him with a propitious eye; but notwithstanding an unappeasable disquietude hung heavy upon his heart, and " he walked among the elements of uncertainty and distrust," till at last Tie came to see that the Saviour had already and completely done for him what, with so much Btrenuousness, but with so little success, he had been striving 40 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 1811. to do for himself. He felt the insecurities of his position he had been in vain endeavoring to strengthen, by mixing up the merits of Christ with the sincerity of his repentance and the pains- taking of his obedience, to form together the ingredients of his hope and security before God. But the conviction was now wrought in him that he had been attempting an impossibility^ that he had been trying to compound elements that would not amalgamate ; that it must be either on his own merits wholly, or on Christ's merits wholly that he must lean ; and that by introducing, to any extent, his own righteousness into the ground of his meritorious acceptance with God, " he had been inserting a flaw, he had been importing a falsehood into the very principle of his justification." ^, It was through the spring of 1811, that this revolution in his spiritual character was silently progressing, in the course of which he obtained valuable assistance from Scott's " Force of Truth," and Hannah More's Essay on Practical Piety, which were followed in the summer by Baxter's " Body of Divinity," and the whole year was a laborious and solid pro- gress in the most valuable religious knowledge. The simpli- city of a complete salvation, ofiered entire as a free gift, did not break upon his mind suddenly, but rose before him slowly, as the summer morning in his native clime, after a long dawn of progressive light. His growth in grace was sensibly impeded by remaining habits of conformity with fashionable indifference to the pecu- liar doctrines of Christianity. This appeared in other things as well as in the fact that although now feeling the love of God in Christ to be dearer to him than all the honors and approba- tion of earth, he experienced a struggle with his convictions, when any of his worldly friends spent the night with him, in view of conducting family worship in their presence. The article upon the evidences of Christianity, commenced before his sickness, was not laid aside ; but in the midst of mental anxiety and bodily debility, was slowly progressing toward completion. -For many months the work of composi- tion had to be suspended ; but still some part of the day was LIFE OF DE. CHALMEKS. il generally allotted to reading or to hearing others read on the subject. The work enlisted his most ardent enthusiasm, and as the cogency and number of the evidences of Christianity accu- mulated before him, his admiration and delight in the subject were beyond bounds. " I have seen him," says a friend, writing of the summer months of 1810, while he was still so feeble as to be debarred from composition, " almost in an ecstasy when he was speaking of the grandeur and excellency of Christianity, and of the clearness and force of the evidence by which it is supported. His mind was almost overwhelmed by it. One day he called on me and said : ' Tell me all -that ever you heard against Christianity from its enemies ; I am more than able to refute them all. The evidences of our religion are overwhelming.' It is utterly impossible for me to convey, in language, an idea of the manner in which he uttered these and similar expres- sions. His whole soul was completely absorbed, and he gave vent to his" feelings in language peculiarly his own." Dr. Andrew Thomson had recently been called to the New Gray-friars' church, Edinburgh, and coming into the midst of fashionable indifference and " aristocratic self-satisfaction, sus- tained by high literary talents and attainments, found himself called upon to employ the utmost available power of the press, as well as of the pulpit, and accordingly commenced the pub- lication of the Christian Instructor, a periodical devoted to the interests of practical Christianity, the first number of which appeared in August, 1810. In January of the following year, he wrote to Mr. Chalmers requesting him to become a contri- butor, and suggesting, as a subject of criticism, a work, recently issued in London, on Toleration. Mr. Chalmers fell in with the proposal, and having still lying by him his review of Dr. Charters's sermons, composed in the previous spring and in- tended for the Edinburgh Review, though never sent to it, he now forwarded it as a beginning of his work in the review department of the new periodical. Some doctrinal points were objected to by the editor, and a correspondence took place in regard to it, frank, manly, and amiable, in the course of which Mr. Chalmers wrote in his journal his determination of acqui- 4 42 LIFE OF DK. CHALMEBS. escence in the decision of Dr. Thomson, for the time, inasmuch as he felt himself to be on the eve of some great revolution, in his own religious views. In the spring of 1811 his review of the " Hints on Toleration" appeared in the Christian Instructor, and in July of the same year his review of Dr. Oharters's ser- mons, accompanied by an explanatory note from the pen of the editor, the justice of which was recognized by Mr. Chalmers, at the time, and many years afterward was by himself trans- ferred together with the review into the series of his works. His mathematical studies were now finally abandoned, from a conviction that they seriously interfered with the faithfiil dis- charge of his pastoral duties. Contrary to the position which he had so warmly defended seven years before in his pamphlet, in reply to Prof. Playfair, he now declared, in a letter to his brother James, dated June 16th, 1811, "That a minister, if he gives his whole heart to his busiifess, finds employment for every moment of his existence ; and I am, every day, getting more in love with my professional duties and more penetrated with a sense of their importance ;" and in a letter to his mother, of September 6th, he writes : " You may tell my father that I have at length come into his opinion, that the peculiar business of his profession demands all the time, all the talents, and all the energy that any minister is possessed of." His reading was now almost -entirely confined to works connected more or less with practical religion. To dry theo- retical works he now attached much less importance than to those presenting the gospel plan of salvation and the righteous- ness which is by faith in a simple scriptural manner. His doctrinal views, in the course of that year, were advancing toward what is called Calvinism ; but he rejected the hard one-sidedness of any of the doctrinal systems of the Church, declaring his preference for the broad, " free, and spontaneous manner" of the New Testament. The point of his attainment toward the end of the year, appears in one of his letters to Mr. Anderson, dated Dec. 18th, in which, having quoted the text " He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live," he goes on : " This is my firm hold, and I will not LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 4:3 let it go. I sicken at all my owa imperfect preparations. I take one decisive and immediate step and resign my all to the sufficiency of my Saviour. I feel my disease, and I feel that my want of alarm and lively affecting conviction forms its most obstinate ingredient. I try to stir up the emotion, and feel myself harassed and distressed at the impotency of my own meditations. But why linger without the threshold in the face of a warm and urgent invitation ? ' Come unto me.' Do not think that it is your oflBce to heal one part of the disease and Christ's to heal up the remainder." " I come to him with my heart such as it is ; and I pray that the operation of His Spirit and the power of His sanctifying faith would make it such as it should be. That abhorrence of sin which I now feel to be in a manner dead, I hope, through Him strengthening me, will be made to quicken and revive. Repentance is the gift of God, and I look to him for the fulfillment of His gracious promise, that he who ' hath given us His own son, will also with Him freely give us all things. I see that this son is exalted on high, to give repentance and the remission of sins,' and I trust that that being who has said, ' Without me ye can do nothing,' will enable me to ' do all things in the name of Jesus.' " In the neighboring parish of Balmenius, a new church was erecting, and in the meanwhile, that congregation attended services in the church of Kilmany. Their minister, Mr. Thomson, thus preached to the united congregations, during all the time of Mr. Chalmers's sickness, and for more than a year afterward, while he was slowly regaining his strength, divided the labor with him, their arrangement for the Sabbath being, that Mr. Chalmers should preach in the morning, and Mr. Thomson in the afternoon. This connection came to an end in the beginning of November, when Mr. Chalmers entered again upon the whole of his parochial duties, after an interval of about two years, for four months of which he could not leave his room, for more than half a year he could not appear in his pulpit at all, and the most of the remainder was spent in the debility of very slow convalescence. But he emerged from 44 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEKS. that illness with the principles of a new life kindled within him, with new views of the world and of his duty to it, and with a consecration of all his energies to the service of that Master, whom he had only coldly served before. The haughty, domineering and «elf-suffieient spirit of earlier years had all disappeared and given place to the humility and amiableness of the child of God. The old impetuosity of temper still was there, the restless activity and enthusiasm, hut they were now subjected to the control of a new principle, and directed to- ward the attainment of a higher end. The sole object to which his remaining life was now to be devoted, was the work of win- ning souls to God. And yet this change was not wrought in him through the operation of the fear of death, upon a gloomy and severe temperament. All the time, even when lying, with the probability of early dissolution before his eyes, his natural cheerfulness was never extinguished, and during the long pe- riod of his recovery, while the most solemn change was passing upon his soul, his conduct was entirely free from anything like austerity or sanctimonious assumption. The pleasures of his society were attested -by the number and character of those who courted it, consisting not only of neighboring clergymen, but of persons of various occupations and of no occupation, from St. Andrew's, from Dundee and other cities around, and including such men us Prof. Duncan, Mr. James Anderson, Mr. Mudie, Prof. Leslie, and others of most diverse tastes and pursuits. His hospitality was profuse, and scarcely limited by his means. Though living in a country parish his house was almost daily the residence of guests. In his journal, the fact that he spent an evening alone, is now and then recorded as an unusual occurrence. Sometimes that generosity of his character was abused, as in the case of a Frenchman, named Bataille, who, through means of the workmen engaged about the manse, obtained an introduction to him, and who, though evidently- a hollow and essentially gross creature, succeeded, for some two months, in imposing upon his kindhearted indul- gence. Finding the minister an agreeable person, and his table well supplied, Mr. Bataille took the liberty of bringing LIFE OF DK. CHAT.MEBS. 46 another of his countrymen to enjoy his good fortune with him. Mr. Chalmers did not fail to perceive that his French guests drank too freely, and recorded his disapprobation of that gross- ness, yet suchi was his natural disposition to look upon all things in the most charitable light, that in view of Bataille's poverty, he had contemplated giving him money to purchase clothes. The two Frenchmen were, in fact, proceeding to make the agreeable parson's house a place of jovial resort, when one evening, Bataille put an end to the whole play by getting grievously drunk. As soon as they could comprehend reason, they were fully enlightened as to their host's opinion of their conduct, and, if they could not understand the nature of his principles, were left without any doubts on the subject of what measures it behooved them instantly to take. During all this time, Mr. Chalmers's studies, beside what were immediately addressed to preparation for the pulpit, were concerned with his article on Christianity. For more than five months, indeed, he had not been able to pen a line ; but he had all along been making progress in reading for it. Some of his published sermons were ailso written at this time, as that on Psalm, xi, 1, that on Rom. iii, 10, and the lecture on Psalm cxxxvii, 1-6. His weekly allowance of careful composition was then about one sheet closely written. In the latter part of the year 1811, a correspondence arose between him and Mr. James Anderson, a young man of un- common intellectual promise, which, for the light it throws upon the spiritual state of Mr. Chalmers as well as of his correspon- dent, is highly interesting. Mr. Anderson, the son of a wealthy merchant in Dundee, had sought his acquaintance on account of his mathematical reputation, and becoming attached to him personally, was gradually led by his kindly conversation to the examination of that greatest of all subjects, then engrossing the best of Mr. Chalmers's thoughts. Upon Mr. Anderson's return to Dundee, the letters which passed between, them were chiefly on the subject of practical religion. In endeavoring to lead his young friend to the happiness of faith in Christ, Mr. Chalmers is led to statements of his own experience, fuller and 4:6 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEE8. more satisfactory than perhaps it would otherwise have occuiTed to him to make. The Uberality of his views was manifested by his sympathy with all those movements then new in the church, which were calculated to extend the interests of true religion and human happiness, whatever denomination of Christians might have the honor of originating them. The Bible Society received his most hearty co-operation, and the Baptist Missions not only enlisted his interest, but in his own words,- " deeply impressed him with the worth and utility of those Christians." This would not be worth remarking,^ but for its, variance from the spirit of intolerance which then prevailed in the Establishment toward all dissenting bodies. The most marked external change in his character, was activity in instructing and cate- chizing his congregation, in visiting and administering to the wants of the sick and the destitute, in talking with all on the subject of their salvation, and in the fervor and unction of piety which characterized his pulpit ministrations ; in short, a pre- dominant and burning zeal for the glory of God in the salvation of men. CHAPTEI IV. In the course of the great change which had passed upon his own spirit, Mr. Chalmers had perceived the importance of de- riving his religious views directly from the Bible, his regular and earnest study of which, was one of the most notable ef- fects of his conversion. A near neighbor and frequent visitor, John Bouthron, who, on account of his age, was admitted to an easy and privileged familiarity, had once, in former years, remarked to him, " I find you aye busy, sir, with one thing or another ; but come when I may, I never find you at your studies for the Sabbath," and had received the reply, " Oh, an hour or two on the Saturday evening is quite enough for that," latterly observed, with similar freedom, "I never come in now, sir, but I find you aye at your Bible." " All too little, John, alltooUttle," was the answer, whose sincerity was demonstrated by the consistent labor of all his remaining years. On the 29th of September, 1812, he made the following en- try in his journal : " I finished, this day, my perusal of the New Testament by daily chapters, in which my object was to commit striking passages to memory. I mean to begin its perusal anew, in which this object shall be revised, and the ob- ject of fixing upon one sentiment of the chapter for habitual and recurring contemplation, through the day, shall be added to the former." He also recommenced the- study of the Greek and Hebrew languages. At the same time, the claims of the British and Foreign Bi- ble Society, which had been instituted only a few years before, were enlisting the enthusiastic co-operation of the ablest minds in the various denominations of protestant churches in the United Kingdom. The feelings of Mr. Chalmers induced him to enter very heartily into its vast measures of benevolence. He spoke in its favor, wherever he had opportunity ; he wrote in its behalf, he got up a branch society in his own parish, and (471 48 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. actively co-operated with his presbytery in the effort to estab- lish parochial branches throughout the country. It was the first great christian enterprise which won his sympathies and engaged his public advocacy. It " rose, in his estimation, as the most magnificent scheme that ever was instituted for bet- tering the moral condition of the species." The system of penny-a-week subscriptions to the cause, recommended itself to'him as one calculated to bring in every class of community 'as contributors. And " wh.en the Kilmany Bible Association was formed, the subscriptions were strictly limited to a penny a week ; those who desired to give more, doing it either in the way of donations, or by entering the names of different mem- bers of their family as contributors." This method he advo- cated on the principle that it is more blessed to give than to receive, and that the poor Christian should not be discouraged from giving by the larger subscriptions of hite richer neighbors^ and thereby deprived of his share of that higher blessedness ; and also on the ground that it was the way in which most funds could actually be raised, as well as that it furnishd a truly universal expression of christian sympathy for the heathen. On the 16th of January, 1812, his sister Jane, who had been his housekeeper, was married, and immediately removed to. the residence of her husband, Mr. Morton, who although a native of the neighboring parish, was then settled in England, near Dulverton, in Somersetshire. This change seriously affected the constitution of Mr. Chalmers's household. Although entertaining no humble opinion of his own talents as a housekeeper, it seems to have been ill sustained by facts. A story is told of his be- ing left, a few months previously, during a visit which his sister made to Anstruther, to a similar test : and how Mr. Duncan and Mr. Mudie came in upon him from Dundee, and he, retir- ing soon ^fter their arrival, to consult regarding the means 'of dining, found, to his dismay, that there was nothing whatever in the house but two parcels of fish, and how after leading his friends a good Jong healthy walk, in view of a spir- ited hunting scene, he set them down to a table on which two promising dishes flourished, and as the covers were removed, ^T. 81. LIFE OF DB. CHALMERS, 49 invited, them, to make choice from the abundant variety of " hard fish from St. Andrews and hard fish from Dundee." The experiment, which had been productive of such results, was now to be repeated, and, to all appearance, for more than a few weeks. Moreover, the absence of one to whom he was so warmly attached, made his home seem desolate. He accom- panied the married party as far as Carlisle, and spent about a week, in the middle of February, with Dr. Charters. He now found that the Doctor and he no longer held their former simi- larity of religious views. Mr. Chalmers preached before him a sermon, in which he advanced the incompetency of reason to decide upon the subject of revelation from previous and inde- pendent material of its own. Dr. Charters, by expressing his disapprobation of the doctrine, both then, and afterward by letter, testified how far he had been left behind by his younger brother. Some time previously he had been expecting from the court of session a considerable addition to his stipends. Immediately after his sister's marriage, he learned that a decision had been given of sixty pounds in his favor. This was only half of what he had been given to expect as his right, and, at the advice of his agent, he presented a reclaiming petition, which, however, was ineffectual. This result he learned upon his return from England in the latter part of February. He re-entered his sol- itary home with a resolution to be contented with his very moderate income, and devote himself, without any further con- cern for these things, entirely to the work of his calling. In closing up, on the 16th of March, the second year of his jour- nal, he writes as follows : " Have carried my journal to the termination of a second year, and, from its varying complexion, it appears that there lies a vast and indefinite field before me — mucTi to aspire after in love to God, in the steadiness of my faith, in the clearness of my views, in the christian purity of my conduct: God, may I build a right superstructure, on a right foundation. May I make mention of that name, than which there is none other given under heaven whereby men can be saved. Work in 5 50 LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 1812 me that which is well pleasing in Thy sight and make me altogether a new creature in Christ Jesus my Lord. Recall me from my habitual estrangement ; correct the miserahle wanderings of my heart ; form Christ in me, and may he b6 to me the anchor of hope, and the steady unfailing principle of sanctif] cation. Lord, give me to be cleansed more and more. Seal me as one of thine own, and naming the name of Jesus, may I depart from iniquity. My health, last year, was variable. But I fall miserably short of what I might do and ought to do. The following is a list of my performances : Kead Lardiner's Jewish and Heathen Testimonies ; Pri- deaux's Connection ; Macknight's Credibility of the Gospel ; Baxter's Call to the Unconverted ; Scott's Marmion ; Hannah More's Practical Piety; Life of Mathew Henry : Buchanan's Researches; Buchanan's Sermons; Doddridge's Life, by Oi- ton ; and Paley's Horae Paulinas. In addition to my ordinary supplies for the pulpit, wrote last part of my review of Hints upon Toleration, the last part of my performance on Christianity, a speech for Dr. Playfair, part of which I delivered at the Synod, a sermon on Hebrews vi, 1 9 ; another on Luke x, 26 ; another on Romans xv, 1 ; and about two sheets of devotional composition. In all about seventeen sheets, a very small proportion indeed. Read more than the New Testament in English, and the Greek to the end of the Acts, as also a Greek Grammar. At family worship read Isaiah, Psalms, Job, and Proverbs. Let me set more value on my time, and let my future Jour- nal be more directed to the particular record of my way of spending it. God, give me a more decided bent of heart to the service of Thee in Christ Jesus." In the record of the next day we find the following account of the renewal of his self dedication to God ; " Begin with taking a view of my state previpus to entering into the covenant. Find it an unsheltered and condemned state. Was convinced, but was not lively in my apprehension of it, and was far short of transport or vivacity in any part of this service. Prayed that faith might be wrought in me. Thought ^T. 81. LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 51 of faith in Christ, and had some joyful moments, when I thought of the promise annexed to it. Found that it was not by looking to myself but to Jesus that I obtained light and direction. I then thought of being sanctified by faith. This turned me to myself. I read with delight the promise of the spirit to those who believe ; but when turning to myself and to my sanctification, I felt a dullness and insipidity, and when I prayed I did it with languor. that I could fix a full and unqualified look upon Christ — there lies efficacy, and comfort, and sanctification. After this I made my dedication. I counted the cost of it and perhaps underrated the difficulties of the Christian warfare. I Concluded with a solemn dedica- tion of myself to God as my sovereign, to Christ as my Sa- viour, and to the Holy Ghost as my sanctifier, and prayed for strength, and direction, and support from on high, that I may be enabled to keep my vows to the Lord. Rose in comfort and peace. Let me bear up, hold fast Christ, even though He should be clouded from me ; confess Him with the mouth to be the only Saviour, feel Him to be my anchor, and never, never let Him go." About this time it was his practice to spend the first Mon- day in every month, chiefly in devotional exercises. The fol- lowing is a record of one of these occasions, April 6th, 1812: " Begun at twelve. Was fatigued and feverish, but my emotions pleasurable, and I did obtain a nearness to God. Prayed for my sanctification in general terms. Read the Bible and Clarke's 'Promises,' and descended in my next prayer to the particular duties. Mr. C. interrupted me, and I felt that my mind was wholly in business while he was present. When he left me, I felt the infirmity, and recurred as my next topic of pious and aspiring meditation, to my peculiar business as a minister. Have not that lively repentance for my past mis- conduct and negligence that I would like ; but let me press on to the things that are before. Prayed to God that he would make me an able minister of the New Testament. My physi- cal sensations partook of the pleasurable delirium of an inci- pient fever, but I trust that my confidence is building upon 62 LIFE OF DE. CHALMHES. 1881. God in Christ, and that my dependence is upon the spirit, as the revealed instrument by which I am made to apply the remedy, and to go on in the sanctification of the gospel. Let me not be highminded, but fear. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. At two o'clock I went out and yisited people in the village. Eeturned, and offered my inter- , cessions for parish, friends, enemies, relations, and the church of Christ ; and I pray that God would not suffer me to be de- luded by the formality of an external service ; but, oh, settle in my heart the faith of Christ working by love. God, give me to rejoice in thee, and lift my affections from earth to hea- ven. May thy law be my delight, and may I never shrink from the cross of discipline and diity. Purify my heart, and may the following passages be my direction and my joy : Phil, iv, 6 ; Luke vi; 35." On the 14th of April, a meeting of clergymen to the num- ber of forty was held at Kirkaldy for the purpose of institut- ing a J'ifeshire Bible Society. Here Mr. Chalmers's views on that subject were first published beyond the bounds of his own neighborhood, and met with general approbation. Mea- sures were taken to promote the formation of associations in all the parishes, on the plan of penny-a-week subscriptions ; and the readiness with which they were responded to by the people was most encouraging to the projectors. On the last Sabbath of April, he preached in Dundee, and in the early part of May visited Aberdeen and vicinity, return- ing about the middle of the month. The attention which his preaching was now attracting, both at home and abroad, con- stituted a subject of deep concern to himself lest it might be- get in him a feeling of self importance. In his journals we find frequently such entries as these : "My frequent cogita- tions about the Dundee exhibition argue, I am afraid, a devo- tion to the praise of men. Force me wholly into Thyself, God." " Sunday, May 3. — Is it right to fatigue myself thus, or to soar so selfishly and ostentatiously above the capacities of my people ? God, may I make a principle of this, and preach not myself but Christ Jesus my Lord." The same JET. 82. LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 63 point is also brought forward in the following record of 3,nother of his days with God. " Invocation for God's blessing and direction upon the exer- cise. Feel the force of God's entreaty and his command to believe in Christ, and am elevated by a joyful C9nfidence. Read the promises to prayer, and prayed for acceptance through Christ and general sanctification. Not rapturously near, hat feel serene and confident. Prayed for knowledge, for the un- derstanding and impression and remembrance of God's word ; for growth in grace, for personal holiness, for that sanctification which the redeemed undergo. Thought of the sins that most easily beset me ; confessed them and prayed for correction and deliverance. They are anxiety about worldly matters, when any suspicion or uncertainty attaches to them ; a disposition to brood over provocations ; impatience at the irksome peculiari- ties of others ; an industriousness, from a mere principle of animal activity, without the glory of God and the service of mankind lying at the bottom of it ; and, above all, a taste and an appetite for human applause. My conscience smote me on the subject of pulpit exhibitions. I pray that God may make usefulness the grand principle of my appearances there. Read the promises annexed to faithful ministers; and prayed for zeal and diligence, and ability in the' discharge of my ministerial ofiSce. Prayed for the people; individually for some, and gen- erally for all descriptions of them. Prayed for friends indivi- dually and relations. Read the promises relative to the pro- gress of the gospel, and conversion of the Jews. Prayed for those objects. Through the whole of this exercise felt calm, and I hope, confident. I have not felt much rapture, nor have I that near sense of the presence and glory of God which I aspire after. Let my maxim be, ' Faint, yet pursuing,' and let me look' up in Christ for all those spiritual blessings which can only be enjoyed in perfection on the other side of time, and of the grave. Concluded the whole with a prayer for God's blessing upon the exercise." It had formerly been his custom to do much of his prepara- tion for the pulpit on the Sabbath morning. One of the marks 54 LIFE OF DE. OHALMEES. 1812. of his spiritual growth, was the recognition of the propriety of having that work so completed, that the whole Lord's day could be given to devotion. His plans of independent housekeeping, of which his friends were not quite so sanguine as himself, came to an end in the course of this summer, in an event, which, for many other and higher reasons, is to be set down as one of the most important contributions to his usefulness. On the 4th of August, he was married to Miss Grace Pratt, the second daughter of Captain Pratt, of the 1st Royal Veteran Battalion, who had been residing for some time with her uncle at Starbank, in the parish of Kilmany. As the situations he was afterward called upon to occupy, were very different from that of a country minister, " he always re- cognized it as Heaven's greatest providential gift^ that he was united to one whose presence graced the society in which he moved, upon whose judgment, in the details of life, he placed implicit confidence, and whose wisely compliant and aflfection- ate disposition made his home one, from which he always went out revived and re -invigorated, and to which he always returned to find peaceful and pleasurable repose after toil, or soothing sympathy amid trials." The succeeding months of the year were spent in the faithful discharge of his professional duties, in systematic study, and in the enjoyment of domestic happiness; a visit to Dr. Brewster at Edinburgh, to his friends in Anstruther, and to his sister's relations, the Mortons at Flisk, and to Dundee, where he preached the annual Missionary sermon, diversifying the regu- larity of his occupations. That missionary sermon, the first delivered upon any public occasion aftfer his conversion, was preached on the 26th of Oc- tober, 1812. The collection then taken up, was, in accordance with his own previous design, appropriated to repairing the loss which the Serampore missionaries had recently met, in the de- struction of their printing office by fire. At the request of the Society, the sermon was published at Dundee, in January, 1813. "Its sale was so rapid that a month or two afterward it was re- published by Mr. Whyte of Edinburgh ; and before the end ^T. S3. LIFE OF DK. CHALMEKS. 55 of the following year, four editions of it had been circulated. This, with another sermon, and a review of Foster's ' Essays,' which appeared in the May number of the ' Christian Instruc- tor,' comprised all that he published during 1813, a year al- most exclusively dedicated to his private and parochial duties." In his journal of this year the topics of most frequent occur- rence, are his own growth in grace, his duties to the world as a minister of Christ, and frequent prayers to be delivered from the sins of an impetuous temperament, and the love of human approbation. His own summaries, drawn up at the end of each year of his journal, constitute valuable contributions to his bio- graphy : that for the year closing on the 16th of March, 1813, is as follows : " On the review of last year, I look back upon a life check- ereji with frailty and sin, but I trust, aspiring after righteous- ness, and feeling restless and uneasy under relapses. If in anything I have made sensible improvement, it is in feeling the more immediate connection which subsists between the practi- cal virtues and the faith of Christ, leading me to cultivate union with Him, and dependence upon that spirit which is at his giving. my God, give me to redeem the time given me to make an entire business of my sanctification ; and in all the duties of the redeemed Christian may I abound more and more. But, above all, establish me thoroughly on Christ, that I may believe on Him to the saving of my soul, that I may be grafted i-n Him as my vine, that I may rest on Him as my foundation, that I may partake in Him as my righteousness. Believing, may I love; loving, may I obey. " In addition to my ordinary supplies for the pulpit, wrote a speech for the Bible Society, since published ; a sermon on Gal. iii, 23 ; do. on John iv, 10; do. on Rom., x, 17, since pub- lished ; do" on 2 Tim., i., 10 ; do. on 2 Thess. iii., 1 ; a re- view of Foster's ' Essays ;' and a speech on the Catholic ques- tion ; in all, about eighteen sheets." In August of this year, the Rev. Andrew Fuller made a visit to the north, during which he formed the acquaintance of Mr. Chalmers, and spent a short time in his house. The great 66 LIFE OF DR. CHALMEES. 1813. poTvers and deepening piety of his entertainer, were quietly discerned by that large minded man; and upon leaving Kilmany, he expressed himself strongly of his expectations in regard to both. His friendly opinions seem to have been frankly offered and most kindly received ; and there were few whose opinions were so highly esteemed by Mr. Chalmers. In one respect, hdwever, the attempt to follow his advice, was made without success. " Under the very strong conviction that his use of manuscript in the pulpit impaired the power of his Sabbath addresses, Mr. Fuller strenuously urged upon his friend the practice of e?3tempore preaching, or preaching from notes. ' If that man,' said he to his companion, Mr. Anderson, after they had taken leave of Kilmany manse, ' if that man would but throw away his papers in the pulpit, he might be king of Scot- land.' Mr. Chalmers was perfectly willing to, make the ex- periment, and he gave full time and all diligence to the attempt; but it failed. He read, reflected, jotted down the outlines of a discourse, and then went to the pulpit, trusting to suggestion of the moment for the phraseology he should employ ; but he found that the ampler his materials were, the more difficult was the utterance. His experience in this respect, he used to com- pare to the familiar phenomenon of a bottle with water in it, turned suddenly upside down : the nearly empty bottle dis- charges itself fluently, and at once ; the nearly full one, labors in the effort, and lets out its contents with jerks, and large ex- plosions, and suddenly stops,^ as if choked by its own fullness. So it was with Mr. Chalmers in his first efforts at extempore preaching. A twofold impediment lay in the way of his suc- cess. It was not easy to light- at once upon words or phrases which could give anything like adequate conveyance to con- victions so intense as his were ; and he could not be satisfied, and with no comfort could he proceed, while an interval so wide remained between the truth as it was fejt, and the truth as his words had represented it. Over and over again was the effort made to find powerful enough and expressive enough phraseology. But even had this difficulty not existed ^- even though he had been content ^T. 88. LIFE OF DE, CHALMEK8. 57 with the first suggested words, he never could be satisfied till he had exhausted every possible way of setting forth the truth, so as to force or win for it an entrance into the minds of his hearers. So very eager was he at this period of his minis- try, to communicate the impressions which glowed so fervidly within his own heart, that even when he had written a sermon to deliver, he often, as if dissatisfied with all that he had said, would try at the close to put the matter in simpler words, or present it in other lights, or urge it in more direct and affection- ate address. But when the restraints of a written composition were thrown away, when not at the close only, but from the very beginning of his address, this powerful impulse operated, he often found that instead of getting over the ground' marked down in his study to be traversed, the whole allotted time was consumed while he was laboring away with the first or second preliminary idea. Aftej a succession of efforts, the attempt at extempore preaching was relinquished ; but he carried into the study that insatiable desire to effect a secure and effective lodgment of the truth in the minds of others, which had so much to do with the origin of all that amplification and reiter- ation with which liis writings abound. In preparing for the pidpit, he scarcely ever sat down to write without the idea of other minds, whom it was his object to impress, being either more distinctly or more latently present to his thoug|its ; and he seldom rose from writing without the feeling that still other modes of influential representation remained untried." CHAPT'ER V DtniiN&the succeeding years of Mr. Chalmers's residence at Kilmany, the one grand, all-pervading thought of salvation trough Christ Jesus runs through all the productions of his pen ; imbues his correspondence, it "was the only cause for which he published and spoke, and it fills the pages of his journal. Kegularly recur his monthly dedications, those days of sol- emn renewal of his self-consecration to the service of God. And more frequently were portions of days set apart for medi- tation, prayer, and self-examination. Those years were also the germinating time of all those ideas whose maturity constituted the greatness of his after life. " The volume of the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, which con- tained the article 'Christianity,' was published early in 1813." Although with so general a title, the article was restricted to external evidences of Christianity. Its merits as an argu- ment, on that point, were readily recognized ; but the manner in which the author had set aside the consideration of internal evidence, created dissatisfaction among many of his warmest friends ; and when, afterward, the proprietors of the Encyclo- pedia issued it in a separate volume, the reviews, generally fa- vorable in other respects, united in condemnation of that fea- ture. A volume was also published by Professor Mearns, of Aberdeen, to prove that Mr. Chalmers had made common cause with Atheism, giving rise to some farther bickerings, wherein Mr. Chalmers declined to participate. He was unwilling to barricade his mind, by m*ans of controversial excitement, against any future accession of enlarging views. To the criti- cisms he never replied ; but went to work more thoroughly to examine the ground of their objections ; nor was it until six- teen years after^vard that he gave the public any indication of the fruits which those attacks upon his treatise had assisted in (58) ^T. 84. LIFE OF DB. CHALMEES. 59 maturing, and still seven years later we find him adding to the extent and value of the same work. The treatment of miracles had been designedly omitted in the article Christianity, as belonging more properly to the head of ' Testimony,' which had also been assigned to Mr. Chal- mers. An article in the Edinburgh Eeview, indorsing the doctrine of Hume, stimulated his endeavor to have that treatise published also; but no such zeal, co-operating with the solicit- ations of friends, could prevail upon him to issue anything im- mature on so important a point. It was not until many years afterward, that he found leisure enough to do justice to it. "And when at last, in his preparations for the Theological Chair 'in Edinburgh, he entered upon the investigation, the re- sult — precious in proportion to the time taken in maturing it — was a new and triumphant answer to Hume, an original and most valuable contribution to the evidences of Christianity." "About the time at which the article ' Christianity,' was presented in a separate form to the public, Mr. Chalmers issued his pamphlet entitled ' the Influence of Bible Socie- ties upon the Temporal Necessities of the Poor.' When he went to reside in Hawick, a legal assessment for the relief of the poor, had for many years existed in that parish. The mode and results of its operation were to him a matter of new and most interesting investigation. After his own settlement at Kilmany, where there were no poor-rates, he instituted a comparison between the two parishes. As Hawick embraced a considerable manufacturing population, it was natural to expect that its pauperism should be relatively greater than that of a purely agricultural parish ; but the rapid rate at which the amount of the assessment had increased, so much beyond the rate of increase of the population, was incapa- ble of being accounted for by the occupations in which the people were engaged. Taking again the same number of paupers in each parish, the expenditure in Hawick greatly exceeded that in Kilmany ; and yet, when the houses, the food, the clothing, the comforts of each were inspected, the condition of the latter, instead of being much worse, was 60 LIFE OF DK. CHALMERS. 18U. found to be much better tban that of the former. Further inquiry satisfied Mr. Chalmers, that where there were no poor-rates, where the parish bounty was spontaneous, con- sisting of the oflFerings at the church doors, and distributed by members of the kirk session, who knew the position and habits of those to whose wants they ministered, the sum contributed, by public charity, constituted but a small portion of those supplies by which the existing poverty was relieved ; the remainin^g, and larger portion, coming from relatives and neighbors. A public fund, raised not by voluntary subscrip- tion, but by kgal enforcement, and which ostensibly charged itself with the full and adequate relief of all the poverty of a neighborhood, had the direct eflFect of cutting off that second and more copious current of supply. It was in this way that the Hawick pauper, on the whole, lost more by the operation of an assessment, than he gained by the increase of his allow- ance. At Kilmany, the receiving of parochial aid was felt to be almost a reproach,; and it was frequently refused. But Mr. Chalmers noticed, and was much struck vrith the fact, that when those who, "if they had remained in his parish, never would have suffered their names to appear in the poor roll, removed to Dundee, and there became claimants upon the legally-enforced liberality of the public, on their return to Kilmany, exhibited a tone of feeling and line of practice altogether changed. It was common enough for those who received aid from a kirk session administer&g the free alms of the people, when their circumstances improved, voluntarily to relinquish what had thus been allowed ; but such conduct was never exemplified by those who had become paupers at Dundee. Pursuing his inquiries into the condition of the poor, and into their moral feelings and habits, as affected by the way in which their wants were relieved, Mr. Chalmers was prepared, so early as the year 1 808, publicly to afiSrm s ' It is in the power of charity to corrupt its object : it may tempt him to indolence ; it may lead him to renounce all dependence upon himself ; it may nourish the meanness and depravity of his character ; it may lead him to hate exertion. ^T. 84. LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 61 and resign, without a sigh, the dignity of independence. It could easily be proved, that if charity were carried to its ut- most extent. It would unhinge the constitution of society. It would expel from the land the blessings of industry. Every man would repose on the beneficence of another ; every in- citement to diligence would be destroyed. The evils of pov- erty would multiply to such an extent as to be beyond the power of the most unbounded charity to redress them ; and instead of an elysium of love and of plenty, the country would present the nauseating spectacle of sloth, and l»eggary, and corruption.' " The observations of his brother-in-law, Mr. Morton, upon the working of the poor-rates in England, went to confirm him in the correctness of his views. Settling in a purely agricultural district in Somersetshire, and in a parish whose population was just four above that of Kilmany, Mr. Morton was astonished to find that the poor-rates amounted to £1260, while the poor of Kilmany were supported on from £20 to £30. " There could not have been a fairer comparison, or a more instructive con- trast : nor was it very long till public and effective use was made of it." About the same time, another mine was opened which he af- terward wrought with eminent success, in the application of science to the service of religion. The above mentioned pam- phlet " was still in the hands of the printer, when Mr. Chal- mers was requested, by Mr. Andrew Thomson, to prepare a notice' of Cuvier's recently translated work. Werner was but beginning to be known, Mutton's speculations had only recently appeared in the ' Transactions of the Royal Society of Edin- burgh,' and Playfair was as yet gathering the materials for his ' Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory,' when the attention of Mr. Chalmers was first turned to the subject of geology. This infant science was imagined by theologians generally (even in the confused and conflicting babbling of its child- hood), to speak in a- tone decidedly infidel, and with a haste and an injustice equal to that which they charged upon their fancied adversary, they would have stifled a voice 62 L^E OF DE. CHALMERS. 1814." •which appeared to conflict with that of the divine oracles. The merit, I believe, belongs to Mr. Chalmers of having been the first clergyman in the country, who, yielding to the evidence in favor of a much higher antiquity being assigned to the earth than had previously been conceived, suggested the manner in which such a scientific faith could be harmo- nized with the Mosaic narrative, and who, even in the dreaded investigations of the geologist, discerned and indicated fresh ' footprints of the Creator.' " Another step was also taken in the service of the Missionary cause, by an article contributed to the Eclectic Review, and written in the autumn of 1814. The subject was suggested by one which had recently appeared in the " Edinburgh Review," referring the success of the Moravians, as missionaries, to the assumed fact, that they began by instructing the heathen in the art of civilization, and asserting that it is by such a method alone that "those in a certain state of ignorance and barbarism are to be gained over to the truth." "Mr. Chalmers undertook to manifest the reviewer's total ignorance of the means which had been actually pursued by the Moravians, whose labors were so applauded, and out of those very labors to construct the most convincing of all arguments against the theory which at that period, was such a favorite with the opponents of mis- sionary efforts, namely, that you must civilize before you can christianize a barbarous community." Indeed, one of the most instructive lessons on this subject, is derived from the experi- ence of the Moravians. For many years their " missionaries in Greenland, had labored to train the natives to habits of in- dustry, and to instruct them in the first and simplest truths of religion, studiously withholding from them the deeper myste- ries of the christian faith; but no sensible effect followed. One day, however, while one of their number was engaged in mak- ing a fair copy of a translation of one of the gospels, a crowd of natives gathered round him, curious to know the contents of the book. He read to them the history of our Saviour's suf- ferings and death. ' How was that?' said one of the savages, stepping up to the table at which the missionary was sitting, hia Ml. 34. LIFE OF DE. CHAXMEES. 63 voice trembling with emotion as he spoke, ' How was that ?' Tell me that once more, for I, too, would fain be saved !' ' These words,' writes the missionary, ' the like of which I had never heard' from any Greenlander, pierced my very soul, and affected me so much, that with tears in my eyes, I re- lated to them the whole history of the sufferings of Christ, and the counsel of God for our salvation. The Green- lander who put the question was the first convert to the truth ; and the mode of his conversion was so instructive, that ever afterward the first office of the Moravian mission- aries was to proclaim the death of Jesus as the great expia- tion for human guilt, and only ground of the sinner's hope for eternity." In the business of Church Courts, in which he was afterward so prominent an actor, Mr. Chalmers had hitherto taken little interest. The records of the presbytery of Cupar, of which he was a memberfor more than twelve years, exhibit but a sol- itary instance, in which his name stands connected with any presbyterial act. " But within the bounds of his own synod a question had now arisen, in which his interest was too great to suffer him to remain inactive. The junction of a professorship in a university with the charge of a country parish had been rarely known, and had frequently been disallowed in the prac- tice of the Church of Scotland ; and although the General Assembly of 1800 had decided in favor of the junction of the two offices in the instance of Dr. Arhot's settlement in Kings- barns, the conviction gained ground that it was a union which violated the constitution of the Scottish Establishment, which had always required constant residence in their parishes on the part of all its ministers. That conviction was very unequivo- cally expressed^-when, in the year 1813, the Rev. WilUam Fer- rie. Professor of Civil History in the University of St. Andrews, was prerented to the living of Kilconquhar. At first, the pres- bytery of St. Andrew's refused to admit him to the pastoral charge, unless he gave them the assurance, which he refused to do, that before, or at the time of his. ordination, he would resign his professorship. Upon appeal to the General Assem- 64 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 1814. bly, held at Edinburgh, in May, 1813, by the narrow, and, at "that time, unusually small majority of five, the decision of the Presbytery of St. Andrew's was reversed, and they were ap- pointed to proeeed with Mr. Ferrie's settlement as minister of Kilconquhar, ' with all convenient speedy according to the ruJfis of the Church.' In compliance with this decision of the Supreme Court, a committee of Presbytery met at Kil- conquhar for the purpose of , moderating in a call, and re- ported to a subsequent meeting that no signatures whatever had been attached to it. At the same time, however, a letter was laid before the Presbytery, in which all the principal landholders of Kilconquhar, three out of four pf the elders, and many heads of families, apologized for not having signed the call at the proper time, and expressed their con- currence in Mr. Ferrie's settlement. At this stage the Plotter was referred to the Synod, for the meeting of which, -oa the 12th October, Mr. Chalmers, made the most anxious and careful preparation. It had been his impression that the want of a call would oppose an effectual barrier against Mr. Ferrie's .ordination, or that an opportunity would, at least, present itself for discussing the general -question of the pro- priety of such pluralities. But he was disappointed. Mr. Ferrie's friends yielded the question as to the sustaining of the letter as equivalent to a call, a&d the Synod, appointing the Presbytery to moderate in a new call, left the decision of the General Assembly to be carried into effect. It was to Mr. Chalmers a ' day of mortification,' from which he re- turned home ' jaded, mortifiied, useless.' But, although they were obliged to yield to the decision of their supreme judiciary, upon this particular case, the opponents of such pluralities had become too numerous and too zealous throughout the church to abandon the question in despair." The question was brought "in its general form before the Assembly of 1814, and the ' day of mortification' in the Synod, more than compensated by a day of triumph in the Assembly." Mr. Chalmers took a prominent and most successful part in the debate, which termi- nated in declaratory enactment, " prohibiting, in future, such ^T. 81. LIFE OF DK 0HALMBB8. 66 pluralities as had been permitted in the cases of Dr. Arnot and Mr. Ferrie. A succeeding Assembly was persuaded to cancel this enactment, on the alleged ground that it was incompetent and unconstitutional to pass such an act without the advice of the presbyteries of the Church. An overture, embodying its terms, was sent down to the presbyteries by the General As- sembly of 1816 ; and a majority of the returns having been in its favor, it passed into a standing law of the Church of Scot- land in 1817, that a chair in a university cannot be held in conjunction with a country parochial charge." 6 CHAPTER VI. " Parochial duty pressed lightly upon Mr. Chalmers during the first seven years of his ministry at Kilmany. If he ' ex- pended as much effort upon the religious improvement of his people as any minister within the bounds of his presbytery,' if he could triumphantly cliallenge his brethren to prove that he had been ' outstripped by any of his predecessors in the regularity of his ministerial attentions,' the standards io which he thus appealed must have been miserably low. The sick and the dying among his parishioners had not, indeed, been neglected during those earlier years. Kindly inquiries were made, tender sympathy was shown, and needful aid was tendered ; but no solicitude was manifested as to their reli- gious condition, no references occurred in visiting them to their state and prospects for eternity, and it was only when spe- cially requested to do so that he engaged in prayer. Two or three weeks were annually devoted to a visitation of his parish, so rapidly conducted that he scarcely did more than hurriedly enter many a dwelling, to summon its inmates to a short address, given in some neighboring apartment, and confined generally to one or other of the more ordinary mo- ralities of domestic life. With the general body of his par- ishioners he had little intercourse. They might meet him occasionally on the road, and receive the kindliest notice, but the smile of friendly recognition broke over a countenance of dreamy abstraction : and when the quickly-made but cor- dial salutation was over, and he was gone, his wondering parishioners would gaze after him as upon a man wholly addicted to very strange, and, in the eycs^of many of them, very questionable pursuits. ,, Comparatively little time or care was bestowed upon his pulpit preparations. ' I have known him,' says Mr. Smith, 'not to begin them till Sabbath morning. He told me that he wrote iji short-hand, and (66) ^T. 88. LIFE OF DK. CHALMEKS. 67 when once he began, he kept the pen going till he had fin- ished the discourse. His sermons were in general very short,' but they were written in a fervid strain, and dehvered with energetic animation. The first effect, indeed, "^of the great spiritual change, was to chasten rather than to stimulate the vehemence of his delivery in the pulpit. In those eai-lier days, whether from choice or from necessity, he frequently preached without any written notes. The obstructions after- ward complained of, and felt *to be invincible, do not then appear to have stood much in his way, for he never used so ardent and so significant an elocution, as in those fervid ex- tempore expostulations upon stealing, or lying, or backbiting, explained, according to popular belief, by the circumstance, that the minister had come home late on the Saturday even- ing, and that the indefatigable newsmonger, John Bonthron, had been seen entering the manse shortly after his arrival. When the impulse moved, or the occasion invited, Mr. Chal- mers could write as eloquently then as he ever did afterward. The two fast-day sermons of this period have been compared with that splendid discourse which the occasion of the first of them elicited from Robert Hall. Without pressing that comparison to an issue, it "may be taken as a very signal proof of the native genius of their author, that two discourses written off-hand, written, in all likelihood, each at a single sitting, prepared for thin audiences of unsympathizing rustics, and thrown aside as soon as delivered, should be capable of bearing a comparison with an effort which was- made, in the first instance, before a crowded and intelligent audience, and upon which all the care and skill of one of the greatest mas- ters in the art of composition had afterward been lavished. Upon the whole, however, and till the period of his illness at Fincraigs, Mr. Chalmers's ministry was unpopular and ineffective, his church but poorly attended, and his private ministrations followe'd with but trifling effects. But the great change came, and with it a. total alteration in the discharge of all parochial duty. From a place of visible subordination, the spiritual care and cultivation of his parish was -elevated 68 1.IFE OF DB. OHALMEES. 1813. to the place of clear and recognized supremacy. To break up the peace of the indiflferent and secure by exposing at once the, guilt of their ungodliness, and its fearful issue in a ruined eternity ; to spread out an invitation wide as heaven's own all-embracing love, to every awakened sinner to accept of eternal life in Jesus Christ ; to plead with all, that in- stantly and heartily, with all good-will, and with full and unreserved submission, they should give themselves up in absolute and entire dedicatioa to the Kedeemer ; these were the objects for which he was now seen to strive, with such a ' severity of conviction ' as implied that he had one thing to do, and ' with such a concentration of his forces as to idle spectators looked like insanity.' " The first use he made of that returning strength which, after so many months', confinement, enabled him to cross again the threshold of Fincraigs, was to visit all the sick, the dying, and the bereaved in his parish ; and when all trace and feeling of his own infirmity had departed, he still delighted to mingle his sympathies with the weak and the sorrowful. There was, indeed, such a restless' activity about his manner, such a physical incapacity for very soft or gentle movements, that the sick-room seemed an uncongenial place ; yet there was such exquisite tenderness of feeling, such rapid appreciation of the condition of the patient, and such capacity in a few short and weighty sentences to minister to his spiritual sorrows pr per- plexity, that a brief visit from him was often sufficient to shed a flood of light upon the understanding, or to pour a full tide of comfort into the heart. Extreme delicacy of feeling and his own great reserve threw obstacles in his way, which were often very painfully felt by him. But if he could not at once overcome the barriers which lay in the way of an immediate, free, and confidential spiritual intercourse, he could speak of Him whose love to sinners ^a,A. no limits, and lay under no restraints. ' No one ever preached the gospel to the dying with greater simplicity or fullness, and yet with characteristic- simplicity, he would often say, ' Oh ! that I could preach to the sick and dying as Mr. Tait, of Teahng, does.' " His -ET 88. LIFE OF DK. CHALMEES. 69 interest in this, as in every other part of his ministerial labors, grew with his own advancing light and love. During the years 1813, 1814, the only two years of full ministerial labor at Kilmany, he made a few short hand memoranda, entitled, ' Records of spiritual intercourse with my people,' from which our limits permit us to make only One or two extracts : " February 9.\st. — Visited at Dalyell Lodge. They are in great affliction for the death of a child. I prayed with them. O God, make me wise and faithful, and withal affectionate in my management of these cases. I fear that something of the sternness of systematic orthodoxy adheres to me. Let me give up all sternness ; but let me nev«r give up, the only name by which men can be saved, or the necessity of forsaking all to follow Him, whether as a Saviour or a Prince. " June 2d. — Mr. sent for me in prospect of death ; a man of profligate and profane habits, who resents my calling him an unworthy sinner, and who spoke in loud and confident strains of his faith in Christ, and that it would save him. God, give me wisdoni in these matters to declare the whole of thy counsel for the salvation of men. I represented to him the necessity of being bom again, of being humbled under a sense of his sins, of repenting and turning fl-om them. may I turn it to my own case. If faith in Christ is so unsuitable from his mouth because he still loves sin, and is unhumbled because of it, should not the conviction be forced upon me that I labor myself under the same unsuitableness ? my God, give me a walk suitable to my profession, and may the power of Christ rest upon me. " August 9th,. — Miss imder religious concern. my God, send her help from Thy sanctuary. Give me wisdom for these cases. Let me not heal the w ound slightly ; and, oh, while I administer comfort in Christ, may it be a comfort according to godliness. She complains of the prevalence of sin. Let me not abate her sense of its sinfulness. Let me preach Christ in all his entireness as one that came to atone for the guilt of sin, and to redeem from its power. " Prosecuting his .earlier practice of visiting and examining 70 UFE OF DE. CHALMEKS. ^818. in alternate years, he commenced a visitation of his parish in 1813, -which, instead of being finished in a fortnight, was spread over a whole year. As many families as could con- veniently be assembled in one apartment were in th* first in- stance visited in their own dwellings, where, without any reli- gious exercise, a free and cordial conversation, longer or shorter as the case required, informed him as to the condition of the different households. When they afterward met together, he read the Scriptures, prayed, and -exhorted, making at times the most familiar remarks, using very simple yet memorable illus- trations. ' I have a very lively recollection,' says Mr. Robert Edie, ' of the intense earnestness of his addresses on occasions of visitation in my father's house, when he would unconsciously move forward on his chair to 'the very margin of it, in his anxiety to impart to the family and servants the impression of eternal things that so filled his own soul.' ' It would take a great book,' said he, beginning his address to one of these household congregations, ' to contain the names of all the in- dividuals that have ever lived, from the days of Adam down to the present hour, but there is one name that takes in the whole of them^ — that name is sinner, and here is a message from God to every one that bears that name, ' The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.' " Wishing to tell them what kind of faith God would have them to cher- ish, and what kind of fear, and how it was that instead of hin- dering each other, the right fear and the right faith worked into each other's hands, he said, ' It is just as if you threw out a rope to a drowning man. Faith is the hold he takes of it. It is fear which makes him grasp it with all his might, and the greater his fear, the firmer his hold.' Again, to illustrate what the Spirit did with the Word : ' This book, the Bible, is like a wide and beautiful landscape, seen afar ofi^, dim and confused ; but a good telescope will bring it near, and spread out all its rocks, and trees, and flowers, and verdant fields, and winding rivers at one's very feet. That telescope is the Spirit's teaching.' " In the autumn of 1813, Mr. Chalmers opened a class in ^T. 84. LIFE OF DK. CHALMEES. Yl his own house upon the Saturdays, for the rehgious instruction of the young. At first he intended that it should meet monthly : the numhers, however, who presented themselves for instruction, and the ardo^ with which they entered upon the tasks prescribed, induced a change of purpose. After the first meeting or two, he announced his intention to hold the class each fortnight, and erelong it met weekly at the manse. He drew out a series of simple propositions, which embraced a full system of Christian doctrine ; appending to each a refe- rence to those passages of the Bible in which the truth declared in the proposition was most clearly or fully revealed. These propositions, with their proofs, were printed at Dundee ; and the little volume which they formed has already been circu- lated in thousands among those who have interested them- selves in the religious education of the young. Beside his exercises upon Scripture doctrine, Mr. Chalmers read and ex- plained portions of the Bible, and prescribed select passages for committal to memory. He was highly gratified by the whole youth of the parish, even from its remoter districts, coming forward with such willingness ; and he repaid their readiness to receive instruction by making diligent preparation for communicating to them the knowledge of the truth, and fixing religious impressions on their hearts. In no department of his ministerial labors did he take a deeper interest, and upon none, in proportion to the space which it covered, did he be- stow more pains. It was only during a year and half that the class continued, and yet three years after his removal from Kilmany he could say : ' I met with a more satisfying evidence of good done by a school which I taught when at Kilmany, than by all I ever did there beside. A good encouragement this for the efforts of private Christians in this way.' Of the change in the manner of his pulpit preparations no person is entitled to speak with so much authority as his son- in-law. Dr. Hanna, as having access to all the manuscripts and acquaintance with many of the eye and ear-witnesses of those earlier efforts. I shall, therefore, permit the narrative of that time to continue in his words. 72 LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 1811. " Much, however, as may have been accomplished by the class, the pulpit was, after all, the chief instrument of power ; and from the time when profound religious convictions pene- trated his spirit, Mr. Chalmers labored to wield that instru- ment with effect. There must have been something particu- larly pathetic in his Sabbath ministrations during the summer months of 1810. The muflSed invalid, who hacT been seen to nmke his first round of visits to all the houses of mourning fin the parish, and of whose altered bearing and impressive prayers village rumor had already begun to speak, appeared once more in the pulpit. His sunk and sallow countenance told of the ravages of disease. He looked like one who had drawn very near to death, and whom a few steps backward would carry again to the very edge of the grave ; and his most fre- quent topic was human mortality, the shortness of time, the nearness and awfulness of eternity. ' Where are the men,' he asked, his own voice sounding over the congregation like an echo from the tomb, ' who a feTjr years ago gave motion and activity to this busy theater ? where those husbandmen who lived on the ground that you now occupy ? where those labor- ing poor who dwelt in your houses and villages ? where those ministers who preached J;he lessons of pietyj and talked of the vanity of this world ? where those people who, on the Sabbaths of other times, assembled at the sound of the church-bell, and filled the house in which you are now sitting? Their habita- tion is the cold grave, the land of forgetfulness And we are the children of these fathers, and heirs to the same awful and stupendous destiny. Ours is one of the many generations who pass in rapid succession through this region of Ufe and of sensibility. The .time in which I live is but a small moment of this world's history. When we rise in con- templation to the roll of ages that are past, the momentary being of an individual shrinks into nothing. It is the flight of a shadow ;, it is'«t dream of vanity; it is the rapid glance of a meteor ; it is a flower which every breath of heaven can wither into decay; it is a tale which as a remembrance vanish- eth ; it is a day which the silence of a long night will darken ^T, 84. LIFE OF DK. CHALMEES. 73 and overshadow. In a few years our heads will be laid in the cold grave, and the green turf will cover us. The children who come after us will tread upon our graves ; they will weep for us a few ^ays ; they will talk of us a few months ; they will remember us a few years ; when our memory shall disap- pear from the face of the earth, and not a tongue shall be found to recall it How perishable is human life, yet no man lays it to heart 1' " The opening months of 1811, as they brought tranquillity and establishment, to his own heart, so they gave a new charac- ter to his Sabbath ministrations. It was not, however, till the close of that year that the complete re-establishment of his health and the fulfillment of his engagements with Dr. Brew- ster, enabled him to give full time and strength to his compo- sitions for the pulpit. The result was a series of discourses, a goodly number of which, delivered almost verbally as origi- nally written, were listened to in after years by congregated thousands in Glasgow, and Edinburgh, and London, with won- dering and entranced admiration. " I have been able," continues Dr. Hanna, "to trace to this pe- riod so many of the sermons afterward selected by their author for publication, and have found so few alterations made on the origi» nal manuscriptain preparing them for the press, as to be satisfied that the three final years of his ministry at Kilmany supplied as many, as elaborate, and as eloquent discourses, as any other three years in the whole course of his ministry. It was not the stimulus of cultivated audiences, and an intellectual sphere ; it was not the effort to win or sustain a wide-spread popularity ; it was not the straining after originality of thought or splendor of illustration," which gave to these discourses their peculiar form and character. They were, to a great extent, the spontaneous products of that new love and zeal which divine grace had planted in his soul ; the shape and texture of their eloquence springing from the combined operation of all his energies, intel- lectual, moral, and emotional, whose native movements were now stimulated into a more glowing intensity of action by that controlling motive which concentrated them all upon one 7 74: LIFE OF DE. CHALMEBS. -elS-M. single and sublime accomplishment, the salvation of immortal souls. " Much time and great care were bestowed upon these pre- parations for the pulpit. Instead of the two or three hours Arhich had once been sufficient, they now engrossed the leisure Df the whole preceding week ; and beside that weekly amount of composition which was necessary to meet the demands of each succeeding Sabbath, he had always a discourse in pre- paration upon which the occasional efforts of a whole month were expended ; the two sets of sermons, from the different characters in which they were written, being described in his own vocabulary as his short-handers and his long-handers.* Not a few of these more slowly and carefully composed ser-^ mens were designedly upon texts from which he had preached in other years, to his former expositions of which he at times pointedly referred, at once to remedy any evil which his earlier teaching might have produced, and to make more vivid by the contrast his present understanding of the sacred oracles." While preaching with such fervor the great doctrine of a gratuitous salvation, Mr. Chalmers did not rest in a merely vis- ionary faith ; but both endeavored, in his own practice, and urged upon others, to aim at a corresponding walk and con- versation. " His ministry, then, as afterward, was eminently practical. He set his face against every form of evil, both in the pulpit and out of it. He particularly pressed upon coun- try people, thorough honesty and uprightness, and the practice of the law of love, by abstaining from all malice and evil speaking. The ostentation of flaming orthodoxy, or talk of re- ligious experience, when not borne out by the life, was the object of his thorough abhorrence." " It was not long till the whole aspect of the Sabbath con- gregations in Kilmany church was changed. The stupid^ wonder which used to sit on the countenances of the few villagers or farm servants, who attended divine service, was * Dr. Chalmers frequently advised young ministers, in addition to their ordinary preparations, to have a monthly and more elaborate ser- mon always in progress. ^T. 84. LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 75 turned into a fixed, intelligent, and devout attention. It was not easy for the dullest to remain uninformed ; for, if the preacher sometimes soared too high for the best trained of his people to follow him, at other times, and much oftener, he put the matter of his message so as to force for it an en- trance into the most sluggish understanding. Nor was it easy for the most indifferent to remain unmoved, as the first fervors of a new-bom faith and love found such thrilling strains in which to vent themselves. The church became crowded. The feeling grew with the numbers who shared in it. The fame of those wonderful discourses which were now emanating from the burning lips of this new evangeUst, spread throughout the neighborhood, till, at last, there was not an adjacent parish which did not send its weekly contribu- tion to his ministry. Persons from extreme distances in the county, found themselves side by side in the same crowded pew. Looking over the congregation, the inhabitant of Dun- dee could generally count a dozen or two of his fellow-towns- men around him, while ministers from Edinburgh or Glasgow were occasionally detected among the crowd. , " All this told distinctly enough of the popularity of the preacher ; but within the parish, and as the effect of such a ministry as has now been described, what were the spiritual results ? Too delicate a question this for any full or satis- factory reply ; but of one Sabbath's service we shall tell the fruits. It was in the spring of 1812, and the preacher's text was John, iii, 16: ' God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that, whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' Two young men heard this sermon, the one the son of a farmer in the parish, the other the son of one of the villagers. They met as the congregation dispersed. ' Did you feel anything particularly in church to- day V Alexander Patterson said to his acquaintance, Robert Edie, as they found themselves alone on the road. ' I never,' he continued, 'felt myself to be a lost sinner till to-day, when I was listening to that sermon.' ' It is Very strange,' said his companion ; 'it was just the same with me.' They were 76 LIFE OF DE. CHAUVIERS. 1814. near a plantation, into which they wandered, as the conversa- tion proceeded. Hidden at last from all human sight, it was proposed that they should join in prayer. Screened by the opening foliage, they knelt on the fresh green sod, and poured out, in turn, their earnest petitions to the hearer and answerer of prayer. Both dated their conversion from that day. Al- exander Patterson went shortly afterward to reside in the neighbbring parish of Dairsie, but attended regularly on the Sabbath at Kilmany, church. His friend, Eobert Edie, gener- ally conveyed him part of the way home. About one hun- dred yards from the road along which they traveled, in ^he thickly-screened seclusion of a close plantation, and under the shade of a branching fir-tree, the two friends found a quiet retreat, where, each returning Sabbath evening, the eye that seeth in secret, looked down upon these two youthful disciples of the Saviour on their knees^ and for an hour their ardent prayers alternately ascended to the throne of grace. The practice was continued for years, till a private footpath of their own had been opened to the trysting-tree ; and when, a few years ago, after long absence on the part of both, they met at Kilmany, at Mr. Edie's suggestion, they revisited the spot, and, renewing the sacred exercise, ofifered up their-' joint thanksgivings to that God who had ^ept them by his grace, and in their separate spheres had honored each of them with usefulness in the church. Mr. Patterson has now labored for twenty-two years as a missionary in the Canongate of Edinburgh, not without many pleasing evidences that his labors have been^ blessed ; and T have reason to believe that by his efforts in behalf of Bible and Missionary Societies, through means of Sabbath Schools and prayer meetings, and by the light of a guiding and consistent example, Mr. Edje's life, while one of active industry, has also been one of defVoted christian usefulness. Other individual instances of spiritual benefit derived from Mr. Chalmers's ministrations, it would have been a pleasant task to record ; and had ,he not been so soon removed from Kilmany, the hopefiil appearances which were presenting ^T. 84. LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 77 themselves, especially among the young who attended his Saturday classes, might have ripened into a goodly spiritual fruitage. One general testimony, however, as valuable, perhaps, as ever minister left behind him, and given by Mr. Chalmers himself, as to the separate eflFects of his ministry dur- ing the two periods into which, spiritually contemplated, it di- vided itself, must not be withheld. " And here, I cannot but record the effect of an actual, though undesigned experiment, which I prosecuted for up- ward of twelve years among you. For the greater part of that time, I could expatiate on the nieanness of dishonesty, on the villainy of falsehood, on the despicable arts of cal- umny; in a word, upon all those deformities of character which awaken the natural indignation of the human heart against the pests and the disturbers of human society. Now, could I, upon the strength of these warm expostulations, have got the thief to give up his stealing, and the evil speaker his censoriousness, and the liar his deviations from truth, I should have felt all the repose of one who had gotten his ultimate object. It never occurred to me that all this might have been done, and yet the soul of every hearer have remainfed in full alienation from God ; and that even could I have estab- lished in the bosom of one who stole, such a principle of ab- horrence at the meanness of dishonesty, that he was prevailed upon to steal no more, he might still have retained a heart as completely unturned to God, and as totally unpossessed by a principle of love to him as before. In a word, though I might have made him a more upright and honorable man, I might have left him as destitute of the essence of religious principle as ever. But the interesting fact is, that during the whole of that period, in which I made no attempt against the natural enmity of the mind to God, while I was inattentive to the way in which this enmity is dissolved, even by the free offer on the one hahd, and the believing acceptance on the other, of the gospel salvation, while Christ, through whose blood the sinner, who by nature stands afar ofif, is brought near to the heavenly Lawgiver whom he has offended, was scarcely ever spoken of. 78 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 1814. or spoken of in such a way as stripped Him of all the import- ance of his character and his offices, even at this time I cer- tainly did press the reformations of honor, and truth, and integrity among^ my people ; but I never once heard of any such reformations having been effected among them. If there was anything at air brought about in this way, it was more than ever I got any account of. I am not sensible that all the vehemence with which I urged the virtues and the pro- prieties of social life, had the weight of a feather on the moral habits of my parishioners. And it was not till I got impressed by the utter 'ahenation of the heart in all its desires and affections from God ; it was not till reconciUation to Him became the distinct and the. prominent object of my ministe- rial exertions ; it was not till I took the scriptural way of lay- ing the method of reconciliation before them ; it was not till the free offer of forgiveness through the blood of Christ was urged upon their acceptance, and the Holy Spirit given through the channel of Christ's mediatorship to all who ask Him, was set before them as the unceasing object of their .dependence and their prayers ; in one word, it was not till the contempla- tions of my people were turned to these great and essential elements in the business of a soul providing for its interests with God and the concerns of its eternity, that I ever heard of any of those subordinate reformations which I aforetime made the earnest and the zealous, but I am afraid at the same time, the ultimate object of my earlier ministrations. Ye ser- vants, whose scrupulous fidelity has now attracted the notice, and drawn forth in my hearing a delightful testimony froiH your masters, what mischief you would have done had your zeal for doctrines and sacraments been accompanied by the sloth and the remissness, and what, in the prevailing ton€ of moral relaxation, is accounted the allowable purloining of your earlier days ! But a sense of your Heavenly Master's eye has brought another influence to bear upon you ; and while you are thus striving to adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things, you may, poor as you are^ reclaim the great ones of the land to the acknowledgment of the faith. You have at ^T. 84. LIFE OF DB. CHALMEKS. 