tibxavy of Che Cheoiocjical gminavy 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 
 From the library of 
 Dr. A. A, Hodge 
 
 BX 9225 .C4 W39 
 Wayland, Francis, 1796-1865 
 A memoir of the Christian 
 labors 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHRISTIAN LABORS, 
 
 pastoral sift ^pantljropix, 
 
 O F 
 
 THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D.LL.D, 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANCIS V WAYLAND 
 
 BOSTON: 
 GOULD AND LINCOLN, 
 
 59 WASHINGTON "STREET. 
 
 NEW YORK: SHELDON AND COMPANY. 
 CINCINNATI : GEORGE S. BLANCIIAKD. 
 
 18 64. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1804, bjf 
 
 F R A TX C I S W A Y L AND, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Rhode Island. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The " Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr. 
 Chalmers, by his Son-in-law, Dr. Hanna," have been 
 for several years in the possession of the Christian 
 public. The work is exceedingly well written, and pre- 
 sents as complete a view of the character and labors 
 of its illustrious subject as could be desired. In order, 
 however, to accomplish his object, Dr. Hanna was 
 obliged to present in detail a large amount of matter, 
 relating particularly to Scotland, and of no special in- 
 terest in this country; so that the work is extended 
 to four volumes. This fact has, we fear, in some 
 measure limited the number of its readers. 
 
 Besides this, I apprehend that Dr. Chalmers gener- 
 ally appears before us as the author of the Astronomi- 
 cal Sermons, of the Evidences of Christianity, of one 
 of the Bridgwater Treatises, and of many works on Po- 
 litical Economy, and probably as one of the most cele- 
 brated pulpit orators of his age. That this view is a true 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 one there is no doubt, but it is not all the truth. There 
 is another phase of his character, which is in danger of 
 fading out of view. He was a devout and self-sacrificing 
 Christian, a most laborious and successful pastor, an 
 humble and indefatigable visitor among the poor and 
 degraded, and his whole life was deliberately conse- 
 crated to the work of sending the gospel, with its life- 
 giving power, to every family of the neglected masses of 
 his countrymen. These traits of his character are, we 
 think, not sufficiently known, or, if known, they do not 
 press themselves upon the public with the power of a 
 most remarkable example. 
 
 Having recently had occasion to recur to the Life of 
 Dr. Chalmers, a passage or two so interested me that I 
 read the whole work for the second time. It seemed to 
 me that if this particular aspect of his character could 
 be presented by itself, with the single object of exhibit- 
 ing the parochial and philanthropic labors of this ex- 
 cellent man, his modes of doing good, and the general 
 principles by which all his efforts were directed, some- 
 thing might be done for the cause of religion and be- 
 nevolence. I immediately undertook the work. At first 
 I intended no more than to prepare a pamphlet, but the 
 subject grew under my hands, and the result has been 
 the following little volume. 
 
PREFA CE. VII 
 
 In the preparation of the work, I observed that a 
 large part of the matter adapted to my purpose was 
 narrative, and much of it statistical j the events were 
 frequently surprising, and the statistics quite unprece- 
 dented. It seemed better, therefore, on all subjects con- 
 cerning which any question might arise, to use the pre- 
 cise language of Dr. Chalmers's biographer, in whom 
 all reliance may be placed. A large part of the work is 
 thus presented in the words of Dr. Hanna. The passa- 
 ges are not commonly designated by quotation marks, 
 it being supposed that this general acknowledgment 
 would be sufficient. 
 
 Some time after the volume was completed, and was 
 in fact already in the hands of the publishers, I received 
 a ropy of the " Life of Chalmers," published by the 
 Massachusetts Sabbath School Society. I read it at 
 once with care. The design of the author I found was 
 quite different from my own. His work is properly an 
 abridged Life of Chalmers, designed for general reading. 
 The present little work is not strictly a Life of Dr. Chal- 
 mers, but, as has been already intimated 3 a memoir of 
 that particular phase of his character which was dis- 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 played in his Parochial and Philanthropic labors, and 
 is designed specially to aid, by his precepts, example, 
 and general principles of action, both ministers and pri- 
 vate Christians, who are, with him, laboring to promote 
 the best interests of man. With designs so different, I 
 hope the books will not appear as rivals, but as co-work- 
 ers in the cause of Christ, and be useful to the persons 
 for whose benefit they are each specially intended. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EAKLY LIFE, UNTIL HIS SETTLEMENT AT KILMANY. 
 
 Birth and Parentage —Youthful Characteristics — Enters College — Signs 
 of Promise — Enrolled as a Divinity Student — Licensed to Preach — 
 Removes to Kilmany — Teaches in Edinburgh — His Ordination... .13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MINISTRY AT KILMANY. 
 
 Lectures on Mathematics and Chemistry at St. Andrews — Small Paro- 
 chial Service — Dislike of Evangelical Doctrines and Books — Litera- 
 ry Labors — Sickness — Serious Impressions — New Views, Purposes 
 and Aims — Clearer Light — The Great Change — Its outward Man- 
 ifestations — Regular Visitation — Instruction of the Young — Marked 
 Results — Dr. Chalmers's own Statement — Incident in the General 
 Assembly 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 DR. CHALMERS AT GLASGOW — HIS ELOQUENCE. 
 
 Becomes Minister of the Tron Church in Glasgow — His Popularity as a 
 Preacher — Its Secret — Illustrations of his Eloquence, from Mr. Lock- 
 hart, Mr. Jeffrey, Mr. Wilberforce, and others — How Dr. Chalmers 
 bore Himself. i5 
 
CONTENTS. 
 f 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PAROCHIAL LABORS IN THE TRON CHURCH. 
 
 Dr. Chalmers's Principles of Action — Modes of Labor — Difficulties — 
 Sunday Schools established — How made Effective — Wonderful Suc- 
 cess 59 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOHNS. 
 
 A New Field of Labor — Reasons for the Change — Unpromising Pros- 
 pects — Sunday Schools — Other Schools — Great Success, and Reasons 
 Therefor — Objections Answered — Means used for Religious Instruc- 
 tion — The Gospel to be carried to the Masses — Dr. Chalmers's Asso- 
 ciate, and his Labors — Routine of Duty — Views and Achievements 
 in Political Economy — Report of the English Poor-Law Commis- 
 sioner, E, C. Tufnell, Esq. — Review of Dr. Chalmers's Labors in Glas- 
 gow — Call to St. Andrews — Reasons for its Acceptance 09 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CHRISTIAN LABORS AT ST. ANDREWS. 
 
 Survey of the Field — The Work begun — The Sabbath School — John 
 Urquhart— Passage from Dr. Chalmers — Development of the Work 
 in St. Andrews — New Interest in Missions — Moral Character of the 
 University — Innovations there — Opposition — The Gospel Triumphs 
 — A wonderful Change 106 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 RESIDENCE AT EDINBURGH — CHURCH EXTENSION. 
 
 Dr. Chalmers Appointed to a Professorship in the University of Edin- 
 burgh—His new Duties — Another great Work — Truths which 
 formed the Basis of his Action — Dr. Chalmers and the High Com- 
 missioner — The General Assembly undertakes a progressive Move- 
 ment — Dr. Chalmers Chairman of its Committee on Church Exten- 
 sion—His first Steps — Persevering Efforts — Striking Results — 
 Retirement from this Service 119 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ORIGIN AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FREE CHURCH. 
 
 The General Assembly of the Established Church — New Life manifests 
 itself — New Labors for Dr. Chalmers — The Auchterarder Case — En- 
 croachments of the Civil Power — The Disruption — Scenes in the As- « 
 sembly — Disheartening Prospects — Dr. Chalmers leads in the Res- 
 cue — Great Achievements and still brighter Hopes — The Free Church 
 a Power in the World — Its Home Labors and Foreign Mission 
 Work 138 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 LABORS AT THE WEST PORT. 
 
 The Life- Aim of Dr. Chalmers — The Work still unaccomplished — Per- 
 sistent Purposes and Sagacious Plans — A New Work Undertaken — 
 Degradation of the chosen Field of Effort — Plan of Operations — 
 Two Points of special Importance— First Meeting in the District — 
 A School proposed and opened — Public Religious Services estab- 
 lished—A New Church at the West Port— Wonderful Results — The 
 Work permanent 157 
 
XII COX TEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTER — DEATH. 
 
 Intellectual Gifts — Sympathy with Nature — Dr. Chalmers a close Ob- 
 server and happy Delineator — His intense Sympathy with Huraanity 
 — Admired by the Learned and Cultivated, as well as the Humble 
 Classes — Personal Appearance — Voice— Contempt for Meanness — 
 Anecdotes — Abstemiousness — Habits of Intellectual Labor — Inward 
 Experiences — Dr. Chalmers and the Revival at Jedburgh — Happy 
 Closing Scenes — Sudden and Peaceful Death — Funeral — Tributes to 
 his Memorv led 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Review and Practical Suggestions 206 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY LIFE, UNTIL HIS SETTLEMENT AT KILMANY. 
 
 ^2f^HE Reverend Thomas Chalmers was born 
 jHb) in Anstruther, in Fife shire, March 17, 
 1780. His parents were members of the 
 established church of Scotland, persons of 
 great worth and of earnest and consistent 
 piety. Their household was preeminently Chris- 
 tian, and their children were brought up in the 
 nurture and admonition of the Lord. 
 
 In the boyhood of Dr. Chalmers, there seems to 
 have been no unusual intellectual development. 
 He easily accomplished his tasks, but he did it 
 only from necessity. At first he did not turn 
 naturally to study, but gave himself rather to 
 youthful sports, in which he greatly excelled. He 
 was more distinguished for buoyant animal spirits, 
 love of adventure, inflexible earnestness of pur- 
 pose, united with great good temper, quickness 
 
 13 
 
14 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 of wit, and the power of influencing his fellows, 
 than for love of books and steadfast intellectual im- 
 provement. In 1791, not yet twelve years of age, he 
 entered the college of St. Andrews. He was poorly 
 prepared, and took but little pains to remedy his 
 deficiencies. He was young, boyish, and idle, 
 caring more for foot-ball, golf, and hand-ball, than 
 for the prelections of his professors. He was en- 
 thusiastic, persevering in everything that he un- 
 dertook, giving his whole mind to it ; and was 
 known and beloved for the strictest integrity and 
 the warmest affections. Thus, though he did not 
 learn much from books, he was in fact cultivating 
 those elements of character, which, when directed, 
 in subsequent life, to other objects, laid the foun- 
 dation of his future eminence. 
 
 In the third session at college, his intellect be- 
 gan to develop itself. He came under the instruc- 
 tion of some eminent teachers, especially of Dr. 
 James Brown, through whose influence he became 
 deeply interested in study. His preference was 
 decidedly for the mathematics. Young Chalmers 
 became excited and absorbed. Pure geometry 
 specially attracted him. With the higher powers 
 of the modern analysis he afterwards became fa- 
 miliarly acquainted ; and he ever afterwards con- 
 sidered this species of study one of the best instru- 
 ments of intellectual training. As he proceeded, 
 he took a deep interest in the various branches of 
 
EARLY LIFE. 15 
 
 political science, and formed those habits of gen- 
 eralization which he displayed in so uncommon a 
 degree whenever he was called on to apply gen- 
 eral principles to any of the interests of humanity. 
 
 In 1795, in the sixteenth year of his age, he was 
 enrolled as a student of divinity. During most of 
 the time, he paid small attention to theology, be- 
 ing wholly absorbed in the study of mathematics. 
 Towards the latter part of his course, however, he 
 read with great care, "Edwards on the Will." He 
 was convinced by the author's reasoning, and, 
 what is worthy of special notice, was led by this 
 work to entertain lofty and overwhelming views of 
 the character of God, which, for a time, filled him 
 with rapture and admiration. It was some time 
 before these elevated views subsided. 
 
 He had, until this time, almost wholly neglected 
 the study of English Composition. Indeed, during 
 his first residence in St. Andrews, his letters are 
 said to have abounded in grammatical blunders. 
 This deficiency he set himself about in earnest to 
 correct. In less than two years his improvement 
 was so great that he had formed that style which 
 distinguished him through life. He became able, 
 with entire facility, even in the midst of inter- 
 ruptions, to pour forth upon paper, his inmost 
 thoughts, adorned with all the beauty of profuse 
 illustration, and burning with the fervor of his in- 
 tense emotion. His progress in this department 
 
16 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 was much accelerated by constant practice in the 
 debating societies of which he became a member. 
 