79 least taught me, that to preach Christ is the only eflfective way of preaching morality in all its branches; and out of your hum- ble cottages have I gathered a lesson, which I pray God I may be enabled to carry, with all its simplicity,^ into a wider the- ater, and to bring with all the power of its subduing efficacy upon the yices of a more crowded population.' " In the midst of these labors, one day, while he was preach- ing at Bendochy, in Perthshire, the funeral sermon of a much valued friend, the pastor of that parish, a group of auditors attended as members of the town council of Glasgow to hear him, as one who had been named among them for the Tron Church of that city, then vacant. Unawares to the preacher, he was made the subject of a criticism destined to have no little influence upon many of the best years of his life. Such was the crowd that it was found expedient, as the day was calm and beautiful, to take out one of the windows and erect a platform against the sill, from which the preacher could be heard by the congregation without, as well as within the building. The scene is thus described on the authority of one who was an eye-witness of it. "A hum in the crowd, and a melancholy tolling of the bell, announced the approach of the preacher, who seated himself for a minute or two in an old elbow-chair, took the psalm-book from a httle table before him, turned hastily over a few of the leaves, and then rose in the most awkward and even helpless manner. Before he read the Unes which were to be sung, his large and apparently leaden eyes were turned toward the recent grave, with a look wildly pathetic, fraught with intense and indescribable passion. The psalm was read with no very promising elocution ; and while the whole mass of the people were singing it, he sunk into the chair, turned seemingly into a monumental statue of the coldest stone, so deadly pale was his large broad face and forehead. The text was read : Deut., xxxii, 29, 'O that they were wise ; that they understood this ; that they would con- sider their latter end !' The doctrinal truth which he meant to inculcate being established on a basis of reasoning so firm 80 LIFE OF DE. CHAUHEES. 1814- that doubt could not move or sophistry shake it, he bounded at oBce upon the structure which he had reared ; and by that- inborn and unteachable power of the spirit, which nature has reserved for the chosen of her sons, and which shakes off all the disadvantages and incumbrances of figure, and voice, and language as easily as the steed shakes the thistle-down from his side, carried the hearts and passions of all who heard him with irresistible and even tremendous sway. ' It strikes me,' said the preacher, and as the words were spoken there was a silence among the living almost as deep as that which reigned among the dead who lay beneath, ' It strikes me as the most impressive of all sentiments, that it will be all the same a hundred years after this. It is often uttered in the form of a proverb, and with the levity of a mind that is not aware of its importance. A hundred years after this ! Good heavens ! with what speed and with what certainty will those hundred years come to their termination. This day will draw to a close, and a number of days make up one revolution of the seasons. Year follows year, and a number of years makes up a century. These little intervals of time accumulate and fill up that mighty space which appears to the fancy so big and so immeasurable. The hundred years will eome, and they will see out the wreck of whole generations. Every living thing that now moves on the face of the earth will disappear from it. The infant that now hangs on his mother's bosom will only live in the remembrance of his grandchildren. The scene of life and of intelligence that is now before me will be changed into the dark and loathsome forms of corruption. The people who now hear me will cease to be spoken of ; their memory will perish from the face of the country; their flesh will be devoured with worms ; the dark and creeping things that live in the holes of the earth will feed upon their bodies ; their cofSns will have- mouldered away, and their bones be thrown up in the new- made grave ; and is this the consujmmation of all things ? Is> this the final end and issue of man ? Is this the upshot of Jai^ , busy history ? Is there nothing beyond time and the graved' iET. 84, LIFE OF DE. OHALMEKS. 81 to alleviate the gloomy picture, to chase away these dismal feiages ? Must we sleep forever in the dust, and bid an eter- nal adieu to the light of heaven ?' " ' I have seen,' adds our informant, ' many scenes, and I have heard many eloquent men, but this I have never seen equaled, or even imitated. It was not learning, it was not art ; it was the untaught and the unencumbered incantation of genius, the mightiest engine of which the world can boast.' " After various unobserved observations and representations, by word and letter, on the subject, in the course of which it was suggested to him to visit the city and give the council a chance to judge of his abilities, which of course, he decisively declined to do, Mr. Chalmers was elected minister of the Tron Church of Glasgow on the 26th of November, 1814. The chief obstacles which presented themselves to his re- moval, were his fears as to the amount of unprofessional labor exacted of the clergymen of Glasgow, and his tender attach- ment to the neighborhood and people of Kilmany. The former, long courageous effort removed ; the latter, never entirely passed away. " Looking to the hills which bounded his peaceful valley, and waving his staff to them as if in mournful farewell, he said to a friend, who was walking by his side, ' Ah, my dear sir, my heart is wedded to these hills.' Coming back to his old parish, more than twenty years after he had left it,, he exclaimed, ' Oh, there was more tearing of the heart-strings at leaving the valley of Kilmany than at leaving all my great parish at Glasgow.' " On the 10th of December he intimated his acceptance of the appointment ; but did not remove to Glasgow until July of the following year. " For some Sabbaths previous to the departure from Kil- many, the attendance at church was so numerous, that one of thfe large windows beside the pulpit was taken out, that Mr. Chalmers might address at once the in-door and out-door con- gregation. The ^reat crowd of strangers which had assembled deprived, to some extent, his closing Sabbath (July 9, 1815) of the character which he would have liked it so much to wear, 82 LIFE OF DB. CHALMERS. 1814, that of a parting of affectionate friends. There were few, however, even among the Strangers, who did not share in the emotions of the occasion, and the hearts of his own. people were dissolved in tenderness, as these farewell words fell upon their ear : " ' Choose Christ, then, my brethren, choose Him as the Captain of your salvation. Let Him enter into your hearts by faith, and let Him dwell continually these. Cultivate a daily intercourse and a growing acquaintance with Him. ■ Oh, you are in Safe company, indeed, when your fellowship is with Him ! The shield of His protecting mediatorsbip is ever be- tween you and the jiistice of God ; and out of His fullness there goeth a constant stream, to nourish, and to animate, and to strengthen every believer. Why should the shifting of human instruments so oppress and so discourage you, when He is your willing friend ;. when He is ever present, and is at all times in readiness ; when He, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, is to b% met with in every place ; a|id while His disciples here, giving way to the power of sight, are sorrowful, and in great heaviness, because they are to move at a distance from one another, He, my brethren, He has His eye upon all neighborhoods and all countries, and will at length gather His disciples into one eternal family ! With such a Master, let us quit ourselves like men. With the magnificence of eternity before us, let time, with all its fluctuations, dwindle into its own littleness. If -God is pleased to spare me, I trust I shall often meet with you in person, even on thig^ side of the grave ; but if not, let us often meet in prayer at the mercy-seat of God.- While" we occupy different places on earth, let our mu- tual intercessions for each other go to one place in Heaven. Let the Saviour put our supplications into one censer ; and be assured, my brethren, that after the dear and the much-loved Scenery of this peaceful vale has disappeared from my eye, the people who live in it shall retain a warm ajid ever-during place in my memory ; and this mortal body must be stretched on the bed of death, ere the heart which now animates it can resign its exercise of longing after you, and praying for you iET. 85, LIFE OF DK. CHALMERS. 83 that you may so receive Christ Jesus, and so walk in Him, and so hold fast the things you have gotten, and so prove that the labor I have had among you has not been in vain, that ■when the sound of the last trumpet awakens us, these eyes, which are now bathed in tears, may ppen upon a scene of eter- nal blessedness, and we, my brethren, whom the Providence of Crod has withdrawn for a little while from one another, may on that day be found side by side at the right hand of the everlasting- throne.' " CHAPTER VII. On the 13th of July, 1816, Mr. Chalmers finally left Kil- many, and on the 21st of the same month was regularly admitted to Ms new charge. His first sermon in Glasgow had been preached some months previously before the society of the sons of the Clergy, on Thursday, the 30th day of Mal-ch. Among the vast crowd, which had cpngregated on the occa- sion, a young student from Oxford was present, whose graphic pen, at a somewhat later time, delineating various prominent characters of Scotland, drew the following picture of the preacher : " I was a good deal surprised and perplexed with the first glimpse I obtained of his countenance, for the light, that streamed faintly upon it for the moment, did not reveal any- thing like that general outline of feature and visage for which my fancy had, by some strange working of presentiment, pre- pared me. By-and-by, however, the light became stronger, and I was enabled to study the minutiae of his face pretty leisurely, while he leaned forward and read aloud the words of the Psalm, for that is always done in Scotland, not by the clerk, but the clergyman himself. At first sight, no doubt, his face is a coarse one, but a mysterious kind of meaning breathes from every part of it, that such as have eyes to see, cannot be long without discovering. It is very pale, and the large, half- closed eyelids have a certain drooping melancholy weight about them, which interested me very much, I understood not why. The lips, too, are singularly pensive in their mode of falling down at the sides, although there is no want of richness and vigor in their central fullness of curve. The upper lip, from the nose downward, is separated by a very deep line, which gives a sort of leonine firmness of expression to all the lower part of the face. The cheeks are square and strong, in texture like pieces of marble, with the cheek-bones very broad and (84) ^T. 85. LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 85 prominent. The eyes themselves are light in color, and have a strange, dreamy heaviness, that conveys any idea rather than that of dullness, but which contrasts in a wonderful manner with the dazzling, watery glare they exhibit when expanded in their sockets, and illuminated into all their flame and fervor in some moment of high entranced enthusiasm. But the shape of the forehead, is, perhaps, the most singular part of the whole visage ; and, indeed, it presents a mixture so very singular, of forms commonly exhibited only in the widest separation, that it is no wonder I should have required some little time to comprehend the meaning of it. In the first place, it is, without exception, the most marked mathematical forehead I ever met with — being far wider across the eye- brows than either Mr. Playfair's or Mr. Leslie's — and having the eyebrows themselves lifted up at their exterior ends quite out of the usual line, a peculiarity which Spurzheim had remarked in the countenances of almost all the great mathe- matical or calculating geniuses — such, for example, if I rightly remember, as Sir Isaac -Newton himself, Kaestener, Euler, and many others. Immediately above the extraordinary breadth of this region, which, in the heads of most mathe- matical persons, is surmounted by no fine points of organiza- tion whatever, immediately above this, in the forehead, there is an arch of imagination, carrying out the summit boldly and roundly, in a style to which the heads of very few poets present anything comparable, while over this again, there is a grand apex of high and solemn veneration and love, such as might have graced the bust of Plato himself, and such as in living men I have never beheld equaled in any but the majestic head of Canova. The whole is edged with a few crisp dark locks, which stand forth boldly, and afford a fine relief to the deathlike paleness of those massive temples Of all human compositions there is none surely which loses so much as a sermon does when it is made to address itself to the eye of a solitary student in his closet, and not to the thrilling ears of a mighty mingled congregation, through the very voice which nature has enriched with notes more ^x- 86 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEBS. 1815. pressive than words can ever be &f the meanings and feelings of its author. Neither, perhaps, did the world ever possess any orator whose minutest peculiarities of gesture and voice have more power in increasing the effect of what he says — whose delivery, in other words, is the first, and the second, and the third excellence of his oratory — more truly than is that of Dr. Chalmers. And yet were the spirit of the man less gifted than it is, there is no question these, his lesser peculiarities, would never have 'been numbered among his points of excellence. His voice is neither strong nor melo- dious, his gestures are neither easy nor graceful ; but, on the contrary, extremely rude and awkward ■; his pronunciation is not only broadly national, but broadly provincial, distort- ing almost every word he utters into some barbarous novelty, which, had his hearer leisure -to think of such things, might he productive of an effect at once ludicrous and offensive in a singular degree. But, of a truth, these are things which no listener can attend to while this great preacher stands before him, armed Vith all the weapons of the most com- manding eloquence, and swaying all around him with its imperial rule. At first, indeed, there is nothing to make one suspect what jiches are in store. He commences in a low, drawling key, which has not even the merit of being solemn, and advances from sentence to sentence, and from paragraph to paragraph, while you seek in vain to catch a single echo that gives promise of that which is to come. There is, on the contrary, an appearance of constraint about him that affects and distresses you. You are afraid that his breast is weak, and that even the slight exertion he makes may be too much for it. But then, with what tenfold rich- ness does this dim preliminary curtain make the glories of his eloquence to shine forth, when the heated spirit at length shakes from it its chill confining fetters, and bursts out elate and rejoicing in the full splendor of its disimprisoned wings. I have heard many men deliver sermons far better arranged in regard to argument, and have heard very many deliver sermons far more uniform in elegance both of con- jET. 85. LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 87 ception $nd of style ; but, most unquestionably, I have never heard, either in England or Scotland, or in any other country, any preacher whose eloquence is capable of producing an effect so strong and irresistible as his. " Mr. Chalmers's first sermon at Glasgow was chiefly oc- cupied with the enforcement and illustration of principles applicable alike to all forms and varieties of christian char- ity. It contained, in embryo, his whole theory as to the proper treatment of pauperism, and is remarkable thus as indicating how firmly established in his mind that theory had become, even before his labors as a city clergyman had commenced." Leaving his family for the summer in Anstruther, he entered upon his residence in Glasgow as a solitary lodger, and that among new scenes, strange faces, and a field of labor whose Jbounds he had yet to ascertain, and which, for the present, seemed to be boundless, occasioned him no very pleasant first impressions of the city. But the state Of his spirits was not permitted to interfere with the discharge of his duty, which he entered upon with the utmost zeal and singleness of purpose to the glory of God. Week after week sustained and height- ened the effect of his first appearance, and he soon won the hearts as well as the admiration of his people. On the I6th of Septemiier, having removed his family to Glasgow, the solitary lodgings were exchanged for the fireside of home. But his warmly affectionate nature had not so long mingled with his new congregation without finding objects of its attachment. Ere the first month of his residence in Glas- gow had gone by, he had become attached to one young man " by ties of such peculiar strength and tenderness, as threw over their brief earthly intercourse all the air of a spiritual ro- mance. Mr. Thomas Smith, the son of a well known Glasgow publisher, was qualifying himself for the profession of a writer or attorney. His family having interested themselves in Mr. Chalmers's appointment, he was early introduced to the notice of his new minister, and occasionally invited to accompany him in his daily walk or ride. His intellectual accomplish- 88 LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 18J#. ments, his refined taste, his gentle bearing, his pure and aspir- ing aims, soon won Mr. Chalmers's heart. But whnt gave him a still stronger hold upon that heart than any personal endow- ment, was his being, so far as was known to Mr. Chalmers, the first-fruits spiritually of his ministry in Glasgow. As if all those affections, which, wrenched from their old objects, were in search of new ones, had suddenly concentrated on him, he became the object of an attachment which, in the brief entries ' of a private journal, now reduced to the ordinary measure of a single line for each succeeding day, vents itself in such ex- pressions as the following : ' Called on Mr. Thomas Smith ; God, purify, and christianize, and give saluta^ efifect to my regatd for him.' ' ' Had long walks and conversations with T. S. my God, save me from all that is idolatrous in my re- gard for him !' The occasional soon turned into daily inter- course, a trysting-place being appointed on the banks of the Monkland Canal, where each day, at a set hour, they met. And the general conversation of ordinary friendship soon flowed in that new channel into which it was directed by a heart yearning for the spiritual and eternal welfare of its object. Erelong, close and affectionate as it was, the out- door intercourse was not enough. There were meetings beside, for reading the Holy Scriptures and for prayer ; and great as were the efforts and fatigues of the Tron Church pulpit, an hour each Sabbath evening was set apart for con- joined devotion." When Mr. Chalmers was in the city, nothing was suffered to interfere with those daily meetings. If the weather was unfavorable for walking, they met at one or other of their houses : and when a week at Blochairn or Kilmardinny broke in upon the accustomed fellowship, an almost daily interchange of letters took place, occasioning a correspondence in which the questions of election and rows, and the propriety of attend- ing public assemblies for dancing, were discussed. "Step by step the christian minister leads along the youthful and beloved disciple — thrown once or twice into anxiety which breaks at last into exulting joy as he discerns the clear and unmistakable ^T. 86. LIFE OF DB. 0HALMEK8. 89 tokens of a true and firm and advancing faith in the Redeemer," If sickness prevented one or the other from leaving his room, that sick-room became the place of meeting ; and if business inter- vened the intervals of business were seized to keep up their inter- course by the pen. The tone of those thoughts which led them to take so much pleasure in each other's society may be judged of by a few extracts. The first is from a letter written by Mr. Chalmers from Kilmardinny, Jan. 6th, 1816. " You complain of the turmoil of business. In as far as it takes you away from the more congenial exercise of study or prayer or religious contemplation, I can conceive, my dear sir, that it might be a matter of violent dislike to you. But remember that this is not of your own voluntary adoption. In your present circumstances, business is laid upon you by another, and you are acquitting yourself of your duty to Him when you are giving your time and your attention to it. I can conceive a man who felt more happiness in the duties of the closet than in those of society, to be making a sacrifice of prin- ciple to inclination in the very midst of religious exercises. Do feel that you are religiously employed when you are giving your faithful attention to the matters of the office ; and instead of thinking that religion is a kind of secret indulgence, to be snatched by a kind of stealth from the ordinary affairs of life, do make a study of spreading religion over all your daily path, and then will you realize the habit of walking before God all the day long, of doing all things to His glory." ' Mr. Smith's health was delicate, and toward the close of January an illness which did not for some weeks stop the forenoon interviews, occasionally prevented him from going, to Mr. Chalmers's residence on the Sabbath evenings. On one of those b^casions he received from his friend a letter present- ing some opinions as to what should be the subject of their Sabbath conversations, advancing that it should not treat of religion in an argumentative way ; but as an affair of the heart and conscience, continuing thus : " Agreeably to this I shall not take up the remainder of my time with any topic of observation whatever, but recollecting 8 90 LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 1816. that Dr. Samuel Johnson often wrote his prayers, and found this a more powerfully devotional exercise than if Tie had said them, I entreat my dear friend's indulgence if I do the same at present ; and as a blessing on that tender intimacy to which God, who tumeth the heart of man whithersoever He will, has turned our hearts, is the great burden of my present aspira- tion to heaven, I send it to you, that you may, if you approve, join in it, and that the promise may be realized in us, that if two shall agree touching anything they shall ask it shall be done unto them. " God, do Thou look propitiously on our friendship. Do Thou purify it from all that is base, and sordid, and earthly. May it be altogether subordinated to the love of Thee. May it be the instrument of great good to each of our souls. May it sweeten the path of our worldly pilgrimage ; and after death has divided us for a season, may it find its final blessedness and consummation at the right hand of Thine everlasting throne. " We place ourselves before Thee as the children of error. O grant that in Thy hght we may clearly see light ; for this purpose let our eye be single. Let our intention to please Thee in all things be honest. With the childlike purpose of being altogether what Thou wouldst have us to be, may we place ourselves before Thy Bible, that we may draw our every lesson, and our every comfort out of it. that Thy Spirit may preside over our daily reading of Thy. word, and that the word of our blessed Saviour may dwell in us richly in all wisdom. " Save us from the deceitfulness of this world. Forbid that any one of its pleasures should sway us aside from the path of entire devotedness to Thee. Give us to be vigilant, and cautious, and fearful. May we think of Thine eye at all times upon us ; and may the thought make us to tremble at the slightest departure from that narrow way of sanctification which leads to the house of our Father who is in heaven. " We desire to honor the Son even as we honor the Father. We act in the presumption of our hearts when we think of ^T. 85 LIFE OF DR. OHALMEKS. 91 pla,cmg ourselves before Thee in our own righteousness. Draw ua to Christ, Make Him all our desire and all our salvation. Give remission of sins out of His blood. Give strength out of His fullness ; and crowned with all might, may we not only be fellow-helpers to each other, but may the work of turning sons and daughters unto righteousness prosper in our hands. All we ask is for the sake of Thy Son and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen. " By the end of February Mr. Smith's illness had assumed a more alarming aspect — ^not yet confining him entirely to the house, but exciting the darkest apprehensions that consump- tion had begun its fatal work." Anxiety now fanned affection ; and not content with visits almost daily, frequent letters reminded the invalid of the strong attachment of his friend in Christ. Thus Mr. Chalmers writes on the 22d of February: "It is remarkable, that when all taste for other employment has abandoned me, I still find relief in the work of unbosoming myself to you. I can assure you that frequent and friendly conversation with you, ever rising to higher degrees of Christian faith and purity and ele- vation, is a mighty ingredient with me of this world's happiness. May God turn this taste to such an account as that a happiness so mingled, and so imperfect, and lying so open to interruption from the fearfulness of each of the parties in this dark scene of existence, may, after death has suspended it, reappear in a brighter and more enduring scene, and be fed with its imme- diate supplies from the throne of that God who will stand revealed to the pure in heart, and will dispense a blessedness which knows no alloy and shall experience no termination. I have not yet had heart either for my chapter or my prayer, but I trust that God will be present with me now that I am going to them. I shall pray for you, I trust, with a Christian tenderness." In a letter of the next day he writes.: " My hegrt is greatly enlarged toward you, and there is not a more congenial exercise for it at this moment than to pour it out before my high and my heavenly Witness in the fervency of prayer, that He Ml 92 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEBS. 1816. cause you to abound more and more — that He will keep up and increase the supplies of that purifying influence by which you have hitherto been preserved from falling.— that He will bless the common tenderness which fills each of our hearts and knits us together in a friendship far more endearing than any I ever before experienced — that He will Christianize the whole of this friendship, and direct it to the love of himself, and make it the instrument of a growing knowledge of, and attachment to. His sacred word, and render us wise unto salva- tion, reducing us to the lowliness of little children, and making us to derive all our hopes of acceptance from the merits of His Son, and all our progress in sanctification from that kind and free Spirit, which will never be refused to our humble, earnest, and persevering prayers." Again on Feb. 26th: "Will you forgive me, my excellent and aspiring fellow-Christian, if I venture to state one point in which we both are deficient, and have much before us. We are not yet sufiiciently humbled into the attitude of dependence on the Spirit of God. We do not yet bow with enough of veneration at the name of Christ for sanctification. There is still a very strong mixture of self-sufficiency and self-depend- ence in our attempts at the service of God. I speak my own intimate experience when I say that, as the result of all this presumption, I feel as if I had yet done nothing. I can talk, and be impressed, and hold sweet counsel with you ; but in the scene .of trial I am humbled by my forgetfulness of God, by my want of delight in the doing of His commandments, by the barrenness of all my aflfections, by my enslavement to the influences of earth and of time, by my love to the creature, by my darkness, and hardness, and insensibility as to the great matters of the city that hath foundations, of the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. " In these circumstances, let us flee for refuge to the hope set before us in the gospel. Let us keep closer by Christ than we have ever yet done. Let us l^ve a life of faith on the Son of God. Let us crucify all our earthly affections, and by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, that we may live." ^T. 86. LIFE OF DK. CHALMERS. 93 " March opened with brightening prospects of recovery, but closed amid greater darkness and uncertainty than ever. On Sabbath the 24th, Mr. Chalmers was to preach before the magistrates of the city. Excited groups of expectant auditors were already hurrying along the Trongate, hastening to secure their places in the church ; and it was within half-an-hour of the time when the bell was to summon the preacher into the crowded sanctuary, that he sat down and penned the following lines : "I cannot resist the opportunity of Mrs. C, who goes to inquire about you. May this be a precious Sabbath to you. If languid and weak, and unable to put forth much strength in the work of drawing near to God, may He put forth the strength of His resistless arm, and draw near unto you. May He benignantly reveal Himself to you as your gracious God and reconciled Father in Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh ! may the consoling truths of the gospel be felt by you, and rejoiced in ; and may you know what it is to have great peace and great joy in believing on Him who poured out His whole soul unto the death for you. Let Christ be on the foreground of all your religious contemplations. Feel that you are safely shielded from the wrath of God in the better righteousness of Him who yielded for you a pure and spotless obedience ; and never, never let go your mild, and pleasing, and tender, and confiding impressions of all that love which the kind and will- ing Saviour bears to you. You may have much pain and weakness : look on it all as coming from God. Feel yourself in His hand, my dearest friend, and this feeling will temper all your sufferings, and sweeten them all. I do God great injus- tice, for I feel that I do not rise to an adequate conception of His loving-kindness and tender mercy. may this sweet assurance of God be more quietly and firmly established in your heart every day, and on this day may there be much of the comfort and tranquillity of Heaven's best influences to make you tranquil and happy." After morning service Mr. Chalmers visited the sick-room of his friend. In the afternoon he delivered before a vast 94: LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 1816. assembly the brilliant discourse on the restlessness of human ambition ; but neither excitement nor fatigue could shut out from his heart the predominant anxiety, as appears from this note dispatched on the same evening : "S^> ?• M. — Tell me by the servant verhally how yoUi are. May the everlasting arms be round about and underneath yom May you have much peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. May you, throughout all the varieties of your condition, be enabled to display thie triumphs of faith ; and however you are, may the blessed assurance of your reconciled God ever be present in your heart to strengthen and to sustain you. My very dear sir, yours, with much regard, " Thomas Chalmers." " Not imfrequently Mr. Chalmers took his manuscript over with him to Stockwell, and carried on the composition of his sermon in the sick-room. A friend who one day found him so employed, expressed his wonder that he could compose in such a situation. 'Ah ! my dear sir,' said Mr. Chalmers, casting a look of profound and inexpressible sympathy toward the suf- ferer, ' there is much in mere juxtaposition with so interesting an object.' " The sacrament was now close at hand, and those evening hours which Mr. Chalmers had been accustomed to spend with his fipiend, now so weak and apparently dying, had to be de- voted to the examination of intending communicants ; but snatching intervals which few ministers either would or could so use, he sustained the intercourse." In the month of April, Mr. Smith's health appeared to be re-> covering, and Mr. Chalmers sought relief from the fatigue of his excessive labors, in an excursion into his native county, during which, journal letters were addressed to his friend for his amusement and instruction. Our limits preclude all but a single specimen : "April SZcf, 1816. — Let Mrs. Chalmers know that I was delighted to see the first man from Kilmany parish I had seen for nine months, that is, Mr. Anderson, of Star — ^that old Mr ■*:T. 36. LIFE OF DK. CHALMERS. 95 ■ of Eathillet, is dying — that I walked from Kirkaldy to Duniface, about eight miles, on Saturday afternoon — that I there got a horse, which carried me forward to Pilmuir — that I have been enjoying myself on the verge of a most beautiful landscape, and, what is still more exquisite, that in Mr. For- tune's family here I have revived an early friendship, and am delighted with all that heart and kindness, and aspiring piety, in the bosom of which I have been reposing — that I did not go to the church at Largo, but that I did what I am not sorry for having done, gave a service in the house to about twenty- five people : and she will be much interested to know that Miss Robina Coutts, who is on a visit to her grandfather, was among my auditors "I did not carry with me here the book I brought from Glasgow, but trusted my reading to such as I could find when I came, and the one I fell upon was the English Prayer Book, with which I was greatly refreshed and edified all yesterday. It will determine me, I think, when I get a church so cool that I can aflford to prolong the service a little, to have a great deal more reading of the Bible introduced into my public ministra- tions. The Prayers and — with the exception of two flaws, one in the Burial and the other in the Baptismal service — all the other devout compositions are very admirable, and I do regard the whole composition as an interesting monument of the piety and sound intelligent Christianity of better days. " The weather was milder yesterday, and I never felt a more delicious calm than when I walked a little at the front of the house, and my eye rested on the beauteous perspective before me, and the whole amplitude of the Forth stretched majestically in front and on each side of me, and the interven- ing country which lay between the rising ground on which my hospitable lodging stands and the shore, spread itself around me in all the garniture of fields, and spires, and woods, and farms, and villages, and the sun threw its unbounded splendors over the whole of this charming panorama, and the quietness of the Sabbath lent an association of inexpressible delight to these scenes of my nativity and youthful remembrance. If 96 LIFE OF DE, CHALMKKS. 1816, there be so much beauty on the face of this dark and disor- dered world, how much may we look for Ln that earth and those heavens wherein dwelleth righteousness !" During Mr, Chalmers's absence, his friend died, and he returned in time only to preach his funeral sermon. He re^ ceived, as a last memento, a ring, with some of Mr. Smith's hair, which was fondly treasured down to old age. It, was even resumed, after being laid aside for years, and worn by him for a month, " during the year which preceded his own death." The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on Mr. Chalmers by the University of Glasgow, on the 21st of Febru- ary, 1816, and soon afterward he was elected, by the presby- tery of Glasgow, one of its representatives to the ensuing Gen- eral Assenably, in which capacity he willingly served, on ac- count of an impending discussion, in which he particularly desired to take a part. In view of a fundamental law of the Scottish Establishment, requiring every minister to reside within his parish, the Gen- eral Assembly of 1814, prohibited the holding of a country living in conjunction with a professor's chair. The act was simply declaratory ; whereby a definite application'was made of an old law. The friends of pluralities endeavored to con- vince the church that it was a new act of legislation, and therefore of no force, as the rule had not been complied withj which' requires that, in such cases, the presbyteries must be consulted and the consent of a majority of them obtained ; and so successful were their efforts, that no less than thirty over- tures were transmitted from presbyteries praying that for the reason assigned, the resolution of 1814 should be set aside. Dr. Chalmers, on the other hand, from his experience in Glas- gow, deeply impressed with a sense of the onerousness of a city charge, was prepared to combat not only one, but all kinds of pluralities. " The General Assembly met in Edinburgh, on Friday, 17th May, 1816. On the forenoon of that day, Dr. Chalmers preached in St. Andrew's church, before the society of the Sons of the Clergy, the same sermon which he had •fflT. 36. IIFE OF BB. CHALME&S. 9t (lelivurefj before a'siiiailarmstituti,6n in€rlasgow.' < Prxihahlj no cdBgregatioij, since the days of Masgillttii,' such was the testi- mony of an auditor, ' eYel- had- their attention more completely fixed,' their Tinderst3.ndirigs more'' enlightened, their passions more agifcated.and hearts more improyetf. When, at the coh- ohision of his'tecouJ-se, Dr. Chalmers, drew the pictute'oF a cle%yman's_ family leaving the place of theh' nativity and long residence, we observed inany an eye suffused with tears'' " The questibn of pluralities came up on ^he 22d. ' Tntens'e interest Was manifested Hi tKe debate', which, though iaain- tained by both 'parties with great'spirit and ability, far.mbre 'than twelve; hours, gave ofecasion to not one unpleasant per- sonality or unseemly word'. The sutlgtande' of Dr. Chalmers's speech waS feus rej)orted in a publication of that tune : ''"The ^erereiid Doetor theneont^ded, that if it was neces- sary J^ prevent a country minisjier Irom hdldijig-a, prUfessor- ^i^p on'accounfrof his having enough to' do in diseharging the duties 6f his office without it, a fortiori, Was it' proper to^prfeVenjt •such taiioB in the case of a town BqSnister. This, topic was ilhistrated ■^y the speaker in a toireht 'of eloquBKce whijjh seemed to(^stoiiisK the hoijse, and which has,' in the opinio^ of the best critics and judges, . perhaps never be«ri exceeded. He contended, that there was no ptTiet- wayof prfeventing the ^^iBget arising W the good ortfer of sDoiety from the'hostile attacks -of an illiterate raiBble,- 'who were sfefin in such csrowds at certain houES to issue from their workshops and ihanlifacfe- ries, than by the kindly and unwearied attentions of their pas- torg^among^them. This would reclaim the'm wheli the gibbet, with all. its terl-ors, would have' ito effect. \Ybo could view, without alarm, that neglected population who scowled Upon you as you, passed, with an oUtlandish starer wiiohad nfevcr fpjken tg a clergyiiEian in tiieir ^ife, and' who wefe peWectly amazed when he beg'an to put a few plain ijuestions to them in the way of his official duty ? There could be no more fitting, object, than these _peogle for the 'attention, of all Who wished well both to religion and tothe eivil Government. Give not, therefore, a town clergyman anything else' to do be'yotid his 98 LIFP OF DE. CBAXMEBS. 1M6. flleric!^ duties. They will be enough—more than enougi in most- cases. He wished that ^ petiiapn shoidd bepre^ented to an enlightened and' paternal Qovernitfent^who, he .had no d,eubt^^^WOTilct listen to;i^";when once they knew t^e fact» which at present thiey did' not)-, to^mploy Mme other persons than clergymen' to .give certificates for thSe receiving <)f prize apioney and of monej granted to soldiers' wives, ^d nuioberieiss things of this sprt, .which' harassed a olej^yman, and cnt up his "time intolerably; which totally secularized him, and converted him frotii a dispenser of the J)read of .life into a mere dispenser of human benefits i" • ' ' ■ •-^- " ' I'kno^not what it i8>' said th^'greatest critic of ou? age,* after hearing I>r. Chalmers upon this occasion, ' but ther^ is something altoge.ther remarlabie' aboittt that man. '*It reminds me more of . wbait one reads of as^;bEe effect^of th« eloquence of Dempsthenes than any thing I «ver heard.' " ■'Wbep the Vote w&s taki»r,the me^'ority was found to be in favor pf cons,ulting the' presbyteries. The . Assembly of next year, tcfwever, found that, a majority of. the presbyteries had decided against the kind of -plurality in question, w^eh accord-" ingly was aboliShed,' On the Sabbath succeediiigr Dr. Chalmers preached before the Lord High Comjaissioner,- on .which occasion the accounts of- the sermon. and of the cfowds that pres§»d to bear, and of the effects produced upon.. them, tSongh giving no tangiblie ccinception of the p^cmliew charm of' his oratory^ as what de- scription could embody an element ooiisisting tb so great a degree in'the flashes of emotion aiteBda,nt on the present crea- tions of genius, testify very abundantly to a deggree of oratori- cal power which it has fallen to the lot of -few generalJons of mankind to witness.. " .. * The late LDrd Jeffrey, C'fiAPfEE VIII Dr. Chapters bad now pretty well defined the extent of his duties in hispailah> and made up his -mind as to the amount which -was to be deducted feom the multifarious tasks pre- senting themselves with claims upon his time. He' could not rest satisfied with merely addressing those who cho^ to come within the reach of his i^oiee «n the Sabbath. One of his favorite plans was that of carrying christian instruction • into every family of his ^parish, to- which end' he deter- mined to visit, and,\in his own person, learn the actual con- dition of all. Pastoral visitation and instruotjon, from house to house, is the acknowledged duty of" every clergyman of the Scottish EstabJishment, and in the country parishes it is, in generalv faithf&Hy observed ; but in the cities, a burden- some round of~;seoular duties 'had been suffered to interfere therewith, until if had beeofive ^most ejitiiely neglected." Dr. Chalmers was -convinced that the degraded condition of so much of the city population was due to this negleet^ and also, that neither the neglect nor degradation, were irretoediabk' evils, -He could perceive no reason Why asrity minister's ser- vices should be less efficacious than those of his brethren in the -country, arnd full of hope, he resolved, with the help of Gfod, to.put his opinion to the test of eiperienoe, and to visit every, family of his charge within a year. The papulation of the Tron church was then estimated at from elevea to twelve thousand. ' His visits, consequently, were, of necessity, very short. A few kindly remarks, a few questions as to education and church attendance, and an invitation to attend a discourse in some neighboring- sohool-rooih, or other convenient place on an approaching week day evening, was all that his time per- mitted. Through close and filthy alleys, up steep and narrow stairs to many a house of wretched poverty,, he made his way,« often to the exhaustion of the elder who attended him^ but (99J 100 XIFE OF DE., CHALMEES. 1815. ■ffitli unflagging energy, pursuing Ms work to its completion, "Well," said" he, looking kindly over his • shoulder upon^his elder,, who, scarcely able to'keep pace with him, was tbiEng ijp a long and weary stair, ^ Well> what 4§|'^ou thinli of this kind of visiting ?' Engrossed with the toils ofi the ascent, the elder announced that he'had notbeen thinking. jnu(?h about it. 'Oh !;I know- quite -well,' said Dr. .Chjflmers, " that, if you, were to sp6ak--.your, laind, you wouHi, say.diat. we are putting the butter very thjolj uponthe .bread." ■ iThpse- brief visits were not without, the most valuable" results. They brought him face to face with, all his people, and reyealed-to him their actual condition, both physical and m.ora3--; "W-riting to Mr. Edie early in-rFebmary, 1816, he- says, ' I have commenced a. very stupendous work lately^-the visitationof my parish. A' very great proportion of the p&ople -have no seats in any place, of worship whatever, anda very deep and uaiversal ^noraiiee ott the. high matters ."of faith and eternity, tsbtains over the whole extent of a mighty population." ., With the cares of the Jron chui'oh pulpit and of the pas- toral instruction of such a p^^ul^ttion Upon his mind,.it-js not wonderful that he- should, have ,Jbieen impatient of the many interruptions to which he felt himself exposed. It had been the custom in Glasgow, as perhaps in some other great cities, to impose a large amoiint of unministerial la.T?Dr upon the min- isters.'* The_ personal atte'nMnce upon public occasions, de- manded of them, is thiis pleasantly described- by himself in a letter of the 2,7th October, 1816, to his o^ friend and neigh- bor, the"Eev. Mr.j,Wat^n, of Leuchara : ■ " 'l^ey must have four to every* funeral, or they: do not think that it has been g^teelly gone through. They must have one or more to ' all ' the committees . of all- .the societies,, Th^y must .fall, in at .every pifocessjon. They must attend examinations innumerable, and . eat of the dinners ccgisequent upon these examinations. - They have a niche assigned. tnem in almost every publip dtjing, and that niche must be filled up by them, ©r the doing loses all its solemnity^ ia the ey«s of the public Tiere seems to be a. superstitious charm in the very MT^ 86. UFE OF DK. CHALMEES. 101 sight of tVem, and sucli,i|,tlie manifold officiality wrth which they are covered, that they^must be paraded among all the meetings aniall the institutions. I gAve.in to all this at first, but I am beginning ^to keep a suspicious eye upon tjie^e re- peated demands ever since I sat nearly an hour in grave delib- eration with a number of others upon a s\itgect. connected with the property of a corporation, and that subject was a gutter^ and the question was whether it- should be bought and covered up, or let ^lone and left tP lie open. I am gradually separa- ting myself from all this trash, and Ipng to- establish it as a doctrine that the life of a tawn minister siiould be what the life of a country minister inight he, that is^ a life of intellectual leisure, with the otittnt, of literary pursuits, and his entire time disposable to the purposes to which the- Apostles gave them- selves wholly, that isj the- ministry gf the worfL and prayer." •Those customs, which' bad encumbered the operations of his predecessors, and rendered them, notwithstanfjing the zeal and: energy pf many of them, utterly uiiable^to §tem the torrent of. worldly-mindedness pervading aU elassesj Dr, Chalmers soon found that it would be necessary to break through. He per- ceived that if _ such a^pourse of secular and profitless toil were pursued, neither iime nor strength would be left him to carry out th« higher objects of the christian ministry. . Indeed, nojb a few of his fellow. laborers, finding hardly any leisure for ei- ther study or the decent discharge -of their ^proper duties, hi utter weariness of spirit, had, to a great extent, aeglected both. But not only was their time thus abused, -they were called upon to assume tasks calculated to pervert the nature of their inflii.'' ence with the people. ..;iriie administration of public charities, h-aving been thrown upon them, t^e consequence was, that the poor looked, upon the minister as only the. distributor of money, and. his Tisit, when he could afford time to make one, was-val- ued 01^ by the amount of the donation. - For some "months,. Jiowever, Dr. Chalmers silentlysubmittedta pre vailing custom, and, perhaps, wisely, until his personal character and motives should be generally understoodi aaid until he .ghould distinctly comprehend, the breadth and entire bearing of the evil. He 102 LIFE OF DK. CHALMERS. 1816 began iis reformation by deelining all share in the manage^- ment of the pauperism of his parish, giving his people to under- stand that he " dealt in only one article, that of christian instruction." He also withheld , attendance upon all. public meetings of a merely secular nature ; but the^eaUs upon him in his study, he couldTiot so easily disuse of. _ "Harassed at every point of his pljogress, and exposed to ignorant and ill^applied reproach, he resolt^d, at lafit, in some more public and effectual manner, to assert the prober and Spiritual functions of the christian ministry, to vindicate his injured prerogatives, and, if the voice of remonstrance and irebuke could do it, to effect a deliverance for himself and for his brethren." On thfi 13tt of October,' 1-8 16, he gave outfof Ms text, in the morning,' 'Acts vi, 2: ' Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should' leave th^^word of God and serve ta- bles.' Then followed a. singular detail of the manifold exacr tions that were made upon the "time of the ministers of Glas- gow, •Nvhereby they had been withdrawn from prayer and the ministry of the word. " ' ' " ' I have already said much,' he continued, ' of the inte^** ruption and the labor Which the^public charities of "the place bring along with them ; and yet I have not told you one-half the amount of it. I have only insisted on that part of it which .fakes a minister from his house, and from which the minister, at the expense of- a Kttle odium, can -at all times protect him- self, by the determined habit of sitting immovable under every call and evety application. All that' arrangement which takes a minister away fi'om his house, may be evaded -^ but how shall he be able to extricate himself from the besetting incon- veniences of such an arrangeinent as gives to the whole popu- lation of a neighborhood a constant and e¥er-nioving tendency toward thfe- house of the minister ? The patronage With which I think it is his 'heavy misfortune to be encumbered, gives feim a share in the disposal of innumerable vacancieSj and each v'acancy gives rise to innumerable candidates, and each cafldi- date is sure to Strengthen his chance for success by stirring up iET. 86. Lli-E OF VS.. CHALMERS. 103 a whole round of acquaintances, who, in the various foi-ms of v?ritten and of personaV entreaty, discharge their wishes on the minister, in the shape of innumerable applications. It is fair to observe, however,' that the turmoil of all this electioneering has its, times and its seasons. It does not keep by one in the form of a steady monsoon. It comes upon, him more in the resemblance "of a JiUriricane ; and, like the hurricanes of the atmosphere, it has its months of violence and ife intervals of periodical cessation. I shall only say that When it does come, the power of contemplation takes to herself wings and flees away. She cannot live and flourish in the whirlwind of all that noise and confusion by which her retreat is so boisterously agitated. She sickens and gfrows pale at every quivering of the household bell, and at every, Volley from the household door, by which the loud notes of impatience march along the passages, aad force an impetuous announcement into every chamber of the -dwelling-place. She finds all this to be too much for her. These rude and incessant visitations fa- tigue and exhaust her, and at length banishiher entirely ; nor will she suffer either force or flattery to detain her in 'h mansion .invaded by the din of such turbulent and uncongenial elements/'' The subject thus treated in the morning, was further pur- sued in the afternoon, in a spirit of mingled irony and pathos. He dwelt especially upon the loss which the literature of the- ology and the learning of its ministers had thereby sustained. That day's Work effected its purpose. -Henceforward Mr. Chal- mers received no more invitations to preside at public festivi- ties or sit in scavenger committees."" He had other work laid cut for himself, and ijpt only for himself^ but also for many others under his direction, which he was burning to execute as soon as that rubbish should be cleared away — work more consistent with the spirit of his sacred calling. The population of the city of ,G-liasgow had increased so much beyond the means of cliristian instruction, that many of the parishes had become quite unmanageable, and with the pastoral visitation all attenipts at religious instruction, except from the pulpit, had been discontinued. ^ The consequence was 104 - , - LIFE OF IJIf. CHALMEES. 1816. that coldaess .and formality ■ prevailed among the iiigiier, classes, and' the great mass of the poor were left in worse than heathen ignorance. ".Till Dr, Chalmers came to Glasgow," SQ say;s^amost competent authority,* "parochial christian influ- ence was a mere name — it was not systematic, it was not un- derstood — there was not the machinery for the moral eleyation of a town population. The people were let alone, -Some of the elders of the Trpn, church were excellent men, hut their phief duty was to stand at the plate, jeeejve the free-will Offer- ings of the congregation as they entered^ and distribute them to the poor by a monthly allowance.. Their, spiritual duties and exertions were but small gnd almost exclusively confined to a fewoft!^e sick." Their old habits would h-ave presented m9.ny an obstacle to new effort^.; and Dr. Chalmers, with a wisdom eqijal to his energy, had a few younger meU, who, less prejudiced, might be more active coadjutors, ordained, to ttie eldership. " His strong haiid not only nev«r tried to put new wine into old bottles, but, it was with a very gentle motion that even into the new bottles the new wine was poured.". The^gt step in reformation was that of increasing the num- ber and efficiency of the Sabbath - schools. A few zealous members of his ebngregation were -induced to form themselves into a society for the purpose -of opening such schools in vari- ous districts of the parish, and of visiting the various, families to obtain the regular atte&dance of the children; and such was the energy and judgment with which, they proceeded, that in two years that society had not less than twelve hundred pupils under it^ instruction. Communication and harmonious co-ope- ration was maintained among the teachers by means of monthly meetings, at which they consulted concerning the best method of teaching and governing, and the wisest measures for extend- ing the operation of the enterprise. •'■ Our meetings," says Mr* Thomson, one of the members of the society, "were very delight- ful. Inever saw any setof men, who were so animated by one spirit, and whose zeal was so steadily sustained. The Doctor was the life of the whole. Thea* was no assuming of superiority — no ". • / * David Stow, JBsq. MI. 87. LIS^E OF DE, OHAEMERS. 105 appearance of the minister direeting everything ; .every one was free to mate remarks or suggestions. Dr. Chalmers ever the most rea4y to receive a hint or a suggestion from the youngest ot least experienced memib&r ; and if any useful hint came from, such a one he was careful to give him the full merit of it — calling it, indeed, generally by Ijis name. Although we had no set forms of teaching, yet we conversed over all the Eaqdes that we might find out the best. On one point we had much discussion,, namely, whether or not punishmejit should be resorted to in a Sabbath school. Mr. Stow was very stren- uous in condemning its introduction. 1 was rather. inclined the other way. Among- other strong cases, Mr. Stow told us of a boy who had been so restless, idle, and mischievous, that he was afraid^ he would have to put him away; when the thought occurred to him to give the boy an office. He put,, accordingly, all th^ candles of the school under his care. From that hour he was an altered boy, and became a diligent scholar. An opportunity soon occurred of tryijig my way of it also^ A school, composed, of twenty or thirty boys, situated iji the east fend of the parish, had become so unruly and unmanageable, that it had beaten off every teacher who had gone to it. The society did not know what to do with it, and the doctor asked me if I would go out and try to reduce it to order. I was not very fond of the task, but; consented. I went out the 'next Sabbath, and told the boys, wlxom I found all assembled, that I had heard £t very bad account of them, that I had come out for the purpose o.f doing them good, that I must have peace and attention, thg,t I would submit to no disturbance, and. that, in the first place, we must begin with prayer. They all stood, up, and I commenced, and certainly did pot fotget the injunction. Watch and pray. I had not proceeded two sentences, when one little fellow gave his neighbor a tre- mendous dig in the side ; I instantly stepped forward, and gave him a sound cuff on the side of his head. I never spoke a word, but stepped back, concluded!, the prayer, taught for a month, and never . had a more orderly school. 1:06 LIFE OF DB. CHALMERS. IS^IT. The case was reported at one of our own meetings,' The doc- tor enjoyed it exceedingly, and taking up my instances, • and comparing it with Mr. Stow's, he concluded that^he question of punishment or non-punishment stbod just where it was, inasmuch as it had .been found that the judicious appointment of a candle'snufiFer-general and a goodLcuffon the l^ff had been about equally efficacious." One of the' improvements early adored by the society was that of confining each of its schools to a very small locality and charging the teacher with the. supervision, as„far as that kind of instruction was concerned, of its families. !Each teacher thus became well acquainted with the condition and spiritual wants of his district and bedame a valuable auxiliary to the minister. In Dr. Chalmers's own language "the system became " an effectual preaching of the gospel froito door to door.^' From ■ this Sabbath school' society, others soon afterward branched off and multiplied until no less than eight existed in different parts of the city arid, suburbs. One of these is mentioned, which in six months from its forfnation counted twenty-six schools and seven hundred and thirty-two children in attendance. " I consider," writes Mr. Stow, one of those engaged in thewoi-'k, " had Dr. Chalmers done nothing more • than prdmote the, principle of this local system of Sabbath- schools, he would not have lived in v^in. "You can easily con- ceive the labor and fatigue he must have undergone, first to convince his agents of the proprifety of .his plan, and then to keep them from breaking the ruleS; You also know the difiS- culty of retaining Sabbath-school teachers for any lengthened period under any system of management, untrained as they are to the art, and over sanguine' of immediate results. The doctor's Christian simplicity, however operated,! powerfully in retaining nearly all." Many were opposed to these methods of instruction ; it was objected that they interferedwith the proper domestic training of the young ; that they engaged laymen in work which was proper' to clergymen alone, and that they would be the means of promoting fanaticism. In one of his sermons, delivered in jefl.i1. LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS, 107 his own pulpit about the end of the year 1816, Dr. Chalmers "entered Upon a vigorous and animated defense of Sabbath- schools, the very tone and manner of which sufficiently testifies as tp the state of public feeling at that time in Glasgow. ' It is not easy for me,' he said in closing this defense, ' to describe my general feeling in reference to the population with which I have more immediately to do. I feel as if it were a mighty and impenetrable niass, truly beyond the strength of one. indi- vidual arm, and before which, after a few furtive and unavail- ing exertions, nothing remains but to sit down in the idleness of despair. It is a number, it is a magnitude, it is an endless succession of houses and families, it is an extent of field which piits at a distance all hope of a deep or universal impression — it is an utter impossibility, even with the most active process of visitation, to meet the ever-pressing demands of the siok and the ^desolate and the dying, it is all this, I confess, which tempts me to seek for relief in some wise and efficient system of deputatiofn. In these circumstances I do feel greatly obliged by every contribution to the great cause of instructing and of moralizing. I (io rejoice particularly in the multiplication of those humble and often despised' seminaries. I think lam certain that they are well suited to the present needs and cir- cumstances 6f our population, that they may be made to open up a way through a mass that would be otherwise impenetra- ble, and to circulate a right and a healthy influence through all the untraveled obscurities which aboun4 in it — that an unction of blessedness may emanate abroad upon every neigh- borhood in which they are situated — that they occupy a high point of command over the moral destinies of our city, for the susceptibilities of childhood and of youth are what they have to deal with. It is a tender and inflexible plant to which they aim' at giving a direction. It is conscience at the most impres- sible stage of its history which they attempt to tpiich, and on which they labor to engrave the lessons of conduct and of principle. And I doubt not that when we are niouldering in our coffins, when the present race of men have disappeared and made room for another succession of the species, when 108 LIFE OF DH. CHALMERS. 1816. parents of etery cast and X)i e.very character have sunk into oblivion, and sleep together in quietness, the teachers- o£ these institutions will leave . behind- them, a surviving memorial . of their l^bor, in a large portion ^f ' that worth and j)iety, which shall adorn the citizens ,pf a future generation.' " About midsummer of 1816* Dr. Chalmers escaped from, the incessant labor and confinement . of his parish, to enjt>y a few weeks of recreation in . the country, and the neighborhood of his relations and old acquaintances. In the course of, that iour he visited Kirkaldy, Anstriither, and Kilniany. During his stay, in, the latter place,, the zeal of his former parishioners to se^ him was such, that he, was surrouiyied by a perpetual crowd. Apd when it was known that he wa* to preach on Sabbath, numbers came in also from the neighboring parishes,^ and one minister, the Rev. Mr. Melvil, announcing no sermon in his own church* transferred himself and congregation, bodily, to. Kilmany. The assembly, was- so great that the preacher took his station at an open window, so as to be; heard- also by those who could find no accommodation witjiih. After similar visits to friends of earlier dg,ys in Cupar, Dun- dee, and elsewhere, occupying about a fortnight more, he, re- turned to Glasgow. His absence had not been all holiday, as we- learn that "scarcely a single da,y was suffered t6 elg.pse in which an hour or two was not redeemed from its busiest periqd^, and consecrated, to composition. . between Glasgow and Kirk- aldy the full preparations for a Sabbath! s services were com- pleted. At Kirkaldy, on the Saturday, ' Dr. Jones's Sermons,' with a copy of a letter from Mr. Josiah Condor, then editor of the Eclectic, .accepting, his offer to review the volume, were put into his hands ; and though he ' never preached with greatei- fatigue or discomfort' than on the snccee^iing Sabbath, the Monday's Journal has the following entry : ' I ypk^d to the review of " Jones," have read three of his sermons, and thrown off a tolerable modicum of .observations on sermons in general. ,1 trust I shall .be able to fijiish my review of him this week.' Ilg carried the volume ui his pocket, readingit pften as lie walked, and snatpjiing the readiest hours in the Mr. 8T. LIFE OF DE. 0HALMEE8. 109 houses of his acquaintairees to carry fonrard his review. ' I have this forenoon,' is his entry on Wednesday at Pilmuir, 'thrown off a full modicum of additioilal review of " Jones's Sermons." I have also written to Dr. Ireland, and offered him a sight of the' manuscript' on its way to London, lest the friends should be resting too high an expectation on my account of the vol- unie.' — ' After breakfast,' such is the note of progress at Elie. ' I retired to my bedroom, where I read " Jones! '"' His ser- mons at Glasgow' and Kilmaiiy are in the volume, but they look sadly xedUced and enfeebled in print. Anstruther, Sat- urday, half past one — I have now finished the review of " Dr. Jones's Sermons." I am heartily tired of this kind of work, and shoXild like henceforward to declihe-it altogether.* "Tired, however, as he felt on the Saturday of the work- of reviewing, another work was taken up on the Monday, and one, we shoiild have thought, as little likely to be undertaken amidst such a life of varied and perpetual motion as he now was living. ' I began,' he says, ' my^ fourth astronomical- ser- mon to-day.' And in a small pocket-book, with borrowed pen and ink! in strange apartments, where he was liable every mo- ment to interru|)tion, that sermon was taken up and carried on to completion. At the manse of Balmerino, disappointed at not finding Mr. Thomson at home, and having a couple of hours to spare — at the manse of Kilmany, in the drawing- room, with all the excitement before him of meeting, for the first time, after a year's absence, many of his former friends and parishioners— at the manse of Logic, into which he turned at random by the way and found a vacant hour — ^paragraph after paragraph was penned of a composition which bears upon it as much of the.aspect bf high and continuous elaboration, as almost aky piece of writing in our language. " i believe that literary history presents few parallel in- stances of such power of immediate and entire concentration of thought, \mder such ready command of the will, exercised at such broken intervals, amid such unpropitious circum- stances, and yet yielding a product in which not a singfe trace either of rupture in^argumenf or variation in style 110 LIFE OF DK. CHALMEES. 1816. appears. Those ingenious critics/ who, on their first appear' ance of the 'Astronomical Sermons,' in print, spoke of thfl midnight oil which must have been consumed, and the vast elaboration which must have been.bestowed, how much would they have been sufprised hg4 tbey but known the times, and modes, and places in which one^ at least, of these discourses had been prepared ! " But higher even than the Titerary interest which attaches to the record of this visit to Fifeshire, are ,thpse brief notices given to us of the spiritjxal condition of the writer, ' I am not attempting,' he in one place says, 'any more at present than a sheet of severe composition in the week ;'and as I, had nearly completed this, I resolved to abandon myself to the stream of events throughont this day (Saturday), and upon the whole, I hope that the uncpmplying severity of system is now giving way with me under a milder and more attractive principle of forhearance with/ others. I speak, however, with great humility, and am sure that nothing but Divine grace will uphold me iu that which is good and acceptable unto the Lord. I trust, amid all my imperfections, that I may be getting on in earnest, humble, amdO-Spiritual Christia,nity. 1 feel, however, my barrenness, my forgetfulness of God, my miserable dis- tance from the temper and. elevation of the New Testament, my proneness to self and its wUJful and headlong gratifica- tions, and, above all, a kind pf delusive orthodox- satisfactiou with the mere confession of all this, without a vigorous putting forth of. any one revealed expedient for getting the better of it„" . . . . " I have much to learn in the way of observing all' the kindnesses and all the facilities of social intercourse ; and I can not withhold it, as a testimony to the power and impor- tance of gospel faith, that the more I feel of peace with God, the more largely and the more freely I take in of those prori- ises which are yea and amen in Cbrist Jesus, the more I have my eye open to the suflSciency of His atonement, and the sub- duing efficacy of His Spirit — in a word, the more I am exer- cised with all that is direct and peculiar in piety, the more do I feel my heart attuned to the cordialities, and the patience. Ml. 8T. LIFE OF DE. OHALMEitS. Ill and. the facilities of benevolence and good- will.. Oh! that I was aaaking more steady, and decided progress ■ than I have ever yet done — that all the asperities of temper were soften- ing within me — that I was becoming better as the niember of a company and the member of a , family, and gromng every day in conformity to the image of my all-pure and all-perfect Saviour.' '\ ■ ' . "At the time of Dr. Chalmers's settlement in Glasgowit was the custom that the olergymen.of the city should preach in ro- tation on Thursday, in^;he Tron church, a duty which, as their number was then but eight, returned to each within an inter- val of two months. On Thursday, the 23d of November, 1816, this week-day service devolved on Dr. Chalmers. The entire novelty of the discourse delivered upon this occasion, and the promise held out by the preacher that a series of similar dis- courses was to follow, excited the liveliest interest, not in his own congregation alone, 4ut throughout the whole community. He had presented to his hearers a sketch of the recent discov- eries of astronomy— distinat in outline, and drawn with all the ease of one who was himself a master in the science, yet gor- geously magnificent in many of its details, displaying amid 'the brilliant -glow oi a blazing eloquence-,' the sublime poetry of the heavens. In his subsequent discourses. Dr.. Chalmers proposed to discuss the argument, or rather, prejudice, against the Christian Revelation which grounds itself on the vastness and variety of those unnumbered worlds which lie scattered over the immea^rable fields of space. This discussion occu- pied 9,11 the Thursday services allotted to him during the year 1816. The spectacle which presented itself in the Trongate upon the day of the delivery of" each new Astronomical dis- course, was a most singular one. Long ere the bell began to t(>U, a stream of people might T)e-seen pouring through the passage which led into the Tron church. Across the street, and immediately opposite to this passage, was the old reading- room, where all the Glasgow merchants met. ,So soon, how- ever, as the gathering quickening stream upon *he opposite sid.e of the street ga^ve the accustomed warning, out flowed 112 UFE OF DE. CHALMEES. " 1317. tke occupants of the ooffee-room ; the pages of the Herald or the Courier ■weve for aivhile forsaken, and during two of the best business hows of the, day, the old reading-room wore d; strainge aspect of desolation. The busiest merchants of the city Were wont, indeed, upon those memorable days to leave their desks, and kind masters allowed their clerks and appren- tices to follow their example. Out of the very heart of the great tumult an Jiour or two stood' redeemed Tor the highest exercises of the Spjtit ; and the ' low traffic of earth forgotten; heaven, and its high eeononiy, and it's human sympathies, and eternal interests, engrossed the minds, at least, and the fancy of congregated thousands; ." In Januaty, 1817, this series of discourses was announced as ready for publication. It had generally been a matter of so touch commercial risk to isSue a volume of sermons froni the press, that recourse had been often had, ffirsuch cases, to pub- Iroafcion by subscription. Dr. Chalmers's pTiblishei*,- Mr. Smith, had hinted that perhaps this method ought,' in this instance, also to- be tried. 'It is far-moreagreieable to my feelings,' Dr. Chalmers wrote to him a few days before the day of pub- lication-, ' that. the book should be' introduced ' to the general market,' and sell on the f)ubli6 estimation of it,"than that the neighborhood here should be plied in all the shops with 'sub- scription papers, and as * much as possible Wrung out of their partialities for the author.'. Neither author nor- j)ublisher had at this time. the least idea of the extraordinary success which was awaiting their forthcoming volume. It was- published on' the1:28th of January, 1817. In ten weeks, 6000 copies had been disposed .of, the demand showing no symptom of de- oKne. JSine editions wei'e called for within a year, and iiearly" 20,000 copies were in circulation. Never previously, ' nor ever since, has any volume of sermons met with such imme- diate and general accept^iice. The 'Tales of my Land lord,''had a month's start in the date of publication, and evfen with such a competitor, it ran an almost equal race. Not a few curious observers were struck with the novel competition, and watched, with lively curiosity, how the great Scottish Ml. 87. LIFE OF DK. CHALMEES. 118 preacher and the glreat Scottish noveUst kept for a whole year so Hearly abreast of one another. It was, beside, the first volume of sermons which fairly brote the lines which had sep- arated too long the literary from >the religious public. Its secondary merits won audience for it in quarters where evan- gelical Christianity was nauseated and despised. It disarmed even the keen hostility of Hazlitt, and kept him for a whole forenoon spell-bound beneath its power. ' These sermons," he says, ' ran like wild-fire through the country, were the dar- lings- of watering-places, were 4aid in the windows of inns, and were to be met with in all places of public resort We reme.mber finding the volume in the orchard of the inn at Bur- ford Bridge, near-Boxhill, and passing a Tvholej and very de- lightfill morning in reading it without cfuitting the shade of an apple-tree." The reviews, as usual, found many faults to blame, more or less radical, and Chalmers himself was persuaded into the notion that some were correct in blaming ; but the public con- tinued faithful to the favorite volume, notwithstanding, and to this day it " commands a larger sale than any other portion" of its author's writings. j " It was amidst the full burst of that applause which his volume of sermons had elicited, that Dr. Chalmers appeared for the first time in a London pulpit. Mrs. Chalmers and he, accompanied by Mr. Smith, ' his publisher, left Glasgow for London, on the morning of Monday, \he 14th of Apil, 1817. Their progress was slow and circuitous. Crossing from Cum- berland to Yorkshire, visiiting the scenery of Rokeby, and pausing to inspect the Moravian establishment of Fulneok, they- did not reach Birmingham till the evening of Friday, the 23d." At Sheffield they waited upon Mr. Montgomery, the poet', who has fumishted the following interesting details of iiis first ipterview'with Dr. Chalmers : ' •" On a dark evening, about the end of April (I have for- gotten the year), two strangers called at my house in Sheffield,* where 1 then resided, one of whom introduced himself as Mr. 10 114: -T LIFE 05; DR. CHALMEBS. 1817. Sii|itli, bookseller of Glasgow, and his companion as the B»ev. Dr. Chalmers, of the same city, who, being on a journey, to Loadou, where he was engaged to preach the anhual sermon forttjie Missionary Society, desired to have a short interview with me. Of course I was glad to have the opportunity of beaoHjing personally acquainted with so great and good a man, and we soon were earnestly engaged in conversation on sub- jeats endeared to us both ; for, though at first I found it diffi- cult tO' take in and decipher his peculiar utterance, yet the thoughts that spoke themselves through the seemingly uncouth words came so quick and thick upon me from his Ups, that I could notjjjefp understanding them- ; till, being myself' rousted into unwonted voljibility of speech, I responded as promptly as they were .made to Tiis numerous and searching inqiiiriess concerning the United Brethren (commonly called Moravians), ampng whom I was born, but especially jespecting their scrip- tural method, of evapgelizing and civilizing barbarian tribes of the rudest classes of lieathen.'6''& the. outset ahe told me that he ha^ come directly from Fulneck, near Leeds, ^e of our princigal establishments in England, a^id where there is an itc«demy open for the education of children of parents of all 'Christian - den6mina,tioiife, in which X had been myself a pupil aibout ten years in the last century. At'the time of which I am writing,, and for several years in connection, there were many scholars from the North, as well as Irish and English boarders, there. My visitof said that he had invited all the Scotch lads to meet' Mm, at the inn there, and^'^Kow many, thinB'you, there were of thern ?' he asked me. ' Indeed, I can not tell,''^^ replied.. He answered, ' there were saxiairi-ox sctvantain ;' — (I can not pretend to spell the numbers as he pronounced them to my unpracticed tar ;) — and I %as so taken by surprise, that I exclaimed abruptly, ' It ia enough to corrupt the EngUsh language in the seminary !' ■ In that mo- ment I felt I had uttered an impertinence, though without the slightest consciousness' of such an application to -my hearer ; ah(^ as instantly ^coveri^g my presence of mind, I added, 'When I was at Fulneck school, I was the" only Scotch lad ^1. 87. UFE OF OE. C11AL5IEES. -' ];15. there.' Whether this slip was noticed or passed off as mere waste -of breath in the heat of conversation, I know not ; but on we went together in another vein, .on a theme which deeply- interested my illustrious visitor, and to the discussion of which I was principally iifdebted for the honor of this sudden and hasty call upon me, as he vas to set off ,^or town early the next morning. ' An angel visit, short and bright,' it was to me, and I do not remember that I evfer spent half an hour of more animated and delightful intercommunion vith a kindred spirit in ±Qy life. As I have noticed already, our disedurse tt^rned principally on the subject of the Moravian Missions in pagan lands, and the lamentable inability of our few and sniall congregations in Christendom to raise ajmong themselvea. the pecuniary expenses of maintaining their numerous and com- paiKatively-large establishments in Greenland, Labrador,, North and South America, the West Indies, and South Africa, but that, providentially, they received liberal help from the friends of the gospel of other evangelical denominations ; hereupon Dii palmers said — evidently not from sudden in^ulse, but a cherished purpose in his heart — 'J mean to raise five hundred pounds for the Brethren's Missions this year !' *.^ive hun- dred pounds for our poor missions !' I'cried ; 'I never hear^ of such a thing before 1' He rejoiafed, ' I will do it.' But while I heartily thanked' him, and imphcitly believed in the integrity of his intention, I could Only hope- that he might be able to fulfill, it, and within myself I said, 'I wiU^ Watch you, doctor.' -! J did s(h and traced him through sermons, subscrip- tions collections, and donati6ns, till these had realized, to the 'best of. my recollection, a sum nearer to six than five hundred pounds. Now, considering in how many comprehensive con- cerns he was at that very time putting forth all his strength — originating, promoting, and accomplishing economical, local, patriotic,, and Christian plans for the well-being of populous communities — in comparison with which this effort in aid of the brethren was like the putting forth of his little fi:^er only — yet, I confess, that ' smaJl thing,' not to be"%espise4, gave me a most masmificent idea of the intellectual, moral, and sancti- 116 -» LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 1816. ,.1 fied power far gooct with which the human being w:ho stood before me was endowed frotti on high, jf^-^nd surely, if ever ten talents were committed' by Him who is Lord of all in his kingdom of heaven on earth. Dr. Chalmers wa? sa invested ; and judging by the labors whieh he did in his ^day, and the woris which remain^ as well, as have followed him t» his account,' we may fervently believe that the treasure lent to hiia was doubled by his faithful occupation .of the same, and that his 'joy of the^Lord,' -which was his 'strength ' in life, is now Ms portion for Ssver." On this journey, Dr. Ghakners alSo made the acquaintance of the Eer^ Eobert Hall, at Leicester, between whoin and him- self there existed a mutual reverential reg'ard. The traveling party separated at Warwick, and while Mr. Smith proceeded to Paris, Dr. and Mrs. Chalniers went into Gioucestershire,: to spend a fortnight with Mr. and Mrs, Morton. " The three travel«rs» met again in London on the evening of Tuesday, the 13th May. (jn^the followhig day.^Df. CJial- mefs preached, in Surrey Chapel, the anniversary sermon for the London Missionary Society™ Although the service did not' cornmence till eleven o'clock, ' at seven in the morning the chapel was crowded to excess, ani many thousands went off for vant of room* ' The*two front s,eats in the gallery were reserved for ministers and students of theology to the niimber of betvKeiBn two and three hundred. An occupant oT one of ■ those seats informs us, that 'on the termination of the church service, and after an &tfempore prayer by Dr. iJollock, from' America, Dr. Chalmers entered the pulpit in his usual simple and unpretending manner, and sat down,.whire aJl eyes were fixed upon hini. He rose and gave' out' his text from J Cor. , ±iv, 22-2S. The singularity of the text, and the originality of , the exordium awakened a breathless attention, whiqh was increased by the northern accent of the preacher, and the -ap^ parent weakness or unmanageablenes? of his voice. The late Dr. Styles, of Brighton, and Dr; Henry Burder, of London, who were sittingdireetly before me, looked at each oth«r with anxiety and regret, as if doomed to disappointment ; but he ^T. 87. UFE OF DE. CHALMERS. «- 117 had not proceeded many minutes tiH liis voice gradually ex- panded in strength, jind compass, reaching every part of the house, and commanding universal attention. At the close of many of his long periods there was a sensible rustling through- out the aud^ce, as if stopping to take breath. Toward the middle of the discourse, the preacher became quite exhausted by the violence of his action, and sat down, while two verses of a hymn were singing, accompanied as usual by the organ. He then rose and recommenced his sermon, which occupied about an hour and a half in the "deliv-ery. Old Rowland Hill stood the whole time at the foot of the pulpit, gazing on the preacher with great earnestness, and whenever any sentiment was uttered which met his approval, 'signifying his assent by a gentle- nod of the head, and an expressive smile." Of the same occasion, his fellow-traveler, Mr. Smith, re- marked in a letter to his friends in Glasgow, " The carrying forward of minds never was so visible to me ; a constant assent of the hfead from the whole people accompanied all his para- graptis, and the breathlessness of expectation!' permitted not the beating of a heart to agitate the stillness." " On Thursday, the 22d, Dr. Chalmers preached again in Surrey Chapel, on behalf of the Scottish Hospital for the relief of aged and destitute natives*, of Scotland, who nf ver having acquired a settlement in England, had lio claim for parochial aid. In announcing this discourse in the news- papers, the Committee of the Hosfifal had thought it de- sirable to make the following intimation : ' Divine service begins at eleven o'clock, but the , Committee have issued tickets to a part of the church, for the better securing of accommodation to the friends of the charity, it is ' requested that those holding tickets may be at the chapel at. the open- ing of the doors, at .half-past nine o'clock, to prevent disap^ pointment.' The sermon preached for this Hospital was the same which Dr. Qhalmers had delivered before the So- ciety of the Sons of the Clergy in GlasgoV and Edinburgh, The gi'owing evils of the poor-laws, as then administered in England, were attracting much of the attention of public US' ^ LIFE Oy.DE. CHALMEES. ISIT, men ;, and while thej were only pla,nning n^e'ftiods for miti- gating theae evils, it mtist hare surprised a Lpndon audieiMje not a little, to bear from tlie pulpit a bold and uncompromising attack on the principle and expeJienqy of all forms of legalized cirarity." " On the forenoon of Sabbath, the 25th, Dr. Chalmers preached in the JSeoteh church, London Wall, for the ben- efit of the Hibernian Soci^y, ' The desire,' says the Eev. p,r. Manuel, who, at the time, was the ininister of this church? 'lelfe by ^11 classes, but- particularly by the higher classes of society, to, hear him, upop this ocoa,sion, was extreme, ex- ceeding almost gjl .precedent. Among his" au4itoi's- were anumber of the^jnost distin^jshed clergy of the Church of Eiigland, seve^'al peers, many members, of Parliament, the lord mayor tjf the' city, and literary characters of all classes and denominations.- Anticipating the pressure, a l^rge chapel in the .neighborhood was engaged to receive the overflow. Not only the . Scotch Church, but 'this chapel also was crammed, to su^ocation, hundreds seeking admission, but goiljg away without getting into either place of worship. At th? olos? of the sermon, the' lord mayo? went up into the pulpit,' and importuned Dr. Chalmers to preach on behalf of some city- object, which he was- obliged to decliM.' ♦All the worlds' writes Mr. Wilberforce, in big diary-, '-wild about Dr. -.Chalmers. He seems truly pious, simple and unas- suming. Sunday 26 Dr._ Chalmers's friend exclaimed, ' Make way th«re — ■ make way. for Dr. Chalmers.' Heads indeed. were turned at the summons, and looks were given, but with not a few^|i^ificant tokens of incredulity, and some broad hints that they were not to be taken in by any such device, the sturdy Londoners refused to move. Forced; to retire, Dri Chalmers retreated from th« outskirts of the crowd, crossed the stoeet, stood for a few moments, gazing on the growing tumult, and had almost resolved altogether to withdraw. Mat- ters.were not niuch better when Mr. Wilberforce and his party approached-. Access by any of the ordinary entrances was im- possible. In this emergency, and as there was still some un-> occupied ' space around the pulpit, which the crowd had not been able to appropriate, a plank was projected from one of the windows till it rested on an iron palisade. By this privi- leged passage My. Wilberforce and the ladies, who were with him, were invi;ted to enter. Lord Elgin waving encouragement and ofifering-a'id from within. 'I was surveying the- brea;ch,' says Mr. Wilberforce,. 'witii a cautious and inquiring eye, when Lady D.^no shrimp you must observe,, entered boldly before me, and -proved that it was praoticable.' The impression produced by the service which followed, when all had at fast settled down into stillness,' was" dgeper than that made • by -any of those which preceded it, and we may hope it was also more -salutary, as the preacher dealt throughout with truths bearing directly on lie individual salvation of his hearers." i " With Mr. Smith once more as their traveling companion," Dr. and Mrs. Chalmers left London on Monday, the 26th of Mky. Upon their journey northward, they visited the west of England 120 LIFE OF DE. OHALMBES. 18W. and Wales, and among oilier celebrSted persons, had the pleasure of seeing Mrs. -Hannah More and Mr. Foster. -JiAfter his return to Scotland, Dr. Chalmers did sot immediately pr9r ceed to Glasgow, but took aip his abod^ for the purpose of study, among the mountains, at-^ -place called Douglas Mill, In a letter to'his sister, Mrs.. Morton, from that place, recapit- ulating some of the impressions of his London tri{),h6 declared his acc|,uaintance xith Wil^force by far the most valuable ac- quisition heTiad made thereby, although^ he- eould reckcfll the names- of Lord Grenyille and Canning, and Sir Thomas Aok- land among the number. - ■• ' , ' ''■ "Some -time after his , return to 6flasgow, Dr. Chalmers received z, comiptmioation from the Rev. Robert Haill, in '•which he says: ' It would be diffiault ntjt to congratulate you on the unrivaled and' unbourfided popularity which- attended you in the metropolis, but I am convinced, from the extreme modesty of your nature, Jguoh an orerwhelmirig tide of dis- tinction and applause would be quite distressing to you. When you ' consider, howe:y'er, the thousands who have pro- bably benefited -by the unparalleled energy of your public min- istrations, you will be the more -easily reconciled to the incon- venience inseparabk from high -celebrity. ' The attention which your sermons have excited is srotohly UnequiJed in saodern litg^rature, and it must be a delig-ntful reflection that you are advancing the cause of religion in innumerable multi- . tudes of your fellow creatures, whose faces yovt will never be- hold; till- the last day. My ardent player isj that, talents so rich in splendor, and piety so fervent, may Ipng be continued to be faithfullpand assiduously- devoted- to the service of God and of your generation^" In the spring of 1817, Dr. Chalmers was elected to the first- church in Sterling, in which his fatigue would havfe been less and his emoluments greater than in Glasgow, but declined, on the grounli that the field he already occupied was the larger arid the more necessitous. The offer, however, contributed to induce his < friends in Glasgow to relieve him of Ikose difficulties which ted hitherto been suffered to embarrass his operations. They also iET. 87. LIFE OP^DE. CHALMERS. 121 proposed to rais&his stipefflda, to rent or buy him a bouse in any place.ofhis own choosing, and to procure him a regfular assistant to do half the work on the Sabbath, and also to relieve him of some of the out-door work during the w«ek. He did not, how- ever, " allow things to be carried to the proposed length. The offer of a manse and of an increase of income, were respect- fully declined ; but he gratefully accepted the offer of an as; sistant. -Additional labor would be thereby bestowed upon parochial- cultivation, while, at the same time, additional leis- ure wQuld be secured to himself fbr literary engagements. His first article on Pauperism appeared in the March number oi! the>?Edinburgh Review, and be had engaged to follow it up by a comparison of the English and Seottisfa^y stems of paro- chial relief. His visit to England, and the large arrears of ministerial labor awaiting his return, filled up the summer months ; and there was so little hope of finding time enough in Glasgow, that he resolved on a short excursion to An-- struther, during which his second article was to be drawn up." With this view, he had got as far as Kilmany, on Saturday, the 16th of November, where he -preached next day. On his way to church, a letter was put into his hands which effectu- ally broke up his plan. It was a request that he should preach in his own pulpit on the succeeding Wednesday, a discourse appropriate to the public calamity of the death of the Princess of Wales, whose funeral services the magistrates of Glasgow had resolved to celebrate on that day. On Monday, accord- ingly, he return^ with the utmost expedition to Glasgow, where he- arrived early on Tuesday 'morning; and on Wednes- day forenoon preached one of his most celebrated discourses, " composed during the intervals, and after the exhaustion of this rapid and fatiguing journey." Some misrepresentations of it having appeared in the public prints, the sermon was published in self vindication, which its appearance completely effected. With the intenlaon of finishing his article on Pauperism, Dft Chalmers again, in the month of December, betook him- self to his contemplated retreat in Fifeshire, and this time 11 122 LIFE OF KR. CHALMERS, 1817. 3ucceeded.ii> accompjisting his purpose; His present reasoaa-ifoF ireating . of that subject was a convictian that the.siEnglish tneihod of ^.ssessmeat was posttix^ly injurious, and that a val- uable service would be r^dered his own country by refaressing the. growing incliillttion to the adoption of, such a method there. When he compared the independent spirit oL the Scottish, poor) jith thedegradatioij- of the sariie fllass under a system of poor- ates ; contemplated the people in their kindly .sympathies, heir mutual and imforoe^contributions to each other's neoes- lities, he naturally dreaided any touch that could- profane, that spontaneous b«neyolence whjeh aids without impairing thet no- ble feeling of self reliance, and which. interferes with none of the humaniising duties of the filial relation ; and thus strongly did he express himself in view of that rel9.tioii. " We want no such ignominy to come near our Seotljsh population as that jf farming our poor. We want no other asylum for pur aged parents than that of tliCirtpious and a&ctionate families. We jan neither- suffer them, nor do we like the. prospect for our- selves, of pining out the cheerless evening of pur days away from the endjaarments of a home. We wish to jdo as long as we can without r the apparatus of English, laws and. English workhouses ; and should like to ward forever from our doors the system that would bring an everlasting interdiction the worth, and indepepdenee, aoid genuine enjoyments of our peasantry. We wish to see their venerable sires surrounded, as heretofore, by the coinpany and playfulness of their own grandqhildr^ i nor can we bear to think that our high-miijded people should sink down and be satisfied with the dreary imprisonment jof an almshoiise as the closing object in the vista of their earthly anticipations. Yet such is the goodly upshot of a system wbich has its friends, and advocates in our own country -^ men who could witness, without a sigh, lihe departure oif all those peculiarities which have both ali- mented and adorned the character of «ur beloved S<5piland — men. who can gild over with the semblance of humanity, a poisoned opia,te of deepest injury both to its h?ippinpss and' to its morals— and who, in the very act of flatteiilig the foor, are MSTSI. LIFE OF DB. CHALMEES. 123 OBlyfcrging^r them such chains as, soft in- feeling as silk, hut stro^ ii| proof as adamant, will bifld them down to a state of permanent degi'aidation." , , " Dr. Chalmers returned to (Jlasgow on Saturday, the Z'Jth of December, aiid on the foHowing day found a prodigious crowd awaiting hjs appearance in the- Tron church pUlpit, His popularity, as a preacher, was now at its very highest summit, and, judging merely by the amount of physical energy displayed by the preacher, ^i»nd by the palpable and risible effects produced upon his hearers, we conclude that it was about this, period, ,and within the walls of the Tron church, that by far the most wonderful exhibitions of his power, as a pulpit orator, were witnessed. ' The Tron church contains, if I mistake not,' says the Rev. Dr. Ward- law, who, as frequently as he could, was a hearer in it, 'about 1400 hearers,/ according to the ordinary allowance of seat-room ;.when crowded, of course, proportionally more. And though I cannot attempt any pictorial sketch of the place, I may, in a sentence or two, pre^sent you with a few touches of the scene which I have, more than once or twice, witnessed within its walls ; not 'that it was at all peculiar, for it resembled every other scene where the doctor in those days, when' his eloquence was in the prime of its vehemence and splendor, was called to preach. There was one par- ticular, indeed, which rendered such a scene in a city like Glasgow, peculiarly striking. I refer to the time of it. To see a place of worship, of the size mentioned, crammed above and below, on a Thursday forenoon, during the busiest hours of the day; with fifteen or sixteen hundred hearers, and these ef 3,11 descriptions of persons, in all descriptions of profes- sional occupation, the busiest as w^ll as those who had most leisure on their hands, those who had least to spare, taking care so to arrange their business engagements previously as to make time for the purpose, all pouring in through the wide en- trance at the side of the Tron^ steeple, half an hour before the time of service, to secure a seat, or content, if too late for this, to occupy, as many did, standing room — : this yras, indeed, a 124 LIFE 05- DE. CHALMERS. 1817. novel and strange sight. Nor was it once, merely, or twice, but month after month tihe day was calculated when his turn to preach again was to come round, and anticijwted, with even impatient longing, by multitudSe." " Suppose the congregation 4hus assembled — pews filled with sitters, and aisles, to a gte^t extent, with standers. They wait in eager~ expectation. The preacher appears. The devotional exercises of praise, and prayer having been* gone through with unaffected -simplicity and earnestness, the entire assembly set themselves for the treai, with feelings very diverse in kind, but all eager and intent. There is a hush of dead silence. The text is announced> ^nd he begins. BveTy countenance is up — every eye benty-with fixed intenti ness on tha. speaker. As he kindles, the interest prows'. Every breath is held — every cough is suppressed — every fidgety movement is settled — every one riveted himself by the spell of the impassioned and entrancing eloquence, knows how sensitively his neighbor will resent the very slightest dis- turbance. V Then, by-and-by', there is a pause. The speaker stops — to gather breath — to wipe his forehead — ■ to adjust his gown, and purposely, too, and wisely, to give the audience, as well as himself, a moment or two of relaxation. The moment is embraced — there is a free breathing — suppressed coughs get vent — postures are changed — there is a universal stir, iis of persons who could not have endured the constraint nuich longer — ^the- preacher bends forward — his hand is raised- — all is again hushed. The same stillness and strain of unrelaxed attention is repeated, more intent still, it may be, than before, as the interest of^ the subject and the speaker advance, and so, fer perhaps four or five times in the course of a ser- mon, there is the relaxation, and the 'at it again,' till the final winding up. " And then, the moment the last word was uttered, and followed by the-^' let us pray,' there was a scene for which no excuse or palliation can be pleaded but the fact of its having been to many a matter of difficulty, in the morning of a week-day, to accomplish the abstraction jaf even so much jET. ST. LIFE OF DE, CHALMEBS. 125 of their time from business — the closing prayer completely- drowned by the hurried xush of large numbers from the aisles and pews to the door ; an unseemly scene, without doubt, as if So many had come to the house of God not to worship, but simply to enjoy the fascination of human elo- quence. Even this much it was a great thing for eloquence to accomplish. And how diversified soever the motives which drew so many together, and the emotions awakened and impressions produced by what was heard — though, in the tei'ms of the test, of one of his most .overpoweringly stirring and faithful appeals, he was to not a few ' as one that had a pleasant voice and could play well on an instru- ment,' yet there is abundant proof that, in the highest sense, ' his labor was not in vain- in the Lord ;' that the trajJ^s 'which, with so much fearless fidelity and. impassioned earnestness, he delivered, -went in many instances farther than the ear, or even the intellects that they reached the heart, and, by the power of the Spirit, turned it to God." " On Thursday, the 12th of February, 1818," I now quote from a manuscript of the Rev. Mr. Ftaser, jninister of Kilchren- naB,-'Dr. Ohalfliers preached in the Tron church before the Directors of the Magdalene 4-sylum. The sermon delivered on this occasion was tiiat ',0n the Dissipation of Large Cities.' Long before the service commenced every seat and passage was crowded to excess, with the exception of the front pew of the gallery, which was reserved for the magistrates. A vast number of students deserted their classes at the university and were present. This was, very particularly the case in regard to the loQral philosophy class,- which I attended that session, as appeared on the following day when the list of absentees was given in by the person who had called the cataloguey and at the sam& time a petition from several of themselves was handed in to the professor, praying for a remission of the fine for non-attendance, on the ground that they had been^ hearing Dr. Chalmers. The doctor's manner during the whole delivery of that magnificent discourse was strikingly animated, while the enthusiasm and snergy which he threw into some of its 12'# LIl^E or BE. CHALMEB8. 1818. bursts rendered them quite ovefpowerilig'. One expression which he used, together with his action, his look, and the vd% tones of his voice when it came forth,- made a most vivid- and ihdelible impression upon my -memory: 'We, at the same time,' he said, ' have our eye perfectly open to that great ex- ternal improv-ement which has taken place, of late years, in the mannets of society. There is not the same grossne^s of conversation. There is not the same impaftience for thei withdrawment of him who, asked to graee the outset of- an assembled party, is compelled, at a certain' step in the process of conviviality, by the obligations x)f professional decency, to retire from it. There is not so frequent an exaetion of this as one of the established proprieties of -social or of fashionable life. And if such an exaction was ever laid by the omnipo- tence of custom on a minister of Christianity,^ it is ^ such an exaction »& ought iiever, never to be complied with. It is not for him to lend the sanction of his presence- to a meeting with which he could not sit to its final" termination. It is not for him; to stand associated, fbir a single hour, with an assemblage of men who begin -with hypocrisy, and «nd With , downright blackguardism. Jt is not for him to watch the'progress of the coming ribaldry^ and to hit the -well-selected moment when talk and turbulence \ and boisterous ilierriment are on the eve of bursting forth upon the company, and carrying them, for- ward to the full acme and Uproar of their enjoyment. It is quite in vain to say, thkt he hai? Only sanctioned one part of such an entertainmeijt. He bas as good as giY#n his conniv- ance to the whole of it, and left behind him a discharge in fuU of air its abominations ; arid,' therefore, be they who tbey may, whether they rank among the proudest aristocracy oi oui' lands or are charioted in splendor along, as the wealthiest of our citizens, or flounce in' ike fobes of magistracy i it is his part to keep as purely and indignantly aloof from such society -as this, as be 'would from the 'vilest and most debasing associations jof profligacy.' '' The Votds whioh Iliave -underlined do not appear in the sermon as printed. While utteririg them, which he did with ^ET. 87. LIFE Ot DR. CHALMEES. 127 peculiar emphasis, aecoinpany4ng tljem with a flash from his e^fe and a stamp of his foot, he threw his right arm with clenched handMght across the book-board, and brandished it full in the fece O'f the Town Council, STtting in array and in state before him. Many eyes were in a moment direman who'hftd applied to be a communicant. After he had read over his name ' By-the-by,' said the good servant of the Lord, '1 must telj you something about this young man, for his history is somewhat interesting and singU' Ijir. He satj' said Dr. Balfour, * for nearly twenty years under my ministry, but did not appear to derive any, good from it; but .when n^y worthy friend, Dy. Chalmers (for that was the almost uniform designation he gave him when he had occasion t© speat of him), 'came ii) Glfisgow, he was attracted to him by his splendid talents, and sat under his ministry for abdat two years, -and then it pleased the. Lord to. come to him in the day of" his power ; and I havfi every reason to tjiink ,bim a truly converted young xagfa. And now that he wishes to be- come a member.of the church he wishes to return to us. But,' added Dr. Balfour, with a truly sublim,e humility, ' it was not -under my ministry that he was turned. to the Lord, though he sat for the greater part of his lifetime in the Outer Church ; but it was under,,the preaching of Dr. Chalmers.' " You know Tifhat was Dr. Chalmers's ardent manner when anything that related to the glory of. Christ's kingdom, or to the spiritual good of his "fellow-creatuj-es, was inade knowji to him fbut you may easily conceive with what exuberant joy he heard this simply annal of the good done through his pastpral superintendence. ' Ah !' said he, ' Mr. Wright, what blessed, what comforting news , you give, me; I ^ knew it not-; but it strengthens me ; for really I was beginning to fail, from an ^T. 83. LIFE OF DJt. OHALMEBS. 135 apprehension that I had not been acting according to the will of God in coming to your city.' " At a> still later period of his Glas.gow ministry, and after knowing, bya painful experience, how n^any bitter ingredjejits are often mixed in the cup of human applause, urging his agencies to increased activity in that home- walk of private be- nevolence,' in which 'they could earn, if not a proud, at least a peaceful popularity— the popularity of the heart — the only popularity that is ■ worth the aspiring after — the popularity that is won in the bosom of famihes and at the side of death- beds^— he coulij not help pouring out his own later experience in these wor^s : ' There is another, a high and a far-sounding popularity, ,which is indeed a most worthless article, felt by all who have it most to be grea,tly more oppressive than grati- fyijig> — a popularity of stare, and pressure, and ,animal heat, and a whole tribe of other annoyances which it brings arpund the person of its unfortunate victim, a popularity whicji rifles home of its sweets, and by elevating man above his fellows, places him in a region of desolation, where the intimacies of human fellowship are unfelt, and where he stands a conspicu- ous mark for the shafts of malice, and- envy, and detraction — a popularity which, with its head among storms and its feet on the treacherous quicksands, has nothing to lull the agonies of its tottering existence but the hosannas of a driveling gen- eration.' " Intelligence of his father's declining healtl;_ induced Dr. Qhalmers to take his family to Anstruther, to spend the sum- mer months of 1818; and leaving them there, he returned to the scene of his labors. Daily correspondence was kept up with them by means of those journal-letters which he con- stantly wrote to Mrs. Chalmers, whenever separated from her for more than a few days. On Friday, the 17th July, his father had an attack of paralysis. -Intelligence was imme- diately dispatched to Dr. Chalmers, who arrived in time to watch over the last hours of his father's life. On the morning of -the 26th of July, he wrote to Mrs. Morton : *' My dearest Jane: — The life of our revered father was 136 LIFE OP DE. CHAEMEES. 1818. just lengthened out to half-past two this morning. He was permitted just to touch, as it were, one Sahbath more on earth ere he was transported to that everlasting Sabbath, among the worshipers of which' he ' is now sitting iir blessedness and in glory.. " There was not much of the suffering of death, save the weariness and languor of dying. He ceased, we thought, to take an interest in what we said for about thirty hours before his deaih. We all sat up two nights in hourly expectation of the event, but it was postponed, and the transition made gentler in consequence.' He calmly breathed his last, and his departing spirit has left a most saintly expression behind it." During thesanie day, he also wrote to his brothers, Patrick and James, endeavoring t6 impress upon their minds the spir- itual lessou of their pious father's life and death: For about two weeks after this event, he remained with his mother and family, and "was then obliged to plunge once more into the vortex at Glasgow." CHAPTER IX. ' During the winter of 1818-19, Dr. Chalmers added to his Other labors the preparation of a volume of congregational sermons, of which a large edition was published in February, 1819. On the 24th of April of that year, he wrote thus : " I never kept so close by Glasgow, nor worbed so hard in it as during this last winter. I have now preached ti^-enty-nine Sabbaths, irithout intermission, in. the Tron church, and that without a stated assistant, though I have occasionally got as- sistance for half a day." ' ' He was anxious to complete th« execution of his projects there, inasmuch as he already entertained others of greater variety^in behalf of a more destitute popT4ation. A new city parish had been recently erected in a quarter inhabited chiefly by operatives, and embracing, about ten thousand souls. There was a propriety in calling the great advocate of church exten- sion and ofreligibus instruction of the poor to this charge; and the very fact that it embraced a large number of the poor- est families in Glasgow was a strong motive with Dr. Chal- mers for accepting'it j but another conspiring therewith was the freedom which was guaranteed to him in carrying out all those schemes of reformation in which he had been hitherto so much thwarted by established customs. " Accordingly oh the 5th of June, 1818, Dr. Chalmers was elected, by the magistrates and ^own council, to the pastoral charge of the new parish jsf St. John's. The actual transfer, however, was not made until the following year, owing tb un- expected delay in finishing the church edifice. In the month of June, 1819, he writes to his friend, Mr. Erskine, of Linla- then, "Sabbath first being the 30th, is the last of my connec- tion with the Tron church, and as the church of St. John's is not yet ready for me, I am counting upon the interval of a good manyTveeks, during which I propose to expatiate among 12 (137; 138 LIFE QF DK. CHAIMHES. 1S19. my friends in the country. My arrangeffients are gdng on most prosperously. I have now got thirty-five gentlemen and three lady teachers. I have also completed the surrey of my parish, and have still 160 Sabbath-scholars to provide wiih. teachers, beside an indefinite number Of female teachers to look out for, -Amid great physica,! distress and many difficul- ties among our popula.tion, it gives me comfort to think of an operation which I am sure alleviates, even at present, the bur- den which is upon their spirits, and will, I trust and pray, have fruit in eternity., " I can not tell you how truly grateful I am for all you write and all you say on theological subjects. You have given most useful direction to my own mind, and I have epdeavoJed in Some of my later pulpit demonstrations to press home the lesson of salvation and spiritual health, being synonymousi with each other.. -It is truly excellent whaf you say of not waiting at the pooL Be -assured that^many render the method of setting out on ih.e business of Christianity so Mystical a,nd so separate from human agency, and so scrupulously remote from all that man can will or do in the matter, as .absolutely to discourage him even from going to tlie pool, even from open- ing his Bible, even from- directing his thoughts to the subject of it, even froin hearing what Christ has~got to say to him,-and turning to its obvigus application and purpose the plainest and most palpable of His requirements. Believe me, my dear sir, yours very lanly, " Thomas Chalmers." In order to recrait his strength, exhausted by- the imremit- ting labor ef the preceding winter and spring, he went to -spend a few days near the mineral waters of Dunblane. We are presented with a very precious fragment of a letter written by- }iim,'while there, to Mr. ErsMne "I feel my want of capacity for the direct exercises of godliness— am in a state of longing and general earnestness, 'but want sadly a habitual frame of heavenly -mmdedness. I read with mortification, and I had almost said envy, of the devotional feelings and delights MT. 89. LIl'E OF DB. 0HALMEE8. 139 of other men ; and just feel myself, as Lt were, at the place of breaking forth, and on the margin only of that spiritug,l^ territory within which all is Ufe, and light, and enlargement, and holy, affection. It is easy^o talk of a simple faith in th& testimoay : hat there must be the issuing of a certain sound on the part of the trumpet to him who lingers at the threshold, and who,, when told just to believe, and just to perform the bare act of faith, is still encompassed with hdplesspess, and impressed with the suspicions and the straightening of a mind not yet loosed from its bondage. Yet come the enlargement when it will, it must, I admit, eome after all- through the chan- nel of a simple credence given to the sayings of God, accounted as true and faithful sayings. And never does light and peace so fill my heart as when, like a little child, I take up the lesson, that God hath laid on his own Son the iniquities of us all. Do believe me, my dear sir, yours, very truly, "Thomas Chalmers." " Thomas Erskine, Esq. On the 27th, he was again in^Glasgow, and fairly entered Tipon the negotiations regarding his plans for St. John's. He had already received an expression of good-will from the city authorities, but felt the necessity of some^ing more in the shape of definite authoritative enactments to proceed upop. His system of parochial schools, and of pauper management needed to be legally delivered from all embarrassing connection with any others. Ten days w'ere spent in preliminary efibrts, and. having placed his views fully before the Lord Provost and town council, and pending their answer, he paid a hasty visit to Anstruther. In the meanwhile an application had been made to liim to permit his name to be presented as a candidate for the Chair of Natural Philosophy in the.University of Edin- burgh, then vacant by the^ death of Prof. Playfair. A report thart he had complied therewith reached Glasgow, and created Hiuch anxiety among those who were just then so much de- pending upon his services. 140 _ LIFE OF DK. CHAIMEKS. 1819. ^In Opening the first number of The 'Christian and Civie. EccmQmy of large Towns, .-issued on the 24th of September, he took occasion to explain away the misunderstanding, but what w;3s more ^tisfactorj" to his Glasgow friends, was his^own re- appearance among them. And just two days after the publi- cation' of the pamphlet, containing that explanation, on the Sabbath, the 26th -of September, the church of St. Johns was opened for public •v*orship, as appears from the following ac- count in the (Glasgow .Herald of next day : " Dr. Andrew Thomson, of Edinburgh, and Dr. Chalmers, the minister of the parish, preached in presence of the magisfcates and a most cro'fl^ed congregation. The first .gentleman commenced the service of the day, and took for his text Hebrewsy^.iii, 12 ; Dr.. Chalmers, preached in the afternoon from Isaiah, xxixj 9 — "12. In the evening, the parodiial sitters took their places, when Dr. Thomson again preached. From the intimations previously given, it was understood ■ that the la^t of these services, was meant for the exclusive benefit of the inhabitants of the -parish, who are enabled, by a wise and liberal ^rrangenjent on the part of thefnagistrates and council, to obtain as good aright of oc- cupation to the^-evening seats as is held by any other sitters among the day congregations of olur city.- The decidedly parochial aspect of lite evening xsongregation was scarcely, .if at all, impaired by any great admixture of hearers from the gerieiial and iodiscriminate-jiublic ; and it was felt as a- novel and affecting singularity to witness sitch a multitude of the la- boring classes of our city so respectably protyided with Sabbath accommodation in one of the churches of -the Establishment. The impression was much' heightened, upon observing that the great body of the population, on retiring- from church, when they had reached the bottom of McParlane-street, turned in nearly an unbroken stream to the east along the Gallowgate, or in the direction which leads to the main bulk of flie parish and. its inhabitants ^It gives us pleasure to observe that the 'hour of meeting for the.evening sitters is so early as four in the afternoon, thereby giving to this parochial diet- the char- acter and convenience of a day service, and enabling the hearers ^T. 39. LIFE OF DB. CHALMEKS. 141 to spend an unbroksffi Sabbath evfening in the bosom of their own families." "' - - ■• The parish of St. JohB%, in 1819, contained a population of more than ten thousand, a large proportion of whom^lkad nevei' attended religious instruction anywhere. It was one of the largest, and, at the same time> the very poorest parish in the city. " Nevertheless,^ suflFered now to. manage it in his own way. Dr. Chalmers entsTed upon the task with all the hopeful confidence of one emancipated from bondage, and all the hope- ful confidence of one whose iaith in the power of moral and spiritual influences, hoth human and -divine, over the very worst of our species, was perhaps larger and, stronger than that of any other man of his generation. The four years of his min- istry in St. John's, were, among the busiest in a life over- crowded in every portion with activities ; and if we ificlude the after and the indirect, as well as the immediate results accomplished by -them, they formed four of the most product- ive of his years." In this, parish, as in that of the Tron church, his first ef- forts were addressed to the education of the young. At the commencement of his operations, he had a band of forty-one Sabbath School teachers formed; but that number was doubled before, according to- his method of subdivision, the whole ground was covered. .^Provision had also to be made for the elements of secular instruction, as very many-. children were growing Up -without that amount of education necessary to enable them to reap the true profits of Sabbath School effort, The existing schools were inadequate to the wants of the population. The plan by which Dr. "Chalmers proposed to meet this want was that al- ready adopted by the founders of the parochial schools of Scotland, according to which a school-house was to be built by a public fund, and a partial endowment provided for the teacher, not sufficient for his support but to enable him to ad- mit scholars for very small fees. Thus education should be put -within the reach of-; the poor, and yet not undervalued by being gratuitous. Accordingly, he got a few of the members 142 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEBS. 1819. of hii? church organized into an Education Committee, for the purpose of carrying out the plan in hehalf of their own parish. The means were to be obtained by- subscription, and Dr. Chal- mers imittediately put down hisjiame for j£100. Fivte others did likewise, and in a week or two the~requisite amoun|; was raised. The-site fixed upon as most convenient, being one which belonged to the college, " Dr. Chalmers went to Principal Taylor to ne- gotiate a purchase. In the hope of obtaining it on reasonable terms, he urged at once tSe'novelty and the importance of the undertaking. The Principal acknowledged the importance, but demurred as 4» the noveltyi "We have been talking for twenty years," he said, "of estal^jshing parochial seho^ls in" Glasgow." " Yes ; but how many years more did ypuintend to talk about it? Now, we are going to do the thing, not to talk about it, and so," s^dDt, Chalmers, putting the Principal into good humor by some kindly saying, "you must even let theprice be as moderate as possible> seeing we are going to take the labor of talking and projecting entirely off your hands." The application was successful — the ground was purchased — the building -was commenced, and early in July, 1820, was ready for occupation." • Care was taken to procure two of the most competent teachers, and such was the success of the scheme, that in one month it; was found that the two schools, thus opened, were not enough to meet the educational demands of the parish. Another building was erected on the' same plan, and went into equally successful operation. Thus, within two years from the ^beginning of his connection with St. John's; four efficient teachers, each endbwed to the ,extent of £ZB a yeV, were educating- four hundred and nineteen scholars; and when he left Glasgow, in 1823, other school buildings were in the process of erection, capable of accommodating three hundred and seventy-four additional pupils ; so that the fruits of four years' labor was the leaving behind him the means and facilities for giving, at a very federate rate.a supefior educa- tion to no less than seven hundred and ninety-three children, out of a population of ten thousand ^ouls. It has been stated that one . great inducement with Dr. ^T. 39. LIFE OF DB. CHALMERS. 143 Chalmers to the acceptance of the pastorate of St. John's was the hope of obtaining therein a Separate and independent management of the poor, from which he was debarred in the Tron church parish by the mannisr in which it was connected with other bodies. The prevailing system was somewhat complicated, two sepa- rate funds existed, one consisting of the. results of the legal assessmentSj the other of the voluntary contributions received at the church-doors. These were kept apart, -the latter being placed at the disposal of the general session, a body dbmposed of all the ministers and elders of the city, and the former con- trolled, by " the committee of the town hospital, an institution which had ■ both in-door and out-door pensioners. The first application for pubhc relief was made to the elder of the dis- trict in which the applicant -resided. The case was then reported by this elder to the kirk-session of his own parish. But that kirk-session, not permitted to retain the collection made at its own churchrdoor, and -having no definite income with which to square its annual expenditure, had only to insert the name on the roll, fix the allowance, -and report to the general session, from whose funds a monthly distribution was made aniong the separate kirk-sessions, according^ to the num- ber and nee&ssitifes of the cases on the roll of each. When these cases had multiplied beyond the power of the voluntary fwnd to meet them, or when the largest sum rgranted by the session, which rarely exceeded five shillings a month, was deemed insufficient, from the pauppr becoming older or more necessitouSi there occurred a transference to the town hospi- tal, whose ampler fund admitted of larger allowances. ' So that each session,' says Dr. Chalmers; describing this cum- brous apparatus, ' might have been regarded as having two doors, one of them a door of admittance for the population who stand at the margin of pauperism, and another of them a door of' egress to the town hospital, throttgh which the occu- piers of the outer court made their way into -the inner temple. It will be seen at once how much this economy of things tended to relax still more all the sessional administration of the city. 144 LIEft OF DE. CHALMEES. 1819 and with wtiat facility the Btream of pauperism would be ad- mitted at the one end when so ready and alSfindant a dischar^ was provide^ for it at the other. We know not how it' wsas possible to devise a more likely arrangement for lulling the vigilance of those who stood at the outposts of pauperism, and that too at a point where their firm and strenuous guardianship was of greatest consequence — -even at the point Vhere the first deimonstrations toward public charity were made on ^e pari of the people, and where their incipient tendencies to this new State, if judiciously while tenderly dealt with, might have been so easily repress^ds, To station one body of men at the en- trance of pauperism, and burden them only with the lighter expenses' ot As outset, from which they have a sure prospect of being relieved by another body of men,-. who stand charged with the trouble ^nd expense of its finished maturity-^there eould scarcely have be^n set argoing a more.mischievous. pro- cess of acceleration toward all the miseries and corruptions which are attendant on the overgrown charity of England." The 'population of St. John's, the cost of whose pauperism had hitherto averaged £1400 yearly, he proposed to manage in the manner of an unassessed country parish, and to provide for all its indigence out of the funiTTEjised by, voluntary contri- butions at the^ church-door. In, accordance with that proposal the magistrates of the city had consented that the entire con- trol of that fund should be vested in the chureh-sessign of th^t parish. The design contemplated by Dr. Chalmers was not s» much that of providingi^or pauperism as of preventing it, which he was conyinced might h^ done to great extent by stimulating to industry, by using means to procure employment for the destitute, by eliciting the kindly sympathies of relations and neighbors, and by maintaining, -through all available means, the invaluable feelings,of independence and self-jelianee among the poor. In 'this, work much depended upon the careful scru- tiny o^amdividual cases ; inasmuch as the least deserving of aid g,re ge|ierally the most forward in applying for it. I'he dea- cons, of -St, J.ohn's, accordingly, received distinct instnjetions for their guidance in relation to that matter, " When one ^T. 89. LIFE OF DR. CHAIMpiS. 145 applies for admittance through his deacori upon our ftrndB, the irst thing to be itfquired into is, if there be any hind of work thai he can yet do, so as either toteep him altogether offj or as to make a partial allowance serve for his necessities ; the second, what hi§ relatives and friends are willing to do for him ; the third, whether he is a hearer in any dissenting place ^ of worship, and whether its session will contribute to his relief. And if, after these previous inquiries,, it be found that, further relief is necessary, then there must be a Strict-ascertainment of his term of residence in Glasgow, and whether he oe y-et on the funds of the town hospital, or is obtaifiing relief from any other parish. If upon all these points being ascertained, the beacon of the proportion where he resides, still canceives him an object for Our assistance, he-.will inquire whether a small tem- poral aid will meet the occasion," and State thts to the first ordinary meeting. But if, instead of this, he 'conceives him a fit subject for a regular allowance, he will receive the assist- ance of another deacon to complete and -confirm his inquiries, by -the next ordinary meeting thereafter, at which time the " applicant, if they still think him' -a fit object, is brought befoje ' Hs, and received upon the; fund at Such a rate of allowance, ^ upon -all the circumstances of the case, the meeting of deacons shall judge .proper. Of coul'sey pending- these examinations, the deacon is "tempo wered to grant the same sort of discretion- ary aid that is custofiaary in other parishes." The town hospitsd was "to- retain, all its old pensioners of St!^ John's parish, the kirk session to take up and provide for new cases, and bear the charge of all the existing cases o| sessional poor ; and henceforth neither frara the one class nor the other should a single pauper be sent to the town hospital, or be chargeable upon the general assessment for the city." The collections made at the church-€oor amounted to about £480 a year; but Dr. Chalmers limited his expenditures • to much less. For during the whole time, nearly four years, in which he presided over the operation of the scheme, the whdle number admitted on his list of paupers was twenty; at the annual expense of only £66. The number of sessional -poor 13 146 LIFE, OF Dk. CHALMEBS. 1819i throTW upon iis,,liands- at tke begmning, as having belonged to the parishes out Qf whioh St. John,'s was composed, was ninety-eight, pf whom thirteen were, after investigation, dis- placed, and twenty-eight,- in the cpurse of the' fouT years, died. The whole number .tvas, then, seventy -seven, whose yearly maintenahoe amounted to jE190. ^^ Their large surplus, encouui- aged the session to take ^he -whole of the terwn .hospital pauj)ers 3onnecte4 vrith their parish, c^ffthat institution, involving, them- selves in, an additional expense of £90 a year. So that all the old pauperism which bad-Kot originated under. their manage- mpnt — and whiclvttl|ey bai every reason to estim9,te as much- larger than urider that management it _shoul,d ^ave been — and ill the new pauperism which h£|id arisen, was h&nf managed, at 1 yearly cost of £280. From one-tenth of the city, and that part composed of the poorest of its population,- th(j whole flow ' of pauperisin into the- town hospital had -been interoeptedj, ^d an expenditure which had amoiiiited to £1400 was. reduced to, £280. .. Thus-, at the close-of -Dr., Chalmers's ministry, the session of St. John's had from their own chTirch«d®or collections a sur- . pius of £900, of which £600 had been appro.priate4 ior.the endowment of one of their parochial schoolsr The success ^of the sojieme was complete,; but «tht>se who had pradiejfeed its failure nowiphainged their plea and urged that however tri- umphant under Dr. Chalmers's management, it would al'jrays need a Chalmers to maintain its successful 'operation., The justice of this was alsfl tested upon his removal, in 1823, when instead «rf, failing, as iits enemies expected, the scheme continued to prosper many, years ; and when, in 1837, it was relinquished, and the parish sufiered to^fall back into the gene' ral system of the city, it ■jras only -on atjcount of the discour- agements and, eipbarrassments thrown in its way by the civic authorities. . Ik was impossible foi; the hand of one man to execute singly so many measures of public utility. But. few have ever been endowed with' a greater power of interesting, others ih his sehemes and of enlisting their voluntary services- than he who -ST. 40. LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 147 originated these reforms. The secret of his success lay in that attractive faculty whereby he gathered around him and stimu- lated to deeds of noble .ehristig,n philanthropy so large a num- ber of the intelligent and influential latityi His. parish was (Jivided in tew twenty -five districts, . called^ proportions, containing from sixty to one hundred ffllnilies each., ^ver each of these Dr. Chalmers appointed an elder and a deacon, the- Spiritual interests -being intrusted to. the former and the temporal interests to the latter, the whole management of the pauperism being committed to thp hands of the deacons. " Ih.each district one or more Sabbath schools were instituted, male and female teachers, to the number of between forty-*apd^ fifty, being engsiged in this work, while a few classes were opened for the adult population." This body of lay assistants Dr. Chalmers called his agency. But though making use of their labors, he never suflFered the supervision of any part of the work to escape from his own hand. "There were the regular times of reporting all jn-oeeed- ings, " the ordinary meetings of the kirk session", the monthly meetings of the deacons, monthly meetings of the Sabbath school teachers, monthly m6eimgs in the church for missicriaary purposes, and frequent meetings of the educatioilal associa- tion ; all of which Dr. Chalmers regularly and punctually attended ;" and even in the daily discharge of duty his vigi- lant eye attended eve^y one of his agents:. " Regular repo]?te from all quarters were -constantly coming in, and messages and requests and suggestions were as constantly being -iasue4- Had his agents but preserved all the brief notes of a line- or two which they received from Dr. Chalmers, it would be seen what an incessant shower of these little billets, not one of which was dispatched on a fruitless errandj he was constantly dis- charging. Intercourse at meetings or by letter was not enough ; something closer and more familiar was.required to bind all lovingly together. Every, Monday mqrning in his own house there was agency breakfast, to which a general invitation was issued, arid at which from, six to eight of his elders, deacons, or Sabbath- school teaohera, were generally present.,. More 148 LIFE OF DB. CHALMEBS. 1830. sf)Bcial invitations to tea were also given, and that with such freqiiency, that thefe was scarcely an agent who was not asked once to the housej^ithin each six weeks." " His parochial^ arrangements were nofw -complete, and with almost superhuma.n energy Qrv ChalmerSfguided and impelled every' movement of.the compjicated apparatus. At the com- mefeement of his ministry in St. John's he had secured the ser» vices of the Eev. Edward Irving, then a licentiate .of the church- There were peculiarities both of thought jjapd utterance which made Mr. Irving unpopular as a preadhir, fEe had given up the prospect of a settlement at. home and had resolved to leave his native l|nd, full of th«' chivalrous romance of Christianity. His intention was, relying simply upon, Such resources as he could open up for himself -by the way, to go. as a missionary to Persia, after a preliminary wandering over Europe.^ To qualify himself for the self-imposed Office, he applied hinftelf to the study of the modern languages, and buried himself among his books, 'ijejeoted by the living,' as he told a friend,,;,'! ■vsras conversing with the dead." In the midst of hia studies he was interrupted by a note from'Dr. Andrew Thomson, ask- ing him to preach' in St. (xeorge^s, and.teUing him that he would have ~Dr. Chaliriers, who was looking out for an assist- ant, as an auditor. He complied witlfc the request, and preached- as he had been desired, without, however, having seen/or conversed with Dr. Chalmers. Days and weeks elapsed without- any indication of jfcis, preaching having made any fa- vorable impressioii. His books were all packed up and dis- patched to Annan, ^hile he himself set off on a farewell. tour round the west coast of Ayrshire to see sortie friends ere his departure for the east. Loitering on the quay at Greenock, he stepped into a steamboat which was to carry him, as he thought, to Stranraer, rit was -only after her paddles had com- menced to move that he discovered that -she ,was bound lor the Highlands. •' He leaped ashore, and treading,'in no peas- ant frame -of mind; the Greenock quay once more, he resolved that^carry him where she might, he would embark in the next boat t^at sailed. It so happened that the .vessel was bound Mr. 40. LIFE OV DE. •CHALMEBS. 149 for Belfast, and having just time to write hia father, saying, that if any letter came- for him it should be addressed to Cole- raine., h« crossed the channel and wandered* for two or three weeks over the norttof Ireland, sleeping'inlhe houses of the peasantry, and in ali its lights and shadows seeing ;€rish life. Indue time he reached Coleraiije, where-there awaited him- a letter from Annau, containing an inclosure, which his father told him he would have copied if he could, but he co^ld not decipher a single word. It was a letter from Dr. Chalmers, requesting his immediate presence in Glasgow. He hurried tfiere, arriving on a Saturday, when he found that Dr. Chal- mers had gone to Fifeshire. As- there was nothing definite in the letter, and as weeks had passed since it was written, Mr. Irving was about to give up the. matter altogether, when told by a>^ friend that Dr. Chalmers Ijad just returned. He saw him, and was told- that it was hi"s desire that he should be his assist- ant. 'Well, .sir,' said Mr. Irving, after the unexpected tidings had been communicated to him, ' I am most grateful to you, but I must be also somewhat acceptable to your people. I, will preach to them if you think fit, an4 if they bear with my preaching, they will be the first people-that have borne with it.' " He did preach, proved acceptable, and for ihe two years which followed — the busiest,- perhaps, in all his busy life — Dr. Chalmers was refreshed and sustained by raie congenial fellowship and' efiective co-operation^ of a like-minded and- noble-hearted associate. There were three- public services every Sabbath in St. John's church, and one in a school-house situated in the eastern end of the parish, which commenced at the same time with the forenooti service- in the church. These. four services were shared equally between Dr. Chalmers and his assistant, the forenoon and evening service in the church on each alternate Sabbath, devolving upon the one, the service in the school-house and the afternoon service in the church, de- vollring upon the other. Dr. Chalmers commenced a series of lectures upon the Epistle to the Romans, and his assistant' a series of lectures upoa the Gospel of St. Lute. The^game. lecture which was delivered bjr each in tha forenoon in the 150. LIFE OF DB. CffSlMEES, 1820. chtireh, was re-deHTetfed, but not on the same day, to the even- ing congregation, the series as preached in the forenoon being generally two or three lectures in advance "of the series as d«^ livered in the evening. It was particularly desired that the evening congrega.tion should -only consist of parishioners afld those oi- the poorer classes whom the high seat-rents charged upon the general or forenoon congregation, served to exclude. The labors of household visitation were also shared between Dr. Chalmers and' his assistant. In this department Mr. Irving was pre-eminently effective. In many a rude encounter, the infidel radicalism of the parish bent and bowed before him. His commanding presence,' his manly bearing, his ingenuous honesty, his vigorous intellect, -and above all, his. tender and most generous sympathies melted the hearts of the people und6r him, and second only to th^t which his more illustrious colleague possessed was the parochial influence which, after a few months' visitation, he gained and niost fr\iitfuHy exercised.* His own round among the families of the parish. Dr. Chalmers completed within two years. The general manner of the'se visits has already been described. Much greater pains,'hQW- ever, were now taken both by himself and ihe other parochial agents, "|p secure a large attendance at the evening addresses, by which these forenoon visitations were followed up. The success justified the; effort. Multitudes, who - tion, and no mobbish oi- tumultuary delight because of the podir man's trmmpli, and the great njan's overthipw. -^ And ■why ? because the thing just happened in the even and ordi- nary course of Eaglish justice ; it was hut an everyday incident in the -admiijistration of law ; and of the whole assembled pub- li<5 who were present, and had looked calmly and intelligently on throughout the whole of the process, not one discovered the slightest astonishment, not one betrayed any indecent exulta- tio*at the verdict, because-it was precisely the ^verdict which, from the abstract merits of the case, they had. been led to aur ticipate. It was this which gavje toHhisjienlightened ^strangel^ his profoundest sense of the excellence of our con-stitution ; aiii this is the origin of far the soundest"* treatise which has appealed on the governmeiit and constitution of our highly privileged land. .^ ,- . /'Now this is a noble anecdote. It^has themorAl sublime in it ; and were I called to fix upon the thing that should be placed over against it ih mos* direct and humiliating -contrast, . it should just be thi^ reasou of the appellant. It is a reason I could not have dared- to utter in your hearing, lest you had rebuked me into silence for so . presuming on the paltry and" pu^llanimous stuff which this -venerable Caurt was made of. It is a bugbear to frighten children ; and foreign as it is to all the habitudes of English jn^ticei, it wpuld indeed sound most strangely in English ears. It smells of feudajism all over; aiid,in politics,, it Js as unlike to the true spirit of !^ritish loy- alty as in religion adriveliug superstition is unlike to the hom* a,ge of a rational and enlightened piety. Take my word for jt, sjf, that no feeling of the sort exists at h"ead-(i^art'ers.J;nay, were the. whole truth known, the feeling there |rould be exactly the reverse^ . ti the hurry and hard-driying of the public offices, things are often done before the evil tendency is under: stood, and,ttien a loop-hoje of . retreat is. deemed of all things to be the motst des^able. And were it only known with-what fond, yet painful interest, the whole of Scotland was now looR- ipg. on ; were it ,^nown that our Kirk, with all its errors, was 160 LIFE OF DB. CHALMERS. 18^8. still the dearest object of our people's veneration ; were it known how nmch it is that the righteousness of het measures is fitted to gladden all the land, and to pour the sunshine of an honest triumph into this very humhlest of our" cottages ; were it known that, by this appointnient, the most loyal magis- tracy in our empire liave been thwS,rted, and the purest arid most patriotic designs for the public weal are now placed on a brink of fearful uncertainty"; were all this known, I feel sure, as of my existence, that the royal cotnplacency would smUe upon our calumniated labors, and n(rf;' upon the men who could degrade their sovereign into a scarecrow, and prostitute his Venerated name to the ^rvice of a hurtful and unhallow^ usurpation." The Synod affirmed the sentence of the Presbytery, and the matter was carried by appeal before the General Assembly of 1824. There Dr. Chalmers made another eifort to avert from the church the dreaded evil ; but >that body was not yet pre- pared to appreciate the weightof his reasons. A large majority voted to reverse the sentence of Presbytery, and that "Dr. Mc^ Farlane should be admitted as minister of the High Church," In the case of a man so variedly and successfully em- ployed 'before the publio, there is a natural curiosity which prompts us to inquire what were his private manners and hab- Jts, as if it would be gratifying to know how he compared with other men in matters whiereiriiall men Comport thenftelvesinto comparison wi^h him. -^ ' To the pen of "the Rev. Mr. Smyth, Mr. Irving's successor, in the assistantship of St. John's, we are indebted for.aglimpse into the domestic life of Dr. Chalmers at this busiest period of his career: ' Jf "It was on Saturday, June 8th, 1S22, that I joined Dr. Cha^ mers at Limekilns for Glasgow. I shall never forget the kiiltf' ness which he showed me that day. Although a aative of Hie west of Scotland, I had not been in the city of GIb,sgow since my childhood, and ^hat merely for a few minutes. All was new and strange. M;y heart was fuH, and my anxiefry was in- tense. WeH do I reeolleet how thoroughly Dr; Chalmers made .fflT. 48. LIFE OF DK. OHAI^EES. 161 me acquainted ■with the localities through which we passed along the canal. 'Come, now, my dear sir,' (I seem at this moment to hear the very words), ' and I will initiate you into the ipystery of the locks,' a mystery, which I had never seen before. At intervals he was busily occupied with tlie periisal of Sibb's ' SohI's Conflict,' a book which he greatly -valued on account of its deep experimental character. We refltched GJi^^ow on Saturday evening, and ha,d a most affectionate welcome from the doctor's- family, including his aunt Jean, as she was lovingly called, an old lady 'arith whom I afterward spent maiiy happy hoursi When we entered the , dining-room for tea, my eye lighted on a table literally covered with letters, the accumulation of a few days. It appeared to me a most BEerculean task for any man to address himself to the reading, how much more to the answering, of some fifty or sixty epis- t Dr. Chalmers was hiore a man of pow- erful impulses, who aehievedfc^wonderful things bjk fits and starts of burning zeal, .than of systematic persevering fl.ppli(sa~ tion of mind; There n«ver-was a greater mistake. With all his transcendent genius, and talent, and philanthropy, I am satisfied that the nlain; secret of his strength lay in bis indom-. itable resolution io master wiiatever he undertook. What has- been considered by some as a defect was indeM an excellence of no common order.; When' convinced thatit Vas his duty to address himself to some course of study or of action, he con- centrated on that his energies of jnindt. and body, and with in-, defatigable assiduity completed his work, unless some urgent call of duty which . did ■^not admit of postponement, inter- fered. . Dr, Chalmers devoted at least. five hours each day to study ; I use the word in its proper sense ; he was thus studiously occupied partly before breakfast^ and thereaf- ter till one or two- o'clocl^ in reading, and composition^ These were his hours, and it was understood that they were, except in ' the event of some special emergency, not to be invaded b.y friend or stranger. It bemg midsummer" when I ifirst resided under' his roof he generally relaxed for two hours, taking some favorite walk, and kindly inviting me to accompany him. The Botanic , Garden was g, much loved resort. He luxuriated among the plants and flowers of the season, and fleligbted to examine minutely the structure and the beauties of some humble production thatf'WQuld have escaped the notfoe of a less practiced eye. He said to me one day, after he had been rapt in <; admiraition of Nature and -Nature^s God — 'I love to dwell on the properties of o^.e flower at a-time ; to fix'my mind on it exclusively un- til I feel that it has taken complete hold of my mi^d. ^ This is a peculiarity of my constitution. I must have concen- ' tration of thought, on any given .thing, and not be diverted from it.' My attention was arrested- in the garden by a sunflower of large dimensions and exquisite" coloring.. He said, with deep emotion, '.Oh,iirt^at we could sa open our ^T. 42. LIFE OB" DE. CHALMEES. 163 hearts to the beams of the Sun of righteotisness ! ' It was m such scenes that one not only saw but felt that the train of thoiight was heavenward — that bis heart and his treasure were in heaven. > " He dined generally at half-past four o'clock ;,and it was Dr. Chalmers's practice to sally forth, as he playfully expressed it, after dinner, from his house in Windsor-place to St. John's parish, Spending at least two' hours several nights in the week among his parishioners. In these visits it was repeatedly my high privilege to accompany him. They were generally short but Biost, instructive— -«mZfe<»n in jaarvo. .-He possessed a singular pc*wer of statiag the sum and substance of the goispel in a few comprehensive and most weiglity sentences, and closed each visit with a most appropriate prayer. ^ The more advanced hours of the" evening were spent in a less onerous ■way — ^letter-writing, or the hterature of the day, or the society of friends who partook of his large-hearted hpspltality and that of his beloved household, j. In no- respect did Dr. Chal- mers present a more attractive example of all that is kind and lovely than in the ;,bosom of his own family. His children were young, but they were to him objects of daily and most affectionate interest; he was playful among thism even to occa- sional roniping. His smile of fatherly love was -ev*r. ready to encourage th«ir approaches ; and when abseflt for a few weeks he printed little letters for their acceptance. : I can hardly trust' myself, even at the distance of so many years,, with de- tailed references to that once happy and precious home in whieh it was my lot to spead several months. The united heads of it have been removed from that household "of which they were at once the ornament and the glory — revered^ — be- loved: — shedding down on children and domestics sweet and hallowed influences, binding all in one home-circle of warm aiid steadfast attachment. I may be permitted here to record my tribute of affectionate reverence for the memory of Mrs. ^ Chal- mers. To have been the wife of such a man afforded a strong presumption of SRjualities which he thoroughly estimated ; and none who knew his lamented vife well could fail to be satisfied 164 LIFE OF -DE. CHALMBES. 1822. that she was in all respects a helpmeet for her distinguished husband. Possessed of talents decidedly superior, of -large and varied information, of warm-hearted affections, and of what is infinitely- better, -edlightened and decided piety; Mrs. Chalmers comm^ded the esteem and the confrdence of her family and her friends. Her judgment was calm, sound, and comprehensive. She possessed a tact and a delicacy of percep- tion which fitted her "for beifig^ a wise and faithful counselor. Dr. Chalmers had unlimked"cor^fe7ice m her discretion. He felt that her coincidence with him 'in opinion or in plans was Of great value. She strengthened his hands and encouraged his heart in every labor of love. Nor did she ever forget the limits of a woman's sphere; exquisite feminii^ie delicacy was united with great vigor and promptitude of nsind. Habitually cTieerful and" happy, there was a sunshine- of- the soul which even the clouds of affliction did not obscure. Her beaM fre- quently suffered,- but this trid served .4,0 -bring out more 'fully the ornament of a meek aad quiet spirit. Thoroughly conver-, sant with Dr. Chalmerses views in jegard to many exciting questittes, she entered- into his enthusiastic defenses and expo- sitions- of them with her' whole heart; and with what gentle affection she poured a healing balm into the waters when ruffled, or in danger, of being so, tendering some word in sea- son that- bound up the wound which ignorance or envy had inflicted. Her kindness to miyself during my repeated gojourn- ings I trust that I -shall never foi^et. , I experienced in* her society much that was : calculated to^ guide my inexperience, andto strengthen me for priva,tft^ and public duty, Her dis- cernment of character was remarkable. ' It seemed as if by intuition she could at once discriminate between' the true and the false-hearted, and yet there was the .charity which hopeth all things. As a wife, a mother, a mistress, a friend, a disci- ple of Him who was meek and lowly in spirit, few are better entitled to affe^ion's warmest tribute. It was my mournful privilege to be with her on that day which covered Scotland's church" and people in sackcloth ; and after the mortal remains of the husband -who had been so many years the dearest object iET. 42. LIFE OF DR. CHALMKES, 166 of love were deposited, in the grave, not one murmuring or impatient word escaped her lips ; all was lowly submission to her Father's good and righteous will — a widow indeed, but firmly trusting in the widow's God, and raising her agonized yet eonfiding heart to Him who was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The conflict of nature was severe, but the victory of 'faith was not denied. Her sainted spirit had communion in its sorrows with the unsuffering inhabitants of heaven, and aft^r A brief season of earthly teibulation, she, too, has entered the rest that remaineth for th« people of God. May we he indeed followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." In all his eorrespondencewith the various ^nembers of the family, while printing letters with his pen for the children, , or meeting the caustic skepticism of bis brother James as well as when responding to the piety of his^mother, hisVife arid favor- ite sister, and while adapting his manner to the characteristics of each, and writing familiarly of those topics of most interest to his correspondent for the time, one topic is invariably urged either, directly or indirectly, the great topic of peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. His hospitality was large and genial. His social nature encouraged the visits of frieiids and parishioners ; beside which his system of parochial instruction brought around him those numerous persons who contributed their voluntary assistance therein, and his reputation rendering him5.n object of popular interest brought multitudes of. strangers as guests into his house. Though -occasionally complaining of the latter intru- sion, it was not in his nature to repel it. Provided only his hours of study were uninterrupted " there was scarcely any wearying of him by any succession of visitors however nume- rous or varied. There have been at tim«s three different rooms full of. people waiting for him, and when he issued from his retirement he had a cordial welcome ready for each one of them." No feature in his personal character was more promi nent than his love of sodety and' his large capacity for appre- ciating diversified phases of humanity ; while enjoying the 166 UfflS OF DB. CHALMEKS. 1822. refinements of the highest and most polishedj, he oorald enter with the truest . sympathy into all 'the humble joys , and, sorrows of th'e poor, and from the high pursuit of his owir meditations he couH' enter with the most genial affection into the conversation of yojilSi and its zeal' in rudimentary teiowledge. " ^ "I think it was 1818, or 1819," says Mr. Cofquhoun, "fli^t- Dr. Chalmers came to Killermont. I have received (for I was not then at home) an account of one incident of his visit from my friend Mr. Dundas, the Siheriff of Selkirkshire which i? too characteristic to be omitted.. Our family' circle was then un- brokjfen, and among them my eldest sister, who, to her many aCciomplishmentB,. added the study of botany, 'i^ttracted Dr. Chalmers's attention. With his \isual warm interest m the pursuits of the j^ouiig, he talked with her on th^t subject, and examined the flora which she had collected. One plant in the series was wanting, and he inquired why ; on her telling him that she had not been able to find it, he s^id it was surely to be had in the neighborhood, and the subject dropped for that evening. The next naomii^, when ihe family assembled for prayers, Dr- Chalmers did not appear, and his bedroom was deserted. The family sat dawn to breakfast without him, nor was it till breakfast was half over 'that he came into the room, his hat in his hand, tired and heatfd from a long walk, but carrying with him the missing plant, which he presented to my sister. It is needless to say how much this trait affected the young hearts' that were present, as it has remaindfl im- pressed on Mr. Dundas to,, the present day. - "Dr. Chalmers's next visit to Killermont must have been in the summer or autumn of 1822, and we all recollect the interest which he showed in conversing with myself, then at Oxford, and withmy brother, then" quite a boy, on the subject of our respective Studies. It was not the manner of a man who, condescended to minds far his. inferiors, but as if he be- came one of us, and bur studies were ks keenly relished - by"- him, as if he were hiioself, engaged in them. To my brother he talked eagerly of his boyish studies; of 'me, he inquired ^U?. 43. LIFE OF DE. CH.«6LMEKS. 1<37 muehof -AH Oxford course, and seemed to listen, ■with as much delight to my account of Aristotle's ethica, which he compared ■with his favorite Biifter, as though the Oxford student could give instead of gaining information ; and in,^his ■walks ■with us his delights in nature ■were more keen thaij those of any of the party ^ and ■while rcrwing in the boat -on the river Kelvin, gath- ering the ■wateiSilies, of which I remember he had an intense admiration, his glee was as boyish as ours. " Some years afterward, h« passed several days- at Killer- mont ; our family cirele was then Sorely broken, and there remained, only two of the sisters whom he had. before seen, but I welt remember that to one of these, who di«d the fol- lowing summer, his conversation on religious subjects was of the utmost benefit. :She saw, along with the, greatness, the simplicity and-stendemess of his mind, and w^s encouraged in some walks which she took with him, to confide to him her doubts and difl&oulties. I wish I had preserved the letter in which, after her dSath, he alluded to this, aad'spoke with char- acteristic force of the preparednSss which he had noticed in her heart for the great change which vras then before her. But, mixed with all that readine'ss to converse on religious subjects, was the same buoyant delight in literature, the arts, and the beauties of nature. I tecoUect his profound admiration for some casts from busts of the great painters and architects in", tite capitol at Rome, from' which, he said, he took in great im-- pressions— the exquisite, enjoyment when, riding in the after- noon on a quiet pony, he was taken to see the distant views of Ben Lomond and Xioch Lomond. His habit, I remember, was to go to his. room after breakfast, and to remain there till one or two o'clock engaged in writing, at times telling us that he had written without intermission, and, at other ti^es, that he had. a blank morning, and had not done a quarter, of an hour's work ■with his pen — his practice being, as he told me, after attempting some time unsuccessfully, to lay his pen down and take up a book upon some subject efttirely different from that on which he was writing, until the inspiration of compo- sition returned upon him, and he then resumed his work. His 163 ... LlffE OB DE. CHAJLMEES. 1823. habiiSj. in -society yal-ijid. GeneraHy, whea at Ms ease, and when Jiis mind was not occupied with a traitf of thought, his conwrsation ^as full of interest, aad it became so. almost always when those who were- with,him touched upon a pongenial subject, when he- i;hrew himself 'intor it with all iii| peculiar strength and elaquenee of- language', combined witli the^ most unaffect6*d simfilicity, but . at times I have seen him perfectly silent, and wearing that blank look which he could throw into his countenance wben^the min^ was otherwise engSgedi^*! remember ^e late L^dy Colqjihoun gave me an 'instance of, this, w-hich^I imagine, must 'have occurred alfeut the same- time. He had. gone, for the first time, to pay sfvisit at Eoss- dhu, and Lady 0* awaited Jiis arrival with great aiiiietyi when,'' however, he was shown into the draSring-r-oom, -after still^and should always, ^old-yje higjbjast place in his heart, and .tiiat the hope oi serving.' th^ cause of ihe Redeemer more extensively, was hjs principal motive for tjie change. : j» '■te*^ ** ' ;- ,. " On Wednesday,' the 6th of NoyembefV he l^d_beftimes was there a- charm (find tranquillity in these — but from the deep exhaustion of hurry and fatigue, ^and manifold distractions from without, have my fqots.teps been lured into a most congenial Testing- place, among whose academic bowers Eutherford' and Haly- burton spent the evening of their days, and amid whose vener- able ruins their bodies, now i^eep until the resurreetion of , the just. Should those high and teavenly themes on which they expatiated' through life, and which shed a glory over tlnigvf .ET, 48. Um OF DB. CHALMERS. 