 Upon leaving the University, he spent a year as 
 a tutor in a private family. At the close of this 
 engagement he applied for a license to the Pres- 
 bytery of St. Andrews. His age did not entitle 
 him to admission ; but, by special favor, as " a lad 
 of pregnant parts," he was licensed as a preacher 
 of the gospel on the 31st of July, 1799, in the 
 nineteenth year of his age. 
 
 The two ensuing winters were spent in Edin- 
 burgh, where he supported himself by teaching 
 mathematics ; devoting the remainder of his time 
 to the pursuit of his favorite studies. He also en- 
 larged his field of knowledge by attending dili- 
 gently the courses in chemistry, and Natural and 
 Intellectual philosophy. At the close of this pe- 
 riod of study he became the assistant minister of 
 Cavers. From this place, after between one and 
 two years, he removed to Kilmany. He was or- 
 dained by the Presbytery of Cupar, as minister of 
 this parish, on the twelfth day of May, 1803, in 
 the twenty-third year of his age. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 MINISTRY AT KIL3IANY. 
 
 T was understood, when Dr. Chalmers was 
 settled at Kilmany, that he should be at lib- 
 erty to spend a portion of his time as a 
 teacher in the University of St. Andrews. 
 He was therefore appointed as assistant to 
 the professor of mathematics in that institution. 
 This situation he held for about two years, until, 
 for some unknown reason, he was dismissed by the 
 professor. Stung by what appeared to be an act 
 of discourtesy and injustice, he determined to open 
 a course of private lectures on mathematics, to 
 which he afterwards added a course on chemistry. 
 Though at first opposed by the officers of the Uni- 
 versity y his lectures were fully attended. The 
 opposition gradually subsided, and was replaced 
 by feelings of kindness and respect. He had thus 
 the opportunity, which he most desired, of proving 
 that his dismissal was owing neither to deficiency 
 in science, nor unworthiness of character. 
 
 These labors at St. Andrews occupied alto- 
 gether the greater part of his time. It was his 
 practice, as long as they continued, to leave Kil- 
 
 2 17 
 
18 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 many on Monday and return on Saturday. Thus 
 five days in the week were devoted to science, 
 and two to the labors of the ministry. He be- 
 lieved that these two days in the week were suffi- 
 cient for the discharge of all his parochial duties. 
 It happened that about this time a question arose 
 in the General Assembly respecting this union of 
 other duties with those of the ministry. It was 
 by many contended that the two obligations were 
 incompatible, and that he who assumed the care 
 of souls had no right to embarrass himself with 
 any other engagement. Into this discussion Dr. 
 Chalmers entered with characteristic zeal. He 
 published a pamphlet on the subject, in which he 
 clearly exhibits his views of the duties of the min- 
 istry. That these views may not be misrepresent- 
 ed we extract from the pamphlet the following 
 sentence : " The author of this pamphlet can as- 
 sert, from what to him is the highest authority, — 
 the authority of his own experience, — that, after 
 the satisfactory discharge of his parish duties, a 
 minister may enjoy five days in the week of uninter- 
 rupted leisure for the prosecution of any science in 
 which his tastes may dispose him to engage." He 
 performed all the duties of his office which at that 
 time were commonly required of a minister. He 
 inculcated principally civil, social, and moral duties, 
 with the hope that thus he might at least witness 
 a reformation in the members of his parish. They 
 
MINISTRY AT KILMANY. 19 
 
 considered him an earnest preacher, frequently 
 too abstract for them to understand, but yet one 
 whose undissembled kindness of heart rendered 
 him unusually acceptable. At the same time he 
 was not unwilling to express his dislike of the 
 peculiar doctrines of the gospel, and specially he 
 believed the doctrines of the atonement and of 
 salvation by Christ, nothing better than the dream 
 of fanaticism. One day, bending over the pulpit, 
 and putting on the books named the strong em- 
 phasis of dislike, he said, " Many books aie favor- 
 ites with you, which, I am sorry to say, are no fa- 
 vorites of mine. When you are reading Newton's 
 Sermons, and Baxter's " Saint's Rest," and Dod- 
 dridge's " Rise and Progress," where do Matthew, 
 Mark, Luke, and John go to ? " As though the 
 readers of these books which he disliked, were 
 not also the most devout students of the Bible ! 
 It is interesting to observe that, soon after uttering 
 these words, he was called upon to attend the death- 
 bed of his brother ; and at the request of the latter, 
 read to him portions of these very works. His 
 brother died in sweet submission to the holy will 
 of God, and with a satisfactory hope of mercy in 
 Christ. 
 
 When his engagements at St. Andrews termi- 
 nated, he soon entered on the labors of authorship. 
 He published a volume entitled " An Inquiry into 
 the Extent and Stability of the National Resour- 
 
20 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 ces." He became a contributor to the Edinburgh 
 Encyclopedia, for which he wrote several valuable 
 articles ; but especially the article on Christianity, 
 which soon brought him into very favorable no- 
 tice. 
 
 In the midst of these Labors he was shocked to 
 hear of the sudden death of one of his uncles ; 
 and shortly after was himself seized with a severe 
 illness, which almost proved fatal. For weeks he 
 was greatly prostrated, though his mind remained 
 unclouded and vigorous. The sudden death of 
 his uncle and his own nearness to the grave had 
 upon him a great and solemn effect. " My con- 
 finement," said he, " 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. Strip human life of its connections with a 
 higher scene of existence, and it is the illusion of 
 an instant, an unmeaning farce, a series of visions 
 and prospects and convulsive efforts, which termi- 
 nate in nothing. I have been reading " Pascal's 
 Thoughts on Religion." You know his history : a 
 man of the richest endowments, and whose youth 
 was signalized by his profound and original spec- 
 ulations in mathematical science, but who could 
 stop short in the career of discovery, who could re- 
 sign all the splendors of literary reputation, who 
 could renounce, without a sigh, all the distinctions 
 
MINISTRY AT KILMANY. 21 
 
 that are conferred upon genius, and resolve to de- 
 vote every talent and every hour to the defence and 
 illustration of the gospel. This is superior to all 
 Greek and all Roman fame." 
 
 Thus the Spirit of God commenced his work 
 by teaching him the utter worthlessness of liter- 
 ary reputation, the idol to which he had thus far 
 yielded his heart-felt adoration. His mind natu- 
 rally turned towards those objects which alone 
 possess real and permanent importance. The im- 
 pression now made never vanished from his 
 thoughts. It grew deeper and deeper, until the 
 full light of the gospel burst upon his soul. 
 
 The deaths which had occurred in his family, 
 and his own protracted and alarming illness, had 
 produced on Dr. Chalmers a decided impression. 
 He saw at once the vanity of the objects which 
 he had been pursuing with so great eagerness, 
 and also the unspeakable importance of a prepa- 
 ration for eternity. He could discover in himself 
 nothing which could enable him to appear with 
 confidence before a holy God. He saw that he 
 had neglected the things unseen and eternal. The 
 clear, unchallengeable right belonged to God, over 
 the full affection of his heart, the unremitting ser- 
 vice of his life ; but no such affection had been 
 entertained, and it had been but seldom that a 
 distinct regard for the will of God had given 
 birth or direction to any movement of his past 
 
22 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 history. He felt that the Creator's claims over 
 him had been particularly disallowed and dis- 
 honored during his whole life. The superficial 
 faith of former years could not satisfy him, could 
 not stand the scrutiny of a sick-room, it could not 
 bear to be confronted with death ; for, surely, if 
 man have a God to serve, and an eternity beyond 
 death to provide for, toward that God a supreme 
 and abiding sense of obligation should be cher- 
 ished, and to the providing for that eternity the 
 efforts of a whole lifetime should be consecrated. 
 Convinced of his error, he resolved upon a change. 
 Remembering that this fleeting pilgrimage was a 
 scene of trial, a place of spiritual probation, he re- 
 solved that he would dedicate himself to the ser- 
 vice of God, and live with the high aim and pur- 
 pose of one who was in training for eternity. 
 Every thought of his heart, every word of his 
 mouth, every action of his life, he would hence- 
 forth strive to regulate under a high, presiding 
 sense of his responsibility to God. With all the 
 ardor of a nature which never could do anything 
 by halves, with all the fervor of an enthusiasm 
 which had at length found an object worthy of 
 its whole energies at their highest pitch of effort, 
 he gave himself to the great work of setting 
 himself right with God. This resolution, how- 
 ever, did not originate in any change in his 
 speculative belief induced by his studies, either 
 
MINISTRY AT KILMANY. 23 
 
 of the contents or the credentials of the Bible. 
 This attempt to keep the whole law of God dis- 
 covered to him the pervading, defiling element of 
 ungodliness, and gave him other notions of human 
 depravity than those which he had previously 
 entertained. With this altered view of human 
 sinfulness, there came also an altered view of the 
 atonement. He was prepared to recognize in the 
 death of Christ a true and proper sacrifice for sin. 
 Still, while looking to that death for the removal 
 of past sins, he believed that it lay wholly with 
 himself, after he had been forgiven, to approve 
 himself to God, to win the divine favor, and to 
 work out the title to an heavenly inheritance. 
 
 From a journal kept during the following year, 
 we cannot but perceive that Dr. Chalmers was 
 most earnestly engaged in an honest effort to keep 
 the whole law of God, and by so doing to recom- 
 mend himself to an offended Judge. Everywhere 
 we perceive his consciousness of the failure of his 
 efforts, and his conviction of the innate sinfulness 
 of man. We cannot but admire the earnestness 
 of his endeavor, his increased understanding of 
 the purity of the law of God, and his faithful deal- 
 ing with his own conscience. He says of himself, 
 referring to this time, " I was, in fact, a practical 
 deist, excepting in a kind of tenderness for some 
 tenets, and a reversionary out-look for final happi- 
 
24 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 At the close of the year, just after the death of 
 one of his sisters, he took up and read with much 
 attention " Wilberforce's Practical View." He 
 was particularly struck with the following pas- 
 sage : " We are loudly called upon," said Mr. W., 
 " to examine well our foundations. If anything 
 be unsound or hollow, the superstructure could 
 not be safe though its exterior were less suspi- 
 cious. Let the question be asked, and let the 
 answer be returned with all the consideration and 
 solemnity which such a question jiistly demands, 
 whether, in the grand concern of all, the means 
 of a sinner's acceptance with God, there be not 
 reason to apprehend that nominal Christians too 
 generally entertain very superficial and confused, 
 if not highly dangerous notions." Again he found 
 his own condition strikingly delineated in the fol- 
 lowing words : " There are, it is to be apprehend- 
 ed, not a few, who having thought little, or 
 scarcely at all, about religion-, have become at 
 length in some degree impressed with a sense of 
 its infinite importance. A fit of sickness, perhaps, 
 the loss of a friend or much-loved relative, or some 
 other stroke of adverse fortune, damps their spir- 
 its to all human things, and turns them to seek 
 for some more stable foundation of happiness than 
 this world can afford. Looking unto themselves 
 ever so little, they become sensible that they 
 must have offended God. They resolve accord- 
 
MINISTRY AT KILMANY. 25 
 
 ingly to set about the work of reformation. 
 Again and again they resolve, again and again 
 they break their resolutions. All their endeavors 
 are foiled, and they become more and more con- 
 vinced of their own moral weakness, and of the 
 strength of their inherent corruption. These men 
 are pursuing the right object, but they mistake 
 the path in which it is to be obtained. The path 
 in which they are now treading is not that which 
 the gospel has provided for conducting them to 
 true holiness ; nor will they find in it any solid 
 peace. The holy Scriptures call upon those who 
 are in the circumstances now stated to lay afresh 
 the whole foundation of their religion. The na- 
 ture of that holiness which the true Christian 
 seeks to possess is no other than the restoration 
 of the image of God to his own soul ; and as to 
 the manner of acquiring it, — disclaiming with in- 
 dignation every idea of attaining it by his own 
 strength, — he rests altogether on the operation 
 of God's Holy Spirit, which is promised to all who 
 cordially obey the gospel. He knows, therefore, 
 that this holiness is not to precede his reconcilia- 
 tion with God and be its cause, but to follow and 
 be its effect ; that, in short, it is by faith in Christ 
 only that he is to be justified in the sight of God." 
 Tiie reading of Wilberforce's View was the 
 means of special benefit to Dr. Chalmers. He 
 was thus taught that we are sinful, helpless and 
 
26 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 undone ; that salvation by our own efforts is im- 
 possible, and that the attempt to work out a right- 
 eousness by ourselves is absurd. He saw that our 
 pardon must come alone from the atonement of 
 Him who loved us and gave himself for us, and 
 that this pardon is offered to all who believe. He 
 was led to see that, believing in Christ, a new 
 spirit is given to us, so that with the whole heart 
 we serve him from love ; that what the law could 
 not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God 
 sending his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, 
 and for sin (as an offering for sin), condemned sin 
 in the flesh, — that the righteousness of the law 
 might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the 
 flesh but after the spirit. The good news thus 
 offered to him he embraced with his whole soul. 
 As a helpless, condemned sinner, renouncing all 
 merit in the sight of God, and justly exposed to 
 the condemnation of the law, he cast himself on 
 Christ alone for pardon,, he yielded up his whole 
 soul to be governed alone by his Holy Spirit ; and 
 clothed in the righteousness of Christ, he felt that 
 he could approach into the presence of immaculate 
 purity, and claim the privilege of the sons of God. 
 For " God so loved the world, that he gave his 
 only begotten Son, that whoso believeth in him 
 should not perish, but have everlasting life." His 
 whole life was henceforth governed by a new prin- 
 ciple. Instead of laboring, by his own efforts, to 
 
MINISTRY AT KILMANY. 27 
 
 frame a righteousness which might recommend him 
 to God, every power of his soul was employed in 
 showing forth the praises of Him who had called 
 him out of darkness into his marvellous light. 
 