171 death-beds, ever cease to be dear unto my bosom — should the glare of the world's philosophy ever seduce me from the wis- dom and simplicity of the faith — should Jesus Christ and Him crucified not be the end of aM my labors in expounding the law of righteousness, then kt the fearful judgment of heaven blight and overcast the faculties that I have thus prostituted. • If I forget thee, Jerusalem^ — if I forget thee, thou church and city of my God^ — let my right hand forget her cunning. If iE do not remember theie, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth : if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.' When Dr. Chalmers descended from the pulpit it was entered by the Rev. Edvrard Irving, who invited the vast congrega- tion to accompany him, as with solemn pomp and impi'essive unoti^ he poured out a prayer for that honored minister of God who had just retired from among them. The church had been so closely packed that it took forty minutes to empty itself ; and before the last of the^ hearers had left St. John's Dr. Chalmers, who had barely time to transfer himself from the statelier to the humbler edi-fioe, had commenced the afternoon service in the chapel af Ease." In his sermon before that audience, which was preached from Heb. iii, 13, he introduced a touching reference to the happy death of a poor weaver, who had been an infidel until within a few months of his death, in comitection with which he quoted a few simple verses inscribed by the man upon a Bible presented to his son, and expressive of his dying wishes that his boy might be brought up in the fear of the Lord. Pursu- ing thevtrain of thought suggested thereby, the preacher pro- ceeded: "This, doubtless, is but one example, yet enough to *rove how worthy of christian cultivation are those vast and untrodden spacei, that teem with families who are. altogether beyond the pale of the word and of ordinances — enough to prove that there is not an aggregate of human beings through which a minister of the gospel might not ply his unwearied rounds, and earn the triumphs of a high and heavenly apostle- ship — enough to set at rest the obstinate inoreduUty of those who affirm of the cities of' our ]aai, that such is their hard- 172 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEBS. 1828. favored and impracticable resistance to all the ende^avors, whether of kindness or c^ Christianity, as to give the visionary character of a dream to the dear and delightfiil prospect of their ultimate reformation, I speak to the very poorest of my hearers : to you also belong' the Tiigh capacities of an inimprtal spirit ; to you belong all the elements Of moral Tforth and moral greatness ; to you the. parth of glory' is open, and the exalted High Priest, who once sojourned in this vrorld amid pains, and privations, and indignities more severe than all that any disciple of His is ever doomed to encounter, He, from the golden treasury of those gifts and graces wherewith He is in- vested, is ready -even now to shower upon you everything that is needful. either to bless you in time or to-fit you for etern^ly. I ca"^- vouch for the comfort wherewith a minister of the go^E^J might move ffom family to family throughout the vicinities of this- immediate population. I can vouch for the perfect gra- ciousness of a kind and honest welcome from you alL I can vouch for the open door of acces? that ftere is in €very house to the visitations of christian philanthropy ; and tha* even in towns which are conceived to teem all over wi& loathsome dis- sipation and -profligate companionship, there is a most warm and willing response to the famiUar converse and the domestic services of the minister, Ma.y he who labors within these walls be enabled to verify this by his own personail experience. May the countenance of heaaren rest upon all his ministrations, and while engaged in the Sabbath exercises of piety, or in the week'^day intercourse with your families, may a blessing from on high attend every footstep of his progress in the giidst of you. ■ Meanwhile I will take leave of you. No breaking up of my official relationship will lessen that close and afiecting relationship which I shall ever feel towEffd your famihes. If Grod be pleased to spare me, there is no house where I would more willingly resume, for 'a season, the ministrations of the word of life, no portion of the great ^vineyard of Christ in which I shall ever feel a more peculiar interest and property than that which is attached to it. May the blessings of God rest upon you alL May parents have _great comfort of their ^T. 43, LIFE OF DH. CHALMERS. 173 children ; and may children, brought up in the -w-ays of piety, rise around their parents and call them blessed. Above all, may you be" found in that way of pleasantness and path of peace which leads to heaven. A few years more and the storms of'thig changing life shall all have, blown over us. Let our prayers often meet in the upper sanctuary ; and when the morn of the resurrection cometh may we be found side by side at the right hand of our Judge and Saviour." His multifarious labors for Glasgow were now brought to an end, and though he ceased not to keep an eye upon the opera- tions he had set in motion, and sometime afterward put to a hand to help them on, he was no longer to be connected with them as a ]prime mover. Of the results of those remarkable eight years. Dr. Hanna presefils the following summary : "A few months after his settlement in Glasgow, Dr. Chalmers had wept over the grave of his beloved friend, Thomas Smith, and a few weeks previous to his departure from Glasgow, he stood by the deathbed of this converted weaver. He saw the first- and the last fruits of his Glasgow ministry seized by the hand, of death, while ripening under the eye of the earthly husband- man, and laid up in the heavenly gamer. But who could tell him of the numbers who, during the course of these eight years, and under that ministry, had been savingly impressed by Divine truth ? We know of the thoughtless young officer, who, flaunting in idle vacancy through the city streets on a Sabbath forenoon, and attracted by the eager crowds which he saw pouring into the Tron church, turned into that church as he wou^i- have done into a theater, but found it t6 be indeed the house of God — ^to him the very gate to heaven; We know of the fashionable lady, full of taste and- high refinement, but devoid of all earnest thought or care about her immortal soul, driving from her mansion^ in a neighboring county to be re- galed by the eloquence of the celebrated orator, but found of Him whom she sought not, and turned effectually unto God. We know of the busy bustling merchant, 'immersed in all the calculations of this world's traffic, lifted to the sublimer calcu- lations of eternity, and from the very whirl of this world's 174: LIFB Off DB. CHALMERS. 1888. most powerful engrossflaents won over to ajife of faith and devoted philanthropy. We know of the aspiring student, sent by thoughtless parents to college to prepare foAi* christian ministry — inflamed^ by literary ambi&on, but dead in heart to liie love of Christ, awakened as from a trance, and made to feel the true nature of that office into which he had been heed- lessly rushing, ushexed into it fired with the fresh fervors of ^ the all-constrgSuing love. Of these we can not speak more particularly, nor can we offer any estimate of the number of those whose first religious impressions are traeeable to the same earthly source, but we may be permitted to express the opinion, that with all the transient and tumultuous excitement of its mere pulpit oratory, there has rarely been a ministry of equal length as largely blessed of the Divine Spirit to the con- version of individual souls. The more general effects of that miniistry, in its bearings upon the religious condition of Glas- gow and of Scotland, He open enough to observation. When Dr. Chalmers came to Glasgow, by the great .body of the upper classes of society evangelical doctrines were nauseated and despised ; when he left it, even by those who did not bow to their influence, these doctrines Were acknowledged to be indeed the very doctrines of the Bible. When Dr. Chalmers came to Glasgow, in, the eye of the multitude, evUngelism stood con- founded with a driveling sanctimoniousness or a. sour-n^nded asceticism : when he left it, from all such false associations the Christianity of the New Testament stood clearly and nobly redeemed. When Dr. Chalmers came to Glasgow, for nearly a century, the magistrates and town council had ezeri^sed the oifcy patronagfe in a spirit determinately anti-evangelical : when he left it, so complete was the revolution which had been ef- fected, that from that time forward none but evangelical cler- gymeSi were appointed by the city patrons. When Dr. Chai- mers c3me to Glasgow, there and elsewhere over Scotland there were many most devoted clergymen d the Establishment who had given themselves up wholly to the ministry of the word and to prayer, but there was not one in whose faith and practice week-day ministrations had the place or power which he as^gned ^T« 48. UFE OF DE. CHALMEES. lI'S to them ; when he left it, he had exhibited such a model of fidelity, diligence and activity, in all departments of ministerial labor, as tol(f$nally upon the spirit and practice of the whole ministry of Scotland. When Dr. Chalmers came to Glasgow, unnoticed thousands of the city population were sinking into ignorance, infidelity and vice, and his eye was the first in this country to foresee to what a fearful magjdtude that evil, if suf- fered to grow on unchecked, would rise ; when he left it, his ministry in that oity remained beliiad hini in permanent warn- ing to a nation which had been but slow to learn that the great- est of all questions, both for statesmen and for churchmen, is the condition of those untaught and degraded thousands who swarm now around the base of the sooiat edifice, and whose brawny arms may yet gi-asfi its pillars to shake or to destroy. When Dr. Chalmers came to Glasgow, in the literary circles of the Scottish metropolis a thinly disguised infidelity sat on the seats of greatest influence, and smiled or s coifed at a vital ener- getic faith in the great and distinctive truths of revelation, while widely over his native land the spirit of a frigid indiflFerence to religion prevailed: when he left it, the current of public sentiment had begun to set in a contrary direction, and al- though it took many years, and the labor of many other hands to carry that healthful change onward to maturity, yet I be- lieve that it is not over-estimating it to say, that it was mainly by Dr. Chalmers's ministry in Glasgow— by, his efibrts at this period in the pulpit and through the press — that the tide of national opinion and sentiment was turned. And if Glasgow was honored in numbering Dr. Chalmers so long among her citizens, and in having been the sphere in which labors so eminently useful had been prosecuted, she proved herself not unworthy of the privilege. From her oflScial men he always received the most courteous treatment, and to their kindness he was indebted for the facilities afforded him in car- rying his plans into execution. Her citizens vied with one an- other in all^ kindly recognitions of one of whom all were proud, while among the narrower circle of his own congregation many personal attachments were formed, purer, deeper, and more 176 LIFE'-OF DK. OHAUaEES. 1823. lasting than any afterward created during a lang lifetime of affectionate intercourse with his feUow-men." Just before his d&parture a dinner was given in his honor, presided over by the Lord Prevost, at which no less than three himdred and forty gentlemen sat down. ,The diversity of opinions and parties there represented, was a testimony to the recognized liberality of him,.out of regard to whom they had come together^ Upon the day after this entertainment. Dr. Chalmers set out for St. Andrew's, whither he was accom- panied by a number of gentlemen from Glasgow, who, after attending at the ceremony of iis installment into his new office, on Friday, the 14th, and upon his introductory lecture the next day, contributed to the harmony of the whole- proceed- ing by entertaining at dinner the two principals, all the profes" sors, and a number of gentlemen from the neighborhood of St. Andrew's. Dr. Chalmers's family joined him toward the beginning- of January. In the meanwhile he was pleasantly accommodated in the house of bis friend, Mr. Dunekn, then Frofesscn: of Math- ematics in the TJniyersity. CHAPTER X. The labor upon which Dr. Chalmers had now entered was hardly less arduous than that which he had left behind. His previous , occupations were such as to preclude any extensive preparation for succeeding duties. He consequently opened his course at St. Andrew's with lectures sufi&cient for, only a week or two, and as he wished to keep his written composi- tions in advance of their- delivery, it became an object of some anxiety to him to .observe the distance between them narrow- ing as the time passed on. " I shall be lecturing," he writes in March, " for six weeks yet, and am very nearly from hand to mouth with my preparations. I have the prospect of win- ning th« course, though it will be by no more than half a neck ; but I like the employmaeQt vastly." " How like and yet how different this first session of Dr. Chalmers in the moral philo- sophy chair at St. Andrew's, and the first session of Dr. Thomas Brown in the same chair at Edinburgh. Both began their winter -labors almost wholly unfurnished with written preparations ; but the one came to them from the retirement of the country, and after a summer of quiet reading and reflec- tion ; the other from the whirl of -city life, and from the tumul- tuous occupations of a dififerent and most engrossing profession. Both under the excitement of the occasion, and with the samp rare facUity of rapid composition, threw off writings which scarcely required or admitted emendation, in which specula- tions the most original aad profovmd were invested with all the charms of a fascinating eloquence. But Dr. Brown trusted much more than Dr. Chalmers to the spur of the moment. He seldom began to write his lectures till late in the evening of the day which preceded >t;heir delivery. Upon the subjects of many of them he had not reflected till he sat down, and many of his most ingenious theories- occurred to him in the course of composition. Dr. Chalmers seldom began to write without (177) ITS LIFE OF BK. CHALMERS. 1824. a distinct and matured conception of the topics whicli he in- tended to discuss, and with certain broad outlines of thought laid down, which he seldom if ever traversed. From an early period in the morning he studied -at regular intervals through- out the day, and the hour which saw Dr. Brown fastened to his midnight task found Dr. Chalmers relieTed and at leisure to enjoy, with all the freedom and freshness of an unburdened mind, the society of his family and friendsi One cannot fol- low the progress of either throughout their first sesMon of pro- fessoriaL.toil without the feeling that we are contemplating a singular intellectual feat, perforn;ied by a marvelously gifted operator. Yet to the mode of operation there attaches in the one instance a natural healthiness of tone and manner whick belongs not to Ihe other ; and if to the opus operatumin the latter case there belongs a scientific completeness and finish which the other cannot claim, this may be attributed to Dr. Brown's greater antecedent familiarity with his subject, and to the well- digested plan upon which his labors were commenced and carried through." Though pressed , into the execution of suc^ a task, and though ■ yielding ta the necessity, he enjoyed its excitement. Dr. Chalmers entertained no' approbation of it as a feat, nay, he deliberately acknowledged the impeffeotions of his course, and that they were due to the want of adequate time in which to mature thought and select expression, " I cannot," he said, " pretend to summon, as if by the wand of a magician, a finished system of moral philosophy into beiag in one or eTcn in two years. There is a certain showy aad superficial some- thing' which can be done in very short time. One may act the part of a harlequin with his mind as well as with his body ; and there is a sort of mental agility Which always gives me the impression of a bai-lequin. Anything which can be spokes of as a feat is apt to suggest this association. That man, for example, was a thorough- harlequin, in both senses of the Wordi who boasted that he could throw oS a hundred verses of poetiy while he stood upon one foot. There was some- thing folr wonder ia this; but it is rarely by any such exploit JBX. 44. LIFE OF TfB. CHALMERS. 179 that we obtain deep, and powerful, and enduring poetry. It is by dint of steady labor — it is by giving enough of applica- tion to the work, and haviiig enough of time for the doing' of it — it is by regular painstaking and the plying of constant assiduities — it is by these, and not by any process of legerde- main, that we secure the strength and the staple of real' excellence." In addition to the regular moral philosophy class his lecture- room was always crowded with auditors drawn together by the reputation of his eloquence, and retained by the fascination of his views and. manner. Their~ delight not finding sufficient utterance in the daily applause with which they greeted him, a design was contemplated of making him a valuable present, which coming to his knowledge was suppressed by his own kindly though' firm discouragement. No sooner had that session come to an end than he was busily employed in preparation for the approaching General Assembly, to which he had been elected as an elder by the borough of Anstruther. Several questions of interest were to come before that body. The "first was that " respecting the admission of Principal Macfarlane as minister of the High church of Glasgow." In the debate which ensued on that subject, " the leading counsel for Dr. Macfarlane had quoted and laid much stress upon the Act of the Scottish parliament of 1692, by which Presbyteries were 'hound and astricted to receive and admit every qualified presentee.' Among the leading ecclesiastical authorities it had not hitherto been doubted that, in the exercise of her own inherent authority, either by a general law or by specific enactment, the Church could prevent such union of offices as that now contemplated. High ,legal authorities, however, now began to hint it as their conviction, that the Church could not do so without acting ille- gally, by violating the statute above alluded to. To the doc- trine thus newly broached. Dr. Chalmers alluded in the close of his speech in words upon which after events impress a pecu- liar significance : "I do not at all enter into the question of your power to lay a veto on the presentation in this instanccr 180 LIFE OF DB. OHALMEKS. 1824. for there can be no doubt of . it :- . 4hat presentation has had every justice done to it. The Presbytery received it to their notice, and witTi all the forms of court ; they admitted it to lie upon their table, and then gave their full and delibe- rate regards to the fitnesa of rthe presentee. On the, questiom that is always put and always must be pronounced upoii in one way or other, whether the presentation shall or shall jiot be sustained, they did, but not till time and argument, and a fair and free debate were .allowed to the consideration of it, come to.j a lUegative. For reasons strictly ecclesiastical, and for which these ecclesiastical guides and guardians can hold up an unabashedJace in society, they laid their arrest upon the pre- sentation by refusing, to sustain it. _ They were reasons that bore to be canvassed before one of our superior judicatories, and for which that judicatory confirmed our decision. We now wait the sentence of our ultimate court ; and we can never ona, to turn the Sabbath into a day o|.ente?jK, tainm#t and festivity. His disapprobation was distinctly, but withoi^t Yjolence, .expressed to the,partres«coneerned.V I^ had ', come, he said, from a great distance Qn ffieir "a"cc6unt, and had thereby purchased the privilege of, telling them iplain thingsi thatJihey shiyuld hav» consulted, him ere they made their ar- ■ fangements, that what they had done sitood in^the same rela- tion to what thiy should h^ve done, that an adverlisem6w| of Dr. Solomon's did to the respectable doings of. the reguld.i'fac- Tllty. On the Sabbath he sent for the principal nsafiager wfth a view of obtaining some alteration in the. exercises ; but. that personage was then presiding at a dinner given "beforie sermon to the "gentlemen of tbft orehestja," and in the midst of a speech .^o t^eni* The prayers ' and.' ; the sermon were to have been mixed pp with thfe music ; but Dr. palmers sent word that he Would no| be present at their music at all ; that his service should be separated altogethep fjom th«lr .entrain- ' ment — that he should pray', preach, and pray again, in suc- cession — not entering .the pulpit till the taometit*Qf his "beginning, and retiring from jt as soon as Jse should have ended. - This change was accordingly made, and at six o'clock inth^ evening, the time appointed fo^the sermon, he made his appearance. '^Will yoii bejieve it ?" he writes, "an or^hestm of at least one hundred peoplejj.tlwee rows of female singenC in which two professional female smgtrs,'so many professional male dingers, a number of araatettrs : and I now t)ffes you a list of the instruments so Jar as I have been able to ascertain them — onapair of bass-drums, two trumpets,^ bassoca, organ, serpents, violins without- number, violoncelloes, bass-viol?, , flutes, hautboys. I stopped in the minister's room till it^was over. Went to the pulpit — prayed, preached, retirejifduring; the time of the collection, gnd again prayed. Before I left JB!T. 44. LtFE OF DK. CHALMERS. 187 my- own private room they fell to agaiiL with most tremendous fury, and the likest 1ih!ng to it which I recollect, is a great military band on the castle-hill of Edinburgh." *• Th"© collection taken up on the occasion of that, sermon was £398, and on Monday |t was augmented to £401. CHAPTER XI. Fbom the ]panlti&rioiis Iscbors of iis summer vacation Dr. Chalmers returned to enter upon those of a session which con- iStituted " the most brilliant epoch of his academical career at St. Andrew's," With more leisure ,for careful preparation than he-had previously enjoyed, the encouragement of a niune- rous and attentive auditory was largely augmented.^ More than twicse the number of students liiat ever attended the instouctions of his most eminent predecessors crowded his lecture-room ; some of older standing returned upon their course, and many genftemen attaclied themselves to his class who had no other collection with the university. ' " The superior character and capacity of. the students toldjip'on the-spirit and efforts of J;heir pro^ssor. It was thro'ughout one busy-season of animating and most productive labor. •■ His course of lectures on ethics was carried a stagp further toward that condition of corapl'ete- " ness, which however they were destined never to attain." In respect, to that course it may be remarked that it departed ffom the boundaries preyiously set to the department. ia, St. Andrew's and other Scotch universities. Under the heaijj- of moral philosophy they included both';cpejital and moral science, as Well "as air thaA was taught of political economy^ Dr. Chalmers ri^tly conceiving that florals are more intimately connected with religion than with metaphysics^ ventured to set aside the wLole branch of mental science s^d mate his course one truly on moral jhilosophy, terminating in the doctrines of revealed religion and constituting a progressive approach to the study of chris^an tiieolbgy. It was divided into those " moralities which reciprocate betweeli man and man on earth," and those " which connect earth with heaven," The most valuable of his lectures were those belonging tg the lat- ter division, treating of natural theology. They were after- a88) ST. 44. LIFE OF DB. CHALMERS. wwi remodeled and- introduced into his course of theological instruction in Edinburg-h " and will be found in the ifirst and second -volumes of his published works. In the fifth volume ef the same series, the reader is presented with as many of the lectures in the first, or strictly ethical division of his course, as their author thought fit to publish. Dr. Chalmers's method- of' instruction V was diffuse and illustrative. To facilitate the remembrance of his lectures, to give his students a distmct^conceptioQ of the ground actually traversed, and to prepare them for that examination: to which they were aftprward to be subjected, he dictated a few succinct sentences, containing the leading topics of each lecture, so as to fumisk bis studerits with a condejased syllabus of his course. It would not have been easy for them, amid the excit^ents of that class, to have followed the-old practice of the Scottish wniversities bytaJdng notes during the delivery of the lecture. The very, manner of that delivery would have been suflScient to have kept their eye fixed upon tiie lecturer.^ There was, beside, the novelty of many of the ^speculations, as well as of the garb in which they were presented ; while the interest was at once deepened and diversified — at times, by some extempo- raneous addition or illustration, in which the lecturer springing from his seat, and bending over the desk, through thick and difficult and staoiiBaering fttteraiBce in which every avenue to expression seemed to be choked upi found j^s way to some picturesque colreeptioa and expressive phraseology^ which shed a fiood of light oa the topic in hand ; and again, by some poetic quotation, recited witli most emphatic fervor, or by some humorous allusion or ajieedote told with archest giee. It was almost impossible in such a singular class room to check the burst of applause, or to restrain the inerriment. The-professor did his best, and used many expedients for this purpose." But not- withstaxbding all, the pedestrian approbation was destined to accompany him "through the whole of his aeademicM career." To regular examination of his studeats upon the lectures ne delivered, Dr. Gbalmers at^hed so mxuib. importance that 190 LIFE OF ip. CHAUOEES. 18^. he -wfis ia the habit of careMly Writing out beforehand the principal questions. Yet one of hSj pupils informs us that "the examination was anything bilt formal. It was enlifseti^ by questions first addressed to individnalsj. and "then, if unan- swered, cast iabroad on the whol&olass. Each was anxious to distinguish himself by his replies. >, The same question found d;i*ers answers. In that diversity we found a new source of intei'est,. and new lights were- Struck outl - The excitementj the Suspense of mind, and the successive approxiniatioEs of one after another to the true and sufficient answer, created scenes of intellectual animation that I delight to recall. In the midst of -these not seldom the pro&sssr hims&hf broie in with some esrtemporaneous or, -half extemporaneous exposition on> the fiBpics that had come u^. Ifothing, coiild b& niore gen'ial than these gushes- of ' fresh thought and *ivid illustration.- We called them his buds, -and, like other buds, they were all • the more interesting that they were not blown.- In these exoTir- sions he often expressed himself with all the point, condensa- tion, and terseness SwiiiBh every one must have observed in Ms conversational, as contrasted with his written, style. , In a few- emphatic and impassioned -sentences he set -oefose us the whole philosophy of a subject, amd that in so compact and portable a form, that it -was transferred not only to our note- books, but lodged for life in our minds, -under, the triple guar-> dianship of the understaading, the imagination and "the heart." Political economy was too much of a favorite -with Dr. Qhal- mers to be. confined by him to the limited space it had pre- viously occupied in thfe Sec^tish imiversities. -\4ccording to an announcement made at the close of his fest sefision at St, Abs" drew-'s, he opened,-' in November, 1826, a separate class for the study of that subject. This he did not teach, by lecture, but by recitation, ohoosing ^' Smith's Wealth of Nations," as his text-book, and, in the course of examination,; supplementing and illustrafing the views therein presented. Of this method lof instructicm he thus expressed himself before the Eoyal Com- missioners : " I must say that I feel great comfort in "it, and am sensible of its greatefficacy. I find that ccAIng to close quarters < JBfT4.^iS. um OP DUff QHALMEE8. 191 wkh the juvenile mind upon subj.ects which they have pre- viously read upon, is a ve^y. eflfeotive method of teaching them, insomUjgh . that were I furnished with an .unexceptionable set q|^ tfixt-hooks on moral philosophy, I should feel strcaigly inclined to adopt the same method in that class too.'' Original inveatigation, was also required of the students un- der his instruction. A topic belonging to the general subject under discussion was each Friday assigned to a portion of the el»s's, who rea,d respectively their essays upon it, in the lec- ture-room, on the Friday following. These productions were brief, not occupying more than eight or ten minutes ih' the de- livery, but'great latitude was permitted in treatment of the subjects assigned, or the choice of kindred ones. For the purpose of c^lhug forth, more strenuous effort, the subject for a prize essay was announced at Christmas, to be ready in the month of April. ■ A neiw element in the' philosophical class- room, introduced by Dr. Chalifters, was the dslily prayer, whereby the work of the hour was opened, very short, but always impressive; and sometimes eveti sublime- • "Glasses- conducted by such an instructor, jn which the methods now indicated were so vigorously prosecuted, could not but be effeatlve. Whea be acceptsii the appointment toi 'St. Andrew's, many a misgiving, had been expressed as io his fitness for the new ofiB'ee, and many a sage reflec- tion had been thrown out as to the opposite qualities that "were required for the pulpit and for the ehair. His lectures soon gave evidence that he could be proifound as well as popular ; and as to his mode of training the young,- if the hi^iest end of all good teaching be to awaken intellectual im- pulses, and stimulate to 'intellectual actiyity, that end was gaiUed in a pre-eminent degree.. An indescribable impulse was excited, and sustained among the students. There was qqi a latent spark of intellectual enthusiasm in any breast that was not kindled into a glowing flame. It was impossible not to follow where such a leader led. the way, and with many, as with himself, the pursuit became a passionV There was but one other professor -qf the Scottish universities who had been 192 LIFE- OF DE. CBMMSBa. 1825. equally successful, thoug]^ in a Tery different way, in calling tjie youthftcl intellectual energy into action, -and hfi was no-w sinking into the sere and' yellow leaf, 'tf Professor Jardine, of. Glasgow, ''says; one who was * student under both, * had the" art abote most men of .' breaking the .shell,' to use Lofd Jef- frey's phrase. Dr. OhaJmers excelled in tempting ^ose wh^ise shetl wag -fdready brekeji, to^ Jrove their wings-^m teacEing them how to fly, and whither to -direct theif, fl^ht. . Under Jardine we learned that we had an intellectual life ; at St. An- drew's we were provoked tot use it ; and in the joy of its exer- (HS6, though we often mistook intdiectiiial ambition for intellect- ual ability, time eorreote'd- that unatake^ a»d meanwhile What- ever was in us was drawn oui of us by tbe intensive aad en- thusiastic spirit of -our intellectual chieC" - Avpart of the sucsceding vacation was again oocttfied with the business of the General Assembly. . The two printipal 'subjects of debate were moved, th« one by Dr. Thomson, the other . by J[)t. Chalmers. . The former was a case of presenta- tion to a Gaelic: parish of a usinieter wholly unacquainted with' the Gaelic language. The Presbytery had refused to sustain the presenta,H:on,^ the 'Synod had affirmed that-_deeisioni and the '. matter- was aow bwugbt -"before the Asseinbly for final adjustment. Dr. Thomson moved, and Dr. Chalmers secooded the motion to instruct the Presbytety "not'fe procfeed with such asetflement, and'thatthis decision .shaald be respectfully communicated, to the- offices ef . the Oi'own, in order that ano- ther and properiy ^quaKfiedT individual jirightbe presented.." After a debate irhitii called iorih one of the most powerful speeches of Dr^ Thomson, the motion was carriedi&y a major- ity of 107 to 89. . The motion presented by Dr. Chalmers' was not so successful. .It was aimed, against the holding of, college professorships by ministers at 'the same tiim« retanjiltea pasto- ral charge — an evil .at which he had, onOtheTOcc&sioils aim^ several sturdy bldws. 'Thowgh the motion was lo^ the debate eoiitribufced to keep the subject before the publie, aad brought forward some more cogent arguments for reform. The most remar^blil' passage in Lt, was one touching the principal dis^ MT. 46. LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 193 putant himself. " Late in the afternoon of the second day's debate, a speech on the opposition side had been closed by a quotation from an anonymous pamphlet, in which the author asserted that, from what to him was the highest of all author- ity, the authority of his own experience, he could assert that, « after the satisfactory discharge of his parish duties, a minis- ter may enjoy five days in the week of uninterrupted leisure for the prosecution of any science in which his tastes may dis- pose him to engage. ' As this passage was emphatically read, no doubtful hint being given as to its authorship, all eyes were turned toward Dr. Chalmers. The interposition of another speech afforded him an opportunity for reflecting on the best manner of meeting this personal attack. At the close of the debate, and amid breathless silence, he spoke as follows : " Sir, that pamphlet I now declare to have been a produc- tion of my own, published twenty years ago. I was indeed much surprised to hear it brought forward and quoted this evening ; and I instantly conceived that the reverend gen- tleman who did so, had been working at the trade of a resur- rectionist. Verily I believed that my unfortunate pamphlet had long ere now descended into the tomb of merited oblivion, and that there it was mouldering in silence, forgotten and dis- regarded. But since that gentleman has brought it forward in the face of this house, I can assure him that I feel grateful to him from the bottom of my heart, for the opportunity he has now afforded me of making a public recantation of the senti- ments it contains. I have read a tract entitled the ' Last Mo- ments of the Earl of Rochester,' and I was powerfully struck in reading it, with the conviction how much evil a pernicious pamphlet may be the means of disseminating. At the time when I wrote it, I did not conceive that my pamphlet would do much evil ; but, sir, considering the conclusions that have been deduced from it by the reverend gentleman, I do feel obliged to him for reviving it, and for bringing me forward to make my public renunciation of what is there written. I now confess myself to have been guilty of a heinous crime, and I now stand a repentant culprit before the bar of this venerable Assembly. 17 194 LIFE OF i)E. CHALMEES. 1325. " The circumstances attending the publication of my pam- phlet were shortly as follows : As far back as twenty years ago, I was ambitious enough to aspire to be successor to Pro- fessor Playfair in the mathematical chair of the University of Edinburgh. During the discussion which took place relative to the person who might be appointed his successor, there ap- peared a letter from Professor Playfair to the magistrates of Edinburgh on the subject, in which he stated it as his convic- tion, that no person could be found competent to discharge the duties of the mathematical chair among the clergymen of the Church of Scotland. I was at that time, sir, more devoted to mathematics than to the literature of my profession ; and feel- ing grieved and indignant at what I conceived an undue re- flection on the abilities and education of our clergy, I came forward with that pamphlet to rescue them from what I deemed an unmerited reproach, by maintaining that a devoted and ex- clusive attention to the study of mathematics was not disso- nant to the proper habits of a clergyman. Alas ! sir, so I thought in my ignorance and pride. I have now no reserve in sayiftg that the sentiment was wrong, and that, in the utter- ance of it, I penned what was most outrageously wrong. Strangely blinded that I was ! What, sir, is the object of math- ematical science ? Magnitude and the proportions of magni- tude. But then, sir, I had forgotten two magnitudes — I thought not of the littleness of time — I recklessly thought not of the greatness of eternity ! " " For a moment or two after the last words were spoken a deathlike stillness reigned throughout the house. The power and pathos of the scene were overwhelming, and we shall search long in the lives of the most illustrious ere we find an- other instance in which the sentiment, the act, the utterance, each rose to the same level of sublimity, and stood so equally embodied in the one impressive spectacle." During the remainder of this vacation, his time was more at his own disposal than it had been for many years, and the record of his spiritual condition is accordingly more full. Our limits admit only a few extracts. ^T. 45. LIFE OF DK. CHALMEES. 195 " Sunday, June 26 in the masses and the large movements which take 214 LIFE OF DB. CHALMEES. 1828. place among the parties and proceedings of a state, opinion is apt to be taken by whole bodies of men in the bulk, and with- out any reference had to certain important modifications which it is dangerous to lose sight of. I feel convinced, sir, that on this very question there is the want of a most necessary dis- crimination between the use of these artificial securities for an Establishment which have now been abolished, and the use of an Establishment at all. And, therefore, now is the time, when felicitating our monarch on the abolition of the one, that we, in one short and emphatic sentence, should lift our strenu- ous testimony in behalf of the other. It follows not because there should be a full equality between churchmen and secta^ rians in every civil and political right, that therefore a church and an Establishment are uncalled for. Believing, as we do, that without the maintenance of a national clergy, all the zeal, and effort, and activity of dissenters could not save our land from lapsing into a tenfold grosser heathenism than it other- wise would do ; and fearful as we at the same time are, that some may be counting on the last glorious triumph of liberality as a step in advance toward the overthrow of religious estab- lishments, we are all the more imperiously called upon to dis- tinguish between the things which differ ; and while we rejoice in the wider door that has now been opened for sectarians to all the privileges of citizens, to accompany- this with our pointed declaration in behalf of a church to which I heartily believe that Scotland stands mainly indebted for the religion and the worth of her people. " I can truly say that I feel as much in earnest for the pub- lic testimony in behalf of the latter sentiment, as in behalf of the former ; for the appeal by us on the side of a religious Establishment, is an appeal on the side of that law of tolera- tion which has recently been extended to all sects ; and I think that a united testimony in favor of both these principles would come with peculiar grace and propriety from the Church of Scotland — from that church which, on the one hand, is a living instance of the uselessness of those restrictions which have now been,4one away, and, on the other hand, has made ^T. 48. LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 215 such ample returns for the protection of the state in the worth of her services ; and I further think, sir, that such a mani- festation on our part were not only in the highest degree he- coming, but considering the aspect of the times, were in the highest degree seasonable. With all my predilections on the side of freedom, I do not apprehend so much of danger to our land from the advances of liberality, as from the over impetu- ous career of a headlong and unguarded liberalism. I have spoken with frankness of the Church of England, but most assuredly, without the slightest feeling of disrespect ; conceiv- ing, as I do, that to put forth upon her the inYading hand of a destroyer, were, instrumentally speaking, to reach the deadli- est possible blow at the Christianity of the nation." The motion was lost, but the liberal party could at least console themselves with the fact that they had thereby obtained an " expression of the Assembly's approval of the repeal." Mr. Irving was at the same time in Edinburgh, delivering a series of lectures on prophesy. " He is drawing," says Dr. Chalmers, " prodigious crowds. We attempted this morning to force our way into St. Andrew's Church, but it was all in vain. He changes to the West Church for the accommodation of the public." " Monday, 26th. — For the first time heard Mr. Irving in the evening. I have no hesitation in saying that it is quite woeful. There is power and richness, and gleams of exquisite beauty, but withal a mysticism and an extreme allegorization which I am sure must be pernicious to the general cause. This is the impression of every clergyman I have met, and some think of making a friendly remonstrance with him upon the subject. He sent me a letter he had written to the king against the re- peal of the Test and Corporation Acts, and begged that I would read every word of it before I spoke. I did so, and found it unsatisfactory and obscure, but not half so much so as his sermon of this evening." The rest of this summer Dr. Chalmers devoted entirely to preparation for his theological lectures in Edinburgh, upon which he entered in the beginning of November. His inauguration 216 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEEB. '»* 18S8. took place on the 6th, and the introductory lecture was delivered on the following Monday at eleven o'clock in the forenoon. " The morning of that day was singularly un propitious, showers of snow and hail sweeping through the college courts ; yet from so early an hour as nine, those who had secured that privilege were passing by a private entrance into the class-room, while so great a crowd besieged the outer door, that a strong body of police found it difiBcult to restrain the tumult. " It was a day," says'Mr. Bruce Cunningham, " as you will easily believe, of no common expectation and excitement, not only among those who were professionally required to become his pupils, but also to not a few of the worthiest citizens of Edinburgh, who having once and again listened with impas- sioned wonder and delight to his mighty words as a preacher of the gospel, scarcely knew what to expect /rom him as an academic expounder and disciplinarian in the science of the- ology. If I may judge of other minds from the state of my own feelings at the time, I may safely state, that at no time, either before or since, has a tumult of amotions, so peculiar and intense, agitated the hearts of the many who waited for his first*appearance in the chair of theology. I well remember his look as he first canie from the vestry into the passage lead- ing to the desk. He had an air of extreme abstraction, and, at the same time, of full presence of mind. Ascending the steps in his familiar resolute manner, he almost immediately engaged in his opening prayer : that was most startling, and yet deeply solemnizing. In closest union with a simple, forci- ble antithesis of intellectuial conception, clothed in still more antithetical expressions, there was a deep vital consciousness of the glory of the divine presence. The power of the dialec- tician restrained and elevated by the prayerful reverence as of some prophet in ancient Israel, imparted a most remarkable peculiarity of aspect to his first devotional utterance, in the class. On his discourse I shall not presume on your patience by anything like detailed remark. All felt far more deeply than they could worthily declare, that it was a most glorious prelude, and that at once and forever his right to reign as a vET. 4S. LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 217 king in the broad realms of theological science, and to rule over their own individual minds as a teacher, was as unequivo- cal as his mastery over a popular assembly. Personally I always feel, in recalling that scene, as, if, by some peculiar en- chaniment of association, I had listened, all unconscious of the present world, to one or other of Handel's most sublime efforts of harmony. To this hour I dwell with all the mysterious delight that is awakened by some grand choral symphony on some of his novel expressions, which, borrowed from physical science, directly tended, by almost more than the force of his best diagrams, to make his noble thoughts all our own." The rapturous applause which hailed the opening of the course continued, with scarcely a sensible abatement, through- out the session. The lecturer was dealing with his favorite subjects — Natural Theology and Evidences of Christianity — and eagerly seized the opportunity of presenting thereupon the results of long continued and mature reflection. " And he had much to animate him in the audience he addressed — an au- dience altogether unique within the walls of a university, em- bracing in addition to his own regular students, distinguished members of the various professions, and many of the most intelligent citizens of Edinburgh." This latter class, very pro- perly feeling that something more than applause was due from them to one who had contributed so much to their instruction, and delight, at the end of the course, presented him with an addition to his salary of more than two hundred pounds. Before the end of that same session. Dr. Chalmers found himself called upon to take part in the great political question of Catholic Emancipation. A letter from Sir James Macintosh, of the 22d February, 1 829, urging the importance of making public his views on the subject, which were known by his friends to be liberal, drew forth one of his most brilliant efforts, not, however, as Sir James had suggested, in the form of a sermon or pamphlet, but of a speech before a meeting of the citizens of Edinburgh, in order to petition in favor of the Cath- olic Emancipation Bill. That speech had tremendous effect on the cause at the time, and for the broad, liberal aad truly 19 218 LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 1828; Protestant spirit which imbued it, merited the applause it received. The last paragraph is especially worthy of ever- lasting remembrance. " It is not because I hold Popery to be innocent that I want the removal of these disabilities ; but because I hold, that if these were taken out of the way she would be tenfold more assailable. It is not because I am indiflferent to the good of Protestantism that I want to displace these artificial crutches from under her ; but because I want that, freed from every symptom of decrepitude and decay, she should stand forth in her own native strength, and make manifest to all men how firm a support she has on the goodness of her cause, and on the basis of her orderly and well laid arguments. It is because I count so much — and will any Protestant here present say that I count too much ? — on her Bible, and her evidences, and t^ blessing of God upon her churches, and the force of her resist- less appeals to the conscience and the understandings of men; it is because of her strength and sufficiency in these that I ^ould disclaim the aids of the statute-book, and own no de- pendence or obligation whatever on a system of intolerance. These were enough for her in the days of her suflFering, and should be more than enough for her in the days of her com- parative safety. It is not by our fears and our false alarms that we do honor to Protestantism. A far more befitting honor to the great cause is the homage of our confidence ; for what Sheridan said of the liberty of the press, admits of most em- phatic application to this religion of truth and liberty. 'Give,' says the great orator, ' give ,to ministers a corrupt House of Commons ; give them a pliant and a servile House of Lords; give them the keys of the Treasury and the patronage of the Crown ; and give me the liberty of the press, and with this mighty engine I will overthrow the fabric of corruption, and establish upon its ruins the rights and privileges of the people.' In like manner, give the Catholics of Ireland their emancipa- tion ; give them a seat in the Parliament of their country ; give them a free and equal participation in the politics of the realm ; give them a place at the right ear of majesty, and a ^T, 49. LIFE OF DB. CHALMERS. 219 voice in his counsels ; and give me the circulation of the Bible, and with this mighty engine I will overthrow the tyranny of Antichrist, and establish the fair and original form of Christi- anity on its ruins.* " The politics of the question I have left to other and abler hands. I view it only in its religious bearings ; and I give it as my honest conviction, and I believe the conviction of every triie-hearted Protestant who knows wherein it is that the great strength of his cause lies, that we have everything to hope from this proposed emancipation, and that we have nothing to fear." " The effects of that speech," says "Mr. Eamsay, " have been described as something very remarkable. An excitement - and enthusiasm pervaded the large and closely crowded as- semblage seldom witnessed in modern times. I heard our most distinguished Scottish critic (Lord Jeffrey), who was present on the occasion, give it as his deliberate opinion, that never had eloquence produced a greater effect upon a popular assembly, and that he could not believe more had ever been done by the oratory of Demosthenes, Cicero, Burke or Sher- idan." * We have in this case a curious example of the contrast sometimes existing between the judgment of an author and that of the world upon his production. " The delivery of this splendid passage, which was given with prodigious force, elicited a burst of applause so deafening and enthusiastic, that the effect was altogether sublime. The shouts and huzzas were thrice renewed, and it was with difficulty the spealcer could proceed." — Caledonian Mercury, March, 1829. " The conclusion of the reverend Doctor's speech was greeted with renewed shouts and huzzas, the whole audience standing and waving their hats in the air. This lasted several minutes, and it was not with- out difficulty that the tumult of admiration was allayed." — Ibid. " I was quite uncomfortable in speaking, from my excessively high pitch of voice, beneath which I could not fall. It was well received, notwithstanding. I have uniformly experienced the insincerity of that pleasure which is afforded by the praise of others." — Journal, March Uth, 1839. 220 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEKS. 1829. The same subject Dr. Chalmers also presented at a meeting of the Presbytery of Edinburgh, entering more fully into his reasons for advocating the removal from Roman Catholics of all civil disabilities. In the midst of these exciting occupations, he received in- formation of the death of his youngest and favorite brother, Alexander, on the 22d April, 1829. On the day of the fune- ral he entered these words in his journal letter to Mrs. Chal- mers : " This is the fifth time within these few years that I have been chief mourner, and carried the head of a relative to the grave. But this has been far the heaviest of them all." Again, on the next day : " 26w, vhen the -King, again took off hi^ hat; we tjien proceeded to the foot of the tjirorre, and. all made a third low bow, on which th6 King again .took off- his- hat. After this, the MtjSerator read his address, ■^Rhich was a little long, and the Kiiig. bow^d repeatedly i^ile it was reading. The •Moderator then reached '"the adidress to the King upon the 21 24:2 LIFE OF ttR. CHALMERS. 1880. tfeoae, who took it. from him and-gaye it to Sir Robert Peel on his' left hand, ■who in his turn gave the King his written reply, which he read very well. After this, the Moderator went up to the stool before the throne,' leaned his^left knee upon it, and kissed the King's hand. We 'each in our "turn did the same thing ; the Moderator naming every one of us as we advanced ; I went through my kne6l ind,my kiss very comfortably. The King said something to each of us. His _fii-st question to me was; ' Do you reside constaifitly in Edinbiirgh ?' ' I said, 'Yes, an't please your Majesty.'-' His next question was, 'How long do you remain in town ?' !■ said, ' Till Moinday, an't please your Majesty.' I then descended the .steps leadiBg- from the foot of the throne to the 'floor,, and fell into 'my place in ' the- deputation; After '•*« had all been thus introduced, we begaa to retire in a ^ody just as we had, come, bowimg all the way with our faees to the King,' and so moving backward, when the King called out, ' IXon't go away, gentlemen, I shall leave thie throne,, and the Queen will succeed me.' We stopped, in the middle of the floor; when the most beautiful living sight I ever beheld burst upon our delighted, .gaze — the-Queen, with twelve npids of honor, in a perfect spangle of gold and diamonds, entered the room. I am sorry I cannot go over in detail the particulars of their dresses ;• only that their lofty plunaes upon their beads, and their long sweeping trains upon thefloor, had a very maginficent effect. - She took her seat on the throne, and we made the same profound.obeisances as before, advanc- ing to the foot of the steps that lead to the footstool of the throne. A short address was read to her as before : and her reply w9,simost beautifully given, in rather a tremulous voice, and just as low as that I couldk^nly bear and no more. We went through the same ceremonial of- advancing successively and kissing hands; and then Retired ^ith three bows which the Queen returned most gracefully^ but with all the simplicity, I had almost' isaid bashfulness, «f a timid country girl. She is really a very "natural and amiable looking person. The whole- was magnificent. On eack- side' of the throne were maids of honor, officers of state, the Lord Chancellor, a vast number of JET. 50. LIFE OP DE. OHALMEES. 243 military gentleineii, and among the rest the Duke of Welling- ton. My next will be to Helen. God bless you, my dear Margaret.— I am, your affectionate ifather, " Thomas Chalmers." "London, October 29tk, 1830;-^Mt Dbab Hklkn — I did not finish my description of our interview with the Queen in my letter to Margaret, for after we left the grand state-room we remained in the middle room ; and after us the Corporation of Dublin, a very large body, went with addresses to the King and Queen. There were some jpery magnificent people among them ; and as a great number had to be introduced, it took up a long time, so we had to wait half an hour at least in the middle room tilt the levee began, when the two inner doors between the middle and great state-rooms were thrown open. The King, instead of being upon the throne, now stood on the floor. There was an~ immense number of people introduced t© him, going in a very close and lengthened, column from the outer room by one comfcr door of the great state-room, passing the. King, and retiring through- an avenue of state attendants by the other corner door. ' I kissed his hand the second time, and was named both by him and Sir Robert Peel, ^fter this we remained in the middle room a considerable time, and at length left the Palace. .'We had to- wait a long time in the door lobby till our coaches' drew up for us. • The .crowding and cq.lUng of coaches had a very animating effect. We'got to our hotel at four-awaited there half ah hour.. Our coaches came for us again to take us to the Mansion House where we were to dine with the Lord Mayor. This is a magnificent house, and has a very- noble dining-room. The 'Lord Mayor himself was Un- well, and could not be v with,, us. His chaplain did the honors for him. There were about fifty. We assembled in the draw- itig-room. There were about six ladies j and I was very gra-" ciously received by the Lady Mayoress and the Lady ^Mayoress Elect, the latter of whom I had thehonor of leading to the grdat dining hall. The Lady MsCyoress elect will be Lady Mayoress at the ;great civic feast to- their Majesties, so that I 244 htPE OF DB. CHALMEKS. 1880, had -the honor of leading the very lady to dinner whom the King will lead to the great fjuildhall dinner in about a fort=> night. It was truly a civic feast. I had the, honor of sitting second on the right hand from the Lady Mayoress, there being the Lord Mayor elect between me and ier> So that I sat te- tween the Lord and Lady Mayor elect, to be Lord and Lady Mayor in a few days. T-hey were.both as kind, atid cordial to me as possible, as was also the Lady Mayoress. There are some venerable customs handed down from very remote antiquity, which I took great delight in witnessing and sharing in. After dinner one of the portly and magnificent waiters stoodL behind the Lady Mayoress with a large flagon having a lid that Ufted, and filled with the > best spiced wine. , He then called out ' silence,' and deliTteredthe following speech from behin(J the Lady Mayoress, with the great llagon in, his hand r * Gom- missioners of the Church of Scotland, the Lord Mayor, the Lady Mayoress, the Lord . Mayor elect, the Lady Mayoress elect, my masters the Sheriff and Aldermen 'of the, good city of London, bid you hearty welcome to this our ancient town, and offer ytiu a cup of lov« and kindness, in token of good feeling and good fellowship.' I have not done justice to the speech, for those Aldermen pr^esent were named in it, among th^ rest th« famous Alderman Waitman and Sir Claudius Hunter- After this speech by the crier, th© ctip v^as given to the |jady Mayoress, who turned round with it to her neighbor, the Lord-Mayor Elect ; he Ufted the lid .and kept it in his hand till she draSik, both standing; vshe ftten gave it to-hiiii, but not till she wiped with a towel the place she had drunk at| he put on the lid, and turned round to me who rose ; I took off the lid, he drapk, :wi^ed, gave the cup to me ; I turned round to my next neighbor, the Lady Mayoress elect, she- rose and took off the lid, J drank, wiped, and gave the cup to her who put on the lid, turned to her next neighbor, etc., and so the cup-, or grekt flagon rather, went round the whole company. Another .peculiar- observance was, that instead of Jiand glasses for wash- ing, there was put down an imniense massive platgof gilt silver, with' fi little rose water poured into it,' and placed before the Jen. 60. LIFE OF DK. CHALMERS. 24S I(ady Mayoress ; . she dipped the comer of her towel into it, and therewith sponged her face and hands, and said plate went round the table, and eavh of us did the same. It was most refreshing. Then came toasts and speeches. The Moderator gave one in reply to the Church of Scotland ; and' the. Lady Mayoress declared she would not leave the room till I spoke, so there was a particular toast for' me, and I had to make a sppech, which I concluded with a toast to the Lady Mayoress. Mr. George Sinclair was asked by her Ladyship to return thanks in her name, which he did with a speech, etc. After the ladies retired I sat between the Lord Mayor, who took the chair, and Alderman Sir Claudius Hunter, who was particularly kind to me. We drank tea with the ladies ; and I had much cordial conversation with the eminentes' yfho were there; as Alderman Waithman, Mr. Hartwell Home, author of the ' Introduction ;' Mr. Alexander Chalmers, author of the ' Biographical Dic- tionary ;' Sir Peter and Lady Laurie, *tc. I should have mentioned that I gave a second little speech in complimelit to Mr. Home, whom I offered as a toast.' We went off in our carriages about ten, much delighted with the day's work, and retired to bed soon after our arrival.^ It wa.s during this visit that he saw Mr. Irving for the last time. The incident is thus recorded by himself : " Had a very interesting call from Mr. Irving between one and two while I was in bed. He stopped two hours, wherein h©»gave his expositions ;■ and I gaye at greater length and liberty than I had ever done before my adTices.and my views. We- parted frorh each crther-with great cordiality, after a prayer which he himself offered and delivered witli ^eat pathos and piety."* " *The remonstrances of Dr. CQialmers had no' effect in dislodging from the mind of Mr. Irving his implicit faith jn the restbration of miraculous gifts to the Church. How strong this belief remained with him to the last, will appear from the following affecting extract-from a papftr drawn up by his father-in-l^w, tlje late Dr. Martin of Kirfcaldy : "Of his implicit obedience to what he believed to be the voice of Jehovah, one of the most strilking instances was what led to hiB dying in Glasgow. His medical advisers had recommended him to proceed 24S LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 1889. In the General Assembly of 1831 the errors of Mr, Irving were taken under consideration, and resolutions adopted emphati- cally condemning them, and instructing "any presbytery be- fore -wiich he might appear, claiming the privileges of a licen- tiate or minister of the Church of Scotland, to call him to its befðe end of autumn to Madeira, or some other spot wliere he might shun the vicissitudes and inclemency of a British winter. -, But some of the oracular voices which found utterance in his church had proclaimed it to be thei^ill of God Qi^ he should go to Scotland, and do a great voA there. " Accordingly, after an equestrian tour in Wales, by which his hea^ appeared at first to be improvedj but I3ie benefit of which he lost through exposure to the weather and occasional preaching, cqntrpiy to the injunctions of his phjisician, he aa^ed at Liverpool on his way to the noj-th. In that town he was taken alarjningly ill, and was unable for several days to quit his bed ; but no sooner could he-rise and. w^k through the room, than he went, in defiance of the prohibition of his medical attendant, on board a steamboat for Greenock". From Greenock he proceeded to Glasgow, delighted at having reached the first destinst- tion that had been indicated to him. From Glasgow it was his pui'pose to proceed to Edinburgh ; but thi| I need not say.he never accomplished. So much, however, was Ms mind impressed With its 'being his duty to go there,, that even after he was unable to rise from his bed without assis-' tance, he pr6posed that he should be carried thither in a littei, if the journey could not be accomplished m any other way , and it was only because the friends about him refused to comply with his, urgent requests to that effect, th5.t the thing was not done. Could he have commanded the means himself, the attempt at least would have been made. Nor, though his frame of mind was that of almost continual converse with Go8, do I think that he ever lost the cotifidence, that after being broughf to the 'very brink of the grave, he was still to maris the finger of God in his reo^ving strength for his Scottish, mission, tUl the last day of his life was far jdvanced, when one of the most remarkable and comforting ex- pressions which he uttered, seemedto intimate that he had been debating lie point with himself, whether l;e should yield to the monitions which increasing weakness gave him of ^.pproaching dissolution, or retain his assurance that he should yet be re-invigorated for his distant undertak- ing. ' Well,' said he, ' the sum of ,the matter is, if I live, I live unto flie Lord ; andif I die, I die unto the Lord; living or iying, I am the Lord's;' — a conclusion which seemed to s^t at rest all . his difiiculties on the sub-- ject of his duty. So strongly had his confidence of rsstoration commu- nicated itself to Mrs. Irving, that it was not till within an hour or so of his death that she entertained any idea of the. impending event." MI. 60. LIFE OF DB. OHALMKJtS. 247 bar." At the same time, Mr. McLean and Mr. Scott, two licejitiatesj who had adt)pted his or similar views of the char- acter of the Saviour, as having taken on him -fallen human na- ture, wQre deprived of their license, and Mr. Campbell of Row, was ,deposed for teaching the doctrine of universal atonement, and thai; assurance is of the nature of faith. Dr. Chalmevs was not in the Assembly in which these questions were agita- ted, yet we.find reason to believe that his opinion* were ilot without weight in their settlement. The Church of Scotland had now lost one upon whose judg- ment and activity she had long been accustomed to 'repose much confidence. Only about two months before the meeting of that Assembly, Dr. Andrew Thomson had fallen by a stroke unusually sudden. On the .9th of February, 1831, in full vigor of mind and body, he had taken part in the business of presbytery,' and retuming^home in animated conversation with a friend, reached his own door, fell down and expired-' Imme^ diately after the event, Dr. Chalmers was among the friends who hastened to the spot, but found every effort to restore the functions of life, in vain. No death could, have been so gravely felt throughoTit Scotland, save that of Dr. Chalmers himself. They had co-operated, for a long, series of y«ars, in the same noble cause. .They had stood side by side in the front of evangelization. The theological lecture of next day closed with a tribute to the memory of Dr. Thomson. "I- meant, gentlemen, to have expatiated on this subject at a greater length, and perhaps would have done so with. greater vigor, but I must confess that the sad and saddening event of yesternight has unhinged me out of all strength for the- requis- ite preparation. At the ordinary time employed in framing a lesson for others, I was called away to be a learner myself — to read a lesson which of all others is the oftenest^told, yet the oftenest forgotten — ^to gaze upon features which a short time before were instinct with living energy, but which were then fast locked in the insensibility of death. I should not have felt myself justified in thus adverting to„it, had it only stood connected with personal griefs or personal interests of my own. 24:8 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 1881. but, gentlemen, it is an event of deepest -iliterest to the mem- bers of a theological school, and more especially to those who stfe now traininglor the Chiirch of Scotland, standing apprised, as I doubt. not you all are, of the heavy. loss that Church has sustained in thejioblest and most- d!istinguished of her minis- ters. A timeof deep emotion is not the time for analysis ; yet the characteristics of Dr. Thomson's mind stood forMi in such bold and prominent reli^ef, that it needs but the bare enumera- tion to be reoo|jiized by the most superficial observer. The firs^j^d foremost of these characteristics was a dauiitless, un- compromising hoiiesty in the^ maintenance of all which he ^eemed to be the cause of tenth and rie^teousness. But, gen- tlemen, I must spare myself the execution of this task, for I feel the wound to be greatly tog recent, and that the aflBicted heart keeps all the othfer faculties'of the soul in abeyance. At present I have no steadinels of hand for drawing a portrait, evef^ lineament of which opens a fresh and bitter recollection. There is still an oppressive weight on the subject, which makes all attempts at delineation impossible ; and Tather far than sketch the likeness of one who, with a suddenness so extraor- dinary, "has been drawn away from us,' would I now jningle in empathy ;with his friends, or weep 'with his deserted, family." The hand which here refused to drawthe beloved portrait- ure, -a few days afterward executed it in a manner worthy both of itself and of the illustrious subject. -The funeral sermon, of which it forms a part, will be found in the collection of Dr. Chalmers's published woAs. GHAPTER XII. ^ In November, 1 830, the speculations on Political Economy, which had been suspended to make way for the preparation of his iheoiogieal lectures, were resumed. It had>loBg been^an ob- ject of ambition with him to produce awbrk on that subjeclsjwhich might constitute a Suitable starting poiiit for a series of publica- tions on Moral Philosophy and Thaoloey. Through the whole session of 1830-31, he pursued the' subject in weekly lectures before his class, and the'succeeding summer was spent in tBrow- ing his'long accumulating materials iisto the form of a regular methodical treatise. The work was publi^ed in January, 1832. This, the favorite child of his intellect, was doorjed'to m«et, At first, with a scanty share of public favor. The time *as unpropi- tious. All minds were engrossed with the Reform Bill, which was then before Parliament, and the grand object of popular desire. Dr. Chalmers, though d^cidedlu liberal in his views, and though his best efforts had been givrai to the cause of the poor, was not in favor of that bill. The measures therein 'pro- po^d he deemed- inadequate; and the hopes thereby created fallacious. His book was written with the express design of sift- ing and exposing the insufficiency of all such, and of preparing the way for his future proof that a moral and religious reform was needed as the basis of all permanent improvement in the con- dition of the lower classes. In. proportion, therefore, to. the cogency of its reasoixing was its necessary unpopularity Ibefore the then existing state of publi« feeling. Some of the Reviews were abusive, designating the doctrine of the woijfr. " most por- tentous and abominable," and " a misera,ble sophism," and the author as one " incompetent to reason on the subject ;" but Dr. Chalmers having committed the full expression of his views to the public, as usual, withheld from all controversy with opponents in defense of them. (849) 250 LIFE OF DE, OHALMEES. 1880. The death of Dr. Meiklejohn had left the chair of Church History, in the University of Edinburgh, vacant. In the can- vass which ensued, it -was most gratifying to the feelings of' Dr. Chalmers that the new professor was appointed out of re- spect to his recoi^piendation, and from entire confidence in his judgment, and still more so that one of so congenial a spirit as the excellent Dr. Welsh became thereby his fellow-lab«rer. In the month of October he received a letter from the Bishop of London, informing him of that article in the will of the Earl of Bridge^ater, setting apart eight .thousand pounds for the purpose of procuring " a treatise or treatises to b'e written in proof of the wisdom and^benevolence of the Deity as mani- fested in the works of creation,!' and requesting him to un- dertake a portion of the work.. The department assigned to him being the " Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man," fell in with a favorite train of thought, and was accordingly accepted with delight, and pursued with alacrity. Th^ summer months of 1832 were given up to the composition or this work which was published' in thei succeeding^ yea,r. The Quarterly Review, hostile not only to all liberal thought, but to all works of Ijberal' thinkers, attempted to prejudice the public mind i% regard to it, but failed to obstruct its deserved popularity. " Two editipn-s of ^fteen hundred were disposed of as soon as published. In 1834, a third edition of the same number of copies was called for," after which it ceased to appear as a Bridgewater Treatise, being incorporated into the series of its author's works. WSile Dr. Chalnlers's feelings were truly liberal his politi- . cal views led him to adhere chiefly to the conservatist party ; he consistently disapproved of the Reform Bill, and refusing to join in the illumination - on the occasion of its success, suf- fered the pejialty of having his windows shattered by the mob. The stormy spirit exhibited at that time hy the lowest class of tlie people in burning of grain, in machine -breaking, and de- structive riotSj.was indeed enough to deter any good and.brave m»i|(from giving his suppqrt to the party to which it belonged. ^T. 50. LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 251 In reality however, he was less a conser^'ative than a reformer, who'fee schemes were above the reach of ordinary whig politics ; and while the radicals were for leveling all things down to them- aelves.he proposed to .level all classes up toward the standard of the Gospel. , Jf, The aproach of the cholera in January, 1832, threw the whole country into a state of terror and dismay. The Pres- bytery .of Edinburgh, at their meeting on the 26th of January, resolved that the 9th of February should be observed as a fast-day within their bounds ; but afterward learning that the government intended to appoint a general fast, another meet- ing was called to reconsider their resolution. The remarks of Dr. Chalmers, especially as far as pertaining to his practical views of prayer, are todwaluable to be omitted. " My first, my main reason, indeed, for wishing an earlier presbyterial fast, and not waiting for a later national one is, that in ever case of urgent and immediate danger I should like the speedi- est and promptest application of the remedy that is suited to it. For the averting of disease I believe in the healing- virtue of medicine, but for the averting of disease, I believe also in the healing virtue of prayer. I would rather, therefore, have a fast in a few days, than a fast in a few weeks, on the very principle that I would rather take the proper medicine in an hour, than de- lay taking it till to-morrow. I hold that religion is a mockery, and the church and the priesthood are but a solemn imposition on the world, if there be no substantial efficacyin prayer — if there be no such process as that of "a real and actual intercliange between Heaven and earth, of ascending petitions on the one hand, 'of descending mercies and fulfillments on the other. But be- lieving, as I do, in the doctrine of prayer, in the plain and lit- eral import of it, as being an asking on the oHe side and a re- ceiving "on the other, I would have the speemest possible day. for public and social prayer, and that for the business object of laying the speediest possible arrest on the progress of the destroyer. When once this principle takes full possession of the mind all other considerations are of a subordinate and 252 LIF^ OF DE. CHAIMEES. 1832 secondary character. If only confident of ^the effect of prayer in propitiating the favor of God, one car,^^ss and thinkrless of th^ effect it may have upon men. " . ^ " And yet this' latter object ought not to be uadervaljued^ nor am I aj all unwilling to enter gn the question of ' the effect which any measure of ours may haVe on the mintj^ > and feelings fif general society. There is no subject on which na^ are more apt to go astray, than when pronounciilg on the state of the public taste or the public sentiment in regard to any given question. Each man takes his impression from tliarpart of the public wherewith he himself has personally and imme- diately to do ; and perhaps it will bejust set down as my indi- vidual variety of opinion on this matter, but I must confess it to be my strong, indeed, my confident impression, that by our perseverance in the resolution of last Presbytery on the subject of the- fast, by our holding it even in the prospect 'of another. which we are bound to hold with equaL solemnity and rever- ence, we shall earn the blessings and the grateful acknowledg- ments of all that is best principled and best conditioned among the families of Edinburgh. " On this question I do feel for the charactei; and indepen4' ehoe of our church. The inconvenience of a double fast is a bagatell'e when compared with the permanent stain that we shall inflict by this method of avoiding it. -Did ever the eccle- siastical give way to the civil in such a manner before ? ^— and shaltwe compare thertemporary awkwardness that will soon be got over, with the perpetual mischief of the conspicuous prece- deflt, held forth by this metropolitan Presbytery, in the sight of all the land ? I hailed; with delight, the presbyterial ap- pointment, though from my absence on" the day «f its being made, I had no share in it; and I hail with .equals perhaps, with surpassing delight, the promise. o£ a national appointment. I rejoice in the public recognition jof God by our rulers, whether in church or- state ; and there are thousands alid tens of thou- sands among us, who will most cordially do honor to both. " It has been said that men will not suspend their secular business on the presbyterial fast-day ; and that, in particular. iET 51. LIFE Of DB. OHiLMEES. 253 the^civil authorities will not acknoiyledge it. Our services will not be the less intej^sting, and, I may add, not the less eflfect- ivfi, though none but simple and spontaneous worshipers — the worshipers of the hearts — aje found to share in them. The strength of our church Ueth not in the coiujtena^ce of power, it lies in the religion of our people ; and I promise, if our ap- pointment for Thursday shall stand, such a generaLresponse to it on the part of the population, as will cause every lover ef our Establishment to rejoice. And if the civil authorities do refuse their coimtenance to it, we, I trust, shall never be want- ing in all loyalty and respect to them. The men who do prO- foundest homage to the presbytertal fast, will do profoundest to the national fast also. We shall do the one, and most assur- edly not leave the other ui^^one." The Presbytery resolved to keep their original appointment, ■ " and in the general and devout observance of the day. Dr. Chalmers's anticipations were more than verified." The na- tional fast was observed on the 22d of the same month. In the intervail, many outbreaks of popular prejudice andvifilence, stimulated by the force of terror, had occurred. Mobs had assailed the cholera hospitals and insulted some of the most eminent and benevolent of the physicians ; while there had been found in parliament some members who ridiculed the pro- posal which recognized the hand of God in the pestilence. To these facts allusion was juade by Dr. Chalmers in his prayer wliile conducting in St. George's church the solemnities of the day of national humiliation. The words of the prayer were taken down by one pf the audience, a copy was also solidited from Dr. Chalm€srs, and widely circulated in the public papers. "Do Thou, Lord, ward off from us the farther inroads of that desolating plague, which in its mysterious progress over the face of the earth has made such fearful ravages among the families of other lands. Hitherto, God, Thou hast dealt mildly and mercifully with the city of our own habitation. Do Thou pour out the spirit of grace and supplication upon its in- habitants, and«-spare them, if it be thy "blessed will, the inflio- 254 LIFE 6F DE. CHALMEKS. 1882. tions of that wrath which is so rightfully due to a careless and ungodly generation. " We pray, Lord, in a more especial rnanner, for those, patriotic men Whose duty calls them to a persona,l encounter, with this calaimity, and who, braving all the hazards of infec- tion, may be said to .stand between the living and'the dead. Save them from the attacks of disease ; save them from the obloquies of misconception and prejudice ; and may they have the blessings -and acknowledgments of a grateful communis to encourage them in their labors. "Above all, we pray, God, that the infidelity which places all its reliance on secondary causes Htay never sway either th« councils of this city, or the councils of this nation. May there at all times be the public recognition of a Grod in the midst of us. And let not the defianee or the levity of irreligious men ever tempt us to forget that mighty unseen Being, who has all the forces of' nature at his command-^who sits behind the elements that he has formed, and gives birth, and movement, and con- tinuance to all things." The practical eflSoaey of prayer was a subject more fiilly and systematically treated in the sermon preached on the same oc- casion, '^nd which is now included in the series of bis works. In accordance with a recommeiTdation made by a committee of the House of Commons, the government in 1831, resolved to adopt a system of popular instru'ctibn for Ireland, which was expected to meet the wants and gratify the ffeelings of the various parties in that portion of the United Kingdom. A board was' to be constituted, of persons professing diflferelft Tfeligious opinitins, and which was to exercise a Complete control over air the schools erected under its auspices. For four or five days in the week, moral and literary edacation only was to "be given in these schools, and the remaining one or two set- apart for such religioiis instruction as the clergymen of the respectivife persuasions should approve. " The board was also to ' permit and encourage' ihe clergy to ■ give religious instruction to the children of their respective persuasions, either before or after the ordinary school hours in the other days of the week.' " ^T. 51. LIFE OF DE. OHALMERS. 255 The Bible was not to be employed in the common instruction of these schools, but a book of Scripture extracts was drawn up for that purpose. A register was also to be kept of the attendance of the children at their different places of worship on the Sabbath. This scheme was vehemently opposed in Ireland. The Kildare Street Society, the most active in the work of popular instruc- tion, in whose schools the Bible was daily read and attendance on that exercise' imperatively enjoined, rose against it. The Protestants generally, considered themselves injured by it, and the Orangemen, viewing it in a political light, todk a large part in the oppositionr Petitions against the measure flowed in upon the House of Commons from all parts of the country; and in this movement of protestant Ireland, Scotland was at first dis- posed to join. At an extraordinary meeting of the Presbytery of Edinburgh, held for the purpose of considering this subject, it was moved that the Presbytery should petition Parliament against the proposed plan of education for Ireland. Dr. Chal- mers was not favorable to that motion. " We all know. Mode- rator, said he, " that this has been a question very keenly a^tated elsewhere ; that i1; has given rise in many quarters to a very busy fermentation; and that certainly one ingredient of this fermentation is, I trust, what will never be admitted within the limits of any ecclesiasfioal court in the Church of Scotland. The fact is too glaring to be denied, that 'often, very often, there has been a great deal more of politics than of religion in this opposition to the scheme of education in Ireland; and that thousands are the individuals who care not a straw for Chris- tianity, who have gladly seized upon the topic, and now wield it as a mere instrunaent of annoyance, and, they hope, of event- ual overthrow to the existing administration. I trust that the very respectable movers of the question in this place, will give me full credit when I acquit them, as I do, most cordially, of any sinister, any Secondary design of this sort ; indeed, we should all, I am firmly persuaded, feel it a sad prostitution of our Presbytery to be made the ofgan of any State party what- ever. But now that the matter is brought before us, it is our 256 UFE OF DB. CHALMERS. 1882 part rightiy to entertain it, and feeling purely and proudly independent, wHether on the politics of the ministry, or the politics of the opposition, calmly and conscientiously, as best we may, to gi^e upon it a sound and ohristian-like deliverance; Certain it is that governpient is now engaged with a problem of great difficulty ; and our becoming part is not in a factious spirit to embarrass, .but in a friendly, and withal frank and honest spirit,, to lay our sentiments before them. And"! have no'Scruple in avowing it as my own sentiment,, that in the in-- stance chiefly complained of, they have made a most unfortu- nate departure from right principle. Their great error — which they, share in • common with their predecessors — the error, in fact, into which our rulers were betrayed, even anterior tothat measure of emancipation which I happen to have ttiost cordially approved of, and in which error they seem to have persisted ever since, is to have mad-e the Catholics, or any pther class of subjects whatever, parties in'the negotiation. All along, they have been far more, anxious to^nd out what would please ;the Catholics, than- to find out what was in itself right. |fow, in- stead of treating either with CatbolieS or Orangemen upon this question, it would have. been far better had they, ]a the exer- cise -of their independent wisdom, framed their own inde- pendent measure, adopting not what at the time was the most popular, but what, in the light of abstract and immutable truth, was the best constitution, of a,scho(>l,' and then held it forth as the only constitution titiey Would stand by, and which they offered to the acceptance of the poptdation." I>r. Chal- mers proceedfed to state what it was ip. the constitution actually adopted for the schools, which appeared to him to be objection- able. This new board was to charge itself with the attend* apoe of the pupils in the churches of their various denomina- tions. He could conceive nothing more unseemly — - nothing more calculated to obstruct the light maldng its way in the darkened mind— than such a board thus setting itself up, and declaring that the children of Catholics should go only to their own place of worship; and that the children ot Protestaijts should go nowhere but to theirs. To the employment of MI. 53. LIFE OF DR. CHALMERS. 257 Scripture extracts in school instruction, there could be no gen- eral objection ; but to a book framed by a mized Board, and intended to supersede the entire word of God, he had an insuperable repugnance. His confidence was strong in the efficacy of a Bible circulated with no other seal upon it than the seal of its own inspiration — no other sanction upon it than the high name and authority of heaven ; but " let it but un- dergo a process of distillation through the alembic of a human council or, human commission, and, however slightly it may have been changed^ it sustains a damage; it comes out to pub- lic view in the character of a book moulded by human hands, so that priests might approve, instead of standing forth in the character of a book which neither priests nor people dare to meddle with. The original authority is overshadowed by the political or ecclesiastical ; and, in place of being listened to as the voice that speaketh from heaven, it is listened to as a^ voice proceeding from a conclave of fellow-mortals upon earth." His main, however, and capital objection, lay against the ex- clusion of the Bible from the work of ordinary instruction. A daily Bible class — a class not for half-learaed children, but for full and finished readers ■ — a class not compulsory on any, but optional to all, he held to be an integral and indispensable part of all rightly-constituted schools, and that part the Government had unwisely and unrighteously repudiated. But notwithstand- ing these objections, he was not prepared to approach the Legislature with a summary condemnation of the measure. Before taking snch a step, it was his anxious desire that the Presbytery should not only be decided on the principles of the question, but conversant with all its details, that they should so fully inform themselves, and be so thoroughly prepared, that any remonstrance they might make to government shoidd be at once worthy of them to offer, and of importance for the -gov- ernment to receive. He moved, therefore, that in the mean- time a committee should be appointed to prosecute inquiry. This motion was unanimously agreed to. A committee was appointed, with Dr. Chalmers at its head, which was instructed to use all diligence and to report to the next meeting of 22 258 LIFB OF ns. OHALMEBS. 1883. Presbytery. Dr. Chalmers lost little time in placing himself in eommunication with many influential individuals, both among the favorers and opponents of the government scheme. Two days after the meeting of JPresbytery we find the following entry in his Journal ! - " Writing many letters as convener of the Irish Education Gomnjittee ;" and a few days afterward,- " overwhelmed with letters on the subject of Irish schools.'' Lord Melbourne in- formed him that he had so far misapprehended the jneahing of the regulation as to a register of attendance at church, that it was not intended to oblige the children to attend, the churches of their own denomination ; but that all difficulty as to this regulation was likely to be removed by its withdrawal. Shortly 9,fterward, the Archbishop of Dublin, as a member of the Board, announced that the measure of registering the attendance of children at the diflFerent places of worship was relinquished. Dr. Chalmers had put the following query : — ' In the contro- versy on this question I observe it affirmed on the side of gov- ernment, that all Protestant children may have daily reading in the whole Bible if th%y will, but is not this only if the ckr^ gyman, or.teaeh6r employed by him, other than the regular schoolmasterj be daily at his, post, and is not this attendance very precarious ?' Lord Melbourne's reply to this query was, ' The parents of the children and their religious teachers, may make any arrangement they please for the children reading ^e Bible out of school-hours ;' an answer which obviously implied ■that the Board was not to charge itself in any way with the matter. To the leading Parliamentary opponent of the scheme Dr. Chalmers put this query, ' If it were made part of the reg- ular schoolmaster's duty to have a whole Bible class for all advanced scholars who chose to be taught, not out of school- hours, but during some part or other of the regular school diet, would not that satisfy the Protestants ?' The answer was, ' L can have no hesitation in saying that it would not satisfy, the Protestants.' In the Kildare street Society's schools the daily reading of the Holy Scriptures was authoritatively and uni- versally enforced, no child being allowed the benefit ^of the MI. 52. LIFE OF DB. CHALMEES. 259 otter lessons of the school without taking part in this, and nothing short of this would satisfy those Whose opinions this memher represented. - Dr. Chalmers discovered here that form of ultraism, in the endeavor to avoid which the government had but ^Uen into another. He objected to force being used, whether that force was employed for or against the daily read- ing of the Bible in the schools. Of that intermediate method which he was disposed to recommend, he found a perfect and very interesting example- in those schools which the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland had established- in cer- tain districts of the Highlands where a Catholic population pre- vailed. In these schools a daily Bible class was taught, but the teachers were instructed ' not to press on the Catholic children any instruction to which their parents or their priest objected as iuterferfng with the^principles of their own religion. To the schools established upon this principle, Roman Catho- lic children were sent without reluctance, mingling in the same classes with Protestants, without jealousy or distinction, and not unfrequently- joining in the exercises of the Bible class. " The effect of that-full and special examination to which the government system was subjected was to enhance rather than extenuate Dr. Chalmers's repugnance to it ; and when, on the 26th of April, he came before the Presbytery with the Report of the Committee, which ho had drawn up, he prefaced it by saying, ' I was bound to make all possible inquiries, and after ^ving my best attention to the scheme, I anl obliged to confess myself more averse to its character, and more fearful of its consequences, than before.' In reviewing the most important provisions of the plan, that Report observed, ' The first of these provisions which the Committee would notice, is that by which in the general and joint education of the scholars, consisting both of Protestants and Catholics, for four or five days in the week the use of the Bible as a school-book is prohibited, and that not because of its literary unfitness for this office, but be- cause of its religious unfitness, in the estimation of the Catholic priesthood, for being employed as a book of juvenile or popular 260 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEKS. 1882. education. The most common, because perhaps the most obvious, objecbion to this regulation, is the privati-sn of*Scrip- tural instruction to which it subjects the Protest^ntfchildren ; but, to the minds of your Committee, there appears another strong objection against it, and which could not be done away though other days were specified- and other methods were pointed out by which the privation might be cctmpensated or made up for to the chUdren of Protestants, The religious un- fitness of the Bible for free and general usefwhether in schools or through society at large, is, we are aware, the prevalent conception of the Eomish priesthood ;. but, should the regula- tion in question be adopted, the conception will be embodied in British law, and it does appear a signal departure from the spirit of that legislation which has obtained in this country for S'everal generations, if, -for the-^first time, an express restriction be laid on the use of Scripture by the authority of the State. It does not appear to your Committee that a book of Scripture extracts is at all unsuitable for schools, but all de- pends on the purposes for which such a book may have been formed. It essentially changes the character of such a compi- lation, when, instead of being given as a jspecimen of the Bible, it is given as a substitute fo%the Bible ; or when, instead of certain parts of Scripture being admitted for the literary object of -easy reading, or of adaptation to the gradual Advancement of the learners, certain parts are excluded because of a reli- gious objection by the priests, as members of any denomina- tion. It is this surrender of the truth and wisdom of God to the partialities or the prejudices of men which vitiates the transaction. Uor do we escape from the evil however indefin- itely near the sub'stance and doctrine the book of extracts may be to the whole Bible. If any part of Scripture, however small, have been given up in deference to a religious antipatliy, if any words, however few, have been taken out of this book because they are oflfensive to the principles or feeliiigg of a particular sect, then, in concession, to the demands of that sect, the integrity of Heaven's Record is violated, and the same malign character adheres to the principle of the compromise. Jen. 52. UFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 261 ■whatever is the material- exteat, whether great or small, to whicll it may be carried The only remaining feature of this scheme to which we would direct the attention of the Presbytery, is that by which the toleration of the Catholics? on the part of the government has advanced toward positive favor. On the days for separate religious ilistcuction the clergy of both denominations are not only permitted^ but permitted and encouraged, to give religious instruction to the children of their own persuasion. ..... This seems to proceed on the ground that the mere existence of a sect, irrespective of all considera- tion of its tenets, is in itself a sufficient reason not- merely for its being permitted, but for its being fostered and .patronized. In such a policy of a like treatment of different denomintklaons, however opposed they may be in their pretensions and princi- ples, there is a virtual surrender of the great feason on which a Protestant establishment is upheld either in this or in any other land," The Report concluded with stating it as the opinion of the Committee, that if it should be deemed proper to approach the government on the subject, their petition should be one as much of suggestiott as of censure? and giving all due credit to the patriotic purposes of those who had undertaken so arduous a task. The Report was approved and petition forwarded, the chief prayer, of which was that a daily Bible class, optional to all the children, should be instituted in each school, and that the book of extracts and the setting apart of separate days for religious and secular instruction should be relinquished. The subject was taken up in thfr succeeding General Assembly. In the meanwhile a correspondence on the subject took place, be- tween Dr. Chalmers and Mr. Stanley, wherein it appeared that the principal ground of difference between them lay in this, that the latter would have had the Protestant children to meet half an hour earlier, or wait in school half an hour later, tlian th€ regular hours, to have the Bible read, while the for- mer preferred that the Bible reading should take place in usual school hours,, leaving the Catholics perfectly free to attend it or not. " In the one way of it," as Dr. Chalmers pithily 262 LIFE OP DK. fl TTAT.M TT.B^. 188B. expressed it, "the Bible was made to skulk from the Catholics; and in the other, the Catholics were mawie to skulk frofti the Bible." The succeeding General Assembly learning, in the course of debate arising on this subject, the chief secretary saw no objection to a daily Bible class imperative on Protestants and optional io Catholics, contented themselves with petitioning in terms eqxdvalent to those employed by the Presbytery of Ed- inburgh : " The Presbyterian Chiirch in Ireland, influenced by the same considerations, assumed at first the same attitude of hostility. But her interest in obtaining such a, anodifioation of the defects, as would- place within her reach the obvious benefits of the scheme, was much more urgent ; and her negotiations for this objeet were finally successful. At an early'stage, if not from- th« period of their compilation, the use of the Scripture extracts was left optional. At first every school receiving Governmeiit aid was bound to adhere strictly to the regulations drjawn up by the Board. Latterly, where the school-house has not been built by the Board, which in the north of Ireland is the usual case, the logal patrons draw up their own regulations, submit them to the Commissioners, and, if approved of, are bound only by them — central control yielding thus to local authority. At an interview with the Lord lieutenant of Ireland, in the year 1 840, a deputation from the Presbyterian Church submitted a model constitution for these, schools, which received the sanc- tion of the Government. That constitution contains the follow- ing clause : " The times for reading' the Holy Scriptures, and for jcatechetical, instruction, a;re so arranged as not to interfere with or impede the scientific or secular business of the school ; and no child, whose parents or guardians object, is required to be present or take part in these exercises, and no obstruction shall be -offered to the children of such parents receiving .such instruction elsewhere as they, may think proper." For the children of their own and other Protestant communions, the Presbyterian Church .has secured all that Dr. Chalmers desired. In their schools the day for separate religious instruction is done MS. 52. LIFE OF DB. CHALMEBS. 263 away. The Bible is read during the ordinary school-hours ; " the extent" of it&use subject to no control but the will of the parents, exprfessed through committees of their own free choice, and the greatest convenience of the attending scholars." Sub- ject to the provision that instruction in them be not forced, the Westminster XIateehisms are also freely used during the ordinary school hours. The schools under the General As- sembly pf the Irish Presbyterian Church, enjoying the advan- tages of the Government bounty, are thus in their constitution and practice, identical with those schools in the Highlands under the General Assembly of the Scottish Establishment, to which Dr. -Chalmers pointed as a " beautiful and perfect example, unexceptionable in its princij)les, and most beneficial in its. results." Dr. Chalmers as Moderator of the Assembly of 1 832 could, of course, take no part in its dtjbates ; yet there were some features which honorably distinguished his connection with it. The daily public dinners given by the Royal Commissioner who represents the Crown in General ' Assemblies of the Scottish Church, as well as, the daily public breakfasts given by the Moderator, it had long been customary to keep up through both Sabbaths occurring. during the sitting- of the Assembly. This custom Dr. Chalmers resolved to break through, The breakfasts he could discontinue -by his own authority ; and as soon as he perceived the certainty of his election, he wrote a respectful note to the Commissioner, Lord Belhaven, request- ing that his presence at the Sunday dinners, to which the Mo- derator was always specially invited, might be dispensed with, and suggesting the -propriety of suspending the entertainment on that day. Both the request and the suggestion were favo- rably received, and the latter being acted on, constituted a precedent which has been observed ever since. One of the subjects brought before that Assembly was des- tined afterward to enlist the utmost efforts of Dr. Chalmers, and ere it was settled- to shake the Scottish Establishment to its foundations.. It was introduced by overtures presented from eight Presbyteries" and three Synods, supplicating the Assembly 264 LIFE OT DK. CHAikERS. to devise some means for preventing the Settlement ofrministers over congregations to whicli they were unacceptable, and for giving efficacy-to the call of -the people. In order to comprehend the merits of this question it is necessary to .know the process ■w4ae?eby a minister is inducted, according t though he afterward • regretted that he had done so. As to the particular act of legislation ta be proposed, it was agreed that the expressed " dissent of the majority of the parishioners should be held as a bar to settlement" The measure thus agreed upon was committed to Dr. Chalmers to bring before the General Assembly. In his speech on that occasion, he en- deavored to reconcile the opponents of patronage, and to bring into the very temperate measure, which h^ sustained, those of his o-vvn party who would have preferred something more radical. After directing some remark^ against the system of popular election, he proceeded : "I am aware of the theoreti- cal partiality which many of my friends have for the -whole system of ourTninisterial appointments being out-and-out eccle- siastical, which it would be if, as by the Act of Assembly 1649, the nomination were vested in the session, and the power of objecting in the people, and the final judgment, where these two parties were at variance, in the Presbytery, Even the Act of Parliament 1690, by which the nomination is vested, not in the eldei-s alone, but in the elders and heritors, might be accommodated to this theory by the single qualification of her- itors being communicants. Whether the same qualification applied to our existing patrons, that they should be in commu- nion with the church, and so within our b-wn ecclesiastical pale, and under our own ecclesiastical control — whether this would reconcile, them more to the present system of patronage, I do 270 LIFE OF DB. OHAIMEKS. 1888. not know. -But' however much we may differ respecting the initiative, I not only feel inclined to go as far, but'would even go further than the advocates, either for the Aet of Parliament 1690, or for the Act of Assembly 1649, respecting the safe- guard or the check. The g^eat -complaint of bur more ancient Assemblies, the great burden of Sdottish indignation, the prac- tical grievance which, of all others, has been hitherto felt the most intolerable and galling to the hearts- of a free and reli- gious people, is the violent intrusion of ministers upon par- ishes. An effectual provision against this enormity, this unfeeling outrage,^ which, in the exercise of a, reckless and unprincipled patronage has so often been perpetrated in our beloved land, an outrage by the appointment of an ungodly pastor on therights of conscience and the religious sensibilities of a sorely aggrieved people, a provision against so deep and so wide a moral injury as this to the families of a parish, I should feel the most valuable of all -the legislative expedients or de- vices which could be proposed on the present occasion, and would welcome it all the more cordially if we had not to go in quest of it without the limijB of our actual ecclesiastical con- stitution, or, in other words, if instead of en-acting a new law we had but to declare our interpretation of an old one*^ Now the law of Galls places such a facility in our hands ; and, as I ■feel I must not take up the time of the Assembly, let me «tate at once, and without further preamble, -my o^n preference as to the best way of restcatog significancy and effect to this now ^utiquated-i but still venerable form- — and this is by holding the call a solid one which lies, not in the expressed consent of the few, and these often the mere driblet of a parish ,' but larger than this, which lies in the virtual or implied consent of the majority, and to be gathered from their. non-resistance or their silence. In other words, I would have it that the majority of- dissentient voices should lay a Veto on every presentation. " In this power of a negative on the part of the people there is nothing new in the constitution or practice of the Church of Scotland, It is the great barrier, in fact, set up by the wisdom <^ our forefathers against the intrusion of ministers intd ^T. SS. ilFE OF DE. CHALMERS 2T1 parishes. It could make no appearance in the First Book of Discipline 1S60, where it fras provided that the people should have the initiative, or that the ministers should be appointed, not with their consent, but by their election. But after the probation af eighteen- years, we have the Second Book of Dis- ciples 1S78, where the election is made to proceed by the judgment of the eldership and with the consent of the con- gregation, and care is expressed that 'no, person be intrusit eontrar to the will of the congregation or without the voice of the eldership.' This interdict, by the people is further recog- nized and ratified in the Act of Assembly 1649, and of..#ar- liament 1690. It is, in fact, the appropriate, the counterpart remedy against the evil of intrusion. If w§ hear little of the application or actual exercise of this remedy during the times it was in force, it was because of a great excellence, even th.at pacific property which belongs to it of acting by a preventive operation. The initial step was so taken by the one party as to anticipate the gainsayers in the other. The goodness of the first appointment was, in the vast majority of instances, so un- questionable as to pass unquestipned ; and so this provision, by its reflex influence, did then what it would do still — it put an end to the trade of agitation. Those village demagogues, the spokesmen and oracles of a parish, whose voice is fain for, war, that, in the heat and hubbub of a parochial, effervescence, they might stir up the element they lave to breathe in, disap- pointed of their favorite game by a, nomination which com- pelled the general homage, had to sheathe their swords for lack of argument. It was like the beautiful operation of those bal{»ncing and antagonist forces in nature which act by pressure and not by collision, and by means of an energy that is mighty but noiseless, maintain the quiescence and stability of our phy- sical system. And- it is well when the action and reaction of these moral forces can be brought to bear with the same con- servative effect on each other in 'the world of mind, whether it be in the great world of the state, or in the little world of a parish. And the truth, the 'historical truth, in spite of all the disturbances and distemper which' are associated with the 273 UFK OF DE. CHALMEES. 1888. movements of the populace, is, that turbulence and disorder were then let loose upon the land, when this check of the popular will was removed from the place it had in our ecclesiastical constitution, and where it was inserted so sldllfuUy by the wis- dom of our fathers, that, instead of acting by confliot, or as a conflicting element, it served as an equipoise. It was when a high-handed patronage reigned uncontrolled and without a rival, that discord and dissent multiplied in our parishes.- The seasons immediately succeeding to 1649, and- 1690, when, the power of negation was lodged with the people, not,, however, 3,s a force in exercisej but as a force in reserve — these were the days of our church's greatest prosperity and glory» the seasons both of peace and of righteousness. Persecution put an end to the one period, and unrestrictedpatronage put an end to the other. -^' But the last element in the composition of this affair, and to which I. have scarcely, yet adverted, is the power -of the church. For let the ancient privilege of a .negation be; again given to the people, and there wUl come to be a tripartite ope- ration ere a minister shall be fully admitted into a parish — not a business, however, unmanageably complex on that account, else whence the rapid, and smooth, and practicable working of the British Legislature ? And here the question at once occurs, whether shall the^alg'ectiontaken to the presentee by the majority of the people be submitted for review to the Presby- tery, as by th«Acts of 1649 and 1690,- or shall it be held con- clusive so as without judgment by us to set aside the present-, ation ? My preference is for the latter, and I think that I can allege this valid reason for it. Tbet people may not be able to state their objection, save in 9, very general way, and far less be aWe to plead and to vindicate it at the bar of a Presbytery, and yet the objection be a most substantial one notwithstand-. ing, and such as ought, both in all christian reason and chris- tian expediency, to set aside the presentation.. I wUl not speak of the moral barrier that is created to the usefulness of a min- ister by the mere general dislike of a people — for this, though strong at the ^outset, .may, bejng literally a prejudice or a ^T. 58. LIFE OF DB. CHALMEKS. 2T3 groundless judgment beforehand, give way to the ex;pepienoe of his worth and the kindness of. his intercourse among them. But there is another dislike than to the person of a minister — a dislike to his preaching, which may not be ground- less, even though the people be wholly inc3.pable of themselves arguing or justifying the grounds of it — just as one may hav6 -a perfectly good understanding of words, and yet,^ when put to his definitions, not be at all able to explain the meaning of them. Thfs holds preeminently of the Gospel of Jesus Christ manifesting its own truth- to the consciences of men, who yet would be utterly nonplused and at fault, did you ask them to give an account or reason for their convictions. Such is the adaptation of Scripture to the state of humanity. — an adaptation which thousands might feel, though not one in the whole m-ultitude should be able to analyze it. When under the visitations of moral earnestness, when once brought to en- tertain the question of his interest with God, and conscience tells of his yet uncanceled guilt, and his yet unprovided Bter- nity— even the most illiterate of a parish might, when thus awakened,, not only feel most strongly, but perceive most intel- ligently and soundly, the adjustment whieh obtains between the overtures of the New- Testament and the necessities of his own nature. And yet, with a conviction thus based on the doctrines of Scripture and the depositions of his own conscious- ness, he, while fully competent to discern the truth-, may be as incompetent as a .child to dispute or to argument it ; and when required to give the reasons of his objection to a minis- ter at the bar of his Presbytery, all the poor man can say for himself might be, that he does not- preach the Gospel, or that in his sermon there is no food for his soul. It were- denying the adaptation of Christianity to human nature^ to deny that this is a case which maybe often and legitimately realized. With a perfect independence on the conceits and the follies, and the< wayward extravagance or humors of the populace, I have, nevertheless, the profoundest respect for all those manifesta- tions of the popular feeling which are founded on an aooordancy between the felt state, of human nature and the subject-matter 274 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEKS. 1888. of the Gospel. But in very proportion to •mysympathy and niy depth of veneration for the christian'' appetenijy of such cottage patrialrchs, would be the patftfulness I should feel ■vrhen the crosSHquestionings of a court of review were brought to bear upon them ; and the men, bamboozled and bereft of utter- ance by the reasonings which they could not redargue, or, per- haps, the' ridicule whieh they cpuld not withstand,, were left to the untold agony of their awn hearts — ^because within ,the Es- tablishment which they loved, they could not find, in its Sab- bath ministrations or week-day seryifces, the doctrine Which was dear to them. T» -overbear such men is the highway to put an extinguisher on the.Christiditity of our lalid^'— the Chris- tianity of our plowmen, our artisans, our men of handicraft and of hard labor ; yet not the Christianity theirs of deceitful im- aginatioB, or of implicit deference to authority; but the Chris- tianity of deep, I will add, of rational belief, firmly and pro- foundly seated in the principles of our moral nature, and nobly accredited by the virtues of our well-conditioned peasantry. In the olden time of Presbytery — that time of scriptural Chris-' tianity in our pulpits, and of Psalmody in all our cottages — these men grew and multiplied in the land; and thoi^h deridfcd' in. the heartless literature, and discountenanced or disowned in the heartless politics of other days, it is their remnant which acts as a preserving salt among our people, and which consti- tutes the real- strength and gloiy of the Scottish nation." The eloquence of the speakei' did not succefed' in reconciling all t%e party tohis motion. It was lost'by a majority of twelve against it. After a year had given full opportunity for deliber^ ation, in an Assembly of which Dr. Chalmers was not a mem- ber, it was .again brought forward by Lord Monereiff and carried by a majority of forty-six. "Moulded into the form of an 'Overture and Interim Act on Calls," Lord Moncreiff's mo- tion was exprfessed in the following terms : — ^'EdMrnrgh, May 31, 1834. — The General Assembly declare. That it is a funda- mental law of the church, that no pastor shall be intruded into any congregation contfar3^ to the will of the people ,' and in ord^r that the principle may be carried into full effect, the .«T. 63. LIFE OF DE. CHAIMEKS. 375 G«neral Assembly, with the consent of a majority of the Pres- byteries of this church, do declare, enact, and ordain, that it shall be an instruction to Presbyteries, that if at the moderat- ing in a cbU to a vacant pastoral charge, the major part of the male heads of families, members of the vacant congtegaiion, and in full communion with the church, shall disapprove of the person in whose favor the" call is proposed to be moderated in, such disapproval shall be deemed sufficient ground for the Presbytery rejecting such person, and that he shall be rejected accordingly, and due notice thereof forthwith given to -all con- cerned.; but that if the major part of the said heads of fami- lies- shall not disapprove of such person to be their pastor, the Presbytery shall proceed with^h* settlement according to> the rules of the ehurch: And further declare j that no person shall be held to be entitled to disapprove, as aforesaid, who shall refuse, if required, solemnly to declare in the presence of the Presbytery, that he is actuated by no factious or malicious mo- tive, but solely by a conscientious regard to the spiritual inter- ests of himself or the congregation." " Such was the Veto Law. Intended" as a final and pacify- ing measure, it was proposed after the maturest deliberation. After a year's interval, in the course of which it was subjected to the severest scrutiny, it came before the General Assembly of 1834, approved by the most eminent legal advice, and sanc- tioned by the authority of the legal and political advisers of the Crown in Scotland. It was carried, before any of the chapel-ministers had been introduced into the church courts, by a clear majority of all the different constituencies of which the General Assembly is composed ; and two months after its passage, it had this judgment pronounced uponit in the House of Lords, from the lips of Lord Brougham, at that time Lord Chancellor of England : " ' My Lords, I hold in my hand a great number of peti- tions from a most respectable portion of His Majesty's subjects in the northern part of this island, aU'referring to one subject — I mean church patronage in Scotland, which has greatly and powerfully interested the people of Scotland for many months 276 LIFE OF I>E. CHALMEES. 1883. past, and respecting the expediency of some, change in whi^h ^there is hardly any difference of opinion among them. The late proceedings in the General Assembly (viz., in passing the Veto Law), have done more to facilita.te the adoption of meas- ures -which shall «et that important question at rest, upon a footing advantageous to the community, and that shall be safe and beneficial to the Establishment, and in every respect d-esir- abie, than any other course that could have'been taken; for it would have been premature if the Legislature had adopted any measure without the acquiescence of that important bodjfi as no good could haVe resulted from it. I am glad that the wisdom of the General Assembly lias been devoted to this subject,- and that the re&ult of its deliberations has been these important resolutions (tIz., th'C Veto Act)j which were passed at the last' meeting.' " GHAPTEB XIII. In the summer of 1833, Dr. Chalmers sought the recreation and rest from intellectual labor, which he sp much needed in a two months' tour ; one object of whi«h was the gratification of a long cherished whim of seeing and ascending -to the' top of all the cathedrals of England. The records of that tour were xsontained in journal letters-to his children, constituting some of the most delightful of his published correspondence. Thus to his daughter Grace he describes some of the subterranean wonders of Derbyshire : " Aftier breakfast, ordered the gig, and was carried to the Bagsbaw Cavern, reicently discovered, and full of crystallized minerals, stretching along the walls or depending in icicles from the roof. The exploitation of it is very fatiguing ; first, the descent of 126 steps under the earth ; second, a passage often narrow and requiring a very low stoop; third ; steps and scrambles to the lateral cavities that we meet with on our way. This is perhaps the greatest natural curi- osity in Derbyshire, though more of a scientific than spec- tacular character ; and this, combined with its difficulty of access and distance from the inn causes it to be less frequented. The poor man who shows it is evidently a man of -talent and humor— has seen better days, and wrote an account of his cave which is now all sold off. He tells me that it was an elaborate work, and written with more humor than was ever brought into play before on any subterranean subject, and that it has gained him a great reputation. He begged me to speak in favor of his cavern, which was too little visited. Its great peculiarity is, that out-and-out it is completely natural, not a tool being lifted within it, save in the construction of its de- scending steps. In one place the passage widens into a chamber called paradi-se, all in a sparkle with large and beautiful crystals, then contracts again, and winds laterally and by a (277) 278 LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 1888. serambling ascent into another chamber, at least equal to the former amd more lofty, called Calypso's Gave, then terminates in a third, which, though it receives no name, is nearly as good as the two former. Walked -our fatiguing way back again and welcomed the UglSit of day. We had three candles, each of us holding one. I should have mentioned that^Jliad to put ep another coat and hat at the guide's nouse ; and a worse coat or worse hat- 1 never saw on the back or head of any carter or scavengef in the land, insomuch that I was a speotacle to th« children of the village, who shouted and laughed behind me ; and even the driver of my gig, though a grave, silent, and simple lad of twenty ^two, could not restrain his merrim^ent. By the way, though it is a. little more expensive, I alwaystake him to the sights along with me ; first, because I found a great igHoranee of Derbyshire curiosities in Huddersield,-andl want to make him more enlightened and enlarged than'his fellow- citizens ; second, because I always feel a strong- reflex or secondary enjoyment in the gratifications of bthei people, so that the sympathy of his enjoyment greatly enhances' my own ■; and thirdly, because I get amusement from the remarks pf bis simple wonderment and not very sagacious observation ; and it has now passed, into a standing joke with me, when leaving any ef our exhibitions, that ' there is no such fine-sight to be seen at Huddersfield.' Drove back- to the iiln at Castleton, whereafter a short excursion, to the castle immediately above the Peak Oavem (and which-, by the way, belonging of old to the Knights of Peveril, gave birth to Sir Waiter's novel of ' PeveriLof the Peak'), I dined about three. After dinner, I walked with my coijipanion off the gig to Speedwell Mine, a very noble curiosity, where, after a descent into the bowels of the «arth of 106 steps, we entered a boat which carried us along a subterranean eanal of nearly a mile, one half of which X)nly is described by us. We have a regular archway over our heads, cut out^ for the convenience of the miners, and which still remains though the work is abandoned. The two boatmen propel us by pushing with tJieir hands against^e sides ofthe tunnel. . They placed some candles along the tunnel on each •fflT. 68. LIFE OF DB. OHALMBBS. 279 side near the entrance, and whicli were seen by us all the way, and with their r.eflection in the water had a very pretty -and pleasing effect — at the. distance of nearly half a. mile they shrunk, into the appearance of distant stars. But how shall I describe the scene at the termination of our voyage? — a scene to the description of which I fear that even your pen would be inadequate, yea, eveil in its , sublimest mood, when set to an exercise in composi^gn that shall bear off the palm of victory fronii.all your class-fellows. The canal is crossed about half way by a mighty chasm which reaches to an Unknown height above us, and an unknown depth beneath us. An arch has been thrown over it on which we alight at the termination of the first half of the canal, and might, if we so chose, pass on to the second hal|, and be carried forward in a boat another quarter of a mile. But as it is just the same with the last quarter of a mite, we therefore go no further than to this arch, guarded by a strong iron railing to keep us from being preci- pitated into the mysterious ab/ss below. Here we stpod ; and as we. were under a hill many hundred feet high, there was room for an altitude above our heads of invisible terminations while the termination of the horrible pit beneath our feet was alike invisible. • Down this tremendous chasm there thundered a roaring water-fall ; and we were furnished with blue lights that we might be enabled to trace its way as far as possible. The man ascended a ladder along the side of the cataract, and placed a gunpowder preparation on one-of the crannies, which blazed and sparkled and shot up gleams of illumination for several minutes, which left unrevealed, however, the roof that was over us. And then more fearfully glorious still, he des- cended a ladder and placed another hght beneath us, and by the side of the foaming cataract, which shed momentary radi- ance far and wide and deep among the Plutonic recesses of this scene of wonders, but left the secret of its bottom -untold. I never took in so powerful an impression by the eye from any spectacle as fegm this last one, though the one above us too was partieu}gi%' fine. Sky-rockets have been thrown up with- dnt reaching the roof, or bringing it within the observation of 280 ^ LIB^! OF DE. CHALMEES. 1888. human eyes. We returned from this impressive sisene. in the? boat, and by; the way put fire to a blast which had been pre- pared for our entertainment, when, after parsing it for a few minutes, it whizzed and exploded with a noise which made ihe vaulted tunnel to ring and Ibverberate aU over. And could I describe the effect with the eloquence, or in the terms of a, boarding-school Miss, J. would say that such a roar of cannon- ading never bellowed'or bounded so majestically on the audi- tory organs of awe-struck and astonished hearers. When we made our egress up the steps and again returned to the light of day, I made my gig driver acknowledgey and I am sure with perfect sincerity, that ' no such thing is to.be seen or heard at Huddersfield. Returned to 'She inn at Castleton. Took- our gig there and drove on to Bakewgll, four^en miles distant, over a fine upland country, but which at length on our ap- proach to Bakeweil, on the banks of the Wye, assumed another character, and presented a very fine specimen of English (Somfort and beaut^.^jn Got at Batewellinto a; spacious, elegant, but withal most civil and comfortable in'n, under ^the sign,of the Rutland Arms, a little after eight. Was ushered into a very snug sitting-room, with a bedroom immediately off it, and went to my" needful repose between ten and eleven. " I am, my dear Grace, yeurs most affectionately. " ThomAs Chalmbes.". After visiting the magnificent seat of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, and what he felt to be more impressive in its old baronial grandeur, the npble residence of Kedlestone, he proceeded to London and then to Cambridge, where he de- clared himself diz4ed with the number of introductions to men of eminence in science and learning. His interest in the old universities of England amounted to enthusiasm, and. his., reception by the learned men then resident in Cambridge, and some of whom gtill continue to adqm itj^must have been highly gratifying. Tfei^ in a letter to '"Mr. Chalmers, he writes of one of those pleasant days: "Professor Sedgwick sent me a message that he would accompany me^to breakfast with Professor Airy, who lived a mile from Cambridge, JEt. 6S. LIFE OF DE. 0HALMEB8. 281 at the Observatory. Had a delightful walk with him thithr etward. He took me to the roof of the Observatory, and explained to me all its chief instruments. . Breakfasted with the very iliies of the nation in philosophy ^ Sir John Her- schel, Sir David Brewster, men- from Oxford, men from Gam- bridge, .etc. A celebrated optician showed-. lis some experi- ments, after breakfast, in his department. Took a cordial leave of his party at eleven. Walked to Cambridge well accom- panied. Met a letter brought by a messenger, on. the way, from Professor Forbes, who had tried to find me out, but could notv antong the assembled hundreds the. night before. Dis- turbed by lea,mrng from Mr. Sedgwick that at , the public dinner to-day the UniversitieS»-.of Scotland were to be drunk, Snd that^I was. expectM to reply. This set me conning a speech. Went to hear what-was going on in the Section of Physics. Saw Professor Forbes ther«, and heard on : the sul^ct of light the argumentations of Herschel and. Airy. After the work of the' Sections was fim|hed we had our con- cludifig general meeSng-in the Senate Hall; quite filled with ladies and students ; and on the elevated platform, around, the President's chair, a brilliant assemblage both of aristocratic and literary ^ande'es. I was beckoned to go among them, ^nd sat immediately behind the President, and by the side of Dr. Lloyd of Trinity College, Dublin. After the Export had ' been read we had -many speeches, from Lord FitzwiUiam, the Marquis of Northampton, Dr. B/Obinson of Dublin, etc., the last named bf whom delighted me with his defense of the high mathematics in opposition to a remark of Lord FitzwiUiam on the Eeporfs being too abstruse fdf'the comprehension of a general audience. At the breaking up of the meeting .had many, greetings, from Mr. Malthus, his lady, and daughter, Dr. Buckland of Oxford, whom I knew before. Dr. Somerville, the husband oiF the fanibus authoress, etc. Transferred, our- selves to the dining^hall of Trinity CoUege^j where sat at least six hundred." My ticket took me to table A,-iiear the- Presi- dent, where 1 had the goftd fortune to be within conversation of Mr. Malthus. Much noble speaking, chiefly from the 24 282 I^FE OT m. CHAJJIEKS. 1888. President Sedgwick, MarquiS ■o^:0^c*thampt9n, Brunei, Bnck- land, Vernon, son to the,' Arclroishop of, Yprk, whom we met when we were together inLond^jsn, eto.-'vVhen our Universities were given, ttie chairman delivered a very h^h personal eulogy on myselfi and nothing could exceed the deafening reception which I met With'. The burden of my. short speech was- Sir Isaac Newton, a pupil o£ this College ; and ipy toast was, " Trinity Opllege, andiong may the science of Newton, and the Christianity of Newton, be enshrined within her walls.'' I was received with- great partiality and. favor; and -whereas there js -a dread* in such a mixed company of philosophers of any allusibn to Christianity, my pointed allusion to the sacred faith and philosophy of Newton was refieiYBd with a cordiality which nothing could exceed. Brunei's speech kept them in a roar of laughter' for half an.hour, though neither he nor any of us -could reach perhaps to. niote than half the company. "When we broke up, walkeid about with Mr. Jones, Professqp of Political Economy, King's College ; then called on Mr. Siineon, by' whom I was very kindly received ; tKen met in his room at Tknity the son of Mr. Hoare, of Hampstead Heath, who h^d made ■himself known to me before ; along with hjm were Mr. P^ry, senior wrangler, and. Mr. Goulburn, soij to the quondam Chancellor of the Exchequer. Talked congenially with' them, and walked .with the young men in moonlight among the courts and cloistered beauties of Trinity QQllege. Ever believe me, my dearest Gr.ace, yours most affecti'pnately. '.' T3OMAS CuAfMKRS." -^ Returning to liond&a he visited tfe® House of Commons and met with several of the legislative notorieties, among whom, in a letter to his daughter, Anne, he spedally mentions Mr.'Dani«I O'ConneU, " who," he says, . "shook, me most cordially by the hand, complimenting, me on my evidenoe about the Irish Poor-Laws, saying that he-yas a^^discitjle of mine upon th^f subjects and not of his own priest. Dr. Doyle ; and I, on the other hand, glad of good being done whatever quarter it came from, and kno-wing him to be an infllif ntial personage. MT. 53. LIFE OF PK. qpALMEES. 283 expressed myself much glfatifiad wit.lk,the view that he had taken on that question.. I am sure it would have done your heart much good to have seetf how* closely and cordially Mr-. Daniel O'Connell and your papa hug^d and greeted each other in the Lower House of Parliament." After visiting the cathedral of Canterbury, he went to King- ston with Mr.- iRa»tlett, the rector, of whom he writes : " On the whole, he is one of the most delightful and intelligent per- sons I have met with among the clergy of England. I stand indebted to him for three high, gratifications — first, in that his lady is the great-grandaieoe of Bishop Butler,, author of the Analogy and Sermons; and through her he is in possession of certain of this great man's relics, which he showed me and put into my hands, as a snuff-box of .antique fabrication, and a small jotting-book for theoreceipts and other little transactions of his clerical office ; and lastly, a Greek New, Testament with his annotations, all in his own handwriting, and on which last Mr. Bartlett did me the honor of asking me to record in. my handwriting, the opinion I had of this great champion of Christianity. Second, less thana mile from Mr.; Bartlett's par- sonage-house, is the church and bouse where the great Hooker lived and labored, and died'. Thither we went, though in a pour of rain, and entered the church, where we saw his burial- place and monument, as Slso the house where he spent so many- years of his life, aad breathed his last;". . A week more was spent " in the very thick- of London so- ciety," at the end of which he took his way to Norwich. At the outskirts of Ipswich, the Rev. Mr. Bridges was in waiting for him with his gig and took him to his owri house. Of Mr. Bridges' family he remarks : .'; The breath of heaven is here ; without, a scene of beauty that ta the eye of sense is altogether delicious — and within, a sanctuary of love and holiness. After breakfast took me to an adjoining field, where, under the foliage of a spreading tree, the infant school was assembled. I was asked to address them, and did it. Mrs. Bridges visits the houses of the parfeh with the view to a Christian effect, and is a mighty help to her husband. He took me to bis church and 284 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEfiS. 1888. a few of his cottages, and I never witnessedsuoh closeness and efficiency of pastoral work as he exemplified -in his addresses to the mothers of families. He makes a real business both of the Christdanity of his own sOal and the Christianity of hia family and parish, watching over the souls of all as one who must give an account." Mr. Bridges took Dr^ Chalmers to the house of Mr. J. J. Gurney. Of his visit to that excellent quaker family, " an abode," as he has himself called it, " of friendship and piety,", we-cannot withhold an extract or' two : " Mr. Bridges left us, but not without leaving on my heart a' profound sense ^f/his christian devotedness and worth. After lie went out, Mrs. Francis Cunningham, the lady of one of our l^est English cler- gymen, came in^ and' has been an inmate during my abode at Earlham. She is sister to Mx- Gurney, and is really a very attractive person, for simplicity, and christian' principle, and elegant accomplishment, stod withal high intdlig^noe and cul- tivation. But last of all, another lady, who .dined aiid spent the night — how aged and in quaker attire; which she had but recffitlyput on, and w'ho in early life was one of the mOst dis* tBiguished of our literary Women, whose works, thirty years ago, I read with great delight — no less a peiSon than the cele- brated Mrs. Opie,. authoress of the most letsquisit^ feminine tales, and for which I used to place her by the side of Miss Edgeworth, It was curious to'mySelfj. that though told by Mr. Ghiraey, in the morning of her being to dine, I had forgot the circumetance, and the idea of the accomplished novelist and poet was never once suggested -by the image of ihis plain look- ifig Quakeress, till it nished irpon me after dinner, when it •Suddenly and inconceivably augmented the interest I felt in her.. We had much conversation, and drew greatly together, walking and talking with eacb other on the beautiful lawn aftet dinnet*. She has had access into all kinds Of society, and her conversation is all the- more rich and interesting. I complainetl to her of one thing in Quakerism, and that is, the mode of thei* introductions-; that I^ould have recognized " in Mrs. Opie, an acquaintance of ihkif years' standing, bat that I did not and -ET. 63. LIFE OP DK. CHALMERS. 285 could not feel the charm of any such reminiscence wheHJbseph John simply bade me lead out Amelia from Jiis drawing-rooa to his dining-room. I felti however, my new acquaintance with this said Ameliaj to be one of the great acquisitions of my present journey ; and this union of rank, and ojpnlence, and literature, and polish of mind, with plainness of manners, forms one of the great charms of the society in this house. Had much and Cordial talk all evening ; a family exposition before supper, and at length a general breaking up, somewhere about eleven o'cloekj^ terMinated this day at oncTe of delightful recre- ation and needful repose. * " Thomas Chalmbbs." " Saturday, Jul^ Tlth. — Mrs. Opie left us early, a,nd we parted from each other most cordially.. Went with Mr. Gumey in his carriage to Norwich — first to his "bank, where I acquitted myself with all proper- bows and civilities of pleasant remark to the partnM-s and other members of the estabiishm.ent whom I was brought into converse with; secondly, through the town, ancient and respectable, with no less than thirty-six parish churches, several of which I entered, and was solemnized by their grandeur ; thirdly, to the castle, around ti»-hose walls we walked, and where I eyed with delight the number of ecclesi- astical towers that arose from th^ general mass of buildings ; fourthly, to the cathedral, where I was introduced to Prebend- ary Wodehouse, who took charge of me, and conducted me in person through the cathedral. But I must first mention the fiall which I and Mr. Gumey made on the venerable bishop, now in his ninetieth year. He received us with great courteousness; had just finished the reading of my last book, which he com- plimented, and gave us most entertaining anecdotes of other days, and I felt particiil'arly interested in his personal acquaint- anceship with Bishop Warburton. We 'Stopped a, quarter of an hour with the venerable old prelate ^- a perfect gentlemai^, and of a mild and benevolent spirit, and great suavity withal. I was much pleased with the catheda-al and its precincts, through which Mr. Wodehouse, wjio kept by me for two hours. 286 LIFE OF DB. OHALMEBS. 188S. conducted me. There is a great predominance of Saxon in the cathedral. I, as usual, ascejided. to the top of the tower, and dragiged the Prebendary after me. The chief points of attraction and interest are the cloisters, beautifully groined ; Erpingham's gate, an entrance to one of the courts of the cathedral, with a small and graceful sweep of arch, and great exquisiteness without €xuberaniBe, of ornament ; the tower, perhaps the finest part of the general building ; and, lastly, tHe monuments, not so much for their architecture, as for the celebrity of the men to whom they are dedicated^ being no less than Bishop HaU, Bishop Home, and Dean Prideaux." , Of this visit to Earlham, Mr. Gumey* has preserved lengthened memoranda, from wTiich we givB the following ex^ tracts : ■ , "Earlham, 1th Month, -Z4th, 1833. — As we were sitting in the drawing-foom rather late on the evening of the 18th in- stant, Dr. Chalmers entered with our friei^dv.Chas. Bridges, Vicar of Long Ifewton, Su,flEDlfc, as his companion. Dr. Chal- mers is a man peculiarly susceptible of being pleased — looking at objects which surround him through a favorable ;medium.. " CsAL. ' I have be6n traveling through Kent, Essex, and Suffolk, and now through Norfolk, the agricultural garden of England. It. is, a delightfuPeountry — varied .in its surface, and- clothed i^igreenness. As to^he moulding and statuary of -the scenery^ we excel you in Scotland ; but when I look over the fields of your country,,! seem to be no longer looking through. - my naked eye, but through -an ey«-glass, tingfbd with, green, ^Ajob throws a more vivid hue over nature than that to which I am accustomed.' " On the following morning we conversed on the subject of the great miids with which he had been brought into opntect. tasked him who was the most ta,lented person with whom he had associated, especially in power of conversation. He said Robert Hall was the greatest proficient he had known as a con- verser, and spoke in high terms of his talents and of his preach- ing, "* But,' said he, * I think Foster is of a higher order o;f ^T. 58. LIFE OF DR. CHALMEE8. 287 inteUec1;| hafetches his thoughts from aj^deeper spring ; he is no great talker, and he writes very slowly; but. he moves along in a region far above the common intellectual level. There are passages in his Essays of amazing depth and beauty, espe- cially in that on 'Popular Ignorance.' I am sorry to say, however, he is disposed^ to radicalism, and would scarcely object to substitute for the machinery of Oxford and Cam- bridge: — those endowed seats of religion andlea^ing^ — ^factories worked by steam.' « *^ , "In the course of the morning, Dr. Chalmers accompanied me to Norwich. As we were going into the market-place, he was arrested by catching a view of the steeple of ' St. Peter Mancroft Church,' (as it is called), which he. thought a noblg structure. He is fond of ecclesiastical architecture.; and it was entertaining to observe the pleasure which he enjoyed while 'we were exanjining the building without and within. " The next objects of our attention w^re the hall called ' St. Andrew's' originally used for public worship, and buUt by Sir Thomas Erpihgham, as a penance for his sins ; the beautiful gateway to the cathedral, wiich bears the name and image of the same Sir Thomas j the cathedral itself, of which -the alnlost unrivaled tower was of course pointed out i and the elegant ruin in the Bishop^s garden. No young or ardent traveler could derive more pleasurd from such sights than the, doctor. We then called . on the veneraTale bishop, now in his ninetieth, year, and very delightful was our interview. The deaj old man was in good heart and health, 'reading without spectacles,- hearing without the smallest difficulty, and able to talk with his old vivacity. He. was ' evideatly muci animated by seeing Dr. C; on the other hand. Dr. €. was cJiarmed, as well he might be, with the bishop. " Bishop. ' Dr. Chalmers, I am very glad to be introduced, to you; I have just been reading your Bridgewater Essay with great satisfaction. - I am especially -pleased that you have in- sisted so much on the views of Bishop Butler, whom I have always reckoned to be one of the best and wisest of writeis.' 288 LIPB OF DB, CHALMEBS. "1888. I reaiarked, that it wp £trange that a writer of so literal and eomprehonsivea cast should be accused of Popery. " Bishop. ' There is no ground for it — people will always call names ; they will tell you (addressing Dr. C. with a sd^Ub), that my friend Joseph here is a wicked fellow.' Ihey then conversed on Dr. Adam Smith's theory of moral " Bishop. ' I am sorry to find from your work, that his splendid" passage respectingi the necessity of a mediator was omitted in the second edition,' -" Cb!al. ' The omissioB was probably owing to his intimacy with Hume.', I asked the bishop whether he had not been ac- quainted with. Hume. v - " Bishop, 'O yes," I used to meet with him at the old Lord Bathurst's ; he was fond of a game of whist, to which I, too, had no objection, and we have sometimes played- together. He was a very gOod-natured- man; but I have heard him say cutting things about M« — I mean- the cle^y/ " The" bishop then repeated part of the passage fj'om Dr. A. Smith, with peculiar accuracy-and feeling. ' I do not precisely recollect.whetlier the bishop quoted the whole of this extract ; but he told us, that the passage had been fixed- in -his jmemory since his early inankood_ When he afterward- spoke, in his usual- terms, of bis painlessness of body, and peace of mind, the latter more particularly was adverted , -to, I- think, by Dr. Chalmers, as a subject of especial gmitude and - satisfaction. ' The more so,' I added, ' because fit is grounded, as I trust, on that ^eat doctrine of Christianity, to which even Adam SBiith has so feelingly alluded.-' • • Oh yes^'-said the bishop* in a deci aiid a fearless champion aga,inst Hume and other infidels ; 'I have ria liking for the men,' said he, ' and no feais of their talents.' With the exception of Lord Eiathurst and a few others, he indulged in a sort of scorn against the jiobles of the land. ' As for you lords,' said he, in the bishop's hearing, ' your venison is but a poor repayment for the' fatigue of listen- ing to your conyersation.' I si^poSe that, like Johnson, he imagined himself privileged to be a "bear. "Bishop. ' His wife, too, had a spirit of her own — she ilsed to call her husband Brigadier Moses !' " I was glad to hear Chalmers and t,he bishop fully accord- ing in the praise of Warburton's 'Julian,' ■ which surely contains- important and specific, though somewhat indirect, ev- idence of the trath as it is in Jesus. After our friend 0. W. had conducted the doctor to some others of our ecclesiastical remains, we returned tome to dinner. It is always pleasant to watch the noble expressions of Dr. C.'s countenance ;. but he is often vel-y quiet in a large party. I never saw a man who appeared to be more destitute of vanity, or less alive to any wish to be brilliant: " In the course of Monday inorning the Doctor and I walked down to a fir grove at the extremity of the park, where a colony of herons have lately formed a settlement. He was as much interested and pleased as a schoolboy would hkve been in watching the singular appearance, gestures, and sounds of these birds. His mind seSmed quite Occupied by the fitness between the length of their necks and that of their legs, and also by the circumstance, that as they swim not, buftinly stand in the waters, they do not, like other aquatic birds, require webs to their feet — and therefore have none. ■ " Chal. ' The great fear I entertain respecting the operation of the Reform Bill is, lest it should throw the legislative power mto the hands of men of business — already full of all kinds of occupation — to the exclusion of men who have leisure for deep study and reflection, and are therefore able to cope with great 26 290 UFK OF DB. , GHALMEKS. 18SS. principles on the various subjects of legislation. T^eEe |s » fine passage.in Eiselesiaslicus, on the. danger of intrusting with the arcana of government, men ■whose hearts- and- hands are lull of- the coiBBion business of Mfe. I wish we were more alive to the principles which are there unfolded. It is an alarming fact, ,that in order to eflfect a paltry saving of a few thousd^d pounds per annum, that great work, -the trigonomet- rical sm-vey of Great Bi-itain, was on the ,pQiBt of being left in- complete. It was saved' by^a majority of only two yotes in Sk committee of the House of Commons. ' '• The passage to which Dr. C. alluded, said which we forth- with read together, is well worthy of notice. Iti$ in ch_ap. xxxviiL, and begins as follows : ' How can he get wisdoni that hold^th the plow, and that glorieth -in the goad; that driveth oxen, and is occupied in their labors, and whose talk is of bu> locks ? He giveth hij mind to saake furrows, and is diligent to give the ki^e fodder.' The wri|;er then goes on to describe in a vivid mantier, the work of the earpenter.the seal-cutter, the smith, and the potter ; and ad.dg,^ ' without these can not a city be- inhabited, and they shall, not go where they will, nor go up ajid down. They shall not be sought for in public coun- cil, nor sit high in the congregation :. they shall, not sit, on the j,udge's seat, nor understand the sentence of judgment, an4 they, shall, Hot be found wher&pm'cMes eire spoken.' " Ohal. ' I take great, delight in. the book of Eeolesiasticus. Were I to speak merely from my own judgment of the internal evidence, I should say that it contains .^.Imost equal m^rks of inspiration ^ith the book- of Proverbs. But the Ifew Testa- ment gives fuo countenance to such, an. opinion. There are few books in the Old Testament more often quoted by the evange- lists and apostles than the boot -of Proverbs :, but they take no notice of Ecclesiasticus.' " The more we became familiarized to Dr. C.'s company, and observed, the remarkable union which he presents of high talent and comprehensive thought, -with an almost childlike moifesty a.n&\6implicity, the more we admired him, as one no- table example of thg,t .exquisite divine workmanship whi@li so -an". 58. LIFE) OF DE. CHALMEES. 291 lauoh fills his own leontemplations. Ija&y also -add, that the more we became acquainted with his thorough amiability, the more we loved him. " I must not conclude without just remarking, that our dear and honored friend is a man of prayer. The prayers which he uttered in our family circle, on some solemn occasions, were ceaieise, emphatic, and comprehensive — indicatiye of a very reverent sense of the holiness of God, and of the all-suf- ficiency of the one appointed mediation. I find myself often recurring to some of his concluding word«^-' These petitions we humbly ofier unto Thee, in the name of Him whom Thou hearest always. Amen.' " In style, as well as subject; the letters of Dr. Chahners to his children are invariably suited to the age of his correspondent, Such, for example, is the manner and subfect of a letter printed with the pen for his little daughter, Fannys. " Set off at twelve in a coach for Beverley, open, and/ drawn by Mr. Venn's own horses. He accompanied me along with Mr. Scott and another clergyman, whose name I have strangely forgotten. It was a most kind and respectable convoy for nine miles. The-object was that I might see Beverley Minster, not a regular cathedral, but really as splendid and noble an edifice as I could desire to see, and that would rank high among the cathedrals of England. In taking up Mr. Scott, at the outskirts of Hull, made a short eall on his interesting family, consisting of a wife and a good many children ; one son in orders, and several grown up daughters. Before examining the cathedral minutely, visited the minister of Beverley. His name is Mr. C, and as I wrote Helen in my last letter about the biggest bell I had ever seen in my life, let me now Frite little jf anny about the biggest man I ever saw. He is so heavy that he cannot walk ; he would weigh more than two of your papa. We found him sitting on an arm chair that could have been-made into a bed for you and Helen sleep- ing in. When he goes to the church to preach, which he does very often, he gets upon a wooden hcirse ' called a velocig^de, which runs upon wheels, and with this he moves through the streets, and through, the ehurqh till he gets to the foot of the 29^ LIFE OP DB. OHklMEKS. 18S9> pulpit; and then twogteat strong men-ser^pants push him up the stair and through the door of the pulpit with their backs and their shoulders, when he sits squash down upoii an immense cushion aad preaches sitting'te the people, for to do it- standing would be"inipossible. He received us with great politeness, is a lit-- erary and gentlemanly person, and so much esteemed that his odd movements in public excite no ridicule, he being very much 1-espeoted and sympathized with. On iny stating how desirable it is to have a printed guide for all great objects of curiosity, h« made distribution among us four of a small work that he himself had drawn up on Bev^ley Minster, fur- nished with which we made a most satisfactory survey of th6 magnificent, highly- adorned, and carefully kept structure, used as a parish church, but having no less than £1400 a year of revenue. for keeping j.t in order. — I am, my dear Fanny, your affectionate papa, "Thomas Chalmers." Proceeding on his leisurely journey northward/ on Sunday, th^ 11th of August he preached at Belford and Norham,. though eighteen miles asunder. Another notion of this tour was from Norham to Woodhouseke; to- " speel alofig the bor- der on fodt, with one leg, whe^ver it was possible in England; and attother in Scotland." This manner of traveling was obstructed by the kindness of friends, and the only apjiroach to the realization of his J>lan of a solitary ramble,- was one day- when he " proceeded- down the Liddel, in conipany with Greorge- Thomson, of seventy y«ars of age, a genius and a characte'r ; and as lie walked slow, and I kept back with him for the sake of his information, we took just four hours and a half to our twelve miles' ride. He gave m^ much intelligence regarding all the hills and localities within sigTit^being a pure Liddels- dale man, and thoroughly imbuedwith the spirit and tastes of a Scottish Borderer, beside being a botanist, and, I suspect a poet'alsp. He" pointed out to me'Mangerton Pillar, round which I went ; Mangerton House, -on the other side of the Liddel; the site of Jock o' the Side's house; the direction where Pudding-bum House lay ; Stangarth Castle, etc.; all iBT. 68. LIFE OF DB. OHALMEES. 293 famous in Border story. He represented himself as a relative of the poet Thomson, whose father, by the way, died minister of Hopekirk, and is buried there. He recounted to me various Border exploits, and had the traditionary knowledge of many Border rhymes. Reaching Woodhouselee in the afternoon of Saturday, he thus closes his letter on the Border country : ' ' The end of the week brought me to the end of the Border line. The only re- visitation I should like to maike along thq whole length of it, is to the Hermitage river,, th&,t runs into the Liddel from the N. W., and that for the sake of Hermitage Castle. I can- not but remark it as unexpected and strange, that I should^, without my being previously awa:re of them, have been sp handed from one acquaintance to another, and from one horse or carriage to another, so in fact as not to have been suffered to foot it along'any part of the joijrney. I, alluie week, in fact, have had the services done to me j^hich I. recollect in my younger days, done to those beggars who were carried about in barrows ; lifted at Norham, and let down at Earknewton^ lifted at Kirknewtoli, and let down at Sprouston — lifted at Sprouston,-and let down at Edgerston — lifted at Edgerston, and let down at Wolflee — lifted at Wolflee, and l«t down at Himi- lee — lifted at Hindlee, and let d«iwn at the Rowe— lifted at the Rowe, and let down at Woodhouselee. ,1 will, not, when I consider the length, and arduousness of the way, say it was hard to be disappointed of my pedestrian speculatipn; but rather, when I look back to all the acoonimodation I have had, and to the kindness which prompted it, I cannot but feel a grateful emotion, which for once, in this classic and inspiring region, I shall' give vent to in poetry—- " Qflod people; my thanks. For thuB haining my shanks." CHAPTEE IIY. Thk established Ohurcli of Scotland is supported by a regu- lar charge upon the rent of land paid by the owners, aiid not by the imposition of a burden upon the industry of the country. The city of Edinburgh is an exception, the estab- lished ministers of that city drawing their income from an annual impost of six per cent, en thereHtaJj payable not by the owners, but- by the occupiers of " the several dVelling-houses, chambers, booths, cellars, and all other houses higi and low." This is called the Annuity tax, and from the payment of it, "-all the members of the College of Justice, comprising the Beiich, the Bar, and the whole body of Writers or Attorneys, are by law exempt." A- burden so uneqiiaHy imposed, natu- rally gave much dissatisfa,ctioii, which increased with the growth of dissent, and was stimulated to greater activity by the progress of political r^Yormi' Very unkindly and un- fairly, instead of allying to- the head of authority "to have the evil corrected, the people of Edinburgh endeavored to throw the obloquy upon the -ministersi who hadno hand in establish^ irig the system, and bad, come to the city in dependence upon the pay that was guaranteed to them by those from *rhom they received the call. By refusing to pay the assessment,, it was thought that the ministers would either relinquish their income, or by attempting to obtain it in course of law, bring disrepute upon both the sysltem and themselves : in. other words, the tax payers, instead of applying for a change of the la*, deter- mined either tp starve or disgrace the excellent men who de- pended upon their honor. The ministers admitted of great "reductions of their salaries, by having the impost- laid upon only four-fifths of the rental, and by excusing all whose jent amounted to only five pounds and under, as well as by freely (294j ^T. BS. LIFE OF DE. CHAIMEES. S95 giving certificates of exetnption to suck as plead , inability to pay. Still, the illegal resistance prevailed, until the Town Council, at last, who ought to have done so at first, tobk the matter in hand. The measure proposed by that body evinced as little wisdom as Christianity. It was, in brief, to abolish the Annuity tax, reduce the number of city ministers from eighteen to thirteeui collect their salary from the pew rents, and supply whatever deficit there might be, by an assessment laid partly upon the landlord and partly upon the tenant. A consultation with the Presbytery was necessary. After frequent confer- ences were held between committees of the two bodies, at last a set of queries was submitted by the Council, to which authoritative answers were requested from the Presbytery.- Dr. Chalmers was appointed to draw up those answers, which he could do with the better grace, as^not being personally con- cerned, and Wednesday, the 23d of January, was appointed for the final decision. The crowd which assembled, both from interest in the Jcase and desire to hear Dr. Chalmers, was im- mense. The speech was one of its author's ablest productions. Ooing over their'querieS in order, when he came to reply to 4he proposal for reducing the number of the ministers^ his an- swer was : " The Presbytery cannot give their consent to any arrangement which shall have the efect, either immediately or in future, of reducing the number of clergymen. On this sub- ject, the Presbytery would, in the first place, uppeal to those days in the past history of Edinburgh, when, as in 1668, there were twelve ministers, with a population, it is understood, of less than 20,000, or in 1722, when there were sixteen min- isters, with a population of about 26,200. The numbers at present are eighteen ministers to a population of upward • of 66,000 ; and the Presbytery never Can consent to aggravate still further the disproportion between the former and present ecclesiastical provision for the city-, by a reduction in the num- ber of city ministers. They are the more strenuous in this lesistance, that the evil has been, fearfully increased by an in- undation of hearers in the city choi'ches from the suburbs and surrounding neighborhood of Edinburgh, in virtue of which H 296 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEBS. 1884. ■will be found ttat many thousands ■withili the city itself, now wandering like' sheep without a shepherd> have, been denuded df that Hghtful property- which they once had in the Sabbath ministrations and week-day services of their respective clergy- men. The Presbytery never will consent to . a reductioij in their number, so long as the peculiar service of reclainuhg these outcasts remains unaccomplished — a service of the utmost im- portance to the moral and christian interests oi the communily, and which, under, the present system of seat- letting, and of general congregations, is utterly impracticable." Having commented largely on the answers to the remaining, queries, > Dr. Chalmers proceeded : '' I will not speak of the ecclesiastical burdens of the city, because the efibrt of tlie-<;ler- gymen is to deliver the city from a tenfold heavier burden of pauperism, profligacy and crime. The two terms of the alter-- native are the luxury of the higher classes, and the instruction of the lower, and I stand, up as the friend of tl)e_ lower classes when I- stand up for the maintenance of tha.t fund which is the subject of y«u)5 deliberations. Our cause, despite of the oblo- quy which has been heaped upon it, is emphatically the cause of the unprovided — ^ it is the cause of the poor against the rich — of the- many who should r-eap the benefits of the Estab- lishment in the lessons of christiqn instruction, against the comparatively hy^ who would, refuse to pay the endowments, or who would retain what is not theirs, and Tvho, for their own pri^rate uses, would appropriate that which ought to be ex- pended on - the best and highest .objects of patriotism." After quoting a, passage in favor of Establishments, from the, writings of Wilham Cobbett, Dr. Chalmers concluded thus : : ' ^ ■" - "I have already professed myself, and will profess myself again, an unflinching, an out-and-out^ and I maintain it, the only consi^fent radical. The dearest object of my earthly existence, is the elevation of the common people' — humanized by Christianity, and raised by the strength of their moral hab- its to a higher platform of human nature, and by which they may attain and ienjoy the rank and consideration due tA en- JET. 54. LIFE OF DB., CH^iLMBKS, 297 lightened and companionable men. I trust the day is coming when the people will find out who are their best friends, and when the mock-jiatriotism of the present day shall be unmasked by an act of robbery and spoliation on the part of those who would deprive the poor of their best and highest patrimony. The imperishable soul of the poor man is of as much price in the sight of heaven, as the soul of the rich; and I will resist to th^ uttermost — I .will resist even to tbe death— that alienation which goes but to swell the luxury af the higher ranks, at the expense of the Christianity of the lower orders." " The Reverend Doctor," the reporter adds, " throughout this long address, spoke with marked energy and emphasis-, and at the conclusion, in particular, his manner was charac- terized with unusual animation- On sitting down, a bursty of applause rose from the spectators, which lasted for several minutes." His exertions had indeed overtasked his sti'ength, and .on the way home,. he was affected with a stroke of paralysis, which, without entirely disabling, confined him to his room fot several weeks. A slight return of th-e attack some time after- ward, pointed out the propriety of entire cessation of labor for soojae time. Accordingly, the summer of. 1834 was spent in quiet country retirement, with healthful exercise and «asy read- ing, without more writing than was involved in keeping up a pretty extensive correspondence. That, however, amounte,4 to what a man of ordinary industry would deem an overwhelm- ing task. For, in additioi( to his own private letters, be had now fully entered upon his vast scheme of qhurch extension, and was employed in jnakihg it known, aijd recommending its ob- jects, and suggesting measures of advancing them in all direc- tions. -The religious wants of -his countrymen, had, at least from the time of his first explorations in Glasgow, never beep absent from tis mind, side by side with many other ideaafor the bepefit of mankind, that one had retained its place and given evidence of its activity^in his various labors in the Tron and St. John's parish, in his Sabbath- schools for the poor, and -missionary efforts in St. Andrew's, and,, since his removal- to Edinburgh, tIFK OF DE. CHALMEE3. 1»84. tBe -oonditibH of a large portion of that population had attracted his christian sympathy. Near hisVesideiice, the suburban vil- lage of Water of Leith, was distinguished ' for Wreligion and disorder: Of its thirteen hundred and fifty -six inhabitants-, only one hundred and forty-three had seats in ahy place of worship. With the aid of a few friends, he " provide'd a iniBsionary for it, who in six months had coUectted a congregation of be- tween three and four hundred, most of whom ha'd been utter strangers to the ordinances of the gospel." He had also set on foot a I scheme for creating a new parish and chur^sh in the Cowgate, one of the tn'ost destitute portions of the city. In 1817 he had asserted that twenty more Churches were needed to meet the religious wants of Glasgow. The estimate was then deBrded extra vagaat ; but such had been the progress of correeter views, 6hiefly as the result of hiS'own teaching,' that now among his former parishioners of that city, a plan was adopted for actually realizing the suggestion. Mr. Collins, ^till piirsuing that noble career of christian benevolence upon which- he had entered,- together with his fortnCT pastor, was at once the toriginator and the principal agent in the accomplish- ment of the Scheme : but so extensive and weighty was the co-operation, that in 1841, the last church of the twenty was completed. The same spirif also more extensively pi6rvade.d the body of the Scottish clergy. A committee had been appointed to ta;kft means of increasing the usefulness of the church as early as 1828; but without any results, until the Assembly of 1834 furnished it with some new powers and placed Dr. Chalmers atits head. The design Of the Scottish estahlished Church is to furnish religious instruction to, every individual throughout the lahd^ whoj has not choseR it for himself in some dissenting body. B.ut the Increase of churches since' the Eeformation'had fallen far behind that of the population, and now hundreds and thou- sands, -especially in the large cities, were utterly unprovided forr ■ The views of the evangelisa! party contemplated no inrio- vatbn. It was only the self-development which the establish- ^T. S4. LIFE OF DB. OHAIMEKS. 