 When he reflected on this subject, he saw that 
 while he had striven with his whole heart to keep 
 the law of God, it had still kept ahead of him, 
 with a kind of over-matching superiority to all his 
 efforts. His attempt to scale the heights of per- 
 fection, to quell the remonstrances of a challeng- 
 ing and yet unappeased commandment, was like 
 the laborious ascent of him, who, having so wasted 
 his strength that he can do no more, finds that 
 some precipice remains to be overcome, some 
 mountain brow that scorns his enterprise and 
 threatens to overwhelm him. He repaired to the 
 atonement to supply his deficiencies, and as the 
 ground of his assurance that God would look 
 upon him with a propitious eye ; still an unappeas- 
 able disquietude hung heavy upon his heart, until 
 at last he came to see that the Saviour had al- 
 ready and completely done for him, what with so 
 much strenuousness, and with so little success, he 
 had been striving to do for himself. He accepted 
 with his whole heart the hand thus offered in the 
 gospel ; it was a personal, sincere seeking, and re- 
 ceiving from a personal Saviour, the free remis- 
 sion of all his sins, and power to become a son 
 of God ; and, like the woman in the gospel who 
 
28 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 touched the hem of the Saviour's garment, he felt 
 in himself that he was healed of his plague. In 
 a letter written subsequently, he remarks, " I am 
 most thoroughly of the opinion, and it is an opin- 
 ion founded on experience, that on the system of 
 Do this and live, no peace, and even no true and 
 worthy obedience, can ever be attained. It is Be- 
 lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be 
 saved. When this belief enters the heart, joy 
 and confidence enter along with it. We look to 
 God in a new light, we see him as a reconciled 
 Father. That love to him which terror scares 
 away, reenters the heart, and, with a new prin- 
 ciple and a new power, we become new creatures 
 in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 
 The change in the inmost principle of his soul 
 is manifest from his journal and letters to his fam- 
 ily. From them we select a few extracts : " A re- 
 view of this day brings home to my conviction the 
 futility of resting a man's hope of salvation upon 
 mere obedience ; that there is no confidence but 
 in Christ; that the best security in fact for the per- 
 forming of our duties is that faith that works by 
 love, and which, under the blessing of God, will 
 carry us to a height of moral excellence that a 
 mere principle of duty, checked and disappointed 
 as it must often be in its efforts after unattainable 
 perfection, never could have reached." 
 
 Again: "May I every day feel a growing inter- 
 
MINISTRY AT KILMANY. 29 
 
 est in the covenant of grace, and let me evince in 
 my own conduct that the doctrine of faith is a 
 doctrine according to godliness." 
 
 Again : " Make me to feel a clear union with 
 thee in Christ. May I taste the joys of thy chosen, 
 and rejoice in the contemplation of that everlast- 
 ing crown which is laid up for all who love the 
 Lord Jesus in sincerity and truth. May I be faith- 
 ful in all the duties of my calling, and may the 
 care of the souls of my people engross more of my 
 time and prayers and strenuous exertion. All I 
 ask is for the sake of Him to whom with Thee and 
 the Holy Spirit I give all the praise and all the 
 glory." 
 
 A few extracts from his correspondence with his 
 family exhibit the same tone of mind : " I must 
 say that I never had s so close and satisfactory a 
 view of the gospel salvation as when I have been 
 led to contemplate it in the light of a simple offer 
 on the one side, and a simple acceptance on the 
 other. It is just saying to one and all of us, 
 'There is forgiveness through the blood of my 
 Son ; take it ; ' and whosoever believes the reality 
 of the offer takes it. It is not in any shape the 
 reward of your own services. It is the gift of 
 God, through Christ Jesus our Lord. The Son of 
 man was so lifted up that whosoever believeth in 
 Mm should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
 
 Again : " That sanctification which out of Christ 
 
30 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 none can reach, is only found in close union with 
 him, and if we maintain what may be called the 
 gospel attitude of mind, which is looking unto 
 Jesus, we shall obtain of his spirit, we shall be 
 changed into his image, we shall be strengthened 
 for all duty." 
 
 Again : " The right way is to look to Jesus as 
 lifted up for sin, and we have his authority for 
 saying, that whosoever so looketh shall be saved ; 
 saved from sin in all its malignity, saved not 
 merely from condemnation but its power; re- 
 deemed from its curse, and redeemed from its 
 dominion ; so that, by the operation of this rem- 
 edy alone, we are washed, sanctified, and justified 
 in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by the spirit 
 of our God." 
 
 One more : " If I have any experience which I 
 can speak clearly upon at all, it is that I am never 
 more qualified for keeping the commandments 
 than when in the fellowship of the Saviour and 
 resting upon his righteousness ; than when under 
 the influence of a gospel hope, and looking upon 
 the salvation of Christ as all a matter of grace 
 and freeness." 
 
 From such a change in Dr. Chalmers's views of 
 the salvation of the gospel, and from so solemn a 
 view of the realities of eternity, it is natural to 
 suppose that important practical results would 
 follow. This was visible in many respects.- His 
 
MINISTRY AT KILMANY. 31 
 
 tastes were greatly changed. The study of math- 
 ematics, upon which he had looked as his great 
 field for literary distinction, he relinquished en- 
 tirely. The hooks of which he had publicly spoken 
 with scorn as the objects of his peculiar dislike, 
 now became his chosen companions. He became 
 deeply interested in Henry, Doddridge, Baxter, 
 and authors of the same kind, and they became 
 his select companions. It was, however, in the 
 devout study of the Scriptures that this change 
 especially manifested itself. His nearest neighbor, 
 with whom he was on terms of easy familiarity, 
 before the illness to which we have referred, said 
 once to Dr. Chalmers, " I find you aye busy with 
 one thing and another, but come when I may, I 
 never find you at your studies for the Sabbath." 
 " Oh, an hour or two on the Saturday evening is 
 quite enough for that," was the minister's reply. 
 But now a change had come, and John on enter- 
 ing the manse often found Dr. Chalmers poring 
 eagerly over the pages of the Bible. The differ- 
 ence was too striking to escape notice ; and with 
 the freedom given him he said, " I never come in 
 now, sir, but I find you aye at your Bible." " All 
 too little, John ! all too little ! " was the signifi- 
 cant reply. 
 
 This change in his religious sentiments pro- 
 duced, however, more noticeable results in the 
 discharge of his duties as a minister of the gospel. 
 
32 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 Parochial duties pressed lightly on him during the 
 first years of his settlement at Kilmany. If, as he 
 declared before the General Assembly, he expended 
 as much effort on the religious improvement of 
 his people as any minister within the bounds of 
 the Presbytery, the standards to which he ap- 
 pealed must have been lamentably low. The sick 
 and dying among his parishioners even then he 
 did not neglect. He made kind inquiries, exhib- 
 ited a tender sympathy, and extended needful aid ; 
 but no solicitude was manifested as to their reli- 
 gious condition ; no references occurred, in visit- 
 ing them, to their prospects for eternity ; and it 
 was only when specially requested to do so that 
 he engaged in prayer. Two or three weeks were 
 annually devoted to the visitation of his parish. 
 This, however, was so rapidly conducted that he 
 scarcely did more than hurriedly enter a dwelling, 
 to summon its inmates to a short address given in 
 some neighboring apartment, and confined gener- 
 ally to one or other of the more ordinary morali- 
 ties of domestic life. With the general body of his 
 parishioners he had little intercourse. He spent 
 but little time upon his pulpit preparations. " I 
 have known him," said a friend, " not to begin 
 them until Sabbath morning." His sermons were 
 in general very short ; but they were written with 
 fervor and delivered with much animation. He 
 never used so ardent and significant an elocution 
 
MINISTRY AT KILMANY. S3 
 
 as in his extempore expostulations upon stealing or 
 lying or backbiting. 
 
 Upon the whole, however, until the period of 
 his long illness at Fincraigs, of which we have 
 spoken as one of the occasions of his change 
 of religious views, Dr. Chalmers' ministry was 
 unpopular and ineffective. His church was but 
 poorly attended, and his private ministrations 
 followed only by trifling effects. But with the 
 change, of which we have spoken, there came 
 a total alteration in the discharge of all his paro- 
 chial duties. The spiritual care and cultivation of 
 his parish became the supreme object of his life. 
 To break up the peace of the indifferent and 
 secure, by exposing at once the guilt- of their 
 ungodliness and its fearful issue in a ruined eter- 
 nity ; to spread out an invitation wide as heaven's 
 all-embracing love, to accept of eternal life in 
 Jesus Christ ; to plead with all, that instantly and 
 heartily, with all good-will, and with full and un- 
 reserved submission, they should give themselves 
 up in absolute and entire dedication to the Re- 
 deemer ; 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 forces as to idle 
 spectators, looked like insanity. Most earnest 
 entreaties that every sinner he spoke to should 
 come to Christ just as he was, and bury all his 
 
 3 
 
34 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 fears in the sufficiency of the great atonement, 
 were presented in all possible forms, and delivered 
 in all different kinds of tones and attitudes. "He 
 would bend over the pulpit," said one of his old 
 hearers, " and press us to take the gift as if he 
 held it that moment in his hand, and would not 
 be satisfied until every one of us had got possession 
 of it. And often when the sermon was over and 
 the psalm was sung, and he rose to pronounce the 
 blessing, he would break out afresh with some 
 new entreaty, unwilling to let us go until he had 
 made one more effort to persuade us to accept of 
 it." 
 
 As soon as he returned to Kilmany after his mem- 
 orable sickness at Fincraigs, he first of all visited 
 all the sick and dying and bereaved of his parish. 
 His interest in this,as in every other part of his min- 
 isterial labor, grew with his own advancing light 
 and love. During the years 1813 and 1814, the 
 only two years of full ministerial labor at Kil- 
 many, he made a few short-hand memoranda en- 
 titled, " Records of my Spiritual Intercourse with 
 my People." They are occupied with notes of 
 visits and conversations with the sick, the dying, 
 and the impenitent ; and teach us how deeply his 
 soul was stirred with the solemn responsibility 
 resting upon him, and how controlling was that 
 love of souls which compelled him to preach the 
 gospel to every creature. 
 
MINISTRY AT KILMANY. 35 
 
 He continued his practice of visiting his parish, 
 but, instead of finishing this work in a fortnight, 
 it occupied him the whole year. The visit on 
 these occasions was not merely an agreeable rec- 
 ognition and a pleasant ceremony. It was im- 
 proved by Dr. Chalmers as an occasion for earnest 
 conversation on the subject of personal religion, 
 with the members of the family, and of solemn 
 exhortation to lay hold of the salvation offered in 
 the gospel. " I have a very lively recollection,'' 
 said Mr. R. 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 
 soul." It was in this manner that he carried the 
 gospel to every family in his parish, like the 
 apostle teaching publicly and from house to 
 house, testifying repentance toward God and faith 
 toward our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 But this did not exhaust his efforts. In the 
 autumn of 1813 he opened a class, in his own 
 house, upon the Saturdays, for the religious in- 
 struction of the young. At first it was intended 
 that it should meet monthly ; the numbers, how- 
 ever, who presented themselves for instruction, and 
 the ardor with which they entered upon the tasks 
 imposed, induced him soon to hold the class every 
 
36 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 fortnight, and then every week. At these meet- 
 ings, he strove with great earnestness to impress 
 the truths of religion on the minds of the class. 
 In turn he was highly gratified by witnessing the 
 whole youth of the parish, even from its remoter dis- 
 tricts, 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 relig- 
 ious impression on their hearts. In no department 
 of his ministerial labors did he take a deeper in- 
 terest, and upon none, in proportion to the space 
 which it covered, did he bestow more pains. It 
 only a year and a half that the class con- 
 tinued ; and yet three years after his departure 
 from Kilmany, he could say, " I met with a more 
 satisfactory evidence of good done by a school 
 which I taught at Kilmany, than by all I ever did 
 there beside." A good encouragement this for 
 the efforts of private Christians in this way. 
 