299 ment should have maintained all along. There were formal im- pediments, it is true. New parishes were subject to the patron of the original parish, and when chapels of ease were erected the ecclesiastical courts refused to- -admit their ministers to a place with their brethren, or- to grant them a Kirk session to aid in their ministerial work, while they were dependent for pecuniary sirppoi-t wholly upon the pew-rents. A bill -passed by ParliameBt in the summ-er of 1 834, did away with the former obstacle, and an Act of Assembly of the same year admitted all the existing chapel- ministers to the full standing of theparo- chical clergy. i The way .was thus prepared, for the better execution of the design long contemplated by Dr. Chalmers. In, pursuance of the objects of ihe committee he now made it his business to awaken the co-operation of men of standing all over the country. His plan was to build new churches by the free gifts of the people, depending not so much upon the donations df the wealthy as the penny-a-week contributions of the poor. To the latter he attached very great importance, not- only for the large pecuniary results it ' was capable, of giving, but also because thereby the feelings of that cliaSs whom it was designed to benefit, would be enlisted in the enterprise. The ministers of the new churches were to be provided for from the pew- rents, which at the same time were to be put low enough to be within the haeans of the poorest. In order the better to attain that'endr it was thought desirable to have small endowments for each of them. The intention is thus presented in Dr. Chal- mers's own langfuage : " The whole peculiarity of our scheme lies in this ; and, while this is kept out df sight, we shall never have done with the unintelligent crudities of those by whom we are made the objects of a perpetual misrepresentation. The church is planted for the express benefit of certain unpro- vided families occupying a given district that has been prer viously explored,. and whose limits have been previously de- termined J and the specific thing on which we rest, and are ■willing to rest exclusively the merits of our cause, is the foot- ing upon which the relation is established between this church 300 LIFE OF DE. OHAIMEES. 1534. and these families. (1.) We pravidp them with a , church ra«or «joM^A, else they are still unprovided families, (2.) We are laboring to provide them with a church at seai-renis low enough, else they are obviously still unprovided families, (3.) We take care that (ke district ie small enough, and jjts families few enough to be thoroughly pervaded by the week-day atten- tions of a clergyman ; el^e in one most important respect these families would still be' unprffvided, because not- provided with 8/ minister who might assume the pastoral superiritettdence, and discharge it so - fully as tg become the counselor and Christian friend of one and all of them." Application was accordingly made^to government foi: an endowment,, and naet, at fir,st with inuch favor; but the dis- senters seeing ths progress of the scheme (for in. one year un- der the management of I)r. Gialmers, no less than sixty -four new churches had' been orwere being built), and fearing lest it. should interfere with their ,6wn ad vaacement, united their efforts tci defeat it. Earnest and numerous remonstrances were addressed to Parliament against the intended , grant, the jesult of which was the appointment of a committee of investigation into the rneans offeligious instruction, , Theia-.report, submitted at the end of two years, fully sustained the • representatiions made of the spiritual wants of the country, but no measura followed of a nature to. supply them. Nonsuch external discoU;ragements, however, could impede the prpgress or extingiiish the zeal of thejndefatigable mind, now laboring fqr the religious/instnoctien of Scotland's poor. Ainid disappointments and opposition, both out of the church and in it, he pressed on with unflagging devotion, maintaining a, voluminous correspondence, issuing circulars and pamphlets, directing agents .and stirring up the active bfiae-volence of the peoplf by-'tlte wonderful power of his voice. No less .than ioui pamphlets iii reMon to ihe subject were published by. him in the months of April and May, i836 ; and not content with all his own voice could effect, he, in 1836, under sanction of- the General Assembly, instituted a system of meetings over the country at which various well instructed deputies- were ap- ^T. 65. LIFE OF DB. CHALMERS. 301 pointed 'to '• plead the cause in the most popular and effective manner." Nor "were the fruits disproportioned to the labor ex- pended. At the end of fou/ years,' Dr. Chalmers had to report to the General Assembly the addition-- of nearly two hundred churches, "for the erection of -which upward of two hundred thousand pounds had bee^ contributed." A proof not only of his own en^gyT but of the truth with which he had divined the wants of his countrymen. In his own words, " Had the operations of the Committee not -harinohized -with th6 senti- ments of the country, they never could hav« commanded an amount and continuance of pecuniary' support altogether -with- out a precedent in the history of christian beneficence in this part' of the British empire. Nor is there any premonitory symptom yet of declining' fervor in this cause among the peo- ple of Scotland, The- work is slill far from its termination. It has only, so to speak, begun. The eases of most helpless 'and affecting destitution still remain to be overtaken. There are wastes of poverty^ irreligion, and crilne, which have still to be redeemed, and -which nothing but the aggressive operation of a territorial establishment, wisely, and stren^lously, arid perseve- ringly conducted, is adequate to subdue ; an|i until every such moral wilderness is esiplored and reclaimed, and the whole country present the aspect of a field which the Lord hath blessed, and is causing to bring forth the fruits o^ righteous- ness, the Committee may not rest from their labors, nor the people from their hearty and zealous co-operation. At the glorious era of the church's Reformation, it was the unwearied support of the people which, under God, finally brought her efforts to a triumphant issue ; in this era of her extension — an era as broadly marked, and as emphatically presented to the notice of the ecclesiastical historian, as any which the church is wont to consider as instances of signal revival and divine in- terposition — the support of the people will not be wanting ; but by their devoted exertions, and willing sacrifices, and ardent prayers, they will yet testify how much they love the house where their fathers worshiped — how much they reverence their 302 LIFE OF DE. CHAIMKB8. 1885. Saviour's command, that the very. pooreiSt of their brethren shall have the gospel preached to them." Dr. Chalmers, in the i&idst of his many occupationB -in the winter of 1835-6, prepared; from- survey mad^ by himself and agents of- his own appointment, a statement o{ the condition in respect to religion, of districts in Edinburgh, embracing a pop- ulation of twenty thousand, for presentation before the Com- missioner's of Religious Instniiction j and in his examination. by ttiat'body, he also took occasion to set forth the grounds and prineipks of the ch^irch extension scheme. The opponents -of that enterprisei especially the Bev.- Dr., Lee, of Edinburgh, upon examination, endeavored to make impressions of a con- tradictory nature. This circWmptanee, together ^th an attempt afterward made to give weight to their party by the election of Dr. Lee as Moderator of the nfext Assembly, led to a public ■controversy and some unpleasant feelings, which it took years to reconcile. Thereby, -however, the cause of r^fonuatioji: was promoted, -and the opposition, defeated in their iattempt, ^wer« made to feel the increasing strength of those eonvictipne ±hey had so long succeeded in suppressing. CTHAPTER XV. LiTBKART societies now vied yritli eaeL other in honoring one whose name conferred more honor than it received in connec- tion with any society. In January, 1834, Dr. Chalmers was elected a Fellow of the Eoya,l Society of Edinburgh, and nearly at the same time, a corriesponding member of the Eoyal Insti- tute of France, and in the summer of 1835, he received the degree of Doctor of Laws, from the University of Oxford. The second of these he justly acknowledged as the proudest of his literary honors, and respecting the last. Which was conferred during a visit to London in June, 1 835, we have the following reminiscence from" the. pen of Lord Elgin: "I retain a very pleasing impression of Dr. Chalmers's visit to'Oxford in 1836; I do not know that I ever saw him enjoy himself more thor- oughly than he seemed to do on that occasion. With the ex- ception, indeed, of the degree conferred iipon him hy the Uni- versity, Dr. Chalmers's visit to Oxford was not marked by a^ very striking incident. What was chiefly interesting to 6ne who esteemed and aldmired him, was tt) witness the heartiness with which he entered into the spirit of the place, and the al- most boyish delight which he seemed to experience, after the toils of his sojourn in London, in suffering his ima^nation to expatiate among scenes of academic grandeur and repose. I well remember his coming to my apartment at Merton, before eight o'clock one morning, and telling me of a seijuestered «ourt -which he had found in. a college, into which he had strayed on his way from Christ Church, and the earnestness with wMch he claimed credit for having thus disc6vered for himself a -spot of surpassing beauty, which could, he assured me, be known to few. I remember, too, the serious manner in which, while we were strolling in the college garden, on the (303) 304 LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 1885 afternoon of the day on wtich his degree was conferred on him, he apologized for the extravagance of which he had been guilty in purchasing the robes of a Doctor of Civil Law, not- withstanding the precautions I had taken to relieve him from this necessity, saying, 'You se6 I could not bring myself td leave the place, without carrying away with me some memo- rial of the academic costume.' "On the day fpllowing his arrivaT at Oxford,. I was re- quested to endeavor to ascertain whether it would be agreeable to him to receive an honorary degree from the University ; and I had a,fterward the satisfaction of beiog present when.it waa conferred on hirn. E^rely have I witnessed as much enthu? siasm iA the~ OifQrd theater, as was manifested when he pre- sented hims^I^, to gOt through, the ceremony of admission. , This was the more .gratifying, because it was notq^ous that on some hy. no means immaterial points, his views were not coincident with those which obtained at the time with an influential sec- tion of, the Oxford University public. Indeed, the only ex- pression of regret which; Ml from hiniin my- hearing during the course of his. visit, had referer^oe to the reserve, which char: acteriaed; as he thought, the manner of some eminent men, connected with a certain Iheelogical party, to whoin he was in- Jarpduced, and which prevented him from touching, in conver- sation with them» upon topics flf highest import, with tjie fratik and geniaKeamestness which w^s natural- to him. This^as, however,, only a passing remark. Host assuredly there> was no indication of lack of cordiality fn his reception by Convocation, Dr. Chalmers was himi^lf deeply affected by the warmth with which he was- greeted ; and I think I might almost venture to say. that he lopked upon this viait to Oxford as one of the most pkasing incidents in his career.". - While thus. labflring for the spiritual well-being of his coun- trymen, and receiving the highest honors of his profession, both at home and ajjroad, he was still struggling, in 4iis own affairs, with the . difficulties attendant upon an office poorly paid, i ■ ■ . r The tiieolpgical professorship, previously connected with a MT. 65. LIFE OF DR. OHALMEKS. 305 city pastoral charge, ■when such pluralities were abolished, re- tained a very inadequate endowment. ' At Dr. Chalmers's first connection with it, the salary was only one hundred and nine- ty-six pounds, paid by the Town Council, no fees being taken from theological students. A few years latpr, this was entirely dried up by the insolvency of the- Town Council, and the only remedy provided, was the exaction of a small fee from those who attended the' lectures. Dr. Chajmers was thus left de- pendent upon a precarious income, amounting, on an average, to about four hundred pounds a year, while occupying a place in society involving an outlay of more than eight hundred. Not only for his own sake, but also on aeeouut of his successors' in oflBce/ he felt some effisrt to obtain an adequate endowment foir the pro- fessorship 1io be incumbent on him, , A memorial presented to government oruthe subject, however, failed of success. Con- sequently, compelled to adopt some method of eking out hia insufficient resources, he fell in with a proposal ftiom his pub- lisher, of issuing, in quarterly volumes, a cheap edition of his works. This enterprise Was begun in January, 1836. Many of the treatises were greatly enlarged in the course of repub- lication, and most of the first five volumes were entirely new material. , • - " One of the great questions then agitating the British public, was the propriety of religious establishments. An almost uni- versal conviction existed of the necessity of reform in the Church of England -and Ireland, and a large party advocated -the abolition of the system entirely. This party was largely TBpresented in Parliament. Commissions of inquiry were ap- pointed to look into thfe matter, who, beginning with the Irish Establishment, led to a reducti6n in the number of its bishops, and proposals to-alienate a lat-ge amount of its revenue. ■ The friends of the English church were aroused to their utmost efi'orts :^,and among the means adopted by them for defense, a society was organized in 'London, designated The Christian. Influence Society. Early in 1837, Dr. Chalmers was solicited to deliver, before this association, a course of lectures, as the opening of a series devoted to an exposition of its peculiar 26 306 LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. , 1888. objects. Viewing this- iu the light of a most favorable oppor- tunity of bringing forward in didactic, rather than controver- sial form, his idea of a church eetabhshment, he a:greed Jto undertake the ta$k, but postponed the execution of it until the following spring. The time and care expended in the prepara- tion of these lectures, were amply repaid; none of his pr oductions were ree^ved with greater favor, or tpld with more efiect jipon their cause, i The first of the course was djelivered in the Han' over Square Rooms, London, on Wednesday, the 26th- April, 1838. None were admitted except those who had received, tickets from th& society, whose choice ,h:ad brought ^together an audienee Of the highest rank, and most refined education : and yet th6 effects recorded of the lecturer's power were not inferior to those he had produced upon lai-ger and promiscuous assemblies. The enthusiasm pf attendance -continued to increase through the whole course. An American , clergyman, the Bev. J. A. Clark, who was present at the fourth and fifth, says in rfegard to them : " The hour at which the lecture'was to com- mence was two o'clock. . I thought it necessary to be before- hand in order to secure 3 seat. When 1 arrlve4, I found the hall so perfectly crammed, that- at first it seemed impossible to gain admission, but by dint of perseverance I pushed my way onward through 'the dense crowd, till I had reached nearly the center of the hall. Though the crowd was so -great, it was very obvious that the assembly was made up principally of persons in the higher walks of life. Dukes, marquises,, earl?, viscounts, barons, baronets, bishops, and naembers of Parha- ment, were to be seen in every direetion. After jsome consid- erable delay and impatient waiting, the great charmer made his entran,pe,- and was welcomed with, clappings and shouts of applause,-^that grew more and more iijtense, till the noise be- came almost deafening." The concluding lecture was graced by the presence of nia^ prelates of the Church of England. The tide that had been rising and swelling each succeeding day now burst all bounds. • parried away by the impassioned utter- ance of the speaker, long ere the close of some- of his finest passages was reached, the voice of the lecturer was drowned ^T. 68. LIFE OF DE. 0HALMEE8. 307 in the applause, the auijience rising from their seats, wavjng their hats above their heads, and breaking out into tumultuous approbation. Nor was the interest confined to the lecture- room. " Nothiiig," says Dr. Begg, " could exceed the enthu- siasm which preTailed in London. The great city seemed stirred to its vtgry depths. The doctor sat when delivering his lecftures, behind a small table; the hall, in front, being densely crowded with one of the most brilliant audiences that ever as- sembled in Britain. It was supposed that at least five hundred of those present were-Peers and members of the House of Com- mons. Sir James Graham was a very constant attender. • The sitting attitude of Dr. Ohalmers seemed at first irreconcilable with much energy or effect ; but such an anticipation was ^t once dispelled by the enthusiasm of the speaker, responded to if possible, by the still more intense enthusiasm of the audi- ence ;■ and, occasionally, the feflfect was even greatly- increased, by the eloquent man springing unconsciously to his feet, and delivering with more overwhelming power the more magnifi- cent passages, a movement which, on one occasion, at least, was imitated by the entire audience, when the words, 'the king cannot — the king dare not>' were uttered in accents of pro- phetic vehemence, that must still ring in the ears of all wjbo h«ard them, and were responded to, by a whirlwind of enthu- siasm, ivhich was probably never exceeded in the history of eloquence. Some of us sat on the platform beside the doctor, and near us were the reporters. One seemed to leave the room every five minutes with what he had written-, so that by the time thelecture was finished, it was nearly all in print. On the day of the first lecture, which commenced at two o'clock, and termiiiated about half-past three, some of us went round by the city, and when we reached our dinner table at five o'clock, we were able to present Dr. Chalmers a newspaper, I think the ' Sun,' or ' Globe,' containing a full report of his lecture. Nothing was more striking, however, amidst all this excite- ment, than the child-like humility of the. great man himself. All the flattery seemed to produce no effect whatever on him ; his mind was entirely absorbed in his great object ; and the 308 LIFE OF |)E. CHALMEKS. *'*' 1888. same land, -playfiil, and truly christian spirit,'' that so endeared hjm'to us all, was everywhere apparent in his conduct.. I ha4 the honor aftefward, to be introduced to- the Duke of Csoff iM-idge. He immediately introduced the s^ibject of- Dr. Chal- mers. ' What does he teafch ?? said his Royal Highness, rap- idly,. ■ I intimated tha/t he taught theology. ' MMstrous clever man,' said the duke, 'he could teach anything.' I.haveJiear4 Di^, Chalmers on many great occasions, but -probably 1ms Lon- don lectures aflforded- the most reniarkable illustrations of his eiti^ordinary power, and must be ranked among the most sig- nal triumphs of oratory in any age." The lectures were immediately published in authentic form i and notwithstahding the anticipations by the newspapers, -eight thousand copies were cirtSulated within a , year. .They were afterward inserted in the series of his works and cbnstitute the most complete enibodimrent of his ideas " upon the establish- ment and extension. of national churches as affording the only ad6qiiat6 maehinery for t^e moral and christian instruction of a people." " From the time of his appointment aisone of its correspond- ing-, meflibers, Dr. Chalmers had cherished the iitention, of reading a paper before the Eoyai Institute of Erance. . In exe- cution of this design he left England .^ for Paris early in June, 1838, accompaniexl by Mrs. Chalmers and two olhis daughters. Lady Elgin, Sir John and Lady Hay, La4y Shaw Stewart, and Mr.Erskine, aill of whom were there,, vied with each other in affording him every opportunity for thpxoughly-fexploring Paris; and to the same kind friends he was indebted for more than one iflteresting glimpse into the interior of .French Society." Su- perior to the prejudices of nationality,, he seems to have carried with hint everywhere a heart, prepared to be' pleased. In the records of his first sight of Paris, he declared himself much impressed with its beauty and lightness up and down the Seine, and delighted witJi the TuUleries garden ; its sculpture, its shaded walks, its groups of pedestrians ; and goes on to note "how' much, more still and leisurely eyery thing moves here than in London. All in Paris is within^a manageable compass; ^Tt,58. LIFE OF DE. OHAIMEES. 309 and I was- not prepared for its being so much less "busy, and populous, and e3i;tensive, than our own metropolis. It is more a. city of loungers ; and life moves on at a morejational pace. Its buildings are more impressive.-" -After spending between two and three weeks in Paris, read- ing his paper on the Distinction, both in ^principle and effect, between a legal charity for the relief of ' indigence, and a legal eharity for the relief of disease, before the Royal Institute, mak- ing the acquaintance of M. Guizot, and various other eminent literary characters, he made an excursion threugh the provinces, in the course of which he visited the Dwc de BVoglie, to whom he had been introduced in Paris, and who had invited him to spend a few days at his country residence. One of the days spent there was a Sabbath, of which we find the following record-; " Found the morning^ worship party in the library at eleven. The Duke read a chapter of the French Bible, the tenth of John, at a table ; the Duchess, opposite to him, read sermon, one t)f Audebez's. We then all knelt, and ,sbe uttered a French praye'p-; could not follow it, but her frequent 'G, Seigneur,' in a most devotional tone. Went to my heart. Whether the prayer was extemporaneous or learned by heart, I know" not. At thfee, a small party. Conversed in the Duchess's own apartment, when I read a chapter and ex- pounded; My topic was appropriation, from the tenth ehaptelr of Biomans. It gave rise to a brief conversation, chiefly on the part of Mademoiselle Ponnarrie, who must in part fcave understood me. She is the same I met in Lady Elgin's and who was spoken of t6 me- as likely to translate my ' Natural Theology.' Madame de Stafel said~I had given her touch com- fort. AH here are- Catholics but the Duchess and Madame de Stael. Was shown Diodati's translaticai of my St. John's Ser- mons. Family worship in the evening, consisting of a chapter and the Lord's Prayer, at which we knelt, the DueheSs offici- ating ; about seven domestics present in the morning, and fifteen in the evening." Notmany months afterward that noble and pious lady was nuriibered witb the dead. In his letter addressed to the Duke 310 LIFE. OF BE. OHALMEES. * 1883. on that melaaiclioly bereayement, Dr. GhaJmers remark^M her as the most exalted and impressive of all th@ acquaintalces he had made for many. years. From Brogue he and his travelings companion, Mr. ErsMne, proceeded to Alencon. " The variety and amount of sweet and engaging landscape, as we pass along quite baffling. A church to the right, another to the left, another onward, prO' jeeted to the sky. The Succession of loveliness prodigious. I now understand the beauty of Normandy." Reaching Tours they ascended the Loire . to Orleans, and thence, to "Pithiviers and Malesherbes, then to Fontainbleauand again to Parrs; Looking back upon this tqur, he says of it, "a most interesting journey, by whieh my .opinion of the actual state of property in France, and. also mj. yiews of its eventual, have been made more favorable.. Much, however, must be left to tiare and experience.. Have been greatly enlightened by the conversa- tion of the Duo de Bfoglie. From a desire to spend the last years of his Kfe in a manner entirely d-evotional. Dr. Challners now pwt forth all his strength to bring his plans for Church extension -to 'maturity, that he might consign the continuance of them in successful operation to the hands of others, at the Gfeneral Assembly of 1846, about which time . he would .conclude his sixtieth year. "It- is a favorite speculation ..of mine," he says, " that if spared to sixty, we then enter on the seventy decade of human life; and that this, if- possible, should be turned into the Sabbath of our earthly pilgrimage^ and spent sabbatically, as if on jthe ghore of an eternal world, or in . the outer courts, as' it were, of the temple that is above — the tabernacle in heaven. What enam- ors me all the more of this idea, is the retrospect of my .mother's widowhood. I long, if Gpd should spare me, for such an old age as she enjoyed,, spent as if at thp gate of heaven, and with such a fund of inward peace and.hppe as made her nine years' widr qwhood a perfect feast and foretaste of the blessedness that awaits the righteous." This, designed to be his last great effort for the cause in which he had spent his strength so long, was to embrace oral .fflT. 58. LIFE OF DE. CHALMKKS. 311 addresses in all important places- thronghout the land. On the 18th of Angust, 1838, "he began a tour through the south- western districts of Scotland, in the course of which ten Pres- byteries, embracing one hundred and serenty 'ministers, were visited : and addresses on church extension were delivered in Stranraer,^ Wigton, Greenock, Dunoon, Kilmamock, Ayr, Paisley, Dumbarton, Hamilton, Lanark, and Biggar. It was a new sphere of effort which Dr, Chalmers had now entered. He was unpracticed in extemporary speaking j and yet, with- out a considerable admixture oi this form, he found that he could not adapt himself to -the varied and promiscuous audi- ences which he addressed. He had never taken part in any platform discussion, yet in such public meetings as he now un- dertook to address, hostile collisions might occur. But h« would do all, -and dare all, for a cause that was so dear." About the same time a -proposal was made .to him by Mr. William Campbell, of Glasgow, which promised greatly to hasten the execution of his plans. In view of many cases of extreme destitution, and of the scanty funds at command of the committee, rendering it necessary to raise most of the mo- ney for each new church in the place for which it was erected, Mr. Campbell "suggested that a new fund be created, espe- cially intended to meet cases of lextreme destitution ; and that this fund should consist of contributions of one pound or up- Ti^ard, for each of the next hundred churches that should be built. If one thousand such subscribers could, be obtaihed in Scotland, then one thousand pounds, a sum adequate to defr-ay the whole cost of the edi•fice,^ would be available for each of the new buildings. . Mr. Campbell himself offered twenty-five poimds for each such church, coming thus under personal ob- ligation for twenty-five hundred pounds. Dr. Chalmers hailed the proposal with delight, and resolved- to devote the whol§ summer of 1 839 to an effort to carry it into execution. The brief interval between the close of the college session and the meeting of the General Assembly, was filled up by visits to Dundee, Perth, 'Stirling, and Dunfermline. The General As- sembly was scarcely dissolved when be resumed his tour. 312 UFE OF DB. CHALMEES. ISiO. addressingaufluentiklaudieneesat Brechin, Montrose, Arbroath, and )3iaking his way te Aberdeen, where, a peculiarly brilliant reception was given to him. His progress was interrupted by a sur^ons which called him iirstantly to London; but the busy and anxious negotiations, in which he there for a time took part, directed though they were to a new and most embarrass- ing subject, did not divert him- from his summer project, for again, and after only a few 4ay& of rest in Edinburgh, on his return from the metropolis, we find him setti|ig out on what he called his great northern tour." On this journey he visited the most importai^Sl places in the Highlands of Scotland,- awakening an active inleresti^herever he appeared. At Inverness, no less than two thousand pounds were raised for the cause ; yet, upon the whole, the results of this tour of Scotland, did not meet hi&^fc^pectations. He had set out with the confident hope of raising £K30,ODO, and of making another addition of one hundred, churches ; but the in- creasing opposition to establishments, ■antj the conflict -with the civil authorities de&ated the design; The whole sum raised was not more than j£40,000. Upon presenting his report to ike General Assembly in, 1840, he concluded in the following: words:—" The convener of your connpitteCiWho has prepared the above report, craves permission to close it with one brief* paragraph which is personal to himself. He finds that the la-i bors and requisite attentions of an office which for six years he has, so inadequately filled, have inow become a great deal too much for him ; and for the sake of other labors and other pre- parations, more in keeping with the arduous work of a theolo- gical professorship, as well as witk the powers, and, he may add, the prospects and the duties of advanced life, he begs that he may now be suflfered to withdraw. While ie rejoices in She experimental confirmation which the history of these few years has afforded him of the resources and the capabilities of the Voluntary system,- to. which, as hitherto unfostered by the paternal care of Government,- the scheme of Church Extension is indebted for all its progress, it still remains his unshaken conviction of ithat system notwithstanding, that, it should only jET. eO. LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 313 be 'resorted to as a supplement, and never but in times when the powei-s of infidelity and intolerance are linked together in hostile combination against the sacred prerogatives of the church, .should it once be thought of as a substitute for j, na- tional establishment of Christianity. In days of darkness and disquietude, it may open a temporary resource, whether for a virtuous secession, or an ejected church to fall back upon ; but a far more glorious consummation is, when the State puts forth its hand to sustain but not to subjugate the church, and the two, bent on moral conquests alone, walk together as fel- low-helpers toward the achievement of that great* pacific tri- umph — the christian education of the people. He to Whom you assigned so high and honorable an office as the prosecution of this object, and who now addresses you in the capacity of its holder for the last time, will no^ let go the confident hope, that, under the smile of an approving heaven, and with the blessing f^om on high, glorious things are yet in reserve for the parishes of Scotland; andthougb his hand, now waxing feeble, must desist from the performances of, other days, sooner will that hand forget its cunning, than he can forget or cease to feel for the church of his fathers." .1 ' At the earnest entreaty of the Assembly, Dr. Chalmers con- tinued at the head of the I^xtension Committee for another year, nor did he . retire from the great field of labor till two hundred and twenty churches — more than one-fifth efits.whqle complement — had been added to the cburcheS'of the Estab^ lishment.' 27 • CHAPTER XVI. Under the Divine blessing, the efiforts of "Dr." Chalmers had succeeded in working a great revolution in public feelings in favor of practical Christianity. A spirit of^^Sevotion and reli- gious inquiry prevailed, which refused any longer to sit down contented under the empty and drowsy pulpit performances if previous times. The younger clergy had also for years oeen carrying forth over the land the p'rogressive spirit of their beloved professor, and had given to the evangelical party a strong preponderance in the councils of the church, which went far to repair 'the corruptions of a century. An 3nd was put to the -ordaining bf "elders' merely with a view to holding a seat in the General- Assembly ; candidates for the ministry were subjected to 'a closer examination, and their course of instruction enlarged i a stricter supervision was exer'cised over the conduct and doctrine of ministers ; that act of the Assembly of 1799, whereby the ministers of all other denominations were excluded from occupying a pulpit of the Establishment cai any occasion, was set aside, and ministerial communion restored with the English and Irish orthodox Pres- "byterians, one entire body of seceders was received into the national church, and great advances had beea made in the cause of foreign missions and of home' education. "In 1835, fresh from his fi«ld of labor in the east, the church's own first and most honored missionary, Dr. Duff, presented himself before the Assembly, and to his fervent pleadings on (314) ■ffiT. 60. LIFE OF DK. CHALMERS. 315 behalf of missions, the whole House gave back one unbroken response of direct and grateful acquiescence. Hitherto it had been only on educational destitution existing in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland that the General Assembly had fixed its attenfion. But now its more wakeful eye was fastened on th^ hke but more fatal destitution existing in the large towns and more populous districts of the Lowlands ; and under the counsels of D.ij. Welsh, and the vigorous agency of Mr. David Stow, of Glasgow the best basis was laid for an improved and extended national education in the institution of Normal Schools. In 1836, widening still further the embrace of her sympathies and efforts, a scheme was organized, and an annual collection in all the churches was ordered, for the promotion of Christi- anity in the British colonies, where so many of our^expatriated countrymen, through want of the means of grace, had fallen into. spiritual forgetfulness. The year 1838 was distinguished by the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry inti> the state of the Jews, in execution of which Dr. Keith and Dr. Black, Mr. .McCheyne and Mr. Bona,r, journeyed over Europe to Pal- estine^ — furnishing that report upon which a new Scheme for the Conversion of the Jews was added to those formerly exist- ing, and which received from the christian public a general and cordial support. Altogether, i"n evidence of the rekindled zeal and redoubled energy with which all her public christian enter- prises were prosecuted, we can point to the church's collective annual revenue for these objects in the year 1839, as being fourteen times greater than it had been in 1 834. Speaking of this brief but brilliant period. Dr. Chalmers says : — " We abol- ished the union of offices — we are planting schools — we are multiplying chapels — we are sending forth missionaries to dis- tant parts of the world — we have purified and invigorated the discipline-^w€ are extending the church, and rallying our pop- ulation around its venerable standard — we are bringing the sectaries again within its pale — and last, though not least, we have reformed the patronage j and our licentiates, instead of a. tutorship in the families of the great as their stepping-stone to preferment, now betake themselves to a parochial aseistantship 316 LIFE OF DK. CHAIiMEBS, 1840. or to a preaching station, with its correspondent home-walk of christian usefulness among the families of the surrounding poor, as the likeliest passage to a higher place in their profeS' sion, even as it is the bes-t preparation for the duties of their high calling. And not only is there the visible glow of. this great and wholesome reform abroad over the country, or in the outer department of the church, but in the business of its- courts and judicatories, in the General Assembly itself, there is the same great and obvious reformation : so that, instead of' the ecclesiastico-political arena which it once Was, more at least than half its time is taken up with the beseeming cares of a great moral institute, devising for the, christian good and the best- interests of men both at home and abroad." It was n%t possible to proceed far in such a course without comings athwart some self-seeking move of politics or favor- itism. • ■ ' ; ^ The history of the first qollision of that kind siall be re- tained in the language of Dr. Hanna : ." A few months after the passing of the Veto Law by tlie Assembly of 1834, a pre- sentation was issu«d by the EaH of Kinnoul to the vacant par- ish of Auchterarder, in, Perthshire. , Mr. Young, the presentee, was not in orders, holding only a license from his Presbytery, which permitted him to preach as a candidate for the holy oflSce. After be had preached on two successive Sabbaths in the pulpit of the Vacant church, a day was appointed for mod- erating in a call — that is, for inviting the people, to express their concurrence in his. settlement. In a. parish containing three thousand soulsj only two of ite-inhabitants, came forward upon that day to sign, the call ; and when, ift. obedience to the recent Act of Assembly, an opportunity was afforded to fiiose male heads of families whose names were on the attested com- munion roll, of tendering iSieir dissent, out of the three hun- dred entitled to use this privilege, two hundred and eighty- geven, or more than five-sixths of the whole number, gave in theirnames as dissentient?, and all expressed their readiness Jo make the solemn declaration, that they were actuated by no factious or malicious motives, but solely, by a conscientious ^T 60. LIFE OF DB. CHALMERS. 317 regard to the spiritual interests of themselves and the congrega- tion. To afford them time for reconsideratioi), and an oppor- tunity, if they chose to avail themselves of it, to withdraw their names, the Presbytery adjourned for a fortnight ; but at the adjourned meeting, without one exception, they all adhered to their disseiit. Before any final judgment was given, in con- sequence of objections taken to some parts of the Presbytery's proceedings, the case went by appeal before the Synod of Perth and Stirling, and afterward before the General Assembly of 1835. Having repelled the objections which had been taken to the actings of the inferior Court, the Assembly remitted the cas6 to the Presbytery, with instructions ' to -proqeed in the matter in terms of the Interim Act of last Assemb^.' Acting under these instructions, the Presbytery, on vff 7th July, 1835, rejected Mr. Young, 's(5 far as regarded' that particular presentation.' Against this rejection the presentee entered an appeal to the Synod, which he afterward abandoned ; and it was with mingled curiosity and alarm that the church learned, that in conjunction with the patron he had raised an action against the Presbytery before "the Supreme Civil Court, the Court of Sisssion. As the action ^as originally laid, the Court was asked to review the proceedings' of the Presbytery solely with the view of determining the destination of the benefice, and declaring that the just and legal right to'the stipend sfiU lay with the rejected presentee. The case, however, had not been in Court more than a few weeks when an ominous change was made upon the whole character of the action. This change, techuidally denominated ' an amendment of the libel,' was ef- fected by the introduction of new clauses, in which the court was asked to find and declare that the rejection of Mr. Young, expressly on the ground of a veto, by the parishioners, was illegal, being contrary to statute, and that the Presbytery was still under statutory obligation to Mr. Young upon trial, and if found qualified to ordain him as minister of the parish. The case, the novelty and importance of which began now to be universally appreciated, was ordered to be heard before all the judges. The pleadings began on the 21st November, and 318 LIFE OF DE. OlfALMEES. 1840. closed on the ISth of the succeeding month. On the 27(ii February, 1838,"; and on six subsequent days, the judges deliv- ered their opiniofls, deciding, by a majority of eight to five, in favor of the pursuers and against the church. The majority ■was composed of the Lord President (Hope), Lord Gillies, the Lord Justice- Clerk (.Boyle), Lord Meadowbank, Lord Macken- zie, Lord Medwyn, Lord Gorehouse, and Lord Cunninghazhe. The minority consisted of Lord FuUerton, Lord Moncrieflf, Lord Glenlee,-Lord Jeffrey, and Lord CoGkbum. The judgment of the Court, delivered on the 8th March, did not coyer the whole of the conclusions craved by the pursuers ; but after repelling the objections which had been taken to the jurisdiction of the Court, an(^he competency of the action, restricted itself to finding, thl^n rejecting Mr. Young, ' on the sole ground that a majority of male he^^ds of fanHlies, communicants in the said parish, have dissented, without ajiy reason assigned, from his admission as minister, the Prfisbytery have acted illegally and in violation of their duty, and contrary to the provisions of certain statutes libeled on.' " Throughout all the lengthened arguments delivered at the Bar and from the Bench, the two leading questions which were carefully distinguished from each other, and subjected to sep- arate discussion, were,— 1. The legality of the Veto Law, — whether the church, under statlite or otherwise, was legally competent to enact such a law, and whether, in enacting it, she had violated any statute of the realm ; and, 2. The com- petence of the Court of Session to interfere, in case it should find the Veto Law to be illegal, for any other purpose, and to any other effect, than simply to regulate the destination of the benefice. The- pleadings at the Bar, as well as the opinions delivered from the Bench, left-a certain amount of obscurity resting upon both these leading topics. It sometimes seemed as if the alleged illegajity of the Veto Law lay exclusively in the conclusive force bestowed upon an arbitrary disBent of a majority, and in the church having thereby transferred to the people a privilege which, though possesseiby herself, she was not at liberty to alienate ; s» that if taking Mr. Young upon ^T. 60. LIFE OF DE, CHALMEES. 319 trial, and iQoking upon his non-accepfcability as a disqualifica- tion, she were on that ground by her own aijthurity and upon her own judgment to reject him, she would be guilty of no breach of any statute. In the arguments, again, by which the competency of the Court of Session to adjudicate upon this case was sustained, it was difficult to know whether it was af- firmed or^ot, that over all such actings of church Courts as directly or indirectly carried civil consequences, the Court of Session claimed the same authority which it possessed and ex- ercised over all the inferior civil tribunals of the kingdom, or whether any separate standing and exclusive jurisdiction was allowed to the ecclesiastical judicatories. The Sourt of Ses- sion had considered itself competent to declare that -a Presby- tery which, acting under the explicit directions^ OMpie supreme ecclesiastical tribunal, had done nothing but carr^)ut a law of the Assembly, had done an illegal act. But was it prepared to do here what, in every like ©ase Of a purely civil character, it was its right and duty to do — to order -the Presbytery to proceed as it directed ; and holding the Veto Law as a nullity simply because it, the Court of Session, held it so, to take the necessary steps toward the presentee's ordination : and in case of the Presbytery's disobedience, was it prepared by the or- dinary compulsitors of la.w — by fine or imprisonment— to en- force obedience to its edict ? In itself the sentence pronounced by the Court was equivocal. Declaring what- the Presbytery had done to be illegal, it stopped short of declaring or prescrib- ing what the -Presbytery should do. That sentence might have been sriven thoua'h all that the Court meant to interfere with was the appropriation of the stipend. One thing alone was clearly and conclusively determined by it, that should the Churoli persist, in rejecting Mr. Young, she incurred thereby the forfeiture of the benefice. It was to prevent, if possible, this forfeiture that, at its meeting in May, 1838, the General Assembly instructed its law oflScer to a^eal the case to the House of Lords. That there might be n,o misunderstanding, however, of the position relative to the Civil Courts assumed by the church; the same Asse«ibly passed a very naein&rable 320 MFB OF DE. CH4tMEKS. ISiOs resolution. • Tte cliuroli's separate and j|p:clusive spiritual ju- risdiction, though not yet actually invaded, was most seriously menaced. Opinions had been «uttered, both at the Bar- and from the Bench which went to strip her of all those liberties and privileges, which, given her by her Great Head, she be- ■ lieved had been amply g-uaranteed to her by statute, and which, except in the darkest periods of her persecution, she 'had freely exerefsed and enjoyed. The blow had not yet been struck which should -lay her prostrate beneath the secular power, but the arm was lifted, and there seemed no want of jvill to strike. Calmly, solemnly, resolutely, in front of the impending danger she took up her ground -^ ground from whiGh she never swerved. By a majority of 183 to 142 the General Assembly of 1838res*red— "That th? General Assembly of'thisdhui'ch, while they unqualifiedly acknowledge the exclusive jurisdiction of $he Civil Courts in regard to the civil rights and emoluments se- cured by k* to t}je church and the ministers thereof, and will ever give and inculcate implicit obedience to their decisions thereanent, do resolve, ±hat as it is declared in the Confession of -Faith of this National Established Church, that the Lord Jesus Christ is King and Head of the Church, an^hath therein appointed a government in the hands of church 'officers distinct from the civil magistrate, and that in all matters touching the doctrine, government, and discipline of the church, her judica ■ tories possess an exclusive jurisdiction, founded on the Word of God, which ' power ecclesiastical (in the words of the Sec- ond Book of Discipline) flows from God, and the Mediator, Jtesus Christ, and is spirituaJ, not having a temporal head on earth but only Christ ; the only spiritu^; Iting and Governor of his Kirk ;' and they do further resolve, that this spiritual jurisdictiQn;^d supremacy, and sole headship of the iord Jesus J^hrist, on which it dejtods, they will assert, ahd at all hazards defend, by the help 'and blessing of that great God who, in the days of. old, enabled, their fathers, amid manifold persecutions, to maintain a testimony even to the death, for Christ's kingdom and crown : And, finally, that they will firmly enforce obedience ^T. 60. LIFE OF DR. CHALMKBB. 321 to the same upon all ©ffice^bearers and members of this church, by the execution of her laws in the exercise of the ecclesiasti- cal authority wherewith they are invested." " Nearly a yeariad elapsed ere the Auchterarder case was heard before the- House of Lords. Lords Brougham and Cot- tenham having delivered their opinions on the 2d and 3d May, 1 839, and their opinions substantially .agreeing, the sentence of that court was passed, dismissing the appeal and confirming the deliverance of the Court of Session. For one thing, at least, tlie Church of Scotland had to thank these noble Lords : their speeches cleared away all the ambiguity which had rested upon the discussion of the" court below. It was by a simple and very short line of argument that they each arrived at their interpretation of the law of Patronage. By the^ concluding clause of the Act. of Queen Anne restoring patroriSges, the Act 1692 had been revived, and became the governing statute upon this subject. That ^statute ordains '• that all presentations to benefices be directed to the particular Presbyteries, with full • power to give collation thereupon, and to put order to all mat- tei's and causes ecclesiastical within their bounds, according to the discipline of the Kirk ; provided- the aforesaid Presbyte- ries be bound and astrictpd to receive and admit whatsoever qualified; minister -presented by His Majesty or lay patrons.' According to the interpretation put upon this statute by Lords Brougham and Cottenham, the sole province of the church in the matter -of collation, beyond which she cannot travel with- out subjecting herself to civil coercion, is to judge of the per- sonal qualifications of the presentee, and in so judging she must .strictly li&iit herself to an inquiry into his life, literature> and manners. 'With respect to qualification,' said Lord Brougham, "* I am somewhat surprised to find in the. very able and learned arguments from the Bench below, an attempt made to show that qualification is of such extensive meaning, that within its scope may be brought, the whole of the matter at present in dispute- — namely, the acceptableness knd reception of the party presented by the congregation as finding favor in their sight. * ■* * I am going to show your Lordships , 322 LIFE OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840. that no such meaning can possibly, by the Jaw of Scotland, be given to the word ' qualified.' It is a technical word in this question; it is not the word 'qualified' used in its general sense,, as you talk of a man's - qualities — of his capacity — of his abilities — of his merits, which are all general phrases, and none of them technically defined. The word ' qualified ' is as much a known word of the law, and has as much |. technical sense imposed upon- it by the statutes — by the law authorities — by the opinions of commentators — by the dicta of judges — as the word '- qualification ■' has when used to express a right to kill game, or when used to express a right to vote in the elec- tion of a member of Parliament. * *. * It means a qual- ification, in literature, life, and morals, to be judged of by the Presbytery |j and no one talks^of interfiering with that right of so judging by them.' The. Lord Chancellor was equally ex. plicit : ' But if it be clear, as it certainly is, that the qualifica- tions referreri to in th« statutes are personal qualifications — 'literature, life, and manners' — 'there can he no ground. for contending that the dissent of the majority of the heads of families is a disqualification withiitthe meaning of the statutes. * * * The absolute right of patronage, . subject only to the rejection of the. presentee by the adjudication of th& Presby- tery for want of qualification, which is secured by -the statute, is inconsistent 'With the exercise of^any volition by the inhabr itants, however expressed;' Such an interpretation confined the jurisdiction of the church to the one single topic of judg- ing of the presentee's life, literature, and manners, and de- prived the congregation or general body of communicants of aH standing, weight, and influence in the settlement of minis- ters. It was an interpretation altogether new — new to every party of churchmen in Scotland, and inconsistent with the wliole current of hitherto unchallenged laws and actings of the church. When a patron happened to present a clergyman al- ready ordained, upon whose personal qualifications the chui-ch had already passed^ approving judgment, in such a case, and a-ccording to this interpretation, no ground or liberty of reject- ing him remained. Lord Brougham, referring' expressly to such iET. 60. LIFE OF DE. OHALMEKS. 323 a case, declared that nothing so wild had ever been urged as the supposition ihat the church could claim or exercise such a right ; and yet up to this time, neither among the lawyers nor the ecclesiastics of Scotland had there ever been a doubt as to the church's possession of this rights— her whole proceeding in the instance of the translation of ordained clergymen from one parish to another was based upon its existence— ^in. innumerable cases had it been exercised, ordained presentees having been rejected, and yet never once, whether in court civil or ecclesi- astical, had this power of rejection been challenged. In 1817, Dr. HiE, the leader of the Moderate party, introduced and carried a measure in the General Assembly, by which the union of a professorship in a college and the ministerial charge of a country parish was prohibited. By this new version, how- ever, of the law of Patronage, such a measure was ultra vires of the Assembly, and any professor rejected upon the ground of this prohibition had only to bring his case before the Civil Court to have his right to admission confirmed and enforced. So unitersal was the conviction that the church's prerogative extended beyond a mere adjudication upon life, literature, and morals, that when, in 1 833, Dr. Chalmers first introduced the Veto Law, Dr. Cook's motion, which on that occasion was car- ried, declared it competent for the heads of families to give in objections, of whatever nature, against the presentee, and for the Presbytery, if they thought such objections to be well- grounded, to reject him. In the discussion which then took place. Dr. Cook strenuously affirmed ' that the church regarded qualification as including much more than learning, moral char- acter and sound doctrine — as extending, in fact, to the fitness of the presentees, in all respects, for the particular situation to which they were appointed." " Had the interpretation now put upon the Law of Patron- age, been known in the preceding century, to what an amount of ecclesiastical litigation about calls would it have put an im- mediate and' final termination. For many years in the earlier part of that century, and so long as that party still predomin- ated wWch was resolved to carty out the principlCi which the 324 LIFE OF DK.- OHALMBES. 1840. chijrch had so often declared to be a fundamental flne, that no pastor should -be intruded into any congregation contrary to the will of the people, cases continually occurred in,-which pre- sentees were rejected on no other grpund whatever, than the insufficiency of the call -*- their want of 'acceptability*to the people ; but ther& never was a case of aijy such rejected pre- sentee having recourse to the Court of Session, because neither in the Parliament House nor in tbe Assembly, had this new view been rbroached, of the un,fettered aright of the patron. When the Moderate party, under the able guidance of Lord Brougham's distinguished relative, Principal Robertson, began that course of policy, which, after many a pajnful conflict, finally reduced the call to a mere dead form, the • struggle was restricted entirely to the Church Courts, which it certainly would not have been, had it ever been irnagined that so summary a method of settlement was available as that supplied by the decision of the Hoiise of Lords, " The mere novelty, however, of this interpretation of a single law, was not nearly so alarniing as were those general views as to the constitution of the church, and the nature and consequences of her connection with the State, upon which that interpretation obviously and' ostensibly was based. The church's power, in this single case, had been limited to such narrow boundaries, because no statute could be found which distinctly and specifically bestowed upon her any other or wider range of action- It was in vain that the church's advo- cates spoke of powers and privileges — of a constitution and polity possessed by her, not in virtue of any donation by the State, but in virtue of her divine institution by Christ. It was in vain that they pointed to the many, express statutory recog.- nitions and ratificatiotis of her government and discipline, as flowing to. her from her great spiritual .head. It was in vain that turning to that very Act of 1692, by help of which the right of the patron was to be carried triumphantly over a,ll those defenses against the intrusion of unacoeptable^ministers, which the church bad.erected, they quoted the clause which gave the church .full power to put ordpr to all mattels and ^T. 60- LIFE OF DK. CHALMEES. 326 causes ecclesiastical, according to the discipline of the Kirk. It was in vain that they quated another portion of this same stat- ute, in which, referring to and repealing a previous Act, which had asserted the Royal supremacy over all persons and causes eccles^lieal, it was declared that it " should no ways be pre- judicial, nor derogate anything from the privilege thai God has given to the spiritual oflBce-bearers in the Kirk, concerning heads of religion, matters of heresy, excommunication, collation or deprivation, of ministers, or any such like censures specially grounded and having warrant of the Word." The statute had spoken only of judging of the presentee's qualifications, and beyond that ,the church must not proceed. If in her judicial capacity she had -frequently prevented the settlement of minis- ters, against whose "life, literature, and manners," nothing could be alleged ; if in her legislative capacity she had passed many laws, imposing other restrictions upon patronage than the single one now allowed, her judgments were illegal, her laws were impotent. Instead Of her own old conception thjat she had all freedom, except that which statute specifically de- nied, the new conception was that she had no freedom except that which statute specifically granted. Adopting this concep- tion, ' one-half, and more than one-half, of the privileges of the church would be disallowed ; aiid she would be rendered more bare of honor and prerogative, than even any ordinary corpo- ration, whose privileges may be asserted and ascertained by an appeal to the general practice of the constitution.' " In their sentence, the Court of Session had refrained from laying any order upon the Presbytery, and the House of Lords did nothing more than simply affirm that sentence. In the forwardness of his zeal, however. Lord Brougham volunteered to instruct the Court of Session as to their future course. 'And then,' said his lordship, ' may come this question, What is the Court of Session to do upon the petitory part of the summons, supposing that shall be insisted upon ? Enough it is for me to-day to observe that this is not now before us. But suppose it were, I should have no fear in dealing with it. I should at once Biiake an order upon the Presbytery to admit, if duly 326 LIFE OF DK. CHAXiMEES. 1840. qualified, and to disregard the dissent of Hhe opngregation ; and if they did not admit, they broke the laws, they acted ille- gally, and were liable to the consequences, civil and other, of disobeyiag the positive and clear order of a statute." " Still, it is affirmed that the Presbytery may persist an refus- ing. My lords, it is indecent to suppose any such case. You might as well suppose -that Doctors' Commons would refuse to attend to a prohibition from the Court of King's Bench .; you might as well suppose that the Court of Session, when you remit a cause with orders to alter the judgment, would refuse to alter it.""^ Never once during all that period when litigations about con- flicting presentations, and the settlement of ministers thereupon, had been so numerous, -had the Court of Session ventured upon sutih an act as that which they were now so heartily counseled to perform! ' They had been once asked to do a kindred deed, but they had refused to interfere, '-'because that was interfering with the power of ordination, or the internal policy of the church, with which, the lords' thought that they had nothing, to do." Should the Presbytery persist in Tefusing to settle. Mr, Young, one clause of the very act upon which so much was grounded, might have suggested to Lord Brougham another alternative than the one which, be' had. suggested : " Providing always, in case the Presbytery refuses to admit any qualified minister presented to them by the patron, it shall be lawful to the patron to retain the whole fruits of the said benefice in his own hands." If Presbyteries were under statutory obligation to-adtoit qualified presentees, and by the ordinary compulsitors of the law could be forced to fulfill such obligation, how came such a clause as this into that very Act, by which, as it was alleged, that very obligation wasjmposed? That clause, in- deed, stands upon the statute-book as a perpetual protest against that series of encroachments upon the. spiritual prerog- atives of the church, upon which the Court of Session was now hastening to embark, and a perpetual vindication of that posi- tion; which, as the sequel will indicate, the church felt herself compelled to occupy. M'£. 60. LIFE OF BE. OHALMBES. 327 " The speeches «f Lords- Brougham and Cottenham were delivered early in May, 1839, and had great influence in de- termining the proceedings of the General Assembly, which commenced its sittiags on the 16th of that month. They effected '*a very important ehange ia that course of policy which/ Dr. Chalmers had been prepared to advise. He was in no way particularly wedded to the Veto Law. Regarding it only as one mode of gaining a certain end — the hindering of bad, and' the promoting of good, appointments — he was ready to make any change in the mode, if only the- same end could be realized. The deaision of the Court of Session had made it clear that whenever a rejection under the Veto Law took place, a forfeiture of the temporahties of the living would en- sue. But up -to the time when the Lord Chancellor and Lord Brougham had delivered their opinions, he had been convinced tihat if relinquishing the form of procedure established by the Veto Law, and falling back upon her own intrinsic powers, the church were to sit in judgment upon each case of settlement as it occurred, she would be able to prevent all improper intru- sion of parties upon -reclaiming congregations. He had been prepared, therefore, to advise that the Assembly should repeal the Veto Law ; and, with a general declaration of a resolutiwi to maintaiu the prineiple of Non-Intrusion, should commit the whole matter in the first instance to the Presbyteries of the Church. These speeches of the two chancellors taught him that a veto by the Presbytery would now be held to be as illegal as a veto by the cdngregation ; and that to j-epeal the Veto Law would bring them no nearer to the effecting of such a harmony between the law of the Sta,te as interpreted by the highest legal functionaries of the Jiealm, and the law and prac- tices of the church, for the prevention of intrusion, as should hinder the dissevering of the'henefice from the cure of souls. Assuming that the church were to stand firm in her purpose, to take no part in the ordination of men whom she conscientiously believed to be unfit for that particular charge _ to which they had been presented, it was obvious that the desired harmony could be attained only- through the intervention of the Legisla- 328 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 1840-. ture. A direct and imimiediate application to the ■ Legislature seemed, therefore, the fitteft, if, not the only course for the church to pursue. For six years past, Dr.' Chalmers had not been a member of the General Assembly, and with the excep- tion of reading his annual report on Church Extension, he hS,d taken little part in the general management of church affairs'. But a truly momentous crisis had now arrived, before which his strong purpose of^'retirement gave Tyay, and every energy of his nature ■was devoted to the guidance of the church through the troubled and perilous passage. He entered the conflict with an anxious but ^unembarrassed spirit. Mere party ties had -but little hold, on him. With many of the opinions held, and many of the sentiments uttered by some Of the most prom- inent evangelical leaders, he had no sympathy. He did not participate in the conviction that the right 4;0 choose their own ministers, belonged, by divine donation to the people. He dis- liked when the contest on which the church had now fairly en- tered wa|,i represented as a contest for the rights of the chris- tian people; nor could he approve of the phraseology, rife now in some quarters, according to which the privileges of fiommu- nicants, in the matter of the appointment of their religious instructors, was spoken of as part of the liberty wherewith Christ had made his people free. Believing in the existetice of no divine right, wedded to no abstract theory, his position was, thg,t the church should be left to carry out her own eonr scientious cdnvi&tions-^should be left unbribed and unfettered to do what she thought best for the christian 'good of the people ; and, as his own convictions most cordially went along with what the church had declared to be k fundamental princi- ple of her policy,- he.was prepared at any hazard, to take any necessary: step, at once for the preservation of the church's general freedom, and the protection of the church's humblest congregations. The GeneralAssembly, upon whose deliberations and decisions so much was now depending, met at Edinburgh on the 16th of May, 1839. Scarcely had the necessary preli^naries been concluded, when Dr. Cook, the kader of* the Moderate party- rose to say that there was one question of sucli pre-emi- iET. 60. LIFE OF DB. CHALMEK8. 329 nent importance, that he wished the day for its discussion to be fixed without delay; intimating, at the same time, his intention to submit a resolution regarding it to the House. On the fol- lowing Monday, three motions were read and tabled ; one by Dr. Cook, one by Dr. Chalmers, and one by Dr. Muir. The discussion was fixed to be on Wednesday, and for several hours before the Assembly convened upon that day, the house was crowded in every corner. The days were past when the Edin- burgh public suffered an Assembly to go by with littlo other notice than that which the military cortege of the Commissioner excited. Interests were now at stake, in which Scotland's re^ motest extremities were concerned ; and the great heart of the body ecclesiastic, beat fuller and stronger as each returning Assembly came round. Participating in those deep and sol- emn feelings, which had gathered many a group i)f the faithful over the land around the throne of grace, the General Assem- bly, before the debate began, called upon the venerable min- ister of Kilsyth to engage in prayer. Dr. Cook opened the discussion. His motion was to the effect that the Assembly should hold the Veto Law as abrogated, and proceed as if it jnever had passed. Dr. Chalmers's motion consisted of three parts. The first embraced an acknowledgment of, and acqui- escence in, the loss of the temporalities of the living of Auch' tei'arder ; the second contained the expression of a resolution that the priacipleofNon- Intrusion was not to be abandoned; and the third proposed the appointment of a committee to confer with the Government, in order to prevent any further collision between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. The magnifi- cent oration in which Dr. Chalmers supported this motion, oc- cupied three hours in its delivery; and so great and exhausting was the effort, that he had to retire from the court immediately, nor was he able to return to give his vote at the close of the debate. • The discussion had commenced at twelve o'clock on Wednesday the 22d, and at two o'clock, on the morning of the following day, when it was announced as the result of the vote, that Dr. Chalmers's motion, was carried by a majority of forty- nine, the irrepressible cheer that burst from the galleries, told 330 LIFE OF DE. CHALMjBES. 1840. in what direotioji, and Kow strongly, the populsf- current was running." * Consequent upon this vote a committee was appointed with Dx. Chalmers at its head, whose first effort " was to obtain from ttoe Legislature a confirmation as to civil consequences of the Veto Law." As the best way of openii^ negotiations, they concluded to send a large deputation to London, and Dr. Chalmers was induced to interrupt his northern tour, in order to assist in it. In company with Dr. Gordon, Dr. Dewar, Dr. Candlish, and others, he accordingly proceeded to wait upon the members of the cabinet, and some of the more eminent parliamentary leaders. Lord Melbourne, who was then pre- mier, had, on the occasion of a former deputation on the sub- ject, expressed, in his own refined style, a hope that ^' that d — d fellow Chalmers was not among them," and now, while treating Dr. Gordon and the rest with respectful attention, inost carefully avoided Dr. Chalmers. The sifting which his vacil- lating conduct in relation to the question of new endowments received, had made him cautious of coming in contact with the same strong intellect again. Upon the whole, the deputation ielt encouraged by their re- ception, having received the assurance, from several members of the government, " that they were fully impTessed with the importance of the Subject, and woujd give it their most serious consideration, and that they would give instructions to the Lord Advocate to prepare, along with the Procurator, a meas- ure to be submitted to the cabinet," and that, " in the disposal of those livings which are at the nomination of the Crown, its patronage will most certainly be' exercised in accordance with the existing law of the church, a resolution which applies to nearly one-third of the parishes of Scotland." In 183S another case of conflict between the civil and eccle- siastical powers occurred. The Crown, as patron of the parish, presented Mr. Clark as assistant and successor to^the aged and infirm minister of Lethendy. In conformity to the veto of the congregation, the Presbytery refused to ordain, and the case being carried by appeal before the General Assembly, the Pres- aST. 69. him OF DE. CIlALMEES. 331 feytery was sustained. Afterward, Mr. Cfark brought an action against the Presbytery in Court of Sessiony ' The minister of Lethendy in the meanwhile died, and the Crown finding the parish still vacant, issued another presentation in fayor of-Mr. Kessen ; the Presbytery, when about to ordain him", were served with aq, interdict from the Court of Session, forbidding them to proceed. Craving advice of the General Assembly, which met in 1838, they were by an almost unanimous voice of that body, ordered to go' forward with the ordination. Upon the day appointed for-that purpose, when the Presbytery had assembled, "the agent of Mr. Clark sought and obtained leave to read an opinion from an eminent lawyer in Edinburgh. It came from the Dean of Faculty, the leading counsel and chief adviser in all the legal measures taken against the church. It was sufficiently startling, and had the ministers who sat to listen to it been men of infirm principle or yielding purpose, it might well have shaken their determination, for it hung over them the weightiest terrors of the law. ' The members of the Presbytery,' said the dean, ' will most infallibly be committed to prison, and most justly.' It had been said, that in acting as'he had done, Mr. Clark had been guilty of contempt of the church, and som« had even spoken of depriving him of his license, so as to take from him the ground lihat gave him his legal standing. The dean at once placed the rights of Mr. Clark upon what seemed to him a broader' and surer basis. ' The deliverance of the Assembly attempts illegally to tram- ple on Mr. Clark's rights as a British subject ; for am/ man in this country who adheres to its doctrines, is entitled to be a member of the EstbMished Church. The rights of Mr. Clark as a pro- bationer, in this respect, are as sacred as those of 4 layman. He was legally entitled to his license, and he holds it as a Brit- ish subject.' Perhaps it was their clear conception of the length to which such a doctrine would go in exposing the whole discipline, as well as the whole government, of the church to secular dictation and cQntrol, which helped to fortify this Pres- bytery against all the arguments and thi-eats by 'vvhich they were assailed. Unmoved by these, they ordained Mr. Kessen 332 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEHS. 1889. to be minister of Lethendy. They had now Jto -f&ce a more trying ordeal. The act of ordination had no sooner been con< summated than a complaint was lodged against them for a breach of interdict, and they were summoned to appear at the bar of the Court in Edinburgh, on the 14th June, 1839. In itself, it was a formidable enough matter to be dragged from their quiet country charges and to be pilloried for public observation in an uncongemal court, and before an unsympathizing bar. But it was as criminals, guilty of a contempt of constituted authori- ties — It was for punishment as such that they were to appear. The dean had pledged his word that they should be imprisoned, and there were not waiitipg other tokens that his prophesy might be verified. A very deep sympathy on their behalf was ex- cited, and one or two of the leading clergymen of Edinburgh resolved to accompany them to the bar. The- day arrived. Wheij, the twelve judges took their places on the bench, they had a court room before them crowded densely, to th* door. The Presbytery was summoned to appear. They entered, accompanied by a few friends. The crowd through which they passed had already closed, when once mor£ it opened, and with meek, but dignified demeanor, Dn, Gordon stepped forward to place himself at their side. There was something singularly appropriate in the act. No minister of equal talent, had been more unobtrusive, or shown a stronger aversion to popular agi- tation, or anything like public display. But now that clergy- men, who had mingled in the strife of parties as little as himself were called to suffer for conscienee' sake, he felt compelled, in the most public manner to countenance and sup- port them. " • Gentlemen,' said the Lord President, after their names had been le^ ,over, and the citation read, ' I have to ask you, one and all, whether, byyourselves or counsel, you have any- tlang to say, and what you have to say,Jn explanation or vin- dication of your conduct ?' " 'As my name,' said the Bev. Mr. Stirhng, of Cargill, ' is the first on the hst, and as I happen to be the senior minister pre- sent, I have been intrusted by my brethren with the statement ^T. 59. LIFE OF DK. OHALMEES. 333 which they wish to make to the court.' The following state- ment was then read by him : ' My Lords — We appear in obe- dience to the citation of your lordships, inasmuch as we hold it to be the duty of all subjects to render their personal com- pearance when cited by liie civil courts; and being deeply im- pressed with the obligation of giving all honor and^ reverence to the judges of the land, we disclaim any intention of disre- spect to the court in what we have done. But in ordaining to the oflSce of the holy ministry, and in admitting to the pastoral charge, to which, in our procedings complained of, we strictly limited ourselves, we acted in- obedience to the superior church judicatories, to which, in matters spiritual, we are subordinate, and to which, at ordination, we vowed obedience.' Mr. Kes- sen, having read a similar statement, the judges retired for consultation, and the court adjourned. By a narrow majority the clergymen escaped imprisonment, and were subjected, only to the solemn censure of the court. In pronouncing the cen- sure, the Lord President took occasion to say — ' I am directed by the Court to signify that it was not without considerable diflSculty their Lordships brought themselves to adopt this len- ient measure; but they desired me to state, that if you or any other Presbytery of the church were ever brought before them again under similar circumstances, you and they will be d^aM with in a very different manner. The ordinary punishment for disobedience to the law, by a breach of interdict, is imprison- ment ; and I am directed to say, that if a case like the present should occur again, that punishment will be resorted to.' " The church and the civil authority were now in direct con- flict, each claiming to be in the exercise of their constitutional rights. The matter was about to come before the Legislature for decision, and had the church enjoyed the harmonious sup- port of her own members, the judgment in her ■ favor might have been less doubtful; but the party called Moderate, though now in the minority, were still struggling to the utmost of their power to retard that progress, which they could not entirely obstruct. When Dr. Chalmers, on the 14th of August, 1839, presented before the Assembly's Commission the report of the 334: LIFE OF DK. OHALMEB^^ 1839. deputation,- no sooner had he sat down than Dr. Cook "rose to declare that the announcement just made that the- Govern- ment of the country intended to exercise their patronage in eonforinity with the Veto Law, appeared to hjm to be nothing short of a violation of the law on the part of ihe Crown. In the leading case which came before tha court, he put forth all his strength of argument to prove that the Veto Law was now defunct — the decision of the civil courts had blotted it out of the statute-book of the church. The casting of such an impu- tation on the Crown, and the continuance of a vigorous oppo- sition in the church courts, though calculated to increase the existing embarrassments, may have appeared to the Moderate parly necessary for the vindication at once of their principles and their consistency. We can offer no such excuse for the next step taken by the Dean of Faculty. If not, as generally believed, the prompter, he had been the vigorous promoter of all the litigation by which the , church had been harassed. The struggle had now been carried to a different arena, where his interference was less called for, and, perhaps, not so appra-- priate. He had power, however, even in that quarter to hin- der the church's getting what she asked ; and with the laborious diUgence which distinguished all bis doings, he exerted that power in the production of an enormous pamphlet, given to the public soon after the close of the Commissicai." An able response from the pen of Dr. Chalmers was issued within the same year. -But this difference among ihe professed friends of the Church of Scotland must have operated unfavora^xly upon the minds of men, such as most of the members of Parliament were, ignorant of the real nature of her constitution and claims. "In June,- 1837, Mr! Edwards was presented to the church and parish of Mamoch. Having acted previously, for a period of three years, as assistant to the former incumbent, he was well known to the parishioners, and so unacceptable were his minis- trations, that at their urgent and almost unanimous desire, their , aged pastor had dispensed with his services. In a parish whose population was about 2800 souls, his caU was signed try MT. 69. LIFE OF I>K. CHALMEBS. 335 one solitary communicant, the keeper of the inn at which the Presbytery were wont to dine. Out of 300 heads of families whose names were on the communion-roll, 261 tendered their dissent. Acting under special direction of the General Assem- bly 1 838, the Presbytery of Stral^bogie rejected Mr. Edwards; and on this rejection being intimated to the patrons, the trus- tees of the Earl of Fife presented another individual to the charge. Upon the issuing of this second presentation, Mr. Edwards applied for and obtained an interdict from the Court of Session, prohibiting the Presbytery from proceeding with the settlement. After due consideration of this document, and with the declared principles and recent practice of the church before them, the Presbytery resolved ' That the Court of Ses- sion having authority in matters relating to the induction of ministers, and having interdicted all proceedings on the part of the Presbytery in this case, and it being the duty of the Presbytery to submit to their authority regularly interponed, the Presbytery do delay all procedure until the matters in dis- pute be legally determined.' This judgment was brought under review of the General Assembly of 1 839. The cir- cumstances being precisely similar to those which had occurred at Lethendy, the Presbytery might have been enjoined to ^iake the same course which had been prescribed to the Presbytery of Dunkeld. Instead of this they were simply instructed to suspend all further proceedings in the matter till the following General Assembly. Avoiding all immediate and direct colli- sion between the Presbytery and Court of Session, this decis- ion was one which even those who disapproved most vehe- mently of the recent actings of the church could have no diffi- culty in obeying ; and it was framed so as to lay the least pos- sible pressure upon the majority of a Presbytery well known to be so affected. While the church was dealing thus tenderly with her own children, under the first indications of a refrac- tory and rebellious spirit, Mr. Edwards was pressing on the action which he had raised against the Presbytery in the Court of Session ; and in June, 1839, he obtained a judgment in his favor, by which it was declared that, notwithstanding jthe veto 336 LIFE OF DK. CHALMEES. 