 Nor did these private labors interfere with his 
 diligent preparation for the Sabbath. Instead of 
 two or three hours which he formerly took for the 
 work of preparation, a large part of every week 
 was now devoted to the duty of studying devoutly 
 how he best could bring the truth home to the 
 hearts of his hearers. In a letter to his mother, 
 he writes, " You may tell my father that I have 
 at length come to his opinion, that the peculiar 
 
MINISTRY AT KILMANY. 37 
 
 business of his profession demands all the time, 
 all the talents, and all the energy that any min- 
 ister is possessed of." It was not, however, 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 
 product of that new love and zeal which divine 
 grace had implanted in his soul ; the shape and 
 texture of their eloquence springing from the 
 action of that controlling motive, which concen- 
 trated all his powers upon one single and sublime 
 accomplishment, the salvation of immortal souls. 
 It was not long before the whole aspect of the 
 Sabbath congregations 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 turned 
 into a fixed, intelligent, and devout attention. 
 It was not easy for the dullest to remain unin- 
 formed ; 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 
 entrance into the most sluggish understanding. 
 The church became crowded. The feeling grew 
 with' the numbers who shared in it. The fame of 
 these wonderful discourses spread through the 
 
38 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 neighborhood, till at last there was not an adja- 
 cent parish which did not send its weekly contri- 
 bution to his ministry. Persons from extreme 
 distances in the county found themselves side 
 by side, crowded into the same pew. 
 
 The effect produced upon the audience can best 
 be exhibited by a single incident. 
 
 In the spring of 1812, he preached from the 
 text, " 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 congrega- 
 tion dispersed. " Did you ever feel anything 
 particular in the church to-day ? " said Alexander 
 Pattison to his acquaintance, Robert Edie, as they 
 found themselves alone on the road. " I never," 
 he continued, " felt myself to be a lost sinner 
 until to-day, when I was listening to that sermon." 
 " It is very strange," said his companion ; " it was 
 just so with me." They wandered into a planta- 
 tion, where, hidden from sight, they engaged in 
 mutual prayer. They both soon found peace in 
 believing, and both became earnest and devout 
 disciples of Christ. 
 
 But the most interesting account of the result of 
 Dr. Chalmers' labors during this period is told by 
 himself. Of its truthfulness there can be no doubt, 
 
MINISTRY AT KILMANY. 39 
 
 as it was addressed by himself to those who were 
 themselves the subjects of the experiment to which 
 he refers. It is from an address to the inhabitants 
 of the parish of Kilmany, published in 1815. 
 Though rather long for such a sketch as this, we 
 hope it will obtain, as it certainly merits, a serious 
 perusal. 
 
 " And here I can but record the effect of an actual, 
 though undesigned, experiment which I prosecuted 
 for upwards of twelve years among you. For the 
 greater part of that time I could expatiate on the 
 meanness of dishonesty, on the villany of false- 
 hood, on the despicable evils of calumny; in a 
 word, upon all those deformities of character 
 which awaken the natural indignation of the hu- 
 man heart against the pests and disturbers of 
 human society. Now, could I, upon the strength 
 of these warm expostulations, have got a thief to 
 give up his stealing, and the evil-speaker his cen- 
 soriousness, and the liar his deviations from truth, 
 I should have felt the repose of one who has got- 
 ten his ultimate object. It never occurred to me 
 that all this might have been done, and yet the 
 soul of every hearer have remained in full alien- 
 ation from Grod ; and that even could I have 
 established in the bosom of one who stole, such a 
 principle of abhorrence at the meanness of dishon- 
 esty that he was prevailed upon to steal no more, 
 he might still have retained a heart as completely 
 
40 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 I 
 
 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 des- 
 titute 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 that 
 enmity is dissolved, even by the free offer on the 
 one hand and the believing acceptance on the 
 other of the gospel salvation ; while Christ, through 
 whose blood the sinner, who by nature stands afar 
 off, is brought near to the heavenly Lawgiver whom 
 he has offended, was scarcely ever spoken of, or 
 spoken of in such a way as stripped him of all the 
 importance of his character and offices, — even at 
 this time, I certainly 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 brought about in this way, it was more 
 than I ever got any account of. I am not sen- 
 sible that all the vehemence with which I urged 
 the virtues and the proprieties 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 alienation of the heart, in all its de- 
 sires and affections, from God ; it was not till rec- 
 
MINISTRY AT KILMANY. 41 
 
 onciliation to him became the distinct and pre- 
 eminent object of my ministerial exertions ; it was 
 not till I took the scriptural way of laying 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 ; 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 depend- 
 ence and their prayers ; in one word, it was not 
 till the contemplations of my people were turned 
 to these great and essential elements in the busi- 
 ness of a soul providing for its interests with 
 God and the concerns of its eternity, that I ever 
 heard of these subordinate reforaiations, which 
 aforetime made the earnest and the zealous, but, I 
 am afraid, at the same time, the ultimate object 
 of my earlier ministrations. Ye servants, whose 
 scrupulous fidelity has now attracted the notice, 
 and drawn forth in my hearing a delightful testi- 
 mony from your masters, what mischief ye would 
 have done had your zeal for doctrines and sacra- 
 ments been accompanied by the sloth and remiss- 
 ness, and what, in the prevailing tone of moral 
 relaxation, is accounted the allowable purloin- 
 ing of your earlier days ! But a sense of your 
 heavenly Master's eye has brought another in- 
 fluence to bear upon you ; and while you are thus 
 striving to adorn the doctrine of your God and 
 
42 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 Saviour in all things, you may, poor as you are, 
 reclaim the great ones of the land to the acknowl- 
 edgment of the faith. You have at least taught 
 me, that to preach Christ, is the only effective way 
 of preaching morality in all its branches ; and out 
 of your humble cottages have I gathered a lesson 
 which I pray God I may be enabled to carry with 
 all its simplicity into a wider theatre, and to bring 
 with all the power of its subduing efficacy upon 
 the vices of a more crowded population." 
 
 We will close this account of the ministry of 
 Dr. Chalmers at Kilmany by the relation of an 
 incident, which, though it occurred some twenty 
 years later, is, in its subject, intimately related to 
 the extract above. 
 
 About the year 1825 the subject of pluralities 
 was brought before the General Assembly. Dr. 
 Chalmers, of course, contended that the care of 
 a parish was sufficiently arduous to occupy the 
 whole of a minister's time, and that he should be 
 allowed to combine with it no other calling. The 
 debate was earnest and protracted. At the close 
 of the second day a member on the opposite side 
 read from, as he said, an anonymous pamphlet, a 
 quotation in which the author asserted from what 
 to him was the highest authority, — " the authority 
 of his own experience, — that after the satisfactory 
 discharge of his parish duties, a minister may en- 
 joy five days in the week of uninterrupted leisure 
 
MINISTRY AT KILMANY. 43 
 
 for the prosecution of any science in which his 
 tastes may dispose him to engage." 
 
 In an instant all eyes were turned toward Dr. 
 Chalmers. The interposition of another speech 
 gave him a brief period of recollection. At the 
 close of the debate he spoke a few words amidst 
 breathless silence. The speech was substantially 
 as follows : — 
 
 " Sir : that pamphlet I now declare to have been 
 a production of my own, published twenty years 
 ago. I was indeed much surprised to hear it 
 brought forward and quoted this evening; but 
 since it has been brought forward in the face of 
 this house, I can assure the gentleman that I feel 
 grateful to him from the bottom of my heart for 
 the opportunity which he has now afforded me of 
 making a public recantation of the sentiments it 
 contains. I now confess myself to have been 
 guilty of a heinous crime, and I now stand a re- 
 pentant culprit before the bar of this venerable 
 Assembly. 
 
 "The circumstances attending the publication 
 of my pamphlet were, shortly, as follows : As far 
 back as twenty years ago, I was ambitious enough 
 to aspire to be successor to Professor Playfair, in 
 the mathematical chair of the University of Edin- 
 burgh. During the discussions that then took 
 place, it was stated that no person could be found 
 competent to discharge the duties of the mathcmat- 
 
44 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 ical 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 pro- 
 fession, and, feeling grieved and indignant at 
 what I conceived an undue reflection on . the 
 abilities and education of our clergy, I came for- 
 ward with that pamphlet to rescue them from 
 what I deemed an unmerited reproach, by main- 
 taining that a devoted and exclusive attention to 
 the study of the mathematics was not dissonant to 
 the proper habits of a clergyman. Alas, sir, so I 
 thought in my ignorance and pride ! I have now 
 no reserve in saying that the sentiment was wrong, 
 and in the utterance of it, I penned what was 
 most outrageously wrong. Strangely blinded that 
 I was ! What, sir, is the object of mathematical 
 science ? Magnitude and the proportions of mag- 
 nitude. But then, sir, I had forgotten two mag- 
 nitudes. I thought not of the littleness of time, 
 I recklessly thought not of the greatness of eter- 
 nity." 
 
 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 
 another instance in which the sentiment, the act, 
 the utterance, each rose to the same level of sub- 
 limity, and stood so equally embodied in one 
 impressive spectacle. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 DR. CHALMERS AT GLASGOW — REMARKABLE ELO- 
 QUENCE. 
 
 •ARLY in the year 1815, Dr. Chalmers was 
 chosen minister of the Tron Church in 
 Glasgow, and in July of the same year he 
 was regularly inducted into office. With 
 many and severe regrets he left Kilmany, 
 where he had been pastor twelve years ; the place 
 of his spiritual birth, where his usefulness as a 
 minister of the gospel first developed itself, and 
 where the fruits of his labors were everywhere 
 apparent. The whole parish looked upon him 
 as a personal friend as well as a spiritual in- 
 structor, and he fully reciprocated their affection. 
 To the end of his life Kilmany seems to have been 
 the home of his heart, to which he involuntarily 
 turned when he was wearied with the labor and 
 bustle of ordinary life. 
 
 He entered upon his settlement in Glasgow in 
 his thirty-fifth year, with all his faculties in their 
 highest condition of vigorous maturity. Much had 
 been anticipated for him by his friends, but their 
 anticipations were more than realized. In all his 
 
 45 
 
46 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 public ministrations he displayed a power over the 
 human heart such as they had never seen paral- 
 leled. He felt the importance of his position, and 
 he resolved to occupy it to the uttermost. Glas- 
 gow was, as it were, taken by storm. His church 
 was soon filled to the uttermost. Soon the house 
 would not contain the throngs that pressed to hear 
 him, and hundreds were obliged to go away every 
 Sunday, who could by no means gain admission. 
 Nor did this occur merely in one church, it was 
 so wherever he preached. He spent a week in 
 London about this time, during the May anniver- 
 saries. Wherever it was known that he was to 
 officiate, the street was crowded in the vicinity of 
 the church with thousands anxious to secure a 
 seat. On one occasion he was unable to enter the 
 door himself, and was obliged to get into the pulpit 
 through a window which he scaled with no incon- 
 siderable difficulty. 
 