1889. put by the people on his appointment, the Presbytery were stiU bound to take him upon trial with a view to ordination. -As this judgment was purely a declaratory one, unaccompanied by any such order as Lord Brougham had suggested as the pi'oper means of enforcing ol^dienoe, the Presbytery with per- fect sStfety, and'.tvithout-viola^g their own, conyiotions, might Jiave delayed, at least till the compulsitors of law had been ap- "plied.. Their newborn allegiance, however, to the Court of Session was too a|dent to admit of delay, and no sooner was its sentence notified, than, with needless haste, and with a vio- lence and irregularity of movement which found no defender, ey,en among the leaders of the Moderate party, by a majority of seven to three, they resolved to bid open defiance to their ecctesiastical superiors, and to proceed forthwith to settle Mr. Edwards as minister at Marnoch. It was. in these circum- stances that the case came before the Commission of Assem- bly ©n.fhe 11th December, 1839. In vain were the seven re- fractory clergymen, asked to reconsider their extraordinary reso- lution; in vain were they assured that if they would only desist procedure, and in the meantime do .3|t>thing, all -judgment upon their contumacy would be waived, and the Opmrnission would be content simply to remit the matter to the General Assembly in May. They would ma^e no concession. They Woihd neither express any regret for the past, nor give any promise as to the future. Its authority thus openly defied, its laws and decisions thus daringly trampled on, what was the church to do ? In the way of prevention rather than of-'^^unishment — to take from them for a season that power which they had openly de-- olared it to be their purpose to employ in a manner so fla- grantly unlawful — it was resolved that they should be sus- pended from exercising the functions of the holy ministry. In a. speech of extraordinary ability. Dr. Candlish moved this resolution," which was warmly supported by Dr. Chalmers, and carried by a majority of a hundred and twenty-one to fourteen. The refractory majority of the Presbytery of Strath- bogie being thus suspended from oflSce, the minority were in- structed to take measures for supplying the vacant parishes iET. 59. LIFE OF DE. CHAiMEES. SSt ynth ministerial services. A deputation of committee appointed to open a friendly corrfespondSnce with the suspended ministers appointed Aberdeen as a place of meeting, but on arriving there; were met by " a legal agent who put into their hands a paper signed by the seven clergymen, in -which the^ dechned the interview. - Already, indeed, had proof too palpablesbeen afforded that all hope of reconciliation was gone. On the day after that on which the sentence of suspension was passed, and wliile the Commission was still sitting, a notarial protest, at the instance of these ministers, was served upon that court ; and a few days thereafter, as if no jiidgment against them was in' force, they assembled as if in Ptesbytery, and proceeded to take Mr. Edwards upon trial. The protection sought for' and relied upon was that of the Civil Court, to which they pre- sented, an application, in which they called upon the court to suspend the sentence of the Commission — to prevent its inti- mation and execution — to prohibit the minority from aotiiig as a Presbytery, and to interdict all clergymen -of the 'church from preaching- or discharging any of the functions of the min- istry in any of their parishes. ■ The demand was so broad and- stai-tling that even the Court of Session for the moment drew back. ' In this cas«,' said the Lord^President, ' the Court are prepared to grant the interdict, but not to the full extent prayed for. The complainers prayed the court to interdict and prohibit the parties complained of from preaching in the respec- tive parishes of the complainers. Now, the court could not prevent any man preaching in these parishes. Any one might preach in the open air, for instance. The court liad jurisdiction only over the parish churches, the churchyard, the schoolroom, and the bell.' Taking in the meantime this limited view of its jurisdiction, the court interdicted the minority of the Presbytery, and all others, from using, in executing ther sentence of the Commission, any of the places and buildings specified by the Lord President. Acknowledging as it so fully did, the court's right of entire control over all its temporalities, the church yielded immediate compliance with this interdict. The clergymen appointed to intimate the judgment of the 29 338 ^ XIFE OF DK. CHALMEE8. 1889. Commiswon either pf eached in the open air or uader such shelter as some neighboring shed or bam could furnish. Then and afterward an opportunity was opened for the effective preaching of the gospel over a wide district of country. Some of the ablest ministers of jjie church were deputed by the Commission to officiate in tjhe parishes of the suspenfled clergymen. In Marnoch, and the seven parishes in its neighborhood, their warm and zealous ministry gathered around them crowds of ^tentive and devout hearers. ' I Have no words,' wrote one p{ these clergymen. Ho describe"ihe Scenes of yesterday at JUtarnoch. Never in tfy life has it been my privilege to witness such intensity of feeling as in that congregation. Men and women were bathed in tears ; numbers rose to their feet, and stood in breathless attention, and at the close of the service all seemed unwilling to retire.' In proportion, however, to the interest excited am- Church of Scotland ? Sir, I know not what the inward princi- ple of the ministers of Strathbogie may have been, nor will I attempt any conjecture on this subject ; but I do know, that when forbidden by their ecclesiastical superiors to proceed any further with Mr. Edwards, they took him upon trials ; and when suspended from the functions of the sacred ministry by a com- mission of the General Assembly, they continued to preach and to dispense the sacraments — that they called in the aid of the civil power to back them in the exclusion from their respective parishes of elergymen appointed by the only competent Court to fulfill the oifice which they, were no longer competent to dis- charge ; and lastly, as if to crown and consummate this whole disobedience-^as if to place Hie top-stone on the Babel of their proud and rebellious de^ance, I know that, to the scandal and astonishment of all Scotland, and with a daring which I be- lieve themselves would have shrunk from at the outset of their headlong career, they put forth "their unlicensed hands on the dread wort of ordination ; and as if in solemn mockery of the church's most venerable forms, asked of the unhappy man who knelt before them if he promised ' to submit himself bumbly and willingly, in the spirit of meekness, unto the aditionitions of the brethren of the Presbytery, and to be subject to them and all other Presbyteries and superior judicatories of this church ;' and got back from him an affirmative response, along with the declaration that ' zeal for the honor of God, love to Jesus Christ, and desire of saving souls, were his great mo- tives and chief inducements to enter into the functions of the hioly ministry, and not worldly designs and interests.' Sir, I repeat I am not able to go- into the depth and the mysteries of men's consciences ; but this I am able to perceive, that if in heresy this plea were sustained, the church would be left with- out a creed ; and that if in contumacy this plea were sustained, the church would be left without a government, both doctrine and discipline would be given to the winds, and our National Church were bereft of all her virtue to uphold the Christianity of the nation, when thus helpless and degraded, she was alike unable to correct the errors, however deadly, or to control the 368 LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 1841. waywardness, however pernicious and perverse, of her own children. "The Church of Scotland can never give way, and will sooner give ijp her existence as a National Establishment, than give up her power as a self-acting and'self-regulating body, to do what in her judgment is best for- the honor of the Redeemer and the interest of His kingdom upon eai'th. We can see no other alternative. If these men do not humble themselves, their deposition is inevitable. The Church of Scotland cannot tolerate, 'and what is more, it could not survive the scandal of quietly putting up with a delinqueney so enormous as that into which these brethren have fallen. If the vindication of her outraged authority is indeed to be the precursor of her dissol,u- tjon as a National Churoh-^if, in th^ recent language of ap offended nobleman within these walls — if this is to be the last knell of the Presbyterian establishment m Scotland, only let the Legislature say so ; and then let it be seen whether or not the church of our fathers be prepared to abjure her .connection with the State, rather than, bereft of all her respect,, and so of all her usefulness, she will submit to be viUfied into a thjn^ of naught." "iDr. Cook moved, in opposition, that all proceedings against these clergymen should be- set aside as incompetent, and . they should be declared to be in the same situation in all respects as if no such proceedings had ever taken place." Aftera long debate, "Dr. Chalmers's motion was carried by a majority .of ninety-seven in a house of thfee hundred and forty-seven members." The suspended clergymen then, by one of their own number, read a paper justifying their conduct, and retired from the Assembly. The sentence of deposition was solemnly pronounced upon them, after that Dr. Cook had read a protesti in which for himself and as many as chose to join him, he de- clared, " We regard it as binding upon every member of a church estabhshed by law to be subject to the civil, power in all matters declared by the supreme civil authorities of the country to affect temporal rights, and that for conscience' sake ; and firmly convinced as we are that the said ministers have acted JET. 61. LIFE Off UE. CHAUtEKS. 359 in conformity to this, obligation, and that they have done no- thing which is not sanctioned both by ecclesiastical and civil law, we cannot, without violating what we owe. to- the Church and State, cease to regard these men as still ministers, just as if the proceedings against them had never been instituted." On next day, the Moderates, finding, perhaps, that their pro- test of the evening before had gone too far, intimated, that they would make no opposition to the motion that was made not to receive it. On the evening of the following day a messenger at arms appeared at the door " to serve upon the Assembly an interditit against their proceeding to carry the sentence of deposition into effect." Some little delay having been ocea- sioned by sending for the Royal Commissioner, who happened to be absent from the hoBse, the interdict was left with the of- ficer in attendance at the "doot. It was laid upon the table and the Assembly adjourned. " On Monday, a series of reso- lutions, carefully reciting all the circumstances as they had occurred, and declaring the attempt thus made to be a flagrant breach of the privileges of the National Church, were framed, and ordered to be transmitted to her Majesty the Queen in Council, and without further notice of the interference, the iusiness of the Assembly was resumed." In the beginning of the Parliamentary session of 1841, Lord Melbourne, wh6 was then Premier, intimated that it was not the intention of government to propose any measure' for alter- ing the Law of Patronage in Scotland; but to enforce that already existing.- The manner of enforcing it which they had adopted, was singularly indirect, for men professing to feel themselves safely within the limits of their legitimate authority. It appeared in the influence exerted against Dr. Chalmers in the Glasgow election, and in the rejection of Dr. Candlish as a candidate for the new chair of Biblical Criticism in Edinburgh, on the declared ground of his belonging to the non-intrusion party, or as they expressed it, of his setting himself in oppo- sition to the law. Without daring to inflict the penalty of the law, the civil powers, it seems, had determined upon a system of petty annoyance and persecution of individuals. " Had the 360 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEE8. 1841. law-officers of the Crown received iiistrueJions to proceed in ordinary course to vindicate the authority of-the law^ had complaints again&t any or" all of those clergymen who had preached in Strathbogie been lodged in Court and the common compulsitors of -law — fine or imprisonment — been put .into operation ; had the church even authorit.atively been told by the government, that she must either retrace her steps, undo wiat she had done, and submit to all the adverse sentences of the Court of Session, or be visited with all the common penal- ties which an infraction of law incurred, she would have known better what to dp. . As it was, her position was so painful, that it occurred to some ministers in Greenock and its vicinity, that instead of waiting till interminable litigation from without, and a wider anarchy from within, renderedl it impossible ' for her to carry on her government, she should go forward to the Legis- lature,>and insist either that her spiritual independence should be recogijized and -secured, or that the connection betweeu her and the State should be dissolved. This proposal was com- municated by the Rev. Mri Smith of Greenock to a few of the leading friends of th« chutch in Edinburgh." It met with the ' hearty approbation of Dr. Chalmers;'but from a.helief that many of the non-intrusionists would yetregard.it as premature,, he advised its postponement. This occurred in the~ Month of March, 1841,^ and on the 6th of May, a new Bill for the settle- ment of the Scotch Church question was introduced into the House of Lords, by the Duke of Argyll, a bill that granted all that the church laid claim to, differing from the "Veto Law only by extending the right oi dissent to all male communi- cants, instead of restricting it to the male heads of families, and_ by making specific provision for the Veto being set aside, whenever it could be proved to hare sprung from factious mo- tives or causeless prejudices." The 'General Assembly, by a majority of more than two to one, declared its approval of this bill ; but before the time for the second reading^ of it arrived, a new ministry. was in power, a new Parliament was elected, and the active hostility of the minority within the church, had their deputation in London to contradict the voice of the MT 61. LIFE OF EE. OHALMBKS. 361 majority. Some of the advige volunteered by that deputation to the government was to the purport that less timidity should be ©Ketcised in inflieting the penalties of the law upon their brethren, that harsher treatment would certainly succeed in breaking the spirit of independence in the church, intimating in the following language, how very agreeable such a course would be to themselves. " If the responsible advisers of the Crown shall be prepared to instruct their law-officers to main- tain in the Civil Courts the cause, of the ministers of Strath- bogie, and of others who may be placed in similar circum- stances, and to prosecute for breach of interdict, ^ic, those who may in opposition to interdicts granted by the competent courts, invade the rights of such parties, the minority of the last Gen- eral Assembly, and the large body of ofiBce-bearers of the Church of Scotland, who hold views in common with that mi- nority, will have-much reason to be iatisfied." The degree of resistance to the General Assembly, by its own minority, amounted in more than one instance to gratuitous insult. Some of them proceeded to the length of assisting at the celebration of the Lord's Supper by the deposed ministers, Upon information of this act of insubordination, the Commis- sion " instructed the Presbyteries to which the offending minis- ters belonged, to take such steps as were necessary for vindi- cating the authority of the church, and proposed that a 'solemn remonstrance and warning ' should be prepared and addressed to them. When the resolution to this effect was carried. Dr. Cook gave in reasons of dissent, the second of which was as follows : — ' Because the resolution now Sanctioned, puts an end to all hope of devising any measure by which the members of Ijhe church might be united, and imposes upon us, and upon all who agree with us in the opinion which we have repeatedly expressed as to our present distressing condition, to take suph steps as may appear most effectual for ascertaining from com- petent authority, whether yfe who noW dissent, and thej who concur with us, or they who continue to set at naught the law of the land, and the decisions of the Civil Courts in what we esteem a matter of civil right, are to be held by the Legisla- 31 362 LIFE OF DK.-' OHALMEES. ISil. ture of the country as constituting , the Established Church, and as entitled to the privileges and? endowments conferred by statute upon th« ministers of that church.' Instead of the question coming before the Legislature as one between the church and the Civil Courts, Dr. Cook desired to present it as one between two parties in the church wbo could not longer relnain united, one or other of ■which mast be repudiated by the Legislature. If actually entertained in that forjn by the ad- ministration of Sir Robert Peel, there could be no doubt of the decision being in favor of that party to *hich Dr. Cook was attached. The prospect of so speedy a settlement demanded the most prompt andr vigoroijs Ineasures ; land a special meet- ing of the Commission was summoned to meet on the 25th August. ^ Dt. Chalmers, who had not been at the previous meeting, resolved to be present upon this occasion, that he might sound the key-note of preparation for that event which he now "believed to be almost, if not altogether inevitables 'As to the war of argument,' he said, 'that is now over ; seeing the time has come When the strife of words must give place to the strife of opposing deeds and opposing purposes. In this, the ministers of the other ^ide have set us the example. They have begfin with deeds which we must disallow ; and they now Hiell us th^ they mean to call on the Legislature for their de- claration,' which of the two parties is henceforth to be the Es- tablished Church of Scotland. It is but justice both to the public and to tl^ government, that they should- know how- it is that we stand affected by such an intimation. There has, 1 fear, been a strange incredulity all along, in -rega,Td to the strength of our priueiples, or at what hazard, and to what ex- tent of sacrifice, we have resolved to maintain them. The necessity is now laid upon us, that we should make a distinct and articulate reply to this question, and my fondest prayer, even as for the salvation both of the country and of the church* is for the response of an unshripking and undiminished ma- jority that the principles on which they have hitherto acted they are resolved to abide by, whatever be the hazard, and whatever be the sacrifice. * * * It is our solemn duty to do Ml. 61. LIFE OF BE. CHALMEES. 303 all we can for the averting of such, a catastrophe (the brealuBg up Of the Establishment); and heaven fprliid that it should be hastened on by any indiscretion, still less by any disrespect, or any deed of violence on otir part. * * * J will proceed no further, and for this single reason, lest the language of deter- mination, should be interpreted into the language of defiance. Most assuredly I have no desire that the breach should be any further; widened : and yet it is of the utmost importance— of the utmost practical importance for the right settlement of this question — that the state of matters should be plainly un- derstood, for nothing can exceed the misconception, cherished especially by the higher classes, both in this country and in London. Be it known unto all men, then, that we have no wish for a disruption, but neither stand we in the overwhelm- ing dread of it. We have no ambition, as has pleasantly been said of us, for martyrdom of any sort, but neither will we shrink from the hour or the day of trial. In short, let it be distinctly kn<5wn, both over the country at large, and more especially in the camp of our adversaries, that, whatever the misgivings might be in other quarters, among us liiere are no falterings, no fears. Should what, has been termed the crisis, arrive, we know of a clear, and an honorable, and withal a christian outgoing ; confident in the smile of an approving heaven from above, and that confidence not abated when we * ^, look around on the goodly spectacle of our friends and fellow- christians — the best and worthiest of Scotland's sons — in readi- ness to hail and to harbor the men who are willing to give up all for the sake of conscience and of christian liberty. The God whom they serve will not leave them without help or without a home>" " To be prepared for the worst, the Commission appointed a large committee, with instructions to bring ' the principles and privileges of the church, as well as the dangers that may threaten us, before the government, the Legislature, and the country at large, by deputations, public statements, meetings, and such other means as. may appear expedient.' The^ first public meeting held in fulfillment of this resolution took place 364 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 1841. in the Church of St. Cuthfaert'e, Edinburgh, on the evenii^ of the day on trhich the Commission- met. That church ex- hibited on this occasion an extraordinary spectacle. Fourteen hundred ministers and elders were crowded together in the lower part of the building, while from the double tiers of gal- leries as many spectators as could, force their way into the edifice were gazing down upon the scene. The Eev. Dr. Gor- don occupied the chair, and a resolution to a4here at all hazards to the principles upon whiph the church had taken her stand was unanimously adopted by the vast assemblage. The alternative of separation from the Esta,blishment, to which so muny ministers might speedily be forced, was steadily contem- plated, and the first hint ibhrown out of that peculiar method of sustaining them in their new positions which Dr. Chalmers- had already designed. He was the first to give -up all bope- of a satisfactory Parliamentary adjustment ; he was the first also to busy himself both with the design and the execution of the practical measures required by the approaching disrup- tion. This meeting in Edinburgh was followed up by similar meetings all over the country, in which a spirit of equal energy and resolution was manifested. This general attitude of de- termination" and preparedness had its temporary effect. The threatened appeal to the Legislature was not persisted in, and the governrnent made a friendly instead of a hostile movement toward the church. Taking the earliest opportunity of ad- dressing the new administration, Commissioners; appointed by the church, had waited oh Sir Robert Peel, and presented a memorial to the government. Almost immediately thereafter aproposal was made by Sir George Sinclair to the Non-intru- sion committee for effecting a final adjustment of the question, by adding a clause, -which he had drawn up, to the bill of Lord Aberdeen. Understanding thaf this clause recognized the right of the Church Courts to give eflfect to tiie objections of the people, if found' to be insuperable, in every case in which they considered it to be their duty to do so, the commit- tee, while carefully guarding themselves against a positive ap- proval of such a settlement, stated that it was one to which .ST. 60. LITE OF DK, CHAIJIBBS. 365 they coxild conscientiously submit." Upon further discussion it appeared that the' meaning attaclied to the clause by the committee, was not that ■which it was construed as bearing by the leading men of the other side, and it never came before Parliament. i)r. Chalmers was now withdrawing him,self, as much as circumstances would permit, from the conflict of .public busi- ness, reserving his strength for the emergency of a disruption, which he foresaw' to'be inevitable, and dedicating his days, ac- cording to a long cherished design, to exercises of devotion. To this his journal, now resumed in its former fullness, bears abundant evidence, in a number of passages of such a spirit as these : ;,' "March nth, 1840. — Entered the seventh decade of my life. I have looked long at this birth-day as a greatmoral and spiritual epoch. My God, enable me by prayer and perform- ance to make^it good. Quite sure that the acceptance of Christ, with a full reliance on Him and the confident appropriation of His righteou^iess, is the transition step to a life of happy and prosperous obedience. O my God, give me to hold this fast, and to realize by it a present salvation — the light and liberty and enlargement of one of thine own children. that my heart were a fountain of gracious things, which might flow out with gracious influence, on the hearts of my acquaintances, and more particularly of the members of my family. "April \5tk, — for quiet 1 Great need of repose. Gleams, too, of right and religious feeling. Think of my creatureship, but not habitually, not closely enough. What a revolution would it be if I had just an adequate and practical sense of the God who mad© me ! . The very sense of being made by ano- ther, how it should annihilate the sovereignty of self — how it should subordinate and keep in check the waywardness of one's own will. What hast thou, man, that thou didst not receive ? "April nth. — Growing distaste for the burdens of public business. Pray for wisdom amid the manifold difficulties of LIFE OF DK. CHALMEBg. 1841. my position. Visit me, (Jpd, witli light mi love from tfiy sanctuary. . ,.-# .- "May 6th. — Sadly, agitated about church matters, and things looking very doubtful-.*- But saddest of all is the distress and' decay of religious feeling, and the want of a system of practi- 4;al self-disbipline*^-0 my God, enable me to wait upon thee without distraction ; and I pi-ayv for wisdom to clear my way througli the difficulties by which I am encompassed. My retrospects of the day that is past are exceedingly, dim; and the work of self-examination therefore, in that proportion, ijn- Satisfactary. iSearoh me and try me, God. "November 9th. — Yesterday being Sabbath, I employed, in part, as usual, in the perusal of difficult theology, when I was visited by a sense of the injunction — ' Thou shalt not do any woES.'^ On that day let me rest, and- let it be i day not of study, but of sentimeiit and of sentiment allied with repose, such as resting in God, having peace and joy in believing, waiting on God, rejoicing in hope, patient under injuries or in any sort of tribulation. — O grant that by a right use of the weekly Sabbath my pld age may be mellpwed into the Sab- bath of my life ; and let me experience that in the quietness and confidence of the seventh day there is a recruiting of strength for the duties and the- exercises of the other six. "Sunday, May 16th. — ^Was heavy when I awoke this morn- ing ; but did experience relief amd elevation by the effort of a simple faith. Have adopted a new system of Sunday readings, confining myself to a prayerful reading of Scripture. Last Sunday began with John i, and to-day John ii. Have had two pleasant, and, let me hope, two spiritual Sabbaths, to some degree, m consequence. Was much delighted by my ordinary Bible passage this morning in Jl Sam. ii,^rHannah's prayer, 'For by Strength shall no man prevail.' Still very deficient in my attention as a hearer at church, though to-day better than "usual. Feel now that to be spiritually-minded is life and peace — rat leastj of this very certain, that I shall have no peace without it ; and let me hope that this experience will shut me ^T. 61. LIFE OF DR. OHALMEES. 367 ■-1.'. », more up to a life c^ religion. Find that sermons from the pul- pit or chapters in^the Bible which jfirould fail to^nterest me were* I only bestowing a cursory attention upon them, become inter- eSSting when I make an effort to realize Jhe objects of which they treat. Familiarize me, God, more and more with the things of faith and eternity. "Sunday, 2.3d. — Had ray Sabbath Bible ezercise, and mean to persevere in it. The chapter of the day was John iii. My chief thought was on the efficacy of faith as apart from con- ception, and faith too in the naked word, either with ot without a lively manifestation of the archetype : our safety and spirit- nal health hanging on the first ; our sensible comfort mainly depending, I should imagine, on the second. Let me here re- core^ my prayer to God for sustenance and succor and guidance through the fatigues and difficulties of the coming week (Gen- eral Assembly); and O that He would lead me back to this retreat in safety, and enable me to write of His gracious an- swer to the voice of my supplications. Hide me in thy pavilion, God, from the strife of tongues. Give me the preparation of the heart and answer of the mouth. Cause my way to please thee, that enemies m^ht be at peace. And, defend the church, and bring her out of all her perils into a haven of security and quietness. Let me be without carefulness, rolling the whole burden of my anxieties upon God. "July Z3d. — Have great need of the life of faith. I have sad infirmities of temper. My God, help me to overcome all the obstructions which lie in the way of my perfect observance of the second law. How miserably deficient in the grace of endurance. Help me, God ! "September tlth. — Began this day my Institutes of Theology. 1 pray for God's blessing upon the work, and that faith and His glory may be the single aim of my heart. I have great comfort in quiet and leisurely and thorough study. " October 3d. — Began my regular Biblical devotions this day — I trust with good to my soul. The result so far has been a feeling of comfort and satisfaction. Prosper this enterprise. Almighty Father ; and bless it to my eternal welfare." 368 ' LIFE ,0F DE. CHAIMBES. 1841. » * - - The Biblical exercises alluded to, constitute what have be^n published since Jiis death under the names c^| " Horse Biblicee Qnotidianae," and " Hofe Biblicae Sabbaticse." Of the fprmftr he hais^himself said tjiat fhey ♦teonsisted of his first and read- iest thoughts clothed in the first and readiest -words, which occurred to him," and Dr. Hanna remarks that the latter might " be describedas the Sabbath diary of the last six years of Dr. €halmers'sJife." They were continued with unbroken regularity to the day of his death. CHAPTER XVII. In January, 1842, another stage was reached in the Non- intrusion controversy, in a series of resolutions oflfered before the Presbytery of Edinburgh, by Br. Gordon, affirming " the propriety of seeking the abolition of the. Law of Patronage, as especially in the construction now attempted to be put upon it, involvinar a violation of the constitution of the church and kingdom, secured at the Revolution, and unalterably ratified by the Act of Security and Treaty pf Union." Dr. Ghalmera had hitherto strongly resisted the anti-patronage movement, but .now, hopeless of harmonizing the conflicting elements, contributed his cordial support to the resolutions. In a letter to the Duke of Argyll, dated February 9th, he thus expresses his opinion of the ground then occupied by the church : 1st. The church may acquiesce in, she never will approve of, a mere liberutn arbitrium; and it will have little or no effect in laying an arrest on the anti-patronage movement. " 2d. The church, in my opinion, would accept, of your gi^ce's bill, and that not as a step to ulterior changes, but for the purpose of working it honestly and faithfully, with the view to an efficient ministration of the gospel in Scotland. Many of us, and myself in particular, do not think that it comes up to the beau ideal of a best possible constitution for the appointment of clergymen. But we shall ,be content to wait for this being realized by a gradual and pacific march of improvement, and have no sympathy with those who talk of installments, and would keep the church and the country in a state of incessant turmoil and agitation. " But, 3d, and most important of all, the church, I fondly hope and pray, will never consent to be cast down by any (369j 370 UFE OF DE. CHALMEB8. 1842. power on earth beneaj^the liherum arbiirium. If the right of the patron, on the one hand, is to carry it o^r the judgment of the ecclesiastical courts, that it is not for the christian good of the families in a parish that his presentee, unacceptable to them, shall be admitted their minister ; the church, on the other hand, never will submit to the mandate of any court under the sun calling on them to ordain and admit that man. On this head I trust that our majority will present an unbro- ken phalanx of resistance to the violence that woul4''ofFer such an invasion tipon our liberties ; and should the further vio- lence be perpetrated of driving us, because of this, from our own rightful patrimony, we shall in hundreds, I trust, quit the en- dowments of a church thus Erastianized, and, under God, cast the support of our righteous cause on the people of Scotlaiftd." In the meanwhile another instance had occurred of Presby- terial insubordination sustained by the Court of Session. The Eev. Mr. Middleton, for some, time assistant to the minister of Culsalmond, " pbtained .at last a presentation to that parishi The Presbytery of G-arioch met on the'2&th October, 1841, to moderate in the call. A majority of the communicants on the Toll dissented from the appointment. According to the recent regulations of the church; the Presbytery was not bound to give immediate effect to that dissent by rejecting the presentee, but was required oinly to stay procedure, and report to the next. General Assembly. The Presbytery resolved, however, to proceed immediately to the ordination. A minority of the court appealed to the superior judicatories; but this appeal was set aside. The people then came forward with special objec- tions to the presentee, but the Presbytery refused to consider them. The parishioners and the minority in the Presbytery protested separately against this resolution, and appealed to the Synod. There is a standing order of the church that no Pres- bytery shall ordain in face of an appeal. Trampling upon this order, and setting all the common forms of procedure at defi- ance, the Presbytery resolved to meet again at Culsalmond on the 11th November, for the purpose of completing the settle- ment. It was another bleak, wintry, snowy day such as that ^T. 61. LIFE OF DR. CHALMEES, 3TS- •whioh occurred about a year before in the neighboring parish of Marnoch, and another such crowd assembled. But the same wise counsels did not prevail, nor was the same spirit mani- fested by the people. The rapid and imperious movement of the Presbytery had created the feeling that.they were stealing a march upon the people, and trying to do the deed- before legal check of any kind could be imposed. Rashly and most unwisely the people took the check into their own hands. When the doors were opened, a motley crowd, principally com- posed of strangers from a distance, rushed in, and took such complete possession of the building, that -it was with extreme difficulty, and by the help only of the officers of justice, that tile Presbytery could find their way into the church. It was to no purpose that they found an entrance ; for no sooner was the attempt made to comrnence the proper business of the court, than loud discordant clamors, rising from all quarters;- drowned their voices, and effectually prevented all further progress. They waited for an hour or more — again and again making the effort to proceed, but making it in vain. They retired at last to the manse, and there, in a pri- vate room, and within locked doors, this unhappy ordina- tion was consummated'. The parishioners complained to the Commission of the arbitrary and irregular conduct of the Presbytery, and that court, which met on the 17th November, cited the parties complained of to appear befoi-e the ensuing General Assembly, and in the meantime, until the protests and appeals wiich had been made were judicially disposed of, pro- hibited Mr. Middleton from officiating in the parish of Culsalm- ond, and instructed the minority of the Presbytery of Garioch to provide for the administration of sacred ordinances in that parish. The sentence of the Commission was purely and ex- clusively spiritual : it touched no civil right — ^it carried with it no civil consequence. It had grounds to rest on disconnected with any question about the legality of the Veto Law. Mr. Middleton, however, and the majority of the Presbytery, ap- plied to the Court of Session to suspend it, and to prohibit its intimation and execution. Lord Ivory, to whom, as Lord 372 LIFE OF DB. CHALMERS. 1848. Ordinary, their petition was in the first instance directed,, refused to grant its prayer, on the grounds .' that there was no question now before the court as to the legality of the Veto Law ; that the civil rights, whether of the patron or presentee, would stand perfectly unscathed, notwithstanding all that had yet been ddne by the Commission : and that . the only question here was, shall this court, interfere with the proceedings of a proper church Court, when that court, acting within its own province, is dealing with a proper ecclesiastical cause, and this too, while that cause is still actually depending before them 2^ The case went before the first division of the court, and the majority of the Judges reversed the decision of the Lord Or- dinary. On the 10th March, 1842, the Suspension and Inter- dict were granted as craved. In delivering his opinion, the Lord President declsired .that it was quite sufficient to bring this matter within the jurisdiction of- the court — ' that a gross stigma had been fixed on -Mr. Middleton's sacred character as a minister of the gospel,' by his being forbidden for a time to officiate j and that the majority of the Presbytery had been • degraded from their status and functions as established min- isters, and their general -usefulness and respectability affected ' by their -being overlooked, and the minority appointed to sup- ply all the ministerial services which the parish of Culsalmond required. At the beginning of this -controversy, it was alleged in defense of the Court of Session, tha,t it had interfered only when such civil rights as are properly the subjects of civil action were immediately, involved.. As broader and deeper invasions of the church's territory were made, the defense was widened by its bemg affirmed that the Civil Court was war- ranted to interfere in all cases where civil rights were directly or indirectly afiected. But now the Court of Session, speaking through its President, had. given it broadly to be understood, jSfeat if any one conceived that by the sentence of an ecclesias- tical court, any injury had been done to his reputation, or re- spectability, or usefulness, that was in itself enough to justify the court in reviewing, and^^if it saw reason; in reversing the sentence of which he complained. No act of discipline could ^T, 62. LIFE OF DE, CHALMEES. 373 the ohurcli perform ; no spiritual censure or sentence of con- demnation could she pronounce, which, upon this ground^ did not lie open to revisal or reversal by the Court of Session. By assuming this prerogatiye, that court constituted itself as the court of last appeal in all such cases ; and the church lay stripped of any supreme or exclusive jurisditition. " A broad and patent way to the Court of Session had been opened, aud where Presbyteries had gone before them, indi- vidual ministers could find no difficulty of approach. The minister of Stranraer had been accused of various acts of fraud, and his Presbytery were proceeding in his trial, when he applied to the Civil Court ' to suspend the whole proceed- ings of the Preshytery ;' and ' further to prohibit, interdict, and discharge the said Presbytery from taking cognizance of the pretended libel.' The minister of Gambusnethan had been found guilty of four separate acts of theft, and the Presbytery were about to depose him, when he raised an action of reduc- tion in the Court of Session, and obtained- an interdict against their proceeding. Mr. Clark, the presentee to Lethendy, who was hving in the manse of which he had taken possession, was accused of repeated acts of drunkenness, and the Presbyteiy of Dunkeld had entered upon the investigation of these charges, with a view tp deprive him of his license. But he too had re- course to the great Protector, and an interdict against the Presbytery had been issued." The time had fully come for a final declaration of principle and purpose, and corresponding firmness of action. The next Assembly was looked forward to as the fitting scene of such declaration, if only a suitable form could be adopted. On this point Dr. Chalmers declared it to be his opinion that the church should put forth a claim of rights, with a statement of what they held to be ■ their duty, and their determination to adhere to it, and that their true ground was that of spiritual inde- pendence, and not of non -intrusion alone. The letter in whicH this opinion was advanced and sustained was circulated among the leading friends of the phurch' in Edinburgh, and met with their warmest approbation, and when Mr. Dunlop, to whom 374 LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 1842. that work was intrusted, drew up the claim of rights, he ad- hered as closely as pBssible to the principle advocated in Dr. Chalmers's letter. The Assembly of 1842 was one of great interest tathe ene- mies as well as the friends of the Church of Scotland. Upon making up the roll of members it appeared that the deposed ministers of Strathbogie had also sent th«ir representative, and when Mr. Dunlop moved that their return be disregarded, he was warmly opposed by Dr. Cook, who strenuously asserted that these seven ministers should not be held as deposed. Dr. Chalmers, who seldom took part in the minor business of the Assembly, could not keep silence on hearing this extraordinary proposition. " Moderator," he said, " this is the first time in my life that I ever heard it asserted, that the dissent bf a minority superseded the sentence of a court passed by an over- whelming majority. The proposition is in substance, that those deposed by the General Assembly of 1841, shall, nevertheless, be allowed to sit as members in the General Assembly of 1842. Why, Sir, the proposition is so very monstrous, and so fully comes in conflict — so palpalaly and immediately comes in con- flict — ^with a first principle, that I cannot hold it to be a case for argiunent at a,U. But that such a proposition should be made, that such a proposition shoul^ever be thought of, is a very instructive fact. It discovers to what a fearful extent of anarchy and disorder the enemy within — whether by the insti- gation and encouragement of the enemy without, I cannot say -^— are resolved to plunge the Church of Scotland ; iow they are resolved to strip her of the last vestige of that authority which belongs to every distinct body, governed by distinct office-bearers. Never, Sir, would I say, has the character of the outrage Inflicted upon the Church come out in such bold relief as at the present moment, when we have just met under the countenance of Her Majesty ; when we have been ushered to our places with the form and circumstance of a great national Institute ; and when we are .now holding our deliberations in ^e presence and hearing of Royalty, represented. by one of the inost respected of our noblemen. We are now congregated in ^T. 62. LIFE OF DK. OHALMEES. 375 this our first meeting of the present Assembly, by the authority and appointment of the last General Assembly. And, Sir, in these circumstances^ what is the first tiling we are called upon to do ? Why, to pluck from our archives the most solemn deed of that most solemn convocation, and to trample it down under our feet as a thing of insignificance or a thing of naught. It is under the authority of last General Assembly that we now hold our places, and are now met as a deliberative body ; and I must say that if there is anything more than another which could unsettle all men's notions of order and authority, it would be the success of the present proposition. It would truly be an egregious travesty, it would make a farce of the proceedings of our General Assembly, a complete laughing- stock of our Church, were there, left her no authority to en- force obedience from her own sons. It would present a strange contrast between the impotence of our doings, and the pageantry of our forms — ^between the absolute nothingness of the Assem- bly, and the mighty notes of preparation — the imposing caval- cade which accompanied us — the pealing of the clarionets with which we were conducted into the House on the present occa- sion. I must say, there is not a heart that beats with more gratification, or feels more elevation, than my own, at the coun- tenance given to bur veneraible Church at' present by the high and honorable of the land ; but ours will be the fault, if, untrue to ourselves, if untrue to our privileges, we shall allow our Church to become a sounding^^ brass and a tinkling cymbal — a hissing and an astonishment to all passers-by." Mr. Dunlop's motion was carried by a large majority. The interdict served. -upon the recogniaed representatives from Strathbogie, as well as other interdicts, by which the Court of Sessions attempted to interrupt or embarrass the proceedings of the Assembly, were treated with silent and dignified disre- gard. The ministers of Cambusjiethan and Stranraer were de- posed from the sacred office, Mr. Clark was deprivfid of his license. The settlement of Mr. Middleton, as minister of Cul- salmond was rescinded, and those ministers, who held com- munion with the deposed elergymen, of Strathbogie were sus- 376 LIFE OF DK. OHALMBES. 1842. pended from the exercise of their judicial functions as mem- bers of th« church courts till the March commission of the foUdwing year. At the same time, the reports of progress made within the past year in the various fields of christian enterprise were most encouraging. TChe gross revenue of the church's schemes for ten months in 1841, exceeded by j£8,00.0 that for the. whole preceding year ; .and lookiog back to the time when. the evangelical interest, became predominant, not only had three additional schemes of christian usefulness been added to the two then existing, but the whole sum raised for religious purposes in 1842 -was six tim«s greater than that raised in 1834, each intervening year witnessing a growing in- crease. Coupling this with th0 greater frequency of meetings for prayer over the country, and the remarkable revivals in Kilsyth, Blairgowrie and Dund^, we peTroelve the sources of that activity in reformation- which had ruled in the late Assem- blies, to have been the spirit of piety TeaCtihg from the heart of the people, The principal discussions of this Assembly, " and the only- ones in which Dr. Chalmers took a part, were those relative to patronage, andi;o the Church's claim of Eight. Ok Mondajr the 23d May, Dr. Cunningham moved a resolution to the effect that as both in itself a grievance, and as the main cause of the difficulties, in which the. church had been ipvolved, patronage Ought to be abolished. This motion, which was supported by Dr. Chalmers, was carried by a majority of 216 to 147. For more than half a century after the restoration of patronage by the Act ,1712; the General Assembly had an- nually renewed her protest against .this grievance, jtnd had given it as an instruction to the Commission, to take all suita- ble opportunities for effecting its removal"; and now once more, after the lapse of another half century; and on the last opportunity giveifcibr doing so, the ancient, testimony against the yoke of patronage was renewed. On Tuesday the 24th Dr. Chalmers moved the adoption of the Claim of Right." This document presented a comprehensive, but condensed " statement, of the great principles which the Church asserted — of the scriptural, JET. «2. LIFE OF DB.. OHAIMEES. 377 constitutional, and legal grounds, on which these principles rested — of the violence done them by the Civil Court — of the wrongs which the church had consequently sustained, and the claimfor protection which she put forth. It closed with the solemn declaration that, subject to such civil coercion as was now attempted the church would not and could not carry on its government ; and that, at the hazard of losing all the secular benefits conferred by the State, and all the public benefits of an establishment, it would resist that coercion, and maintain to the last the inalienable liberties of _a church of Christ." This motion was also carried by a large majority ; and the Lord High Commissioner was requested to transmit the document " to Her Majesty, as the head, of the State. — Her principles thus faithfully declared, her final purpose thus, solemnly announced — the Church committed her -ways to God, and waited the evolutions, of His- will." On the lUh of June following, when Mr. Campbell of Monzle was prepared to move the Second reading of his bill, which was expected to eflfect the desired harmony, it was found that, as many livings in the Scottish Church were' in the gift of the Crown, no change could be made in the state of patronage without the royal consent. This obstacle it was un- derstood, the Premier possessed the privilege of removing ; but he refused to exercise it, and the Bill was accordingly with- drawn. "A few-days afterward, Sir Robert Peel informed the House ' that after a full consideration -of the subject. Her Majesty's government had abandoned all hope of settling the question in a satisfactory manner, or of effecting any good by introducing a measure relative to it.' " The government , by thus relinquishing all attempts at legislation, left the encroach- ments of the civil courts to take their course. " Lord Kinnoul and Mr. Young had raised a second action against the Presby- tery of Auchterarder, to recover damages, laid at £16,000, by way of compensation for the injury sustained by patron and ■ presentee in consequence of Mr. Young's rejection. The Court of Session found this action relevant, and pn the 9th August, 1842, the House of Lords, sitting as a Court of Appeal, con- 378 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 1842- firmed this judgment, and declared that damages were recorer- able by the pursuers. The former decision of the Supreme Civil Court in the Auchterarder ease had gone no further than to declare that in setting the presentee aside on the ground, of the popular dissent, the Presbytery had acted illegally. ' Be- lieving that the only legitimate effect of this decision would be to bring into operation the remedy specially ^provided by Stat' ute for such a case, namely the withholding the fruits of the benefice, the church had relinquished all claim to them. By this second decision, however, of the Hoitse of Lords,- it was distinctly declared that the obligation to 'receive and admit,' which still lay upon the Presbytery, was a eiiM obligation, the violation of which was to be regarded and punished as a civil offense, as a crime committed against the common law of the country. The four English Judges, Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Cottenham, Lord Brougham, and Lord Campbell, were quite unanimous. It is true that in the opinions which they deliver- ed, not one of Hiem ever alluded to one of the Statutes referred to by the Church of Scotland as ratifying, her exclusiva spirit- ual jurisdiction, and shielding it from invasion. They regarded the case as exhibiting no peculiarity, presenting no diflSculty, and finding its perfect parallel in that, of any common civil cor- poration violating one of the statutes upon which it was founded. In such an instance, if any individual could plead that by the act of the corporation', his patrimonial interests had been in- jured, an action for damages was a fair and legal mode of ob- taining redress. It was the same, in the judgment of these aoble Lords, with the Church of Scotland. By putting the church in such a category, and by subjecting her to such legal treatment, her title to any peculiar exclusive spiritual authority and jurisdiction was ignored, was absolutely and entirely re- pudiatedr ' It had been 6lear enough from the whole current of their recent judgments, that the Court of Session conceived itself to be entitled to review, and if it saw reason, to reverse any proceedings of; the Ecclesiastical Courts, by which a civil injury of any kind had been inflicted. , Now, however, and for the first time, the determination of the Supreme Civil Court ^T. 62. LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 370 ■was given forth, that the judgments of the Court of Session imposed on the church an obligation to cfhedience, which she could not disregard without subjecting herself to civil pains and penalties. This amounted not simply to a change, but to the entire overthrow and reversal of the constitution pf the Scottish Establishment, so far as that constituticta had g-uaranteed to the church a sphere of action within which no secular power could control or coerce. The first Auchterarder decision put a new interpretation on the Law of Patronage, from the injurious re- sults of "which the church might have been protected by a change eflfected by the Legislature in that single law. This second decision gave a new interpretation of the nature and conditions of that relationship in which the church stood to the Civil Courts, and through them to the State itself, whose or- gans these Courts were. These conditions were such that the church could not fulfill them consistently with her princi- ples. A mere Non-intnision measure would no longer meet the difiSoulties of her- position. Yet in that position, with-: out some relief, it seemed impossible for her any longer to remain." Dr. Chalmers spent the months of July and August in Ire- land, at Rosstrevor, a lovely village a few miles from Newry, employed in the work of completing his lectures on Romans. Upon hearing of these events, he seems to have felt that sepa- ration from the Establishment was inevitable ; and that the only remaining q'uestion'was how that step could most e^ectively be taken. At the suggestion of Dr. Hanna, he proposed the calling of a general convocation of the evangelical clergy to take that matter into consideration, and having written to sev- eral of th* oldest and most influential ministers in the church, and received their approbation of the method, a circular was drawn up, signed by thirty-two of them from various quarters, and sent to all the evangelical clergy throughout the land, in- ■vitipg them to meet at Edinburgh on the 17th of November. And in "view of that meeting, a proposal of united prayer drawn up by the Rev. Mr. M'Cheyne of Dundee, was exten- sively published. 380 LIFE OF DB. CHALMEES. 184?. The convocation was opened in St. George's Church on the forenoon of Thursday the 17tli llovember, hy devotional ser- vices conducted by the Rev. Dr. Maodonald of FerintoshL,-jand a discourse by Dr. Chalmers ; and " assembled for business at seven o'clock in tfieevening in a small chapel in an obscure part of the old town. About 450 ministers were present — a larger number than had ever met In council in Scotland-, many of them from the remotest parts of .the country. Dr^. Chalmers was invited to take the chair. In doing so, he briefly stated that the Convocation was met not for debate, bat for deliberation. Its great object was to ascertain the mind and purpose of the church in the present perilous emergency, and he noticed this at the outset to encourage all to come forward with their sentiments. To secure -this object, the public were carefully excluded from this, and all the other after, conferences, .The proposal that two eminent lawyers, elders of the church/ whose advice, it was imagined, might occasionally be serviceable, should be admitted, was met with an immediate and general negative. It was arranged that the ordinary formalities of de- bate should be dispensed with — that the discussion of each topic sTiould be oonducted^.as much as possible in, a colloquial form— that after the more aged and eminent ministers had stated their opinions, the members should be invited, Synod by Synod, to express their views ; and that no conclusion should be come to, no practical measure resolved -upon, till as full an exp^ssion and interchange of opinion as possible bad been elicited. It was arranged, also, that three times, at least, each day, the Convocation should engage in -devotional exercises^ accompanied by reading of the Scriptures Tq,iid praise, and that through all the ordinary business prayer should be interspersed. After some preliminary consultation, th^ attention of the Con- voeation was concentrated, upon the two following topics : — ls<. The exact bearing and effect of the late decisions of the Civil CourtSyand especially of the recent Auchterarder judg-. me'ttt, involving a consideration of what would be required in ordar to effect any'right adjustment of the questions now at issue between the church and the civil authorities ; Zd^. The iBT. 62. LIFE OF DE. OHALMBES. 381 dufy and. prospects of the church in the. event of no adequate remedy being provided.' ' * In course of , discussion, a series of resolutions- were offered by Dr. Candlish, in which, after reciting and characterizing some of the late decisions, it was declared — " That as the principle involved in these decisions, and particularly in. the reeent Auchterarder judgment, is that of the supremacy of the Civil Courts over those of the Established Church in the exer- cise of their spiritual functions, so the 'members of the- Convo- cation declare, that no measure can iti conscience be submitted to, which does not effectually protect the church against the exei'oise of such jurisdiction of the Civil Courts in time to come, and, in particular, fully prevent all future encroachments of the nature specified in the preceding resolutions." Only seven in the convocation, refused- to entirely concur in these resolutions. The next subject of consultation was what their dijty should be in the event of no adequate relief being granted. On this head Dr, Chalmel's was already prepared to submit a plan for the support of all the outgoing ministers. He asked and de- ceived permission to lay this plan before the Convocation. It was no rude outline, but the complete and finished system which was afterward adopted without alteration, and carried out with such success by the Sree Church. By the Convoca,- tion, however, it was listened to with evident incredulity, as the Utopian scheme of a sanguine man. A second series of resolutions were proposed by Dr. Patrick Hacfarlan, concluding with the solemn declaration, that " ' in dependence upon the grace of God, it was the determination of the brethreri now assembled, if no measure such as ihey have declared to be indispensable be granted, to tender the resignation of their civil -advantages, which they can no longer hold in cbnsistency with the free and full exercise of their spir- itual functions; and to cast themselves on such provision as God •in his providence may afford ; maintaining still uncompromis'ed the principle of a right scriptural connection between the church and the State, and solemnly entering their protest again^ the judgments of which they, complain, as in their decided opin- LIPS!- OF DR. CHALMERS. 184S. ion altogether contrary to what has ever hitherto been under- stood' to be the law and constitution ©rthis country.' On .Tues- day night, after prayer by Dr. McDonald, the roll was called, and 270 "roted that these resoJutions should be adopted." It was felt by all to be a Yote not 'Ightly tcr be given, and for a day or two many held back their names. " On Wednesday forenoon. Dr. Chalmers asked how many names were now appended to the resolutions of the preceding evening. Whei^ tqld that already there were above 300 he broke forth with the exclamation — ' Then we are more than Gideon's army — a most hopeful omen.' As he proceeded to pictifre forth all the oppositions which this little army might encounter — all the> victories it might win, the inward fire kin- dled into a perfect ecstasy of excitement. He stepped into the center of the group, his whole frame quivering with emotion, and looking, round-upon that band of faithful men, upon whose constancy in the tour of trial he felt now that he could count, he exclaimed — -' For throwing up our livings — for casting our- selves with such unequal odds into- so great aconflicti men may call us enthusiasts ; ■ but enthusiasm is a noble virtue rarely to be found in calm and unruffled times of prosperity : it flourishes in adversity — it kindles in the hour of danger. Persecution but serves to quicken the energy of its purposes. It swells in proud integrity, and, great in the purity of its cause, it can scatter defiance amid a host of enemies.' It was the spirit of chivalry baptized with the fire from Heaven." "The two sets of resolutions which had been adopted hav- ing been embodied in a memorial addressed to Sir Robert Peel and the other members of Ber Majesty's government, the Convocation," whose sitting* had been eminently marked by the spirit of prayer and 1)rotherly love, broke up on Thursday; the 24th' November. ^ The appeal to govejfnment resulted, as all its predecessors had, in nothing save a further attempt to encourage, as far as a full declaration of non-interference' could encourage,, the Court of Session in its course Of domination. And that court seems to have fully understood and availed itself of that ■«r 62. LIFE OF DR. CHALMEKS. 383 encouragement. The church had lately received into her bosom "a- body of dissenters bearing the name 6i the Associate Synod. The clergymen. of this Synod were admitted, as mem- bers of the respective Presbyteries within whose bounds their charges were situated, and these Presbyteries were proceeding to attach a territorial district to ttieir churches. The Presby- tery of Irvine bad in this wa.y received the Rev. Dr. Clelland, minister at Stewarton, into their court, and were engaged in allocating to .him a special district for the purpose of pastoral superintendence and spiritual discipline, when an interdict was served upon them prohibitrngthem from receiving Mr. Clelland as a member of Presbytery, and from establishing an additional pastoral charge in the parish. The church, for a hundred years and more, had been admitting additional ministers into her courts, and- creating new parishes quoad spiritualia, and the valid- ity of her acts had been recognized by decisions of the Civil Court. Her title was now for the first time challenged, upon the ground that, as a State-created institution, she could have no au» thority and exercise no privilege which had not been expressly granted to her by statute. This case was so novel and important that it was brought before all the judges of the Coutt of Session. Their decision, delivered on the 20th January, 1843, was to the effect, that the church had acted illegally in receiving such ministers as Mr. Clelland, and in placing any part of an origi- nal parish under their spiritual care. This judgment was one of wide compass, applying, as it did, not only to the members of the Associate Synod, but to all the unendowed clergymen recently- admitted into the church. Its effect, if submitted to, would have been to extinguish about two hundred pastoral charges, and to annihilate as many kirk-sessious, by whose vigorous agency a considerable inroad had been already made upon the ignorance and irreligion of many of the most overgrown parishes. It is one of the simplest and most harm- less privileges which any society can enjoy, that of adding to to the number of its office-bearers, and of originating methods by which their -labors on behalf of the great objects of the in- stitution may be most effectivdy prosecntedi This privilege 384 LIFE OF DK. CSAtMERS. 1848. was now denied to the Scottish Establishment. Taken in con- junction with a previews decision of the Court of Session, that all the Sabbath collections at the- doors of the churches be- longed to the hw-itors for the behoof of the poor, this judgment of that court overturned the whole work of. church extension as an attempt to break down the unmanageable masses which had accumulated in, so many parishes, and threw them back upon the exclusive pastoral superintendence of a single clergy.- man. In other circumstances, the church might have at- tempted, by appeal to the House of Lords, to obtain a reversal of a sentence so fatal to her progress, so pregnant with injury to the highest interests of the country.. As it was, she re- ceived it as a last token of the Itopelessness of any recognition of her spiritual independence by the Court of Session, and sTie engrossed it as the last specimen of the injustice which had been done her in that petition which, at' a meeting' of CommissioB held on the- 3 1st January, it was resolved should be presented to the British Legidature." This petition was bi'OBght before the Hou§e of- Commons on the 7th March, 1843, by Mr. Fox Maule — " founding, upon it a motion that the- House should re- solve itself into a committee to take into consideration the grievances of which the Church of Scotland complained. Mr. -Maule, Mr. Campbell of Morizie, Sir George Grey, Mr-. Ruth- erford, and Mr. P. M.- Stewart stated -the ■case for the church so temperately, so judiciously, and so comprehensively, as left the church nothing either-to desire or regret," while jnofe than two'thirds of all the Scottish members voted in fator of the mo- tion. ^it was, notwithstanding, lost, from the persistence 'of the English members in those views of. the case drawn from their own theory of what the relations of tjhurch and State ought to be. This action of the Legislature rendered the course to be pur- sued by the church perfectly plain. -Turning now from the distressing and profitless negotiations of five years, the evan- gelical party devoted their efforts to preparation for the new state- of existence which they saw awaiting them.- " The clergymen who had signed the resolutions of the Convo- cation lost no time in explaining to their congregations the iET. 62. LIFE OF DR. CHAI.MKES 385 important step which had been taken, and inviting their adherence. Acting under direction of a Committee appointed by the Convention, the ablest of their number were deputed to itinerate over the country, holding meetings in every parish to which they could find acfeess, announcing to the people their principles and final purposes, and obtaining a large and hope- ful amount of popular concurrence. All this however, did not satisfy Dr. Chalmers, whose grand device for meeting the coming crisis was the organization of local associations, upon the plan and for the purposes indicated in his address to the Convocation. Unable to persuade others to unite with him, he instituted of his own accord, immediately aftef'the Convo- cation broke up, an association of this kind in the parish of Morningside, where he resided. Districts were laid down, it a low view of the subject. Hi» genius has been devoted -to the service, of his Heavenly Master, and his is the high ionor promised to those who, having labored successfully in thek Master's-cause, and turned many to righteousness, are to ' shine as the stars forever and ever.' In taking the chair, Dr. Chalmers pro- posed that the proceedings should be commenced by anoth«r stct of prayer and praise. The psalm selected to be sung com- menced with the' verse — > Bend thy light forth and thy truth; Let them be guides to me. And bring me to thine holy hill, Et'u where thy dwellings be.' As th& vast multitude stood up to sing these words, and as the swelkof 3000 voices rose up in melody to heaven, a sudden burst of sunlight fiUed the building, and ttiere were, some who thought of Dr. Chalmers's text, but six months before — 'jJnto the upright there ariseth Kght in the darkness.' The Assembly ^T, 68. LIFE OP DB. CHALMEE8. 393 being constituted proceeded to business ; 'and on the follow- ing Tuesday, the act of the ^Disruption day was formally and legally completed by the subscription of the ' Act of Separa- tion and Deed of Demission,' by which 470 ministers did 'sep- arate from .and. abandon thg present subsisting ecclesiastical EstablishmenA in Scotland, and renounce all rights and emolu- ments pertaining to them in virtue thereof.' A revenue of more than one hundred thousand pounds a year was thus voluntarily relinquished for the keeping of a good conscience and on he^ half of the liberties of the church. JFive years had passed since the first decjsioa of j;he Auchtertfrder case, and the fruit of the conflict which then e3mmenced was this rending in twain of the -Scottish Establishment, ^hen that conflict be- gan there were none on any side who contemplated the possi- bility of such an issue, and perhaps none who,. had it beeit- pre-announced to them, would not willingly have labored to prevent it. It was an event not only beyond all human fore- sight, but done without human, concert, in great measure against human will. Step by step the church was involuntarily led on from the lower and less essential to the larger and vital question upon which her very existence as an Establishment came finally to be staked. Guided by a way that she knew not, her path was hedged up on the right hand and on the left till no opening- but one seemed left for preserving her princi- ples and keeping her honor pure and clean. It lightened amazingly the sacrifice -which so many of her ministers werj& called at last tojnake, that not a shadow of uncertainty hung over the closing act, and that amid all the bitterness of regret felt by them in separating from an Establishment which they -, had so loved and venerated, there mingled no feeling of hesita- tion as to the propriety of their final step. It was an act forced on. them by the morai necessities of their position, from the weighty re..sponsibilities of which they felt as if providen- tially relieved. Those statesmen who constrained them to this alternative migl>t with more show of reason have denied- the spiritual independence which they craved to a churckwliioh shuts out the laity from all part and influence in her aflfairs, and 394 LIFE OF DE. OHALMEES. 1848. holds high notions of the priestly oflSce and the spiritaal pothers which accompany it ; but can they be forgiven for denying this liberty, and that on the ground of an alarm about clerical do- mination, to a church which Opened every court to an equal, in some instances to a predonjinatiijg lay influence, and which utterly repudiated the whole doctrine of priestly*authority and power? Can the British (Jovernmfent be forgiven for breaking up the venerable fabric of the Scotch Ghurch' upon a plea so groimdless, and for putting so- mournful a close to that career of Christian usefulness upon which that church had so vigor- ously 'and so hopefully embarked ? That an Establishment manned principally by such 'devoted ministers as -were now driven beyond its pale, and guided in its advancing movements by such r&en as Dr. Chalmers and his associates, Would have proved an instrument of greater power for penetrating and evangelizing the masses than any which we now see existing, we tjannot doubt ; and as the picture, of what might have been rises before our eye — the picture of the Church^of Scotland, aided by the countenance and liberality of -the aristocracy — - strong in the growing attachment of the great bulk of the middle classes — numbering among her' adherents more "than two-thirds of the whole population, of th* land- — advancing year by year in numbers and in strength — reclaiming larger and larger portions of the waste places of the^ wilderness, and turn- ing them into the garden of the Lord — we sigh in heart-felt sorrow over an event which has put the fulfillment of such a prospect forever out of sight. We cannot doubt that for a ca- lamity so great,^ Divine Providence has seme compensating - benefits in store, which as yet we do not see ; -and with a hope- -ful faith we look for it, that in some great and benefi;cent issue, as unlike to any which our sagacity or foresight can now fore- shadow as was the Disruption of 1843 to the anticipations of 1 834, when the future shall have unfolded. and illustrated them, the purposes of that wise and gracious Providence which watches oyer the Church of Christ will receive their ample vindication. ^CHAPTER XVIII. . Affer the withdrawal of those who now constituted the cler- ijy of the Free Chureh of Scotland, the ministers who remained in the Establishment left to their own course, quietly bowed their shoulders to the burden and the scourge of those whose bread they ate. The seven of Strathbbgie were treated by them as though no censure had b^en incurred. "The veto law — ^the proceedings of previous Assemblies relative to the settle- ments at Mampch, Culsalmond, -and Lethendy — the Acts of 1833, 1834, and 1839, by which the ministers of the Associate Synod, Parliamentary and Extension churches had been ad- mitted were all subjected to the same simple and summary treatment" " Mr. Clark had his license restored to him, and the settlements of Mr. Edwards at Marnoch, and of Mr. Middle- fain at Culsalmond were recognized and confirmed." All measures that had been taken for increasing the extent and activity of the establishment were canceled, and all things thrown back into the condition in which they had been before the evangelical movement took place with the condition now expressly admitted that the church supported by the State is the creature and engine of the State. If Scotchmen can look with pride upon the noble act of independence and self-sacrifice of the founders of their Free Church, they have also cause of shame in^that so many of their countrymen were capable Of sustaining the domination complained of, and still more in that so many consented to retain their places in an establishment under such humiliating conditions. Something is, however, to be as- cribed to previous habits of thinking ; and the strongly retained notion that State support is indispensable to the eflieiency of a church. The tenacity with which. Dr. Chalmers clung"~to this idea of dependence upon the funds of the State, even in the act of relinquishing them, from the most painM experience of the 396 LIFE OF DK. CHALMEES. 184S. evils there-with connected, is proved by his declaration made on that very occasion while defining the attitude of the Free Church toward the government. " The voluntaries mistarke us, if they conceive us to be voluntaries. We hold by the duty of govetnm-ent to give of their resources and their means for the maintenance of a gospel ministry in the land ; and we pray that their eyes may be opened, so that they may learn how to acquit themselves as the protectors of the church, and not as its corruptors qrits tyrants" " Again, if we thus openly pro- claim our difference.with men, who under the guise df principle — ■ and of this principle we question no1i the honesty — refuse in the affairs of the church, to have any participation with the govern- ment; still -more resolutely do we disclaim all fellowship with men who, under the guise of direct and declared opposition, lift a menacing front against the powers that be ; or, disdaining : government, and impatient of restraint, manifest a spirit of contention and defiance." Dr. Chalmers's sustentation scheme was the temporal strong- hold of the Free-Church, without vhich all her efforts, wou,ld have been feeble and disconnected, and more than two hundred of her churches must have beea abandoned. " His report as to the progress made in its " establishment was in the highest degree encouraging. Six hundred and eighty -seven, associa- tions had been organised. Two hundred and < thirty-nine of them .were in full operation, and had already transftiitted to the general treasury upward of £17,000. The average yielded by each of these associations was £73, per annum." " The report relative to the Building Fund, also given in Jby Dr. Chalnaers, was not less encouraging. In one week by means of the local associations £16,678 had been collected in smaller sums, which, added! to the more magnificent donations made during the few months preceding the disruption, presented no less a sum than £104,776 already available for the erection of churches. And the day of the Disruption sprang a new mine of charity in the hearts of thousands. Their ministers having led the way, and given to- the world a clear and convincing testimony to the reality and power of religious principle, in the ^T. 63. LITE OF DE. CHALMEES. 397 pecuniary sacrifices "whicli they made many a noble-hearted layman was in haste to follow and to rival their example. First among^ those Christians and generous men who have furnished a new standard of individual liberality, stood Mr.- William Campbell, of Glasgow, whose benefactions to the Church of Scotland during the progress of her extensions had already amounted to about £J 6,000, beg^n a new career of a still wider liberality, by a donation j£2000 to the Building Fund of the Free Church. The Marchioness of Breadalbane, Mr. Ewing of Levenside, Mr. Nisbet of London, and Mr. Brown Douglas of Edinburgh, were mentioned also by Dr. Chalmers as the donors of sums equally munificent ; and we regret only that the delicacy of a genuine- humility forbids our naming one, the overflowings . of whose altogether princely generosity crossed the Atlantic, and of which Dr. Chalmers felt himself to be be honored in being chosen as thfc channel. These were the offerings of the rich, but greater and more precious in the eyes of Him who still sits over against the Ghurch's- Treasury, were the offerings — approaching far more to the character of pecuniary sacrifices — -ipade at this time by thousands in the humblest walks of life." . The remarkable harmony of the first Assembly of the Free Church, which was such that all/ its business was conducted without debate, and not once had a vote to be taken, was due, jn a great degree, to the care with which Dr. Chalmers and others had prosecuted the work of previous preparation. Its proceedings awakened an intense interest^ in the public mind and were daily listened to by thousands. On the Sabbaths such- multitudes assembled io worship, that, the hall of Assem- bly being unable to -contain them, five separate congregations were formed without the walls. , Yet, amid their many encouragements, the members of this Assembly had also grave and affecting cares resting upon them personally, which nothing but an imperative sense of duty could have waTranted them in incurring. It was in the rural parishes that the severest priv^ions were borne bythe families of the out-going clergy. This was foreseen and alluded to by 398 LIFE 6F DE. CHALISeEB, 1848 Dr. Chalmers before they separated. '" Just conceive,' he said, ' these clergymen rettirning to their homes', finding' their houses in process of being' disipantled and their parishioners- saddened by the prospect of an approaching separation. We stay here in our hi-larity, in the presence of each other, but these gentlemen go to what were once 'their welcome and com- fortable homes, slnd what is the spectacle that meets them on their return ? I can not -venture on the description. Going, they and their families, they know not whith^r-=-tesigning all those places to which they are attached by so mafiy fond and intense local afifections — ^their garden- walks where they freely enjoyed the hours of their relaxation-r— the peaceful study where the man of learning enjoyed many a raptured hour of converse ■with his books, or which the -man of piety coUverted into a sanctuary, aud held intercourse there with his God- — all these to be resigned .and given up.' ' One venerable- minister ha€ to send his wife and children away to a distance of seventy miles — not a hoiise or a hut nearer being open for their accomoda- tion — and he had himself to take a room in the only inn which the district supplied. Another was asked by his "widowed daughter to share a cottage, within his parish, in which, she lived, but the noble proprietor interfered, ^e was warned that if she harbored her own parent in her house she- would forfeit her right to her dwelling; -as it was not desired that any house on this estate should be a ' lodgiug place for dissenters.' A thir4, driven from one of the loveliest homes, coinpelled to study in a wretched garret; and to sleep often with npthing ber tween him and the open heavens but the cold slate, eovergd with hoar frost^^his very breath - frozen" upon the be"d clothes — sunk into the grave.' ' ^ " But toil came as well as trouble. To meet the wants of the aflhereing population upward-6f 600 congregations had to be regularly supplied with all, the means of grace, and as many ohurcher had to be erected. Never in the history of the 'Christian "Church were so many sermons delivered, so many prayer meetings held, so many addresses delivered, by the same number of clergymen, within the same period of time as by MI. 68. LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 399 the outgoing ministers during the twelve months which elapsed from the day of the Disruption till the General Assembly of 1 844 ; and never over the same surface of couhtry, or within so short a time, were so many churches built. In towns the kindness of their dissenting brethren afforded many facilities for ministers meeting with their people on thp Sabbath days. In the coimtry it was different. Here and there the hand of tyranny was stretched out, and from the church and church- ward— from the bare hill-side and from the public highways, on all of which, they sought to assemble and to worship Gbd-r- ministers and people, were driven, till they took their station within high water-mark on the lone Sea-beach their feet upon the damp and tangled sea-weed — the roll of those breakers whose spray the breeze dro;ve over them keeping time to their solemn psalmody. It was a summer in which there was scarcely a rainy or inclement Sabbath, and very generally in the rural districts, even where.no opposition of any kind was encountered, there was preaching in the open air. When this was impracticable or inexpedient, strange shifts and expedients were frequently employed. At Morningside, Dr. Chalmers opened his own dwelling-house, and converted it into a church ; and perhaps he never- occupied a more picturesque position than when, planted midway up the staircase, he preached to a disjointed congregation scattered into different rooms, all of whom could hear, but not half of whom could'see the clergy^ man. In addition to the increased amount of purely pastoral labor which devolved upon thfem, the leading minist'ers of the Free Church had large draughts made upon their tiriie and strength for pijblic services. The livijly interest which the Disruption had created in other countries, suggested the idea of dispatching numerous deputations to explain the principles andto plead the cause of the Free' Church. Familiar as the Presbyterians of Ulster were with the great principles involved in the controversy, and looking with the strong attachment- of children to the parent Church in Scotland, they needed less either to be informed or to be stimulated, and, as tecame them, they were the foremost, both by word and deed; in expressions 400 LIFE OF DR, CffALMEES. 