 In fact God had endowed him, in a wonderful 
 degree, with those elements which above all others 
 lay at the foundation of eloquence. His love for 
 humanity was intense. The woes of his brethren 
 touched him as if they were his own, and the 
 sight of innocence trampled in the dust by 
 lawless and insolent power goaded him almost 
 beyond endurance. He was capable of being 
 thoroughly excited by his own conceptions, and 
 every feeling of his soul found adequate utterance 
 
DR. CHALMERS AT GLASGOW. 47 
 
 in those wonderful tones of voice which carried 
 his burning thoughts, not merely to the ear, but 
 to the inmost soul of those whom he addressed. ' 
 His love of nature amounted to a passion. He 
 enjoyed with the keenest zest every scene on 
 which his eyes rested, whether in sunshine or 
 storm, whether in the vast or the minute, 
 whether lowly or sublime ; and every scene was 
 daguerreotyped on his mind, thus furnishing him 
 with matter for appropriate and exhaustless illus- 
 trations. To this was added vast copiousness 
 of language, which, if seen on the written page, 
 sometimes tended to diffuseness ; yet when uttered 
 by the living voice, and rendered vital by his won- 
 derful modulation, it seemed merely to delay the 
 progress of the thought, until every conception 
 had time to sink with its full weight into the very 
 soul of his auditors. Such gifts as these, bestowed 
 in such abundance, would have placed any man 
 at once in the first rank of orators. But it is to 
 be remembered, that his whole soul was pene- 
 trated with the most solemn and affecting truths 
 of Revelation. He saw in his hearers a company 
 of men, sinners against God, surrendered to the 
 cares and vices of the present world, at enmity 
 with God, and at the present moment under the 
 condemnation of his holy law. The Son of God 
 had become incarnate to jihey-ihelaw which we 
 had broken, and to bear our sins in his own body 
 
48 memoir of dr. chalmers. 
 
 on the tree ; and even now he was offering mercy 
 to sinners for whom he had purchased pardon 
 and peace with an offended God. He came be- 
 fore men as the messenger of that God, as the 
 ambassador of that Saviour. With almost un- 
 controllable emotion, he proclaimed the love of 
 God, and besought men to be reconciled to him. 
 All the powers of the most wonderful eloquence 
 here found an occasion for their fullest exercise. 
 Whether he spoke to the profligates of Westport, 
 the merchants of Glasgow, or the elite of London, 
 he never failed to cany the audience with him in 
 rapt admiration. In the General Assembly, in 
 the sacred desk or on the platform, it was all the 
 same, — thousands thronged to hear him ; and at his 
 voice the whole assembly was swayed, as when the 
 trees of the forest are moved by a rushing, mighty 
 wind. 
 
 I think it will not be uninteresting to recall a few 
 instances of the impression which he produced 
 upon hearers who were perfectly competent to 
 form a correct judgment on this subject. For this 
 purpose, I will transcribe a few of those reminis- 
 cences which seem to me most worthy of notice. 
 
 Dr. Chalmers preached his first sermon in Glas- 
 gow after his call to the Tron Church, and before 
 he had been formally inaugurated as pastor. The 
 public interest was intense. Among the hearers 
 was Mr. Lockhart, afterwards son-in-law to Sir 
 
DR. CHALMERS AT GLASGOW. 49 
 
 Walter Scott, and editor of the Quarterly Review. 
 Prom his description of the preacher, the follow- 
 ing is an extract : — 
 
 " His voice is neither strong nor melodious ; 
 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, distorting almost every word 
 he utters into some barbarous novelty, which, had 
 his hearers leisure to think of such things, might 
 be productive of an effect at once ludicrous and 
 offensive in the highest degree. But of a truth 
 these are things which no listener can attend to 
 while this great preacher stands before him, armed 
 with all the weapons of the most commanding 
 eloquence, and swaying all around him with its 
 imperial rule. At first indeed there is nothing to 
 make one suspect what riches 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 para- 
 graph, 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 con- 
 straint upon him, that affects and distresses you. 
 You are afraid that his breast is weak, and that 
 even the slight effort he makes may be too much 
 for it. But then with what tenfold richness 
 does this dim preliminary curtain make the 
 
50 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 glories of his eloquence shine forth, when the 
 heated spirit at length shakes from it its chill con- 
 fining fetters, and bursts out elate and rejoicing 
 in the full splendor of its disimprisoned wings. 
 I have heard many men deliver sermons far more 
 uniform in elegance, both of conception and of 
 style, but most unquestionably I have never heard, 
 either in England or Scotland, or in any other 
 country, any preacher whose eloquence is capa- 
 ble of producing an effect as strong and irresist- 
 ible as his." 
 
 Dr. Chalmers, in the year 1816, took an active 
 part in the proceedings of the General Assembly. 
 After hearing one of his speeches, Mr. Jeffrey, 
 the first critic of his time, remarked, " I know 
 not what it is, but there is something remarkable 
 about that man ; it reminds me more of what 
 one reads of the effect of the eloquence of Demos- 
 thenes, than anything I ever heard." 
 
 Shortly after he was appointed to preach be- 
 fore the Lord High Commissioner. Long before 
 the hour of service, a multitude larger than any 
 church could contain was gathered in front of the 
 High Church, and when the doors were opened 
 the rush was terrific. It was with the greatest 
 difficulty that the Commissioner, the judges, and 
 ' magistrates reached their allotted seats. During 
 the service, the attention of the audience was so 
 upon the stretch, that when the preacher made a 
 
DR. CHALMERS AT GLASGOW. 51 
 
 pause, at the conclusion of an argument, a sort of 
 sigh, as if for breath, was perceptible through the 
 house. At the end of a particular passage, says 
 one who was present, there ran through the con- 
 gregation a suppressed but perfectly audible mur- 
 mur of applause, — an occurrence hitherto unpre- 
 cedented in the course of the delivery of a sermon, 
 but irresistible in order to relievo our highly 
 excited feelings. 
 
 In the year 1816, the astronomical discourses 
 were delivered at the Thursday lecture, a service 
 sustained by the ministers of the established church 
 in Glasgow. When Dr. Chalmers's turn occurred, 
 it is said the spectacle that presented itself was 
 remarkable. Long before the bell began to toll, a 
 stream of people might have been seen pouring 
 through the passages that led to the Tron Church. 
 Across the street was the old reading-room, where 
 all the Glasgow merchants met. As soon as the ac- 
 customed warning was given, out flowed the occu- 
 pants of the coffee-room ; the pages of the Herald 
 and Courier were for a while forsaken, and, dur- 
 ing two of the busiest hours of the day, the old 
 reading-room wore a strange aspect of desolation. 
 The busiest merchants of the city were wont upon 
 these memorable days to leave their desks, and 
 kind merchants allowed their clerks and appren- 
 tices to follow their example. Out of the very 
 heart of the great tumult of business an hour or 
 
52 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 two stood redeemed for the highest exercises of 
 the Spirit. Nor did the interest of these discour- 
 ses cease with their delivery. They were printed, 
 and in ten weeks 6000 were sold, and within a 
 ycar_20,000 were in circulation. Our wonder 
 is increased By the knowledge of the manner in 
 which some of these sormons were composed. On 
 a journey, after the exhaustion of Sunday's labor, 
 he writes, " I began 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 moment to interruption, 
 that sermon was taken up and carried on to com- 
 pletion. At the manse of Balmerino, having a 
 couple of hours to spare ; at the manse of Kilmany, 
 in the drawing-room, with all the excitement of 
 meeting, after a year's absence, his old friends ; at 
 the manse of Logie, where by accident he found a 
 vacant hour, paragraph after paragraph was penned 
 of a composition, which bears upon it as much 
 of the aspect of high and continuous elaboration, 
 as almost any piece of writing in our language. 
 
 In May, 1817, he visited London, to deliver the 
 annual sermon before the London Missionary So- 
 ciety. Although the service did not commence 
 until eleven o'clock, at seven in the morning the 
 chapel was crowded to excess. The effect on the 
 audience was described as unprecedented. A gen- 
 tleman who was present wrote thus concerning 
 
DR. CHALMERS AT GLASGOW. 53 
 
 it to his friends in Glasgow : " I write under the 
 nervousness of having heard and witnessed the 
 most astonishing display of human talent that 
 perhaps ever commanded sight or hearing. Dr. 
 Chalmers has just finished the discourse before 
 the Missionary Society. All my expectations were 
 overwhelmed in the triumph of it. Nothing from 
 the Tron pulpit ever exceeded it, nor did he ever 
 more arrest and wonder-work his auditors. I had 
 a full view of the whole place. The carrying for- 
 ward of mind was never so visible to me. A con- 
 stant assent of the head from the whole people 
 accompanied all his paragraphs, and the breath- 
 lessness of expectation permitted not the beating 
 of a heart to agitate the stillness." 
 
 He preached for various charities several times 
 during his visit to the metropolis, and everywhere 
 with similar effect. Among his hearers were 
 many of the most distinguished men of London. 
 Mr. Wilberforce thus refers to him in his diary 
 at this time : " All the world wild about Dr. 
 Chalmers. He seems truly pious, simple, and un- 
 assuming. Monday, 25th. Off early with Can- 
 ning, Huskinson, and Lord Binning to the Scotch 
 Church, London-Wall, to hear Dr. Chalmers. Vast 
 crowd ! Robert Smith, Lords Elgin, Harrowby, etc. 
 I was surprised to see how greatly Canning was 
 affected. At times he was quite melted into tears. 
 He is reported to have said, that, although at first 
 
54 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 he felt uneasy in consequence of Dr. Chalmers's 
 manner and accent, yet he had never been so ar- 
 rested by any oratory. ' The tartan,' said he, ' beats 
 ns all. ' " 
 
 The last sermon which he preached was per- 
 haps the most impressive, as he dealt throughout 
 on truths bearing directly on the individual sal- 
 vation of his hearers. Wilberforce writes of it, 
 " Chalmers most awful on the carnal and spirit- 
 ual man." Says a writer in the Morning Chron- 
 icle, " Dr. Chalmers's sermon on the degeneracy of 
 man was one of the finest specimens of eloquence 
 that could possibly be delivered from the pulpit, 
 and displayed the most profound knowledge of 
 the human mind. The progress of vice, its fas- 
 cinating allurements, and its tendency to the eter- 
 nal ruin of its votaries, were depicted in the most 
 glowing colors. The discourse was concluded by 
 an animated and most powerful address to the 
 vicious on the folly and absurdity of their con- 
 duct." 
 
 Nearly twenty years afterwards, he was invited 
 to London to deliver a series of lectures on Church 
 Establishments. He accepted the invitation, and 
 the first lecture was delivered to a select audience 
 in the Hanover Square Rooms, on Wednesday, the 
 25th of April. It was remarked by a leading 
 journal, "From the first word that escaped the 
 lips of the lecturer, till the concluding sentence 
 
DR. CHALMERS AT GLASGOW. 55 
 
 died away amid the acclamations of the audience, 
 the vivid interest was sustained with a deep and 
 unflagging intensity. " At the second lecture the 
 seats reserved for peers and members of Parlia- 
 ment were at an early hour crowded to overflow, 
 and so difficult was it to pack the room aright, 
 that for more than a quarter of an hour after the 
 time fixed for opening, the lecturer could not pro- 
 ceed. The third lecture witnessed a still denser 
 crowd, composed of a still higher grade, and mani- 
 festing a still higher enthusiasm. At the fourth 
 and fifth lectures an American clergyman was pres- 
 ent, who tells us, " The hour at which the lecture 
 was to commence was two o'clock. I thought it 
 necessary to be beforehand in order to procure a 
 seat. When I arrived, 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 centre 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, 
 earls, viscounts, barons, baronets, bishops, and 
 members of Parliament, were to be seen in every 
 direction. After some considerable delay and 
 impatient waiting, the great charmer made his 
 entrance, and was welcomed with clappings and 
 shouts of applause, that grew more and more 
 
5S MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 intense till the noise became almost deafening. 
 The concluding lecture was attended by nine prel- 
 ates of the Church of England. The tide that 
 had been rising and swelling each succeeding day, 
 now burst all bounds. Carried away by the im- 
 passioned utterance of the speaker, long ere the 
 close of some of his finest passages was reached, 
 the voice of the lecturer was drowned in applause, 
 the audience rising from their seats, waving their 
 hats above their heads, and breaking out into 
 tumultuous approbation. Nothing could exceed 
 the enthusiasm that prevailed in London. The 
 great city seemed stirred to its very depths. Trie 
 Doctor sat behind a small table while delivering 
 his lectures, the hall in front being densely crowd- 
 ed with one of the most brilliant audiences that 
 ever assembled in Great Britain. It was sup- 
 posed that at least five hundred of those present 
 were peers and members of the House of Com- 
 mons. The sitting attitude of Dr. Chalmers 
 seemed at first irreconcilable with much energy 
 or effect. Such an anticipation was at once dis- 
 pelled by the enthusiasm of the speaker, responded 
 to if possible by the still more intense enthusi- 
 asm of the audience. Occasionally the effect was 
 even greatly increased by the eloquent man spring- 
 ing unconsciously to his feet, and delivering with 
 overwhelming power the more magnificent pas- 
 sages ; a movement which once at least was imi- 
 
 
DR. CHALMERS AT GLASGOW. 57 
 
 tated by the entire audience, — when the words 
 4 The king cannot, the king dare not,' were ut- 
 tered in accents of prophetic vehemence, that 
 must still ring in the ears of all who heard them, 
 and were responded to by a whirlwind of enthu- 
 siasm which was probably never exceeded in the 
 history of eloquence. Nothing was more strik- 
 ing, however, amidst all this excitement, than the 
 childlike humility of the great man himself. All 
 this flattery seemed to produce no effect what- 
 ever on him ; his mind was entirely absorbed in 
 his great object ; and the same kind, playful, and 
 truly Christian spirit, that so endeared him to us 
 all, was everywhere apparent in his conduct." 
 
 We might give many other incidents illustrative 
 of Dr. Chalmers's remarkable eloquence, but our 
 limits forbid. 
 
 It will naturally be asked, What effect did this 
 unprecedented popularity produce upon the mind 
 of Dr. Chalmers ? In answer to this question we 
 would remark, that his journals everywhere ex- 
 hibit the most earnest strivings of his soul after 
 perfect victory over vanity and the love of human 
 applause. ,A11 who knew him bear witness that 
 he everywhere displayed in a remarkable degree 
 those graces of simplicity, humility, and childlike 
 benevolence which specially become a disciple of 
 Christ. He was evidently more deeply moved 
 at learning that his ministrations had been blessed 
 
58 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 to the conversion of a soul, than by the rapturous 
 applause elicited by the most successful of his 
 public addresses. No man esteemed more truly 
 the vanity of the praise of man. During his Glas- 
 gow ministry, while urging his Sabbath-school 
 agency to increased activity in the home-walk of 
 private benevolence, 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 aspiring after ; the popularity that is won 
 in the bosom of families and at the side of death- 
 beds, — he added, "There is another, and a far- 
 sounding popularity, which is indeed a most worth- 
 less article, felt by all who have it most to be far 
 more oppressive than gratifying; a popularity of 
 stare and pressure and animal heat, and a whole 
 tribe of other annoyances which it brings around 
 the person of its unfortunate victim ; a popular- 
 ity which rifles home of its sweets, and, by elevat- 
 ing man above his fellows, places him in a region 
 of desolation, where the intimacies of human fel- 
 lowship are unfelt, and where he stands a con- 
 spicuous mark for the shafts of malice, 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 
 drivelling generation." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PAROCHIAL LABORS IN THE TRON CHURCH. 
 
 T might, perhaps, be supposed that so abun 
 dant popularity in the pulpit would have 
 satisfied all the desires of a minister, and 
 that his whole efforts would have been di- 
 rected to the work of making it permanent, 
 or, what is better, to rendering it more practically 
 efficacious upon the hearts of his congregation. 
 But it was far otherwise with Dr. Chalmers. In 
 order to understand his views of the duty of a 
 minister, and the effect of these views upon his 
 conduct, it will be necessary to explain briefly 
 the truths by which he was governed. 
 
 Immediately after the change in his religious 
 experiences, of which we have spoken, he enter- 
 tained the most confident belief of the inherent 
 efficacy of the gospel. It had been in his case, 
 as in that of the apostle Paul, the poiver of God 
 unto salvation. He had felt it to be such; 
 and he wished, first of all, to be the means, 
 through the influence of the Spirit of God, of 
 rendering it such to others. He had, after his 
 manner, with earnestness preached to his people 
 
 59 
 
60 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 at Kilrnany, and spent about a fortnight once a 
 year in visiting them. The result was, that but 
 few came to his ministry, and those few were care- 
 less and inattentive. But when he received the 
 gospel with his whole heart, and became a new 
 creature in Christ Jesus, this manner of perform- 
 ing the duty of an ambassador of Christ did not 
 satisfy him. He preached a different gospel. But 
 this was not enough. Instead of spending two 
 weeks. in the year in visiting his people, he now 
 devoted to it a portion of every day. He became 
 deeply convinced that it was not enough to preach 
 the gospel in the pulpit, it must be carried to 
 those who did not come to hear it. He felt con- 
 strained to go into the highways and hedges and 
 compel them to come in. The effect was at once 
 apparent. His church was soon filled, and he 
 saw, what he did not see before, a great change 
 produced in the moral and religious character 
 of his hearers. Souls were converted. The 
 parish began to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit. 
 Nor was this all. He established what now 
 would be called a Bible class, for his young peo- 
 ple, which was so greatly blessed, that in after 
 time he could say that he looked back upon this 
 as one of the most useful of all his labors in 
 Kilmany. 
 
 Deeply impressed with the results of this expe- 
 rience, he came to Glasgow. His opinion was 
 
LABORS IN THE TRON CnURCU. 61 
 
 fixed that the means used at Kilmany would, if 
 faithfully pursued, produce similar effects here. 
 But he alone could not act upon the whole city. 
 He had no such idea. He believed, however, 
 that, confining his labors to his own parish, the 
 same gospel would as truly be the power of God 
 unto salvation in one place as another. He was 
 immovably convinced of the perfect practicability 
 of assimilating the worst conditioned town to the 
 best conditioned country parish. At that time, 
 the Tron Church parish was believed to contain 
 between eleven and twelve thousand souls. To 
 visit every family of such a population was a 
 Jrlerculean task ; yet Dr. Chalmers resolved to 
 accomplish it. He first of all wished to know 
 from personal observation the condition of the 
 people that had been committed to his charge. 
 To hold religious services in every house would 
 have been impossible. At first, therefore, his visits 
 were generally short. He only asked a few ques- 
 tions regarding the state of the family as to edu- 
 cation, church attendance, etc., made a few kind- 
 ly observations, and passed to the next house, 
 leaving it for the elder who attended him to an- 
 nounce the discourse which would be delivered 
 for the benefit of the neighborhood, on a week- 
 day evening, in some school-house, or other con- 
 venient place in the vicinity. The work was hard ; 
 the wynds were often close and filthy ; the stairs 
 
G2 ME MO IE OF BE. CnAEMEES. 
 
 were narrow and steep ; the houses were vile and 
 ill-ventilated ; yet cheerfully and resolutely did 
 he carry it through, cheering ever and anon the 
 flagging spirits of his companion as he went along. 
 Writing to a friend in February, 181G, he says, 
 " I have commenced the stupendous work lately, 
 the visitation of my parish. A very great propor- 
 tion of the people have no seats in any place of 
 worship whatever ; and a very deep and universal 
 ignorance, on the high matters of faith and eter- 
 nity, obtains over the whole extent of a mighty 
 population." While this laborious visitation was 
 going on throughout the week, at the same time 
 the demands of the Tron Church pulpit, and of, 
 the thousands now crowding around it, had to be 
 satisfied every returning Sabbath. 
 
 This . was certainly sufficient to task the ener- 
 gies of any man, however gifted, laborious, and 
 persevering. In addition to all this, Dr. Chalmers 
 was called to endure an annoyance, the extent 
 of which he had hardly anticipated. The Tron 
 Church was one of the oldest in Glasgow ; and 
 its minister was, from his office, a member of the 
 committees which controlled the charitable and 
 many of the municipal expenses of the city. As 
 instances in which his time was thus wasted, he 
 relates, that once he was obliged to sit an hour to 
 hear a deliberation on the question, whether a 
 gutter should be shut or left open. Soon after- 
 
LABORS IN THE TRON CHURCH. G3 
 
 wards some of the gravest of the city ministers 
 and some of the wisest city merchants were sum- 
 moned to the conclave, when the weighty and 
 perplexing question was propounded, whether 
 pork broth or ox-head broth should be served to 
 the inmates of the hospital. Opinions differed ; 
 the debate waxed long and warm, and after some 
 hours of discussion it was resolved that henceforth 
 there should be served sometimes one kind of 
 broth and sometimes the other. But this was 
 not all, nor the worst part of it. He found that 
 when he visited the poor, — and it was known of 
 course that he was one of the distributors of the 
 city charity, — he was received everywhere with 
 bland kindness, always terminating in a petition 
 for charity. This greatly diminished his religious 
 influence. He determined, therefore, to free him- 
 self from the whole of it, and he did so. He then 
 made the people to understand that he only dealt 
 in one article, that of Christian instruction ; and 
 that if they chose to receive him on this footing, 
 he would be glad to visit them occasionally. "I 
 can vouch for it," said he, " that the cordiality 
 of the people was not only enhanced, but very 
 much refined in its principles, after this became 
 the general understanding ; that of ten thousand 
 entries which I have made at different times into 
 the houses of the poor in Glasgow, I cannot rec- 
 ollect half a dozen instances in which I was not 
 received with welcome." 
 
64 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 His visitation of the parish, however, convinced 
 him that if these swarming multitudes were to 
 be reclaimed, who, hidden from the public eye, 
 were living in ignorance and guilt, and dying in 
 darkness, a large band of fellow-laborers must go 
 down with him and enter upon the spiritual cul- 
 tivation of the neglected territory. As yet it ap- 
 peared that but little could be expected from the 
 regular office-bearers of the church. In truth, 
 parochial influence was a mere name, it was not 
 even understood. Some of the elders of the Tron 
 Church were excellent men, but their chief duty 
 was to stand at the plate, receive the free-will 
 offerings of the congregation as they entered, and 
 distribute them to the poor, by a monthly allow- 
 ance. In this respect they too much resembled, 
 if they did not exceed, many of the office-bearers 
 of our churches at the present day in this coun- 
 try. Their spiritual duties and exertions were 
 but small, and mostly confined to afeiv of the sick. 
 The first step in this Christian labor was to ordain 
 as elders some young and less prejudiced men, 
 who might be more efficient coadjutors. On these 
 he relied as his assistants in his visits among the 
 people. 
 
 There was, however, one field of labor on which 
 he could immediately enter. He had observed 
 the lamentable extent of ignorance among the 
 young ; very few of the children among the low- 
 
LABORS IN THE Tit ON CHURCH. 65 
 
 est class of the community being in attendance 
 upon Sabbath-evening schools. Convinced that 
 if more schools were opened in the parish, and 
 means taken to bring out the children, a very 
 large increase of attendance might be secured, 
 he invited a few members of his congregation to 
 form themselves into a society for this purpose. 
 At the first meeting of this society, a member 
 reported that he had opened the first of the pro- 
 jected schools, with an attendance of thirteen 
 children. The schools rapidly multiplied, the 
 attendance in each increased, new teachers vol- 
 unteered, and at the end of two years it was 
 found that upwards of twelve hundred were un- 
 der regular religious instruction. 
 
 The teachers of these schools held monthly 
 meetings, which were always attended by Dr. 
 Chalmers. " Our meetings," says one of the 
 members of the association, "were delightful. 
 I never saw any set of men who were so animated 
 by one spirit, and whose zeal was so steadily sus- 
 tained. The Doctor was the life of the whole. 
 There was no assuming of superiority, no appear- 
 ance of the minister directing everything; every 
 one was free to make remarks or suggestions. 
 Dr. Chalmers was ever the most ready to receive 
 a hint or a suggestion from the youngest or 
 least experienced member; and if any useful 
 hint came from such a one, he was careful to give 
 
 5 
 
66 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 him the full merit of it. calling it indeed gen- 
 erally by bis name." 
 
 This success would have satisfied any ordinary 
 man ; but, in Dr. Chalmers's view, nothing was 
 accomplished while anything else was attainable. 
 In the progress of the work he was led to make 
 another improvement. These teachers all labored 
 in the parish of the Tron Church, but each one 
 gathered scholars from the whole district, or from 
 any other part of Glasgow. Their work, though 
 invaluable, was somewhat undefined. He re- 
 solved to modify it in so far as to apportion a par- 
 ticular district to every teacher. He divided the 
 parish into forty sections, allotting thirty or forty 
 houses to each section. Ho appointed a local 
 teacher to each section, and told each of them 
 that his specific business was, instead of taking 
 children from all parts of the city, and those that 
 had a previous inclination to attend, to go forth 
 within the limits of his own district, and visit 
 every family, telling them that he had a Sabbath 
 school in the neighborhood, and requesting parents 
 to send their children to it. Instead of waiting 
 for them to come to him, his part was to go to 
 them, and induce the parents to send their chil- 
 Idren to the school. The result equalled all his 
 expectations. One of the teachers, Mr. Higgie, 
 had one or two closes (alleys) in his district ; and 
 there was not a single family who did not send 
 
LABORS IN THE TRON CHURCH. G7 
 
 their children to hiui to be instructed. He had 
 a goodly number, of thirty or forty children, in his 
 school. What was true of his district was true 
 of all the other districts in the Tron parish. By 
 attaching a district to every Sabbath school, and 
 making it the business of the teacher to go to 
 the children to get them to attend it, in place of 
 waiting till they came to him, instead of having 
 an attendance of little more than one hundred, 
 he had the satisfaction of preaching to an assem- 
 blage of not less than one thousand and two hun- 
 dred scholars. It did not satisfy Dr. Chalmers 
 that the Tron Church was filled from every part 
 of Glasgow, while in his own parish there were 
 eight or ten thousand who were as ignorant of 
 the gospel as heathen. These were the means 
 which he used to bring to these neglected and 
 degraded immortal souls the gospel of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. And the seed thus sown brought 
 forth fruit, having seed within itself. On I)r. 
 Chalmers's removal to St. Johns Church, two 
 years subsequently, four of the teachers of this 
 association organized themselves into a separate 
 society. They chose as the field of their opera- 
 tions both sides of the Salt-market, with the nu- 
 merous lanes that branch off from it, containing 
 a population of 3624 souls, out of which, when 
 they began their labors, there were only 128 chil- 
 dren attending any Sabbath school. Instead of 
 
68 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 extending their operations at once over the whole 
 of the space, each appropriated a small locality, 
 exerting all his influence to induce others to come 
 and help them. In six months their numbers 
 were complete, the space was covered. Twenty- 
 six schools were opened, thirty-three teachers, in- 
 cluding visitors, were engaged, and instead of 
 128 children, 732 were in attendance. " These 
 schools," says Dr. Hume, " continue to the pres- 
 ent day, and there have flowed from this small 
 local Sabbath-school society eight other societies 
 in different parts of the city and suburbs, all fair- 
 ly traceable to the impulse given in the Tron par- 
 ish, by Dr. Chalmers, to this branch of parochial 
 economy.' , 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOHNS. 
 