1S48 of attachment. In England, the deputations from the North were received everywhere with extraordinary demonstrations of affection and good-will. Public m«etings wefe held in the metropolis and most of the principal towns. In Manchester, thirly-fiTe pulpits -were opened uppn one Sunday, that sermons might be preached and collections taken. In Birmingham fifteen pulpits were placed, in like manlier, upon the same Sab- bath, at the disposal of the friends of the Fr-ee Church. Lon- don was not so well organiaed^but'it exhibited a no less generous spirit. Over all wide England, fervent and substan- tial expressions of desire were given to aid the men who, after making so great a personal sacrifice, were attempting the task of building up a uati(5nal institute in a year.' The, event which had occurred in Scotland had power also to stir profoundly and extensively the sympathies of the American churches, and a deputation, headed by Dr. Cunningham, crossed the Atlantic. ' In one or other of- these public services Dr. Chalmers was again and again solicited tjj 'engage.- It was pressed upon him in particular and in the strongest terms, that be should deliver a few lectures in London,: explanatory of the principles involved in the Disruption ; but heifteadily resisted all the urgency by ■which he was beset. He had the prpfoundest conviction that all which I/eland, England, or America would or could do for her, was utterly insignificant as compared with what Scotland could and ought to do for herself. Those bursts of geaerous f^ejing, which it was so pleasant io witness or excite, would in a year or two subside, and' the contributions begotten by them would die iaway in- like manner. To meet all the temporary necessi- ties of her position, it ■was proper •and needful that the Free Church should avail herself of them to the uttermost. They served, besides, a higher and mora enduring object — that of bindisg together the churches in the bonds of a brotherly unity, and upon that ground especially were they to be cheri^ed. But ere very long the church would be thrown back upon'her own internal resources — the foreign springs would fail, and it would be upon the home fountain iJiat all vrould finally depend. It was to the striking out of that fountain, to tJie rendering it as deep ■*T. 64. ttPBj OF DE, CHAI^MBBS. 401 and productive as possible, that Dr. Chalmers's whole and undivided strength was given. In August and September he made a sustentation tour, taking in Perth, Dunkeld, Aberdeen, A.rbroath,- Dundee and St. Andrews." In one or two instances he addressed large audiences ; but what he specially sought was a private conference with some " ten, twenty or thirty of those, who in each place were ready to undertake the work vf making the regular rounds of the families of thejr district, that he might impress them with the magnitude of their oflSce, and animate them to punctuality and zeal in the discharge of its duties." Returning from this tour, he attended the "meeting of the General Assembly held at Glasgow in October, which he opened by a sermon on the ' outward business of the house of God,' from the text, Nehemiah xi, 16. The object of this meet- ing was, to revive in the west of Scotland that impulse which the presence of the outgoing ministers had created in Edin- burgh. Interim reports of the various operations of the church were read, all bright with promise, but covering too brief a pe^ riod to give accurate augury of the future. Beanimated. by their intercourse, the ministers returned to prosecute their labors amid greater outward difficulties, but with undiminished ardor, during the succeeding winter. The results, as announced at the meeting of the General Assembly in May, 1844, ^ere in the highest degree encouraging. " Without exception, all the MisMonaries in foreign stations had declared their adhesion to the. Free Church. This testi- mony was doubly valuable, as coming from men who had been quiet spectators of the conflict, the purity and devotedness of whose character was above all suspicion, and wHq must haye had many fears as to the probabilities erf an infant church. Struggling for life at home, being able to continue their services abroad. Their fears were disappointed ; for, notwithstanding all that she otherwise had to do, the Free Church, in the first year of her existence, raised no less than £32,000 for her va- rious schemes of Christian philanthropy— ^a sum greater by 34 402 LIFE OF DE. CHAIMEES. 1844 £12,000 than had been raised by the ■whole church i|i the year 1842. "It Jiad been looked upon as a marvel, that in the course of seven years previous to the Disruption, t-wo hundred churches should have been built, in connection with a church the whole; number of whose ministers n\imbered about a thousand, i But that marvel was lost in this — that by a church, whose.ministers nximbered at the commencement only 470, nearly SOO churches were built in a single year. And yet the work of church^build- ing was far from finished ; for, coAtrary to all anticipatigns,> the people had forsaken the Establishment in a much higher ratio, as to numbers, than the ministers ; and it, would have required more" than 700 churches to accommodate the congre- gations who were ready to attach themselves to the _ Free Church. To m«et the spiritual wants of more than 200 un- provided congregations, the church had only 130 licentiates at command, some of whom, itinight be presumed, were unlikely to be elected as- ministers. Of thesej so many- as 114 were or- dained in the course of a year, Whifth saw the original church of the Disruption, making an addition of about one-fourth to the number o^ her ministers. j ■ ■" Setting aside the generous aid rendered by strangers, up- ward of £300,000 had been contributed, by a, community, which at this period could not embrace so much- as one-third of the population of Scotland. That particular branch of the general revenue which was devoted, to the maintenance and extension of the roinistry appeared also to be in a prosperous condition. Adopting the suggestions embodied in a pamphlet by Dr. Chalmers, printed and privately circulated in 1843, two sources of ministerial inccune had been opened. The produce of all the local associations constituted a general fund, out of which each minister received an- equal dividend ; while from the collections at the church, doors, each, congregation was permitted and encouraged to supplement the salary of its clergy- man. With the Central Sustentatioii Fund, established by the- Free Chtirch, ike name of. Dr. Chalmers is imperishably con- jET. 64. LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 403 iiected. It stands and will long abide as the best monument of his genius in ecclesiastical finance. Compared with the system under which each separate congregation sustains its own ministry, it presented many and peculiar recommendations. By drawing from the abundance of" the rich a fixed supply for the necessities of the poor, it preserved a Christian ministry in many districts where otherwise it must have expired. By binding the strong and the weals together, it created a new species of unity in the church, and breathed throughout it a fresh and healthful spirit of brotherhood. By erecting orderly channels through whibh the overflowing liberality of the wealthier congregatioiis was spread equally within the whole area of the church, it established a security algainst the fitful and capricious distributions of individual benevolence. By inviting every member of the church to unite, not simply in supporting that clergyman whose services he personally elijoy- ed, but in sustaining and extending a go'spel ministry throughout the land, wherever it wSs heeded, it gave a new, if not a purer motive to his liberality, supplying it ' with a wider aim, and a nobler arena.' The actual income, it is true, which in the first year of its existence it supplied, was comparatively small and insTifficient.- The whole sum yielded by the Associations throughout that year amounted to £68,700, "which, divided among 600 clergymen, afforded to each a salary of £100. Many, however, of the Associations had but recently been organized^^many had been in full working order, under the eye of an ordained clergyman, during a portion only of the past year ; and when the large and exhausting efforts expended upon church-building were, over, it, was confidently and gene- rally' expected that the Sustentation S'und "Would be largely replenished. To some extent Dr. Chalmers participated in this expectation. He rejoiced that one of the primary objects of the fund — the maintenance of the Church of the Disruptionin all its original magnitude, had been more than realized." But still perceived a defect in the scheme, which he thought might- be' remedied by the introduction of some principle, which making the " gettings out" bear some regular proportion to 404 , LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. * 1844. the "givings in," should be selfTacting, self-reg^Iatf^, needing not- the constapt interference or agency of any central autjiority. With this view, he proposed to the General Assembly^f 1 844, " that the equal dividend should be j.bolished ; that no eongre- gation should be put upon the Fund till its annual contiajjutions should amount to £50 ; and that each congregation should receive from the JFund one-half more- than it tij^nsmitted, till, the ministerial income ■should amount to £160." The Assem- bly, however, did not yet perceive the necessity of ihe improve- ment, and alqiost unanimously-rejected it., Lat@r results hav^ gone to prove the actuality of the evil which Dr. Chalmers foresaw, and the Free Church may yet feel herself under the necessity of adopting the remedy -which he suggested. The Free Church movement bad a most ■salutar^effeet upon the interests of true religion throughout the whole region of its influence, among all den.ominations of protestants, on the conti- nent as well as in the British IsIbs. The delegations from so many different churches which met in he? Assembly suggested the idea of a general evangelical: union, which met with- the most zeajous support- of Dr. Chalmers. Though his failing health prevented him from being present in any of its meetings, yet with his pen he ably contributed to direct the course which the- union should pursue. Though Dr. Chalmers could no longer sustain the fatigue of great public efforts, and -had withdrawn from the principal management of the financial concerns of the church, yet he still wished to devote his.rem.aiaing strength tath« cause which for thirty years had befen the nearest to his heart — ^the religious instruction and eleviatiori of the neglected poor. " I have determined " he says, writing to Mr. Lennox on the 26th July, 1844, "to assume a poor district of- 2000 people and superin- tend it myself, though it -be a work greatly too much for my declining strength and means, yet such do I hold to be the efii- ciency of the- method, with the Divine blessing, that, perhaps, as the concluding act of my public life, I shall make the effort to exemplify what, as yet I have only expounded." Preparatory to the execution of this purpose he " deliT€»ed four public lee- Ml. 64l life of db. ohalmees. 405 tnres in the months of June and July, directed mainly to the illustraiion of the superior eflScacy of local schools and local ehurohsi, so related to the limited districts in which they ai;e planted as to bear with special and concentrated effect upon the surrounding families. " T-he locality selected by Dr. Chalmers as the scene of his projected enterprise was the West Port • a part of Edinburgh to which a few years previously an infamous notoriety had been attached by those secret murders, the discovery of which sent a thrill of horror through the land. By an accurate survey, it was found that the main street and its adjoining wynds contain- ed 411 families,, of which 45 were attached to some Christian communion ; 70 were Roman Catholics ; and 296 had jio con- nection with any church whatever. Out of a gross population of 2000, three- fourths of the whole, or about 1600 of the inha- bitants were living — within sound of many a Sabbath-bell, and with abundance of contiguous church accommodation — lost to all the habits and all the decencies of the Christian life. In these families the number of children capable of attending school was only 411, and of, these, 290 were growing up alto- gether untatight. Thp physical and moral condition of this community was deplorable ; one-fourth were paupers on the poor-roll, and one-fourth were street-beggars, thieves, or pros- titutes. When Mr. Tasker, the minister of the West Port made his first visits to some of the filthiest closes, it was no uncommon thing for him to find from twenty to thirty men, women and childrea,-huddled together in one putrid dwelling, lying indiscriminately on the floor. Waiting the return of the bearer of some well-concocted begging-letter, or the coming on of that darkness under which they might sally out, to earn by fair means or by foul, the purchase-money of renewed debauch- ery." Formidable as the undertaking seemed, to reform and christianize such a population, Dn. Chalmers, aided by that band of zealous associates, which his lectures had called around him, went hopefully forward. He divided the West Port into twenty districts, containing each about twenty families, " Over each of these districts a visitor was appointed, whose duty it 406 JJlim OF DE, CHALMEHB. « ,1844. was to visit, once each week, alL the Sanilies committed ,'to his care ; by all siich attention and servicif^as'he could oflfer to win their good wiljt — by reading the Scriptures, .by distributing tracts, by entering into conversation, and by engaging in pray- er — to promote, as fit opening? were given him, their spiritual welfafe.' A printed slip, drawn up by- Dr. Chalmers, was to be left in every house 'by each visitor, explaining the xibject of his present and future calls." A school was established in the very neighborhood where Burke and his accomplices had per- petrated their horrible murders, and. under an excellent . and. prudent teacher, was opened on the 1 1th November, 1,844, with sixty-fouV day scholars and fifty-seven evening scholars. The school house was the upper loft of a deserted tannery, " low roofed and roughly floored, its raw, unplastered walls pierced at irregular intervals with windows of unshapely form, it had little of either the scholastic or ecelesi^aetical in its aspect ; but never was the true wort of school and church 4one better than in that old tannery -loft of the West Port." Dr. Chalmers had told the people in an address delivered to them, a few days previously, what it was his purpose to do for them, that they should be furnished with tine of the best teachers of the country, but that they must make the school their own by paying >-for it, at the rate of two^pence a week for each child's -education ; that, however, as the article they were to be s.upplied with was worth a great deal more, he had no doubt they wouM gladly pay it. The people were cpiite delighted both with the speech and the proposition, and evidently won by the kindness evinced thereby. ■" The educational part of the process having been fairly set a going, the higher and more difficult operation was comjnenced, of bringing the adult population under regular spiritual instru,c- tion. On the forenoon of Sabbath the 22d December, Dr. Chalmers ope^d the tan-loft for public worship." Dr. Hanna, who was present on the evening of- that day when the city missionary officiated, says that when he looked round and saw' that the Avhole fruit of the advices and requests, and entreaties which for-many previous weeks had been brought to bear upon all the families by the visitors, was the presence «f aboiut a ^T..65. LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 407 dozen adults, and those mostly old women, he confessed to strong misgivings as to the result. But the services were regu- larly continued thrfee times every sabbath, and the system of visiting faithfully carried eut ; and in April, 1-845, Dr. Chalmers Was peculiarly happy in securing* the services of the Kev. Mr. Siasker, under whom the congregation steadily increased. The enterprise was one which occupied much of the labor of Dr. Chalmers, and a still more prominent place in his petitions before the Throne of Grace. ' In the course of the year 1846, the liberality of several christian friends, whom he had interested in it, enabled him to hasten its progress considerably, by furnishing the means " not otHj to build a church and school- room, but also to purchase and fit -tip a tenement of houses, as model houses forv working men, in which, at a low rent, addi- tional means of cleanliness and comfort were enjoyed. "On Friday the 19th Ffebruary, 1847, the West Port chiirth was opened for public worship by Dr. Chalmers) and oli the 26th April, he presided at the first sacranjent administered within its walls. On the following Monday he said to Mr. Tasker — ' I have got now the desire of my heart — the church is finished, the schools are flourishing, our-ecclesiastical machin- ery is about complete, and all in good working order. . Grod has indeed heard my prayer, and I could n6w lay down my hesld in peace and die.' " That consummation was not Tong delayed. As to the after progress of the church and school thus founded, it is remarked by Dr. Hanna, five years after Dr. ChaJmera's death, that " Und«r the admirable management of Mr.- Tasker, each year has witaessed an advancing progress. In its educational department the work is complete. In ,the difierent schools, male and female, day and evening,, between 4G0 and 600 children are in attendance; nor is it known that there is a single child of a farhily resident within the West Port who is not at school. The' habit of church attendance, has become as general and regular in the West Port as it is in the best conditioned districts of Edinburgh. The church is filled to overflowing, and, while thes^e pages are passing through the- press, the people of the West Port, who among themselves- 408 LIFE OF DB. CRALKUBS. 184S contributed no less than £100 to the building of their church at first, are oontributing, at » an equal rate of - liberality, for the erection of a gallery. It was Dy. Chalmers's conviction that in the worst localities the means existed, and could be evoked, by which an efiectiye gospel ministry, if once created, could afterward be sustained ; and the history of the West Port confirms that conviction. The ecclesiststieal machinery is now eomplete, and were it separated -from the rest it could be main- tained in all its present efiioieney by the freewill offerings of the people themselves. During the last year, beside meeting all the expenses necessary for the due support of Christian ordi- nances, amounting to nearly £260, the West Port congregation, has contributed £70 to missionary and educational objects. Nor has the cost been great at which all this has been eflBected. A site has been purchased, a church, seated fqr 620, has been erected, commodious schoolrooms have been built and furnished, a large adjoining jenementias been bought and fitted up, the minister's and the schoolmaster's, and the schoolmistress's salaries have been paid, and all incidental expenses discharged, during seven years and a half, for less than £6600." The sffi)rts made by Dr. jOhalmers tot^btain an improvement in the course of college and theological instruction, have already, been mentioned, together with the aspathy with -which they were regarded by the University q,uthorities of his native land. It was in the new collegiate arrangements of the Free Church that he had the satisfaction of seeing his scheme for Theologi- cal education adopted ; both in the number of instructors -and the distribution of subjects among4h«m. With five theological professors instead of three, the highest number in the Scottish Univeissities, formerly, a more complete course of instruction is now furnished in the institution established under his aus- pices than in any other in the British dominions. Dr. Chalmers in the earlier part of his professorial career in Edinburgh went through a wide course of lectures, publishing portion after portion, as delivered, thereby entailing upon him- self the continual task of new composition for the succeding session. Subjects, besides, were constantly occurring to bim ^T. 65. LIFE OF DE. CHALMEES. 409 "of a character somewhat extraneous to the proper topics of his course, upon which a brief set of lectures were drawn up and^elivered to his' students. The result of the whole, -while impairing the orderly treatment of the common heads of Divin- ity', was eminently favorable to that freshness and force of impulse which it was his great distinction as a teacher to com- municate. He who studies attentively the first four volumes of the one, and the last three volumes of the other series of his Works, will not readily believe, that even in respect ofthe amount and variety of information communicated to them, the students of Dr. Chalmers fared worse than others-; but it was not here that his power and glory lay, aS the greatest teacher of Theology our country has eV'er seen. Others have amassed larger stores of learning, and conveyed them to their students in more comprehensive and compendious forms. But who ever lit up the evidences and truths of Christianity with a light so attractive ; and who ever filled the youthful breasts of those who were afterward to occupy the pulpits of tha land, with the fire of so generous and so devoted an enthusiasm ! His pro- fessorial career had lasted for twenty years when the Disruption occurred. Even at that time he could travel, he said, from one end of Scotland to the other, and spend each night in the mans& of one of his former pupils ; and if the growing major- ities in the General Assembly by which that event Was preceded were analyzed, it would appear tiiat fiine-tenths at least of those who had listened to his fervid prelections in the Univer- sity, counted it honor to stand by the side of their venerated instructor when the hour of trial came. Immediately afteir-the Disruption, Dr. Chalmers resigned his Chair at the University, and accepted the appointment of Principal and Primaries Pro- fessor of Divinity in whatever collegiate institution the Free Church might be able to erect.- Strongly convinced that with the slender attractions which its unendowed '■ and under-paid offices held out, the. future ministry of the Free Church could alone niai£ite.in its position in the country by the superior scho- larship -and deeper piety of its ministers', he gave an increased measure both of time and care to the duties of his professor- 4:10 EIfl«R OF DE. CHALMKES. 1848 ship ; and after the experience of three sessions he had this hopeful testimQny to "bear : ' ThS convener of youir Committee has the satisfaction of bearing witness, and this' after the expe- rience of eighteen winters as a Professor of Theology, and five more as the ticottpier of a previous chair, that his class of last session stands the highest in his estimation of all which have preceded it, if not in its superior tiumber-of eminent and dis- tinguished students who stand above the level of their fellows, in what is far better — a more elevated tabl§-land of general proficiency and good scholarship. But it is of greatly sur- pasgiiig moment that we should have to report an obvious in- cijease, from year to year, in their sense of things sacred, and devotedness of heart and spirit to the great objects of the Christian ministry.' In the hope of contributing to this in- crease, during his last collegiate sessions Dr. Chalmers was in ths? habit of inviting his studefits to private interviews, devoted wholly to conversation relative to their own spiritual condition and prayer^" " After' his transference to the 'Free Church • -Coliege, Dr. Chalmers's "uHdivided labor was bestowed upon systematic theology. It hald Ifor many years been the highest dbject of his literary and*^rofessorial ambition to leg.ve behind him a complete bodjr of Divinity, containingthe fruits of his maturest l?eflections, both on the oredentia,ls "and contents of the Christian Eevelation. Had his Lectures on Natural Theology and the -, Evidences not been already given to the public, they would have been subjected to the same process 0/ oondeneation .through which' his other lectures were made to pass, and his 'Institutes of 'Theology,'' when given >. to the world, would Lave presented a more uniform and homogeneous aspect than they now wear. A-S for many years he had, however, to go over the same ■ groiiid with his studei^^ which the first four volumns of his woriis embraced, he adopted the plan of emplpy- ing these volumes as text books, accompanying his examina- tions with that summary and review of their contents which foi-m Book II. and Book Ilf.'bf his ' Institutes of Theology.' With the obvious disadvantage of sabje«'ting the reader of this .fiT 66. UBH. OF DE. CHAUilEBS. 411 last work to a reiteration of^milikr topics, those two books of the- ' Institutes ' exhibit a compactness of diction, which amply proves that he could when he pleased transfer the brevity and force of his spoken into his written language, and what will be of no ordinary importance to any one who under- takes the hitherto unattempted task of estinroting the direct and original contributions which Dr. Chalmers had made to theologica.1 science, they g^e' us his own estimate of what he conceived to be most valuable in his earlier writings. It is, however, to that portion of the ' Institutes.' which treats of the subject-matter of Christianity that we would especially so- licit attention. Upon no part of Jiis published writings was so large a share of their author's care and thought bestoived. There are to be found here his latest and ripest thoughts upon some of the profoundest questions with which the human intel- lect has engaged ; if not set forth in the gprgequs amplifications m which he loved previously to indulge, yet in the simpler purer, weightier diction which became one whfl was leaving his last intellectual legacy to the world. The ' Institutes of Theology ' and ' the ' Daily Scripture Eeadings' were commenced about the same time, and were carried on simultaneously, a portion &f each being written daily, and the transition being frequently instantaneous froin. the one composition to the other. Engaged with the one, he brougjit to the Divine oracles a mind singularly free of theoy logical prejudice ; he sat as a little childrat the feet of Divine wisdom, and received into a meek and loving heart, according to its plain and natural meanings each utterance she gavaferth. Engaged with the Other, he brought to the sacred oracles a. mind full-fraught with the true spirit of the Inductive Phil- osophy, and etilleeting the varied; testimonies of the Diyitie re- cord as they Lty scattered over the sacred page, he combined them into one complet#and harnibiuou& system. The two en- gagements were most unlike. Very r^arely has the same sim- pKcity in the one, and the same science in the other, been ex- hibited ; but -where shall we find another instance in which th& two, irought into such daily and close proximity, went on so 412 LIFE Cff DE. CHALMEE8. 1846, harmoniously together ? The many prayers, however, which Dr. Chalmers offered' that he"migh1 be preserved from the fet- ters of an artificial orthodoxy,' may be taken as an evidence that even in his instance it was not without an effort that sim- plicity sat embosomed in system, while system did nothing to hurt simplicity, - - .4P , Besides the composition of his 'Institutes of Theology,' the only other literary occupation of Dr^ Chalmers's later years was an occasional contribution to the ' North British Review.' This publication, which under its present accomplished- Editor, ranks with the best conducted and most influential of our lite- rary journals, was established in 1844 by Dr. Welsh, Mr. Ed- ward- F. Maitland, and a few. friends in Edinburgh, to whom it appeared, that there was both room and need for a Seview of the highest class, the organ of no party, political or ecclesias- tical, -and which instead of ignoring or affecting to disown Christiamty, was imbued with its spirit." It was designed to embrace, in the 'language of Dr. Arnold respecting another periodical, " not so much articles on religious subjects as arti- cles on common sjtibjeets written in -a decidedly Christian tone." The contributions of Dr. Chalmers to this review are now pub- lished in the volume of his miscellaneous writings. The publication of Morell's History- of Modem Philosophy awakened in his mind a lively interest in the German Philoso- phy. Valuable" truth be Siscovered in it, and yet Hie whole-' sale adoption ofahy of its systems- he thought very much to be deprecated, and to be best guarded against by a strong and faithful discussion of its truths and errors^ Such a work he greatly desired -to undertake i and actually delivered a short course of lectures, as an entry upon the subject, which were afterwards embodied in an afticle for .the North British Review. The amount'of his information on that head was not adequate to the completinn of his plan ; bat; notwithstanding his ad- vanced age, 'which seemed to forbid the. labor of so large a new attainment, he laid out his design for lectures pn Kant; , Fichte, and Cousin, which to execute in his usual manner would have iavolved years of intense study. While still engaged in this ^T. 65. LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. 413 pursuit he was gratified* by the appearance in Edinburgh of Prof. Tholuck of Halle. ■ The attachment, which sprung up in a few days between those two illustrious men was in th« highest degree beautiful. Their first meeting is thus mentioned by Dr. Russell, at wKose house Prof. Tholuck was residing. " Dr. Chalmersseated himself on a low chair, close to the learned German, and listened with an air of genuine docility to all he said, throwing in a stray characteristic observation now and then, always, however in the way of encouragement, never in the way of contradiction. Dr. Tholuck had published some verses of a religious character, which had given umbrage to some sect or other. He showed the lines to Dr. Chalmers, who admiring them, observed that he had often been taken to task himself for a similar latitudinarianism ; ' for, my dear Sir,' he added, ' some people have a very fine nose for heresy.' While Dr. Chalmers was sitting in this posture, drinking in all. that was said to him, Tholuck turned to his host, and said in German, that he had never seen so beautiful an old man. The words coming out so suddenly in arf unknown tongue, in- stantly changed the expression of Dr. Chalmers's face from that of happy acquiescence, to one of puzzled amazement, which was in the highest degree comic, and this eifect was not les- sened by his eager putting of the question, ' What is it. Sir, that he says ?' — a question, impossible to answer, and yet not easy to evade. The- result pf this interview was an amount of mutual confidence and esteem, as deep and sincere as it was sudden. Dr. Tholuck took an early opportunity of returning the visit, and spent some hours with Dr. Chalmers, urging upon bim in the most direct and homely way, the necessity of direct- ing'iis mind- to the study of the German Theology, for, as it was from that quarter the ban'e had come which was poisoning the simple faith, so it was there alone that the antidote could be found. The day before Tholuck's . departure. Dr. Chalmers qalled upon him and found him at his mid-day repast. He sat with bim only for a minutes, and- said little, but looked at him constantly with an expression of earnest interest and afi:'ection. He rose to take leave ; and, instead of taking him by the hand, 414 LIFE OF DE. . CHALMEKS. 1545 he threw his arms around his nect and kissed him, while ' God bless you, my dear friend,' broke with apparent difficulty from his overcharged' heart> After he was.gOne,1t was noticed that a tear had gatherecf !n the eye of him who had received the apostolic benediction and seal of ""brotherhood froin one he loved and Anerated so n|uch. Hfis only ol}servation wa^ a half-muttered hal^spbken, eben ein- Ems — ev;§a a kiss." His speculations in German phiUjsophy were interrupted by a more impei'ative call, kindling all the symj^thiess of his na- ture. The fearful famine of 1846 and 1847 arising' from the failure of the potato crop, " left 300,000 of tlie population in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and many millions in Ire- land, to face the. coming year with food in hand sufficient to sustain them only for a feW weeks. The extent of the failure of the crop was no sooner announced than the awfulness of the impending catastrophe filled Dr. Chalmers with alarm and anxiety. He foresaw that nothing but an act of prompt and unparalleled generosity could ward off the fearf^;! calamity of hufldreds and thousands ih a Christian land miserably perish- ing from want of food. To wait till fhe cry of actual hunger was heard, the sight of the dying kindled sympat^, was to ring the death-knell over multitudes to whom the relief would come too late. Fastening his first thoughts upon the Highlands, he not only hastened to gather up all the informal on conveyed through public channels, but by private circulars of bis owh, widely distributed, he obtained the most minute- and trustworthy accounts of the state of the Suffering population.- As a gre,3t proportion of them were members of the Free Church, it became that Church to step prominently forwifBd in this emergency; and to do what she could to save them from the horrors of famine. Nor did she fail in her duty at this time ; being the first public body that moved orgaaizang art effective Committee of Relief, and ordering a public collection to be made in all her churches on Sabbath, the 6th Decem- ber, 1846." The amount of that coUgption was uncommonly large, " the Committee of Belief being put int6 possession of no less a sum th® £16,000. This' denominational effort was Ml. 65. LIFE OF DE. CHALMEBS. 416 soon merged into those larger measures of relief .which Scot- land so promptlyjand successfuHy adopted, so that while thou- sands died in Ireland — whole households perishing together, and many lying unburied till the dogs came and devoured their bodies — it was not known that in Scotland a single individual died solely and directly from want of food.' It required,, how- ever, incessant vigilance, and no small amount cjf generosity, to Ire sustained all through the winter. In addition to the public tide of charity flowing in upon the Highlands, innumerable les- ser streams were kept constantly flowing. Very large sums were committed to Dr. Chalmers for private distribution. There was scarcely^ indeed, a daily post which did not bring him some donation ; and he never watched for letters more eagerly, and he never read any with greater delight. He had many methods of communicating du-ectly or indirectly with the Highlands, and of dispensing the money intrusted thus to his care. To one lady alone, the late Mrs. Mackay, we are aware of his having committed £600. Nor was Ireland forgotten. Her greater sorrows claimed a large share of his sympathy ; and, through Miss Pringle of Edinburgh, and Dr. Edgar of Belfast, he had pleasure in conveying his own and other gifts of charity. The extraordinary spectacle of upward of 300,000 men employed on the relief works — of upward of thvee millions of people fed daily by the hand of public charity, and yet many perishing notwithstanding — afforded matter of most inter- .esting speculation, . When the spring months came, there was a fear that large breadths of country would be left unculti- vated. The crofters had neither seed-corn of their own, nor ■mioney to buy it ; and even after it was furnished to them, they knew little or nothing of the new modes of agriculture which it would be necessary for them to adopt, Thp state of a country thrown suddenly into circumstances so new, appeared to Dr. Chalmers so worthy of investigation that he resolved to, devote himself to the task. Having presented his general views in a paper enjiitled, ' The Politicaf Economy of a Fa- mine,' he proposed to prosecute a minute and searching inquiry into the past condition and future prospects both of the 416 LIFE OF i)E., eUALMBKg. 1845. Highlands and of Ireland, with a view to determine what were the likeliest means of permanently improving the economic condition of their inhabitants. It is ever to be regretted that he did not live to execute a work fqr which much preparation had been inade, and many, materials collected. We can but indicate, that from the singular history of the Relief Works in Ireland he meant to draw a fresh illustration of the evils by which all public charity is accompanied, and of the inseparable connection which obtains between, the morAjand economic well- being of a community. He meant^to test the various expedients for promoting the future prosperity of Ii^eland, by. applying- to them the general axioms, that it was out of her own soil, and by the industry of her own inhabitants, that she must be taught to draw her support, and that the best and most effec- tive aid which coidd be given het, was that which promised the soonest to set her fre^-from^U foreign help." CHAPTER XVIII. It must have been with a keen but saddenhig delight that Dr. Chalmers, in the spring of 1846 paid a visit to his native village and renewe(i' his acquaintance -with, the scenes and now few surviving companions of his early days. In the spring and summer of the next year a tour in the south of Scotland, amid the haunts of border romance, to the charms of which he had a 'poetical sensibility, and the vale of the classic Yarrow; brought him round upon the footsteps of his incipient ministry at Cavers, where he was attended by the grandson of the clergyman whose assistant he had been. And- his last sum- mer afiforded him a ramble among the retreats of his busy life in Glasgow. " It may gratify a natural curiosity should we follow Dr. Chalmers through the different engagements of a day ai Morn- ingside, and furnish some details of his personal habits and mode of domestic life. Whatever variety the day exhibited, it had one fixed essential feature. The motto, 'Nulla, dies sine linea ' never-aiet with a more rigorous fulfillment. The pe- riod allotted to what he called ' severe composition ' had never (if we except his first winter at St. Andrew's) exceeded two or three hours at a time, and in ordinary circumstances there waa-seldom more than one sitting daily ^t such work. The tension of the mind during the effort was extreme, but it was never so long continued as to induce fatigue or exhaustion. During the last six or sfeven years of his Ufe, his daily modi- cum of original co'mposition was completed before breakfast, written in short hand, and all done in bed. The preparatory ruminating or exco'gitating' process was slow, but it was com- plete'. He often gave it as a reason why he did not and could not take part in the ordinary debates of thfe General Assembly, that he had not the faculty which some men seemed to him to r4i7) 418 LIFE OF DH. GHALMEES. ., 184S. possess, of thinking extemporii; nor could he be so sure of ^y jadgment as to have comfort in bringing; it before th^ pubhe till, he had leisurely weighed and measured it. H© was re- hement often m' his nibde of expression ; but no hasty judg- ment was ever pgnnedfor publicly spoken by him. 'I h^ve often fancied,' he orice said to axe, 'that in one reject I re- ^mble Rousseau, who s^ys of ^imgelf^that his processes of ^thought w^e slow but ardent ' — a curious and rawe combination. In proportion,, however, to the slowness wi^ which his conalu- sioiis, were reached, was the finnness with which they were riveted. He has been charged with iMpnsisteiicies.^ut (put- ting aside^tbe alteration i^his TeligiouS sentim^ts) I am not aware of any one opinion formerly expressed or .published "by him, which he ever changed or retracted.. This slow and de- liberate habit of thinking gave him a ;gr,eat advaintage when the act of composifion came to be performed. Me never had the double task to do, at onee sii thinking whj,t he ^ould say, and how he should say it. .JThe one was over befoife the other commenced. He never began to^rite till, in its subjects, and the o/dar and proportion of its parts^ the map or outline of the fixture composition was laid down ; and this, was done ^so dis- tinctly, and-fis it were, authpritatively, that it was seldom vio- lated. When engagedr therefore, in writing, his whole undi- vided strength was given to the best ^nd most .powerful expression of pre-established ideal. So far before him did he see, and so methodically did he proceed, that he cpuld, calcu- late for weeks and months beforehand, the rate of his progress^ and the day when each separate composition would be finished. " The same taste for numerical arrangement was exhibited in the most insignificaift actions and habits of his life. It regu- lated every part pf his toilet — down even to the daily stropping of his razor. Beginning with his minimum, which was two strokes, he added one stroke more each day successively, till he got up to the number- fixed on as bis maximum, on r^achiiig which he reversed the process, dimipishing the number of his strokes by one each day, till the lowest point was touched ; and so, by. what he would have called a, series of oscillations ^T. .65. LIFE OF DE.. CHALMERS. 419 between his maximum and hi^ minimum, this matter of the stmppfeg undeviatin^ly progressed. It would be tedious, perhapSitrifling, to teU how a like ordey was punctually observed in other parts of his toilet. Jle did alm'ost everything by num- bers. His staff was put down to .the ground regularly at each fourth foot-fall f^ and the number of its descents gave him a pretty accurate measure of the space over which- he walked. ■Habit had Tendered the counting of these descents an easy, indeed almost a mechanical operation ; so that, though meet- ing friends, anji sustaining? an animated conversation, it still went on. ' This mode of measuring- distances was variously applied. When he lived at No. 7 Inverleith Row,, a complica- tion of streets lay between him and the University, and he ' imposed upon himself the problem of discovering a new route each day, and keeping a register of their relative lengths. Next to the pleasure of being introduced to an altogether new locality, was that of thoroughly exploring one already known. ' I like,' he said to one of his favorite students, ' to find out new spots in places I am familiar with. The other day I had some time to spare, so I tried if I could extemporize a new rout« between Comely Bank and Inverleith Row. I sauntered, rather dubious, I must confess, up a sort of cart-lane, and, be- fore I was aware, I got involved in the accessories of a farm- house, where I was set upon by a mastiff, and so obliged to turn back.' When, in the spring of 1843, he removet^ to a dwelUng-house which he had built for himself at Morningside, as the distance was too great for him to walk from College, he generally drove to the outskirts of the tow'n.. While walking from Wright's Houses, the point at which h^ was set down, to his house at Churchhill, he, one winter, kept an accurate reck- oning of the number of persons he met upon the road each day — liurious to know whether a fixed average would be ob- served, or whether- it -would vary as the days shortened or kngthened. Many more like instances might be quoted, but we must return to our details of his daily life. " • I find,' he says, 'that successful exertion is a powerful means of exhilaration, which discharges itself in good-hum* 420 LIFE OF DE. CHALMEBS. 1846. u'pon others.' His own morning compesitions seldom failed in this effect, as he came forth from them beaming and buoyant, with a step springing as that of childhood, and a spirit over- flowing with benignity. If his grandson, or any of the younger members or his,, family were alone in the breakfast-room, a broad and hearty ' Hurro ! hurro ! ' ringing through the hall, announced his coming, and carried to them his morning greet- ing. -*"As his invariable mode of dealing with introductions was to invite the introduced to breakfast, very interesting groups, often -gathered round his breakfast table. In th« general con- versation of promiscuous society^ Dr. Chalmers did not exceli There are minor acts of governing^ such* as those needed for the management of a House of Commons, or the conduct of a General Assembly, in whici he was utterly defective ; and there are minor gr-aces of conversation required for its easy guidanqe through varied and fluctuating channels, which his absorption with his own topics, and the massive abruptness of his movements, made it difficult, perhaps impossible, for -him to practice. But at his breakfast table, with half a-Sozen strangers or foreigners around him,' his conversation was infiie highest degree rich and attractive. Opportunities naitira.lly occurred, or were willingly made, for him to 'expatiate ' upon some passing puWio topic, or upon some of bis own favorite themes, and he was never seen nor heard to greater advantage. His power of pithy expression (remarkably exhibited in his occasional employment of vernacular Scotch), and of pictorial narrative, his concentrated and intense moral earnestness, his sense of humor, Jbis boundless benignity, the pure, transparent, and guileless simplicity of his character — received many, of their happiest illusta'ations at such-tinjes. . He had one morniijg in the week reserved especially for his students." In the art of making youth at ease in his company, he was remarkably happy. His extensive knowledge of the topography of Britain contributed to that end ; the young man must have come from a very out-of-the-way regioil if Dr. Chalmers was not able to enter into familiar conversation with hiip about the localities of his native place. He " was much gratified by the reception ■fflT. 65. LIFE OF DE. OHALMEES. 421 given to his works iffi- America, and had great pleasure in making the personal acquamtance of Dr. Elton, Dr. Spfague, Dr. Smyth, Dr. Cox, Dt. Beecher, and other eminent American clergymen. In the summer and autumn of 1846, many trans- atlantic visitors were his guests at Morningsi4e. " The interval between breakfast-and dinner was devoted to the ' Biblical Readings,' and to extending the shorthand of the 'Institutes.' He dined latterly at one o'clock, and as he had to be at his class at two, the meal was necessarily a hurried one. He was indifferent about food, and remarkably abstemious ; but there was no habit of life about' which he was so scrupu- lous," or more frequently condemned himself of excess. His " evenings were given to general reading, and to the society of his family and friends. He kept steadily by one book at a time, and however small a portion of it might be overtaken each evening, the perusal was regularly prosecuted to a close. And here too, as well as in his summer visits, he sought out the friends of his youth. Within the last two or three years of his life, he completed an entire perasal of Gibbon, Shakspe^are, and Milton. ' I don't wonder now,' he said, ' at Milton's own pre- ference for Paradise Regained ■ over Paradise Lost.' The single passage of Shakspeare which he most frequently recited, was that one in Henry IV., which commences '1 saw yonng Hany — with his beaver on, His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly armed,' &c.; and the single play in which he took most pleasure was Mid- summer Night's Dream, among the fairy pictures of which he delighted to revel. ' I look,' he would say, after laying down the book, ' I look on Shakspeare as an intellectual miracle ; I would put him before Milton from his exhaustless variety.' One of his students once told him of the enthusiasm of the Germans ahout Shakspeare, and related the anecdote of Goethe's comparison between Tieck, Shakspeare, and himself, in which, with a singular mixture *both of pride and humility, he said, 'That relation which Tieck holds to me, I hold to Shakspeare. I regard Shakspeare as a being- of a superior nature.' 'Well, sir, do you know,' said Dr. Chalmers, after 422 LIFEX)F I>B. OHALMEBS. 1S45. hearing the anecdote, ' I like that very much. I dare say Shakspeare was the greatest man that ever Jived — greater perhaps even than Sir Isaac Newton.' In February, 1845, two yeare after the Disruption, we find the 'following entry in Dr. Chalmers's journal : « A few days ago finished the com- plete perusal of Shakspea-re. Beg^n Paradise Lost, and am reading with great iijteftest, -Edwards on the end of God kl Cijeat^n. Letine li^nceforth betake myself to serious reading.' " In his domestic intercourse with his • daughters^, there .was much playful familiarity. Firyiing. one of ;them sitting alone in a room, he said to her— ^' Well^ my dear little howlet — ' Hail, mildly pleasing solitude, Cdmpanion of the wiseHand good ; but I'm no for us grqwing perfectly uncogni^ant of one another, sitting in corners like sae mony cats.' ^ A spirit of wchivaky rau through all his j^tercjourse with his daughters : |jhey not only ministered to -his comfort in the hours qf relaxation, he made them companions, as it were, of his pubUo lifa, and sought' their intellectual sympathy with even his highest exercises of thought." ■ . « f ^ " About the beginning of 1834 " writes the Rev. Mr. Couper of Burntisland, " Dr. Chalmers' became the proprietor .pi, a, house in this locaKty, andJhere for seven or eight years fqljpw- ing, nearly -bne-half of his time was spent. His mode if life, while here, was tolerably uniform and exceedingly simple. The- earlier portion of the day he generally devoted to study and correspondence, reserving the aftej-noon and evening for the society of his family and^friends, and for the exercise of walk- ing, in which he took great delight. He 'had rofany visitors, not a few of them from other countries ; and he scarcely ever failed, when time and weather permitted, to -conduct them ^o his favorite points of view, where he expatiated with wonderful enthusiasm on the varied bea»ty of the surrounding scenery. It was scarcely possible toi^e even one short walk with him without perceiving that his capacity of enjoyment was singu- larly large. He could find ibeauty everywhere ; ^t least he. could siiigle out fiMm the most ordinary scene, some feature or ^T, 6B. LIFE OF DE. CHALMERS. . 4r2S other on which his mind could dwell with interest and plea- sure. *' His .youthful freshness of feeling impa(Tibd a singular chaTm to his manners and conversation. Even when verging on oW age,- he was very strikingly characterized by the sim- plicity of vivacious and unsuspecting boyhood. Of this pecu- liarity he was himself quite conseious^ and I have heard him more than once allude to iti Having equipped himself one evening to go to Edinburgh, he appeared to have outgrown his ordinary dimensions — the pockets of his great-coat being-wejl stuffed, I think, with books and pamphlets. This occasioned some inerriment, in which-he heartily joined. Placing his hands on his sides, he went on to say, ' I have now somewhat of the solidity and gravity, and somewhat also of the breadth of mid- dle "age ; but I can scarcely shake off the feeling of boyhood. I remember, Mr. Couperj when I was a student at St. Andrew's, with what profound veneration I regarded the Professors ; when T came to be a Professor there myself, I used to wonder if these gilpies could have the same feeling toward me.' I may give another instance equally characteristic. A steep wooded bank overhanging the sea,, commences about, a mile and' a haff to the west of Burntisland, and terminates near the village of Aberdour. Here l3r. Chalmers delighted to ramble, and'^eat was his satisfaction when he had one or two friends along with him to erfplore the Hews— ^for such is<.the name of the locality. One day on reaching the west end of the Hews, we found the gate lockj^, and, as we iutended to .proceed to Aberdour, we had to scale,> the wall. ' Dr. Chalmers declined the offeT of assistance", feeling assured that he was quite com- petient to the task himself. He soon succeededr in. planting himself on the top of the wall, but felt it expedient to rest for a'little before attempting to come down. Perched on this rus- tic eminence; he felt as if catried back into the scenes of bis boyhood, and, looking blandly down upon the companions of bis walk, gave vent to his feelings in a very curious and racy strain of observation : the purpoit of it was that ie felt it very difficult to realize his progress in life, and that there was often 424 LIFE. OF DE. CHALMERS. ISii. a great contrast between his feelings -and his years. ' Wben I meet,' lie said, 'a respectajjle matEon, who is perhaps- a dozen years younger than myself, I feel quite disposed- to Jook mp to hter with the same' sort, of veneration that I felt when I was- a boy.' ■ _ "■ "While engaged m conversation, Dr. Chalmers would occa-' sionally fall into a reverie; which, by thpse not acquainted with him, was felt to be ejnbarrassing, Th^ reverie, when, npt broken in upoh by others, Vas generally terminated 'by the abrupt utterance of some important sentiment ■yrhich he had been¥evolving'in his mind. Thus, he one day remarked, ^fter we had walkedffor a while, in silence, 'What a blesse^thing it is. Sir, that ^t is confidence that is required of us.' At another time, a pretty long pause was broken by his saying with much emphisis, ' I kijow no point of orthodoxy that is no|i susceptible of a practical treatment. Take an extrenje case — the dpctrine 'Chat man can da nothing of himself ; I would just say. Pray all the harder.* I may record another of.^he sayings which fell from himin'this abrupt but impressive- manner ; it is one which young nrinistefs especially would do well to pDn<|^. '. It is of great importance to keep up a tone-of pulpit preparation ; the efficacy, of your private ministrations will depend very much upon it.' " He often became extremely' animated — sometimes even vehement---though conversing 'with only a single individual. This, was especially the case when his mind was occupied wifh any g^at questfon in which he had been led* to take a promi- nent pairt. He might begin calmly, but as he spoke, ' the fire burned,' and a torrelit of glowing eloquence soon came rushing from his lips. ^ have heaa-d him at a fireside, in the recess of a -window, and even while sitting up in, bed, break forth in -a ,stylex)f stormy grandeur sufficient to electrify a whole assem- .bly.V ' ► ■»*- " He had a wonderful store of anesdotes of which he icoijld avail l^^mself with a ^appy promptitude, for Jhe illustration of any sul)ject that turned Up in conversation, E^d on such occaT sions his keen sense of the " ludicrous was often evinced with ■Sa?, 67. ,, LIFE OF DR. CHALMKE8, 425 irresistible effect." Yet,' " with all hjs social cheerftii|iess and beaming joy, there were 4;okens not a few of an internal con- flictr^glimpses of an inward desofation whitfh told unmistakably that, like David, he felt himself to be a stranger upon this earth. ' I would not live alway,' was a -sentence often uttered. " ' What a wilderness the world is to the heart with all it has to inspire Hap^ness ! I have a great and gifowing sense of deso- lation. What a marvelous solitude every man bears about with him ; and then that other and mysterious seclusion — the intercepting vail between us and the Deity. You would think [speaking in a hesitating tone^] that He would delight to mani- fest himself to Sis creatures. No doubt the obstacle must be in the subjective — .the clearer the reflecting medium, the brighter the manifestations. That is strikingly put in Matthew, ' the pure in heart they shall see God.' * * * I look on it as a strong proof of our alienation from God, how short a time we can sustain' a direct contemplation of Him ; wjiat a mighty transformation when the vail of outer things shall be with- drawn, and we stand naked and alone before Him with whom we' have to do ! ' " Into the peace and rest of the Sabbath Dr. Cjialmers entered with a peculiar joy. B-side his usual evening inter- views with his children in his study, there was one duty of a peculiar kind thrown always upon the afternoon of this day. He never received the notification of a death without writing to some member of the afflicted family, and these letters of, Sympathy were always written on the Sabbath evenings." Though holding very distinctly and firmly his own view^ of scriptural truth, the extent of his liberality in judging of others was often* manifested in conversation : as onCe beautifully in connection with a remark on the piety of the monks in the Middle ages. " We would need " he said, " to penetrate the counsels of God, and the secrets of another bosom, before we could pronounce through how much-distorfing error a man may grope his way to a blissful immortality." Dr. Chalmers had now lived to behold the entire'success of that great evangelical movement in the churchj in which he had 36 426 . 'LIFE OF DB. CHALMEKS. 1B47 been ihp most promment agent. The voluntary action of the people hifid nobly s-ustainedi it. A body of 470 ministers ;had been increased 726.- The community upon whom they had thrown themselves, though far from the wealthiest, had erected churches for all its congregations, at a, cost of more than £4Sb,000, " and in addition to this, had subscribed £100,000 to build manses for all its ministers. It'had instituted a College with nine Professorships, to each of which a salary of from £300 to £400 per annum was attached. It had 340 students under education for the holy o|Sce, among whom bursaries and scholarships to the amount of £700 had been distributed in a single year; By a single effort it had raised £60,000 for the building of 600 school-bouses, and it had already connected with it about 600 schools, in which nearly as many childrgn were instructed in the ordinary branches of education as were in attendance. ^.t all the endowed parochial schools of Scotland* For the teaching and training of Schoolmasters it had two exttasive normal establishsnents in Glasgow and Edinburgh(. At home 110 licentiates and 116;.catecbiets were engaged in the spiritual instruction of the people, while' abroad it had agents laboring in every quarter of the habitable globe. At Pesth, at Jassy, at Berlin, at Constantinople, seventeen mis- sionaries and assistants were endeavoring to promote the con; version of the Jews. At Calcutta, Madi-as, Bombay, Puna, and Nagpur, it supported fifteen European clergymen ordained as missionaries, nine converted natives engaged in the work of the Christian ministry, and a large band of |eachers and assistants, both native and European, from^ whota^ 4000 Indian children were receiving a complete Christian education. In Nova Scotia, the Canadas, the West- Indies, the Capg, Austrar lia, Madeira, Malta, Leghorn, and fJibraltar, there were piinis- ters supported- jn whole or in part "by the bounty of the Free Church, while £1000 per annum had been intrusted to the Evangelical Societies of France an^ Qf Geneva, to aid in cirt u- lating the Gospel over the continent of Eurppe. In 1847,, the Free Church raised for educational and .Seglssionary objects tiirec times as much as the united Church of Scotland did i||^ ^T.- 67. LIFE OF DE. CHALMEIRS:' 427 1843. It had continued for four years to yield- the princely revenue of ^300,000, and in that short period had contributed about a million and a half to the Christian cause."- Yet Dr. Chalmers still expressed himself unsatisfied as to the final suc- cess of lie voluntary system, and considered it of great im- portance that the Jree Church should never fall away from her testimoijy for the prinefple of a national establishment, when that could be obtained without a compromise of her spiritual independence. . , ' On- the subject of national education he entertained similar views. Conceiving that the Fjsse Church, by its voluntary ef- forts, was as unable to supply the educational as the spiritual wants of the country, he thought it necessary for the government to undertake that work, though what method to pursue was a question of some difllculty. During the last few months, of hjs life it occupied much of his attention^ His final opinions were Stated by him in conversation to Mr. Fox Maule and other members of the government, whom he met in London, in May, 1847, and afterward, at Mr. Maule's request embodied, in a paper, written during a visit to his sister, Mrs. Morton, the purport of which is, that the State should furnish means for erecting schools throughout the country, including religious instruction ; but leaving the introduction of the particular reli- gious element to the parties who had to do with the erection and management of the respective schools. On the occasion of that same visit to London, which, indeed, was undertaken for that express purpose, he gave .before a parliamentary committee, his last testimony in relation to the Free Church. " At the Disruption a large body of -the landed aristocracy of Scotland had refused upon any terms to grant sites on which churches or wanses might be built. Such stable fabrics frould give permanence to a movement which they intensely disliked, and might prevent that re-union with the Establishment which, when the flush of the first excitement was over, they hoped to sec accomplished. When these anti- cipations were falsified, and it became evident that the Free *Church was to rank among the permanent institutions of the 428 LIF|! OF DE. CHALMEKS. * 1347. eountry, manj' of these hostile proprietors gave way, but a goodly number still stood out. Having waited patiently, but in vain, for ^wo years, in the hope that this spirit of intolerance wquld spontaneously .subside, and having exhaui?ted all means of private influence and remonstrance, the General A^embly of 1845 petitioned Parliament and the Legislature," stating the grievance, and prayingstfoF legislative redress. TheiGovern- ment having shown no disposition to move in fiie matter, Mr. Maule, in Juile, 1846, introduced abillioto the House of Com- mons, the object of which was to oblige the ptoprietors ' to concede. The leading members of the House concurred in condemniag the conduct complained of;' but as its conclusion was thought to be too stringent, and the hope was' cherished that their own good sense and good feeling would j-ndyftce the proprietors to yield without the necessity of legislative inter- ference, the» Bill was thrown ojit. No symptopis of cotocessioQ appearing, Mr. Boiiverie, in Maueh^ 1847, moved and carried the appointment of a Committee of the House ' to inquitte whether, and in what parts of Scotland, and under what cir- cumstances",' large numbers of her Majesty 's^subjects Have begn deprived of the means of religious worsnip by the "'refusal of certain proprietors ja grant them sites for the: erection of churches.' It soon became evident that the examination of witnesses before the committee was to take a wide and import- ant range, and that an attempt was to he m.?.de by representing the grounds of the Disruption as so •untenable, and the oppo- sition offetjed to the Establishment. so violie'tit, as to palliate if not excuse even the, wrong step of refasin"^ sites for ohuisches. In these circumstances, it was deemed desirable that Dr. Chalmers shouldtappear as | witne'ss:before the committee." While in the metropolis, and enjoying tlie society of many old friends, h'e formed some new ac^uaintabees whom he valued highly, among whom were Lord Morpeth and Mr. Morell. The . following entry in, hi? journal ftiakes mention* of several of theB^ as well as his last interview with Mr. Carlyle. "JPViday, lith. — A most splendid party breakfast* in our lodgings — Isaac Taylor, Mr. l!*£orell,;ilev. James "Haniilton, Ml. 67. *' LIFE OF DE. OHALSpKS. 429 Mr. Baptist 'Noel, his son Wriothesly Noel, now a grown-up lad, and George Weakner. A4eal of talk: the main subject was Mr. Irving. Mr. Taylor, wjiom I had not seen for ten yfears, looks a great deal more than ten years older. The most interest- ing appearance and manner of a man were those of Mr. Morell — modest and quiet, and very intelligent ; but Taylor the person of the greatest vigor. Mr. Hamilton's recent tracts are truly beau- tiful, particularly the '.Vine,' from John xt. They left after tep, Taylor and Morell going off together. * * .* We to6k a cab to Oatlyle's at Chelsea. Nothing could be warmer than M^s. Carlyle's reception of me (formerly Miss Welsh, who visited us at Ardincaple Inn). She is remarkably juvenile- looking still. He came to us in a minute or two. I had lost all recollection of him, though he told me of three inter- views, and having breakfasted with me at Glasgow. A strong- featured man, and of strong sense. We were most cordial and eoalescing, atid he very complimentary and pleasant ; but his talk was not at all Carlylish, much rather the piain and manly conversation of good ordinary common sense, with a deal of hearty laughing on both sides. The pointSjOn which I was most interested were his approval of my territorial; system, and his eulogy on direct thinking,' to the utter disparagement of those subjective philosophers who are constantly thinking upon thinking. We stopped more than an hour with him. * * * Mr. Carlyle professed his willingness to write for the ' North British,' i think Morell would do the same;",- "^ ' Visiting his sister, Mrs. Morton, M "her residence in Glou- cestershire, "Dr. Chalmers preached his last sermon in the Independent chapel of the Rev. Mr. Dove — his text being Isaiah xxvii, 4, 6." This occurred on Sabbath the 16th of May-.' After spending a few days in quiet domestic intercourse with Mrs. Morton and her family, he retujned to Edinburgh on the night of Friday the 28th, " bearing no peculiar marks^ of fatigue or exhaustion. At breakfast tlie next morning his copversation was as lively»aind vigorous as ever. He inq'toired of the Kev. Mr. Gemm^l of Fairiie, who was staying.'in his house, what business ha;d been before the General Assembly 430 UFE OF DH. CH^ALMEBS. 1847, on the preceding evenmg. When told that it was an overtu;:e relative to the renewal, of an old testimony by the -church, he was not satisfied as to the testimony required to be- given-^he • hoped that they would let the 'matter alone — he eapressed himself ainfavorable to anything like a renewal " gf the National Covenants, and that he preferred the making the church's, testimony known rather by "what it did thanr.what it decfared. The forenoon of Saturday was occupied in prepar- ing a report which he wag to readbefore the General Assembly^ on the following Monday, part of which he now completed, leaving the remaind'er to "be executed'on Monday morning be- fore he rose. On Sabbath morning hie did not rise to breakfast. ' He sent a message- to me,' stfys MrrGerhmel, ' after breakfast, to go and see iiim in his bedroom'; On entering the- room, I found him in bed, reclining on his back, prppped up- with pil- lows, his hesid being vei^ considerably elevated,' which I ■fcelieye was his usual way of resting in bed. His bland an^ benevolent countenance beamed upon me as I came up to his side, and;he grasped me warmly by the 'hand. ' I am sorry that you are unwell, to-day. Doctor.' — 'I do not by any means feel uiiweli ; I only require a little rest.' He spoke with' the greatest clearness and, vigor ; and I could Jiot- think thaj any- thihg was wrong, but w^iat might arisetlrom the lassitude pro- duced by-his laite journey and exertions inthe South.^, ' I am rejoiced,' said he, ' that the Assembly" have agreed'' to avail themselves of the grant, for national educatibn ; and I truft that a sound Scriptjiral education will 'pervade the' whole length and breadth of the- land. Your resolutions are, I tiiink,' to that effect ? ' I.repKed, '„Yes ; but one of our resolutions characterizes ths national scheme as unsound and lafitudinarian. lYear thafthe scheme is lafitiidinarian ; but I am not. quite so clear as to the use of Ijie wotd UBSamid. Doddridge, for example, is latitudinarian ; but, I should, be, very unwilling .to call "him unsound. And Bailer ^4§ still more latitudinfyian ; but! should be-very unwilling, in the full sen.se of the word, to'' call him unsound. There are what' are called Baxterian errors.jl am awarg, and one of th^se is in retetion to the extent $f the ■ET« 67. LIFK OF DE. CHALMKK8. 431 saciifige of OLrist ; Baxter, I think, holding that Christ died for all men.' Dr. Ghalmers answered^ ' Yes : Baxter holds .that Christ died for all men ; but I cannot say that I am quite a{ one with what some of our' friends have written on the sub- jept of the atQn,ement. I do> not, for example, entirely agree ■with;wKat Mr. Haldane fia^s on that subject. „I think that the woyd- wo^ld as applied in Scripture to the sacrifice of Christ, has been unnecessarily restricted ; the common way of explain- ing it is, that it simply includes Gentiles as well as Jews. I do not like that explasiation ; and I tMnk that there is one text that putfr that interpretation entirely ^ide. JChe text to which ' I allude is, that ' God commandeth all men, everywhere to reppnt.' Here the Doctor spoke of the' connection between the election of God, the sacrifice of Christ, and the^freeness of the flflfer of the ^Gospel. He spoke with great eloquence, and I felt as if he were in the pulpit, as some, of his finest bursts rolled (from hi5.,hps. ' ' In the oifer of the-gOspel,' said ,he, 'we must make no limitation whatevei"*, I compare the world to a multitude of iron filings in a vessel, and the gospel to a magnet. . The minister of the gospel must bring .the mag- net into contact with them, all : the secret agency of God is to prMu{;e the attraction.' — ' But,' said I, '^a common objection of t^e sinner, when awakened to a sense of his state, is, ' Per- haps I am not, elected ; and, therefore, I need not try.',... 'That,' said, he, ' is cutting before the point., I am a predestinarian ; my theology is that of Jonathan Edwards.' ' You are a Neces- sitarian,' said I. ' Yes,' was the reply, 'a Neeessitarig,n ; but I would always .fiph to be borne^ ija. mind a ^ayingof Bishop But- ler: — ^viz.„ ' That we have not so much ito inquire what G:od does, or should do'to us, as what are the duties which'we owe to Him.' " 'Human beings,' continued Dr. Chalmers, ' haiFe the most strange way of keeping their accounts : tl^y have one way of keeping their accounts with the world, and another way of keep- ■ ipg their accounts with Heaven. In relation to the world, you will find men often open, and geherou^^and unsuspici(Sius ; but- then they keep their accounts with Heaven in the^mpst suspi- cious and niggardly manner-^in a manner fwith which I can 432 LIFE OF DE. OHALMEES. 1847. have no sympathy — eontinually striving against, and fighting with the- goodness and sincerity of God, and ■wiU'not take God at his word.' ^ " In the eourse of the forenoon, the Rev. Dr. Cunningham called, and Vent with Dr. -Chalmers to.the afternoon service, in his usual place of^ worship — the Free Church at Mo»ningside. In accompanying Dr. Cunningham a short distance on his way back to Newingtori, Dr. Chalmers expressed his great satisfac- tion at the opportunity he had in London of eivjii^ his evidence before the Sites ComB|itte^ dwelling wit|i particular compla- cency on the representation he had giveu^, of the posiljon in which the Free Qhuroh stood to-vijard the Estabjishifflenti. Re- turning by'Bruntsfield Links, he made his last call,. on Mrs." Cbutts, one of the oldest and most ^beloved of his Fifeshire friends. After tea he retired to his siesta, wrote a note to Mrs. Morton, and afterward went into the garden behind his house ; sauntering-round which he was overheard by one of his family, in low but very earliest tones, saying, ' Father, my !|[eavenly Fgiher ! ' On returning to' the . drawing-reom, he" threw Aim- self into his usual reclining posture. His conversation at ^rst was joyous and playful ; a shadow passed over him as some disquieting thought arose — but .a light spread over his face as he said, that disquietudes lay light upon a roah who coulji fix his heart upon heaven. ' I'm fond,' Jie said, ' of the Sabbath. Hail sacred Sabbath morn ! Do you likerGl-ahamie's Sabbati, Mr. Gemmel ? Dr. Johnson was very wrong in Saying that there can be no true poetry that'is religious.' ' At supper,' ^ays Mr. Gemmel, ' I sat near him>, at his right hSnd. •* Are ydu-jnuch acquainted with the Puritan Divines, Mr. Gemmel ? ' said he. 1 answered that. I was, in some measure. 'Which do you chiefly admire ? '• 'I think very much of Howe,' was my reply. ' And so do 1/ said he ; ' he is vclJ favorite author. I think that ke is the first of the Puritan^ divines. I cannot say that I take mu'ch'to his image of a livmg temple ; bnt ^ have been lately reading his ' DeligMng in God,' and I admire it much.' " ■" After supper, addressing ine, ' You gave uSftrorship,' said iET 67. LIFE OF DK. OHALMEBS. 433 he, ' in the morning ; I am sorry to ask you again to give wor- ship in the evening.' ' Not at all,' said I, ' I will be happy to do so.' ' Well,' said he, ' you will give worship to-night ; and J. expect to give worship to-morrow morning.' Before worship commenced, and just as the servants were .preparing to come up-stairs, he asked me whether I had read the' sermons of Mr. Purves of Jedburgh. I answered that 'I had not. ' They are very excellent sermons,' said he ;> ' and there is one, in which he rids the marches between the election of God on the one - hand, and the freeness of the Gospel on the other, which is admirable.' " During the whole of the evening, as if he had kept his .brightest smiles and fondest utterances to the last, and for his own, he was peculiarly bland and benignant. ' I had seen him frequently,' says Mr. Gemmel, • at Fairlie, and in his most happy moods, but I never saw him happier. Christian bene- volence beamed from his countenance, sparkled in his eye, and played upon his lips.' Immediately- after prayers he withdrew, and bidding his family remember that they must be early to-morrow, he waved his hand, saying, 'A general good-night.' " Next morning before eight. o'clock, Professor MacDougall,| who lived in the house adjoining, sent to inquire about a packet of papers which he had expected to receive at an earlier hour. The housekeeper who, had been long in the family, knocked at the door of Dr. Chalmers's room, but received no answer. Concluding that he ,was asleep, and unwilling* to disturb him, she waited till another party called with a second message ; she then entered the roohi— it was in darkness ; she spoke, but there was no response. At last she threw open the window-shutters, and drew aside the curtains of the bed. He sa,t there, half erect, his head reclining gently on the pillow ; the expression of his countenance that of fixed and majestic repose. She took his hand — she touched his brow ;. he had been dead for hours : very shortly after that parting salute to his family he had enter.ed the eternal world. It must have been wholly without pain or. conflict. The expression of the face undisturbed by a single trace of suffering, the position of 37 434 LIFE OF DB. OHALMEES. 1847 the body so easy ttat the least struggle would have disturbed it, the very posture of arms and hands and fingers, known to his family as that into which ftiey fell naturally in the moments of entire repose — consjnred to show, that, saved alj strife with the last enemy, his spirit had passed to its place of blessed- ness and glory in the heavens." Th^ General Assembly of the Free Church then in session, tipon learning the mournful event, immediately suspended all busihess, and remained convened only, to render the last offices to the illustrious departed. The body of Thomas Chalmers was committed to the tomb on the 4th of June, with every mark of honor which his coun- trymen could bestow. It was thus that a writer in the ' Witness ' described the Solemn procession which represented a nation mourning over her greatest fallen. " The day was one of those gloomy days, not unfrequent in early summer, which steeps the landscape in a sombre' neutral tint of gray — a sort of diluted gloom — and volumes fof mist, unvariegated, blank, afld diffuse of outline, flew low athwart the hills or lay folded on the cKstant horizon. A chill breeze from the east murmured drearily through the trees that line the cemetery on the south and west, and rustled amid the low ornamental shrubs that vary and adorn its surface. We feltas if the garish sunshine would have associated ill with the occasion. As thfc procession approached, the shops on both sides, with scarce any exceptions, were shut up, and business suspended. There was no part qf the street or road through which it passed sufficiently opep, or nearly so, to give a view of the whole. the spectator merely saw file after file pass by in what seemed endless succession. In the cemetery, which is of great extent, the whole was at once seen for the first time, and the appear- ance was that of an army. The figures dwindled in the distance, in receding toward the open grave along the long winding walk, as in those magiilifieent pictures of Martin, in which even the littleness of man is made to enhance the great- ness of their works and the airay of their aggregated numbers. iET. 67. LIFE OE' DB. CHALMEKS. 435 And still the open gateway continued to give ingress to the dingy, living tide, tbat seemed to flow unceasingly inward, like some perennial stream that disembogues its waters into a lake. The party-colored thousands on the eminence above, all in silence, and many of them in tears — the far-stretohing lines of the mourners below — the effect, amid the general black, of the scarlet cloaks of the magistracy-^-for tlt6 Magistrates of Edinburgh, with much-- good taste and feeling, had come ip their robes qf office, and attended by its officials and insignia, to manifest their spontaneous , respect for the memory of the greatest of their countrymen — the slow, measured tramp, that, with the rustle of the breeze, formed the only sounds audible in so vast an assemblage — all conspired to compose a scene solemn and impressive in the highest degree, and of which the recol- lection will long survive in the memory of the spectators. There was a moral sublimity in the spectacle. It spoke more emphati- cally than by words, of the dignity of intrinsic excellence, and of the height to which a true man may attain. It was the dust of a Presbyterian minister which the coffin contained ; and yet they were burying him amid the tears of a nation, and with more than kingly honors." THE B ND.