 )N the midst of these labors at the Tron Church, 
 the magistrates and counsel of Glasgow had 
 erected a new church, and elected Dr. Chal- 
 mers to be its minister while yet it was in 
 course of completion. The new church was 
 considerably larger than the Tron, involving of 
 course more fatigue to the preacher who should oc- 
 cupy its pulpit. The parish was to contain a popula- 
 tion of 10,000 souls, composed almost entirely of 
 operatives. With a large church and a worse pop- 
 ulation, there seemed but little reason why Dr. 
 Chalmers should prefer St. Johns to the Tron, 
 only that this translation promised to open the 
 , way for the accomplishment of his favorite project. 
 With .the old parishes of Glasgow, the magistrates 
 and council, bound either by law or precedent, 
 could not do as they pleased, nor had any of the 
 ministers or Kirk Sessions a separate and inde- 
 pendent parochial authority. It was, however, 
 understood that the official authorities were pre- 
 pared to go so far along with Dr. Chalmers as to 
 enable him, in his new parish, to try those schemes 
 
TO MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 of reformation which lie was known to have so 
 much at heart, and in which, by the new duties of 
 his position, he had been thus actuated in the Tron 
 Church. Some delay occurred in the completion 
 of the edifice, and it was not until the 31st of 
 March, 1819, that a presentation in his favor to 
 the church and parish of St. Johns, accompanied 
 by his letter of acceptance, was laid on the table 
 of the Presbytery of Glasgow ; and on the 3d of 
 June he was formally admitted to the new bene- 
 fice. 
 
 But the difficulties of the settlement were not 
 yet adjusted. Dr. Chalmers's views were large 
 and comprehensive. He was free to carry on his 
 Sabbath schools and visitations in his new parish, 
 but this was not enough. He found that of the 
 children of the parish, a large proportion were 
 unable to read, the parents, in many cases, living 
 in squalid poverty, relying in a great measure on 
 the aid of the funds of the city, destitute of self- 
 respect, and preferring a life of pauperism to honor- 
 able, independent maintenance. He desired to raise 
 the whole parish to the condition of an intelligent, 
 self-reliant, cleanly population, a population that 
 should take its place with the most respectable in 
 Glasgow ; and this he believed might be done by 
 bringing the gospel home to their hearts, by teach- 
 ing to every family the practical duties which it 
 enjoins, and exhibiting in daily life the meek- 
 
PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOEXS. 71 
 
 ness and love which belong to the disciples of 
 Christ. On these' means he had the most confi- 
 dent reliance ; and he believed them adequate to 
 relieve the distresses and elevate the condition of 
 the most degraded form of humanity. But he 
 wished to be allowed to perform this self-sacrific- 
 ing labor without interference. He could not 
 obtain even this privilege without much anxious 
 discussion. At length what he required was 
 granted, and he entered upon the parish of St. 
 Johns, determined to try the effect of the gospel 
 upon those who had long been considered as 
 beyond all the ordinary means of reformation. 
 "While these negotiations were in progress, he was 
 urged to allow his name to be used as a candidate 
 for the professorship of natural philosophy in the 
 University of Edinburgh, then vacant by the death 
 of Professor Playfair. Into these negotiations it 
 is not necessary for us to enter. It is sufficient 
 for us to remark, that if the arrangements which 
 he thought important for the parish of St. Johns 
 could be made, he would not accept of the pro- 
 fessorship ; if these failed, he would go to Edin- 
 burgh. 
 
 Providentially, the difficulties were removed, so 
 far at least as to allow him to continue his work 
 in Glasgow. He entered upon the charge of St. 
 Johns with all the elastic spirit of one emanci- 
 pated from bondage, and with all the hopeful con- 
 
72 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 Science of one whose faith in the power of moral 
 and spiritual influences, both human and divine, 
 over the very worst of our species, was, perhaps, 
 larger and stronger than that of any other man of 
 his generation. 
 
 One of his first steps was to take a census of 
 his parish. He found that it contained a popula- 
 tion of 10,304 souls. It was far different from a 
 country parish. It had degenerated, and needed 
 to be reclaimed. Of the 2161 families of which 
 it was composed, 846 families had no seat in any 
 place of worship, and even this proportion gave no 
 idea of the extent to which the public worship of 
 God had been relinquished. The number of sit- 
 ters in their own parish church scarcely amounted 
 to a hundredth part of the whole population. St. 
 Johns was not only one of the largest, it was 
 the very poorest parish in the whole city. Weav- 
 ers, laborers, factory-workers, and other opera- 
 tives, made up the bulk of the population. Such 
 was the nature of the people whom Dr. Chal- 
 mers hoped to elevate to the high level of 
 piety, competence, and self-respect, by diffusing 
 among them the benefits of knowledge and the 
 blessings of religion. The points to which he di- 
 rected his attention, were, in general, educational, 
 religious, and economical. 
 
 He had already provided himself with a band 
 of forty-one Sabbath-school teachers, whose num.- 
 
PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOHNS. 73 
 
 ber, however, must be doubled before the whole 
 space could be covered. But experience had 
 taught him that something else was necessary than 
 to impart religious instruction to those who were 
 unable to read. Among the poorer classes, many 
 children were growing up without any, and still 
 more with a very poor and comparatively useless 
 education. Many who had been for some time at 
 school could do no more than blunder through a 
 verse of the Bible, to whom, of course, it was, to all 
 practical purposes, really a sealed book. Much of 
 the evil Dr. Chalmers attributed to the existing 
 means of education. He saw that no beneficial 
 result could be anticipated until proper educa- 
 tional means were provided ; and he at once set 
 himself to make an adequate provision. 
 
 On Monday, the clay after the church of St. 
 Johns was opened, at a meeting of a few members 
 of the congregation organized into an education 
 committee, it was resolved that there should, in 
 the first instance, as soon as possible, be raised by 
 subscription, a sum of money deemed adequate 
 to the erection of one fabric, to include two school- 
 houses and two teachers' houses, which, when 
 completed, should in all time thereafter be exclu- 
 sively occupied for the use and benefit of the par- 
 ish of St. Johns. Dr. Chalmers headed the sub- 
 scription by putting his name down for £100, five 
 other gentlemen subscribing each a like sum ; and 
 
74 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 in the course of a week enough had been pledged 
 to warrant the commencement of the undertaking. 
 Land was purchased, the buildings were erected, 
 and early in July, 1820, were ready for occupa- 
 tion. Dr. Chalmers took the utmost pains to 
 secure for these schools the most competent and 
 efficient teachers. A portion of their salary was 
 paid from the fund already raised, so that the 
 fees for tuition might be within the reach of the 
 poorest who desired to avail themselves of their 
 benefits, and admission was restricted to the pa- 
 rishioners of St. Johns. 
 
 It was soon apparent that for the educational 
 demands of the parish of St. Johns alone these 
 two schools were wholly insufficient. At a meet- 
 ing of the Educational Committee on the 7th 
 August, Dr. Chalmers stated that, though only 
 opened on the 18th of July last, in less than a 
 month the schools were already crowded to ex- 
 cess ; that the number of scholars far exceeded 
 the powers of the teachers to do justice to them, 
 while many applicants for admission had been 
 rejected. He proposed the erection of another 
 fabric in the eastern district of the parish. The 
 proposal was acceded to, the second building was 
 raised, and two additional masters were nominated. 
 Within two years from the commencement of his 
 ministry, four efficient teachers, each endowed 
 with a salary of £25 per annum, were educating 
 
PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOHNS. 75 
 
 419 scholars ; and when he left Glasgow in 1823, 
 other buildings were in process of erection, capa- 
 ble of containing 374 additional pupils ; so that, 
 as the fruit of four years' labor, he was leaving 
 behind him the means for giving, at a very 
 moderate rate, a superior education to no less 
 than 793 children out of a population of 10,000 
 souls. 
 
 In these schools he took the liveliest personal 
 interest. Said one of the teachers, "His visits 
 to my school were almost daily, and of the most 
 friendly description. In all states of the weather 
 and in every frame of mind, he was there, depos- 
 iting himself in his usual chair, his countenance 
 relaxing into its wonted smile as he recognized 
 the children of the working classes. Again and 
 again, looking round upon them, his eye beaming 
 with tenderness, he has exclaimed, 4 1 cannot tell 
 you how my heart warms to these barefooted 
 children.' Sometimes he would enter the school 
 buoyant and congratulatory, introducing the Bish- 
 op of — — or Lord and Lady , developing to 
 
 the visitors this or that feature of his parochial 
 system, and generally concluding with the request, 
 'Now just let us hear one class read a portion 
 before we go.' He never, however, once inter- 
 fered in the management of the classes. In every- 
 thing pertaining to the internal management of 
 the school, I was allowed to take my own method." 
 
76 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 But it formed no part of Dr. Chalmers's plan to 
 do good by rendering education gratuitous. He 
 knew that the best way of benefiting the poor 
 was to cultivate their self-respect, by teaching 
 them to take care of themselves. At the opening 
 of the first of the St. Johns schools, he invited 
 the parishioners to a meeting, in which he ex- 
 plained to them the plan which he intended to 
 pursue. The following extracts will illustrate 
 the course of his remarks. " The first thing I 
 have to say of these schools is, that in no one 
 sense of the term are they charity schools. The 
 education is not given, it is paid for. It is not 
 given to a particular number, as in some schools, 
 where so many poor scholars are admitted gratis, 
 and marked out by this distinction from the rest 
 of their fellows. Each scholar comes upon the 
 same independent footing. There is nothing to 
 elevate one but his superior scholarship, there 
 is nothing to degrade another but that he is left 
 behind in the career of emulation. 
 
 "The next thing is, that although the fees of 
 attendance are moderate, yet we do not want, on 
 that account, the wealthiest families of the parish 
 to lie off from the benefits of this institution. We 
 desire quite the reverse of this. We recommend 
 the higher classes to send their children here, not 
 for a higher fee, but on the common fee that is 
 paid by all. The peculiarity of these schools is, 
 
PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOHNS. 77 
 
 that the education is so cheap that the poor 
 may pay, at the same time it is so good that the 
 rich may receive." 
 
 He then alludes to the objection that may be 
 raised against this kind of schools. The first 
 objection is, that the manners and morals of the 
 rich may be contaminated by such an intercourse 
 as he proposes. In reply to this, he shows that 
 the objection is in fact unfounded, and refers to 
 his own experience to establish his assertion. 
 He proceeds : " So far from wishing the children 
 of the various ranks in this parish not to mingle 
 in these schools, we wish them to mingle in 
 them as extensively as they may. Let vice, and 
 blackguardism, and every communication of evil, 
 be guarded against, with all a parent's vigilance 
 and a parent's alarm ; but disdain not to associate 
 your children, in scholarship, with the humblest 
 offspring of poverty. A far better and blander 
 state of society will at length come out of such 
 an arrangement. The ties of kindliness will be 
 multiplied between the wealthy and the laboring 
 classes of our city, the wide and melancholy gulf 
 of suspicion between them will be filled up, by 
 the attentions of a soft and pleasant fellowship, 
 and the extreme parties will be more mellowed 
 into one as the intercourse of advanced life is 
 thus softened by the touching remembrances of 
 boyhood." 
 
78 ' MEMOIR OF DR. CIIALMERS. 
 
 Again, it was objected that if so general an 
 invitation were thus given, the schools would be 
 filled to excess, and many would be driven away. 
 " Why," says he, " brethren, to tell you the truth, 
 this is just what we want. The louder such com- 
 plaints are made, the better. We want the de- 
 mand for such education as we are endeavoring 
 to furnish, to be as great as possible ; and this 
 will induce our friends to manifest their wonted 
 liberality, until every want is supplied, and this 
 whole parish furnished with means to reach, in 
 this manner, every individual of our district." 
 
 But for what purpose, it is asked, is such an 
 education provided for operatives ? Do you wish 
 to make them rich men and capitalists ? He an- 
 swers, By no means. A few of them may rise to 
 eminence, but these must be the exceptions ; and 
 we therefore set no such inducements before them. 
 What then is your object ? it may be inquired. 
 He answers, Not to turn an operative into a cap- 
 italist, but 'to transform an ignorant laborer into 
 an intelligent one ; to stamp upon him the worth 
 and respectability of which I contend he is fully 
 susceptible ; though he rise not an inch above 
 the sphere of life in which he now moves, to 
 transform him into a reflective and accomplished 
 individual. I trust the time is coming when 
 humble life will be dignified both by leisure and 
 literature ; when the work of the day will be sue- 
 
PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOHNS. 79 
 
 ceeclcd by the reading and the conversation of 
 the evening ; when many a lettered sago, as well 
 as many an enlightened Christian, will be met with 
 even in the very lowest walks of society ; when 
 the elements of science, and philanthropy, and 
 high scholarship, will so ripen throughout the 
 general mind of the country, as to exalt it pro- 
 digiously above the level of its present character 
 and acquirements. Our object is to refine alike 
 and dignify every condition of earthliness. The 
 object of diffusing a more copious and rich sup- 
 ply of education among the operative classes is 
 not to furnish them with the means of abandon- 
 ing their status, but to give them facilities for 
 morally and intellectually exalting it. It is not 
 to raise them on the artificial scale of life, but 
 on that far nobler one which has respect to the 
 virtues of mind and the prospects of immortality. 
 It is to confer a truer dignity upon each of them 
 than if the crown of an earthly potentate were 
 bestowed upon him. It is to pour the stores of 
 knowledge into his understanding, and more 
 especially of that sacred knowledge, by the pos- 
 session of which he becomes rich in faith, and heir 
 of that kingdom which God hath prepared for 
 them that love him. 
 
 Such were the arrangements which Dr. Chal- 
 mers originated and carried forward for the edu- 
 cation of the parish of St. Johns. "We will next 
 
80 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 consider the means which he adopted for religious 
 instruction. 
 
 The entire parish was divided into twenty-five 
 districts, called proportions, each embracing from 
 sixty to one hundred families. Reviving the 
 ancient order of deacons, which, in the Scottish 
 Presbyterian practice, had long fallen into dis- 
 use, Dr. Chalmers appointed over each of these 
 districts an elder and a deacon ; the spiritual in- 
 terests of his proportion being committed to the 
 elder, and its temporal interests to the deacon. 
 In each district one or more Sabbath schools were 
 established, male and female teachers to the num- 
 ber of between forty and fifty being engaged in 
 this work, while a few classes were opened for the 
 adult population. There were the ordinary meet- 
 ings of the Kirk session, the monthly meetings 
 of the deacons and of the Sabbath-school teachers, 
 monthly meetings in the church for missionary 
 purposes, and frequent meetings of the Educa- 
 tional Association, all of which Dr. Chalmers 
 regularly and punctually attended. He was him- 
 self the soul and spirit of almost every move- 
 ment, but there was no desire on his part to 
 dictate and no assumption of superiority. " Our 
 meetings," says one of his elders, looking back 
 over thirty years, " were very delightful. I never 
 saw any set of men who were so animated by one 
 spirit, and whose zeal was so uniformly sustained. 
 
PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOIIXS. 81 
 
 The Doctor was the very life of the whole, and 
 every one felt himself led on by him, committed 
 to use his whole strength in the cause of that good 
 God who had in his mercy sent us such a leader." 
 He was continually receiving reports from every 
 quarter, and answering by notes tending to quick- 
 en and animate the soul of every laborer. But 
 this was not enough. Every Monday morning 
 at his house there was an agency breakfast, to 
 which a general invitation was issued, at which 
 from six to eight of his elders, deacons, or Sab- 
 bath-school teachers were present. He gave also 
 special invitations to tea ; so that most of his 
 agents visited at his house once in six weeks. 
 
 Nor did he send forth these agents without in- 
 structing them specially in the nature of their 
 work. At the first setting apart of the elders in 
 St. Johns, he addressed them at considerable 
 length, in a most admirable charge. We cannot 
 insert the whole of it, but its substance was much 
 as follows : — 
 
 He begins by referring to the importance of 
 their position, and expresses his confident belief, 
 that " there ivill never be a general revival of 
 religion until Christians at home go forth among 
 the heathen families around them, with the same 
 enthusiasm that they expect from missionaries who 
 go abroad." 
 
 He tells them that they have one encouragement 
 
82 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 to be derived from the character of the people. 
 They will everywhere be received with kindness 
 and courtesy. They must not, however, be de- 
 ceived by the conventional welcome which will 
 greet them. This, it is true, will open the door 
 for spiritual effort, but they must not be disheart- 
 ened if they find, underneath this kindness of 
 exterior, a cleep-seated and obstinate opposition to 
 the truths of the gospel. They must not take it 
 for granted that nothing can be done for the souls 
 of adults, and that all their labor must be be- 
 stowed upon children. It was not so in apostolical 
 times. Then the word of God was powerful to 
 the pulling down of strongholds. They must take 
 for their motto the saying of the missionary Elliot, 
 who wrote on the last page of his translation of 
 the Bible into an Indian language, " Prayers and 
 pains, with the blessing of God, will accomplish 
 anything." And lastly he guards them against 
 the impression that they may fully confide in the 
 perfection of their arrangements and the wisdom 
 of their plans, expecting from them a sure and 
 immediate effect. " We may as well," said he, 
 " think that a system of aqueducts will irrigate 
 and fertilize a country without rain, as that any 
 I human economy will Christianize a parish with- 
 • out the living waters of the Spirit, without the 
 dew of heaven descending upon the human admin- 
 istrators, and following them in their various 
 
PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOHNS. 83 
 
 movements through the houses and families un- 
 der their superintendence. Still, it is right to 
 have such arrangements as we have established, 
 as it is right to have aqueducts ; but the supply 
 of the essential, influence cometh from above. 
 God will put to shame the proud confidence of 
 man in his own wisdom, and He will have all the 
 glory of all the spiritual good that is done in the 
 world, and your piety will, therefore, work a ten- 
 fold mightier effect than your talents in the work 
 that you have undertaken." 
 
 But it must not be supposed that Dr. Chalmers 
 satisfied himself with simply setting his people at 
 work. Soon after his settlement at St. Johns he 
 obtained the services of Rev. Edward Irving, after- 
 ward so celebrated, as his assistant. There were 
 three services at St. Johns on the Sabbath, and 
 one at a school-house in another part of the parish. 
 These services they shared equally between them ; 
 it being understood, however, that the evening 
 service at St. Johns was specially intended for the 
 residents of the parish. The labors of household 
 visitation were also shared between Dr. Chalmers 
 and his assistant. Dr. C. completed his round of 
 visitation among the families of the parish in two 
 years. His manner of visiting was the same as 
 before. After a short visit to the family, his com- 
 panion invited them all to attend preaching in some 
 school-house or private house or other convenient 
 
84 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 room in the vicinity. Much greater pains, how- 
 ever, were now taken, by himself and his paro- 
 chial agents, to secure a large attendance at the 
 evening addresses, by which these forenoon visita- 
 tions were followed up. The success justified the 
 effort. Multitudes who otherwise would never 
 have had the offer of divine mercy addressed to 
 them, were brought within the sound of the preach- 
 er's voice. These local, week-day, undress congre- 
 gations, assembled in a cotton mill or the workshop 
 of a mechanic, or the kitchen of some kind and 
 accommodating neighbor, with their picturesque 
 exhibition of greasy jackets and unwashed coun- 
 tenances and hands all soiled and fresh from labor, 
 turning up the pages of unused Bibles, had a 
 special charm for Dr. Chalmers, and, all alive to 
 the peculiar interest and urgency of such oppor- 
 tunities, he stirred up every gift that was in him, 
 while he urged upon the consciences of his hear- 
 ers the high claims of the Christian salvation. 
 Many ministers, if they were willing at all to ad- 
 dress such audiences, would satisfy themselves with 
 giving them an unpremeditated exhortation, which 
 they too properly would speak of as merely a talk. 
 Dr. Chalmers did not so look upon the matter. 
 He knew that these were immortal souls for whom 
 Christ died. His chosen and beloved friend, Mr. 
 Collins, who often accompanied him to these even- 
 ing meetings, gave his reiterated and emphatic 
 
v PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOHNS. 85 
 
 testimony, that no bursts of that oratory which 
 rolled over admiring thousands in the Tron 
 Church or St. Johns, ever equalled, in all the 
 highest qualities of eloquence, many of these 
 premeditated but unwritten addresses, in which, 
 free from all restraint, and intent upon the one 
 object of winning souls to the Saviour, that heart, 
 which glowed with such' intense desires for the 
 present and eternal welfare of the working classes, 
 unbosomed in the midst of them all the fulness 
 of its Christian sympathies. 
 
 In the year 1820 Mrs. Chalmers and some of 
 the family were with his mother at Anstruther. 
 His residence being at some distance from St. 
 Johns, he took rooms within the bounds of the 
 parish, which he occupied during the day, in 
 order that he might more conveniently see and 
 visit his people. " I see and feel," said he, " the 
 mighty charm of being much among the people 
 in the capacity of next-door neighbor." 
 
 From these lodgings he writes to his wife the 
 following account of his labors : — " As it is, I 
 spend four days a week visiting the people, in 
 company with the agents of the various districts 
 over which I expatiate. I last week overtook 
 between 700 and 800 people, and had great pleas- 
 ure in the movement. This I am usually done 
 with in the forenoon, and then dine generally in 
 the vestry, or at a friend's house. In addition to 
 
80 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 this, I have had an agency tea every night except- 
 ing yesternight, and in a few evenings more I 
 expect to overtake the whole agency of the parish. 
 At nine, I go out to family worship in some house 
 belonging to the district of my present residence, 
 where I assemble the people of the land or close 
 vicinity, and expect, ere I quit my present quar- 
 ters, in this way to overtake the whole of this 
 district. I furthermore have an address every 
 Friday night to the people of my vicinity, in the 
 Colton Lancasterian school-room, and a weekly ad- 
 dress will be necessary for each of the four weeks 
 in St. Johns Church to the people whom I have 
 gone over in regular visitation. Add to all this 
 the missionary monthly meeting, held yesternight, 
 and you will find that, without one particle of 
 study, I am in full occupation. I study only on 
 Fridays and Saturdays, and am happy to say that 
 the stock prepared by me in Kirkaldy is serving 
 me out abundantly in my pulpit ministrations." 
 The reference to the stock of sermons prepared at 
 Kirkaldy is, I presume, to sermons written at that 
 place. Dr. Chalmers was in the habit of seizing 
 some hours of every day, in his visits from home, 
 in writing sermons or articles for the press. 
 
 It was in this manner that he labored to preach 
 the gospel in the parish of St. Johns. It did not 
 satisfy him that thousands attended his church on 
 the Sabbath day, listening in rapt admiration to 
 
PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOHNS. 87 
 
 eloquence such as nowhere else was heard in 
 Christendom. These were but a small portion of 
 the parish of St. Johns. By far the greater part 
 were ignorant of the gospel, and had never heard 
 of the way of salvation. He turned to these 
 with his whole heart, he entered all their dwell- 
 ings, he gathered them in school-houses, factories, 
 kitchens, wherever he could find an audience 
 room, he engaged Christians to aid him in his 
 work, many of whom were his own children in the 
 faith, and he was not satisfied until the darkest 
 places in St. Johns parish were illuminated with 
 the knowledge of salvation. 
 
 But before we close our account of his labors in 
 Glasgow, it will be proper to recur to the means 
 which he employed, or rather originated, for the 
 economical improvement of his parish. 
 
 In order to aid us in understanding this subject, 
 it will be necessary, in a few words, to explain the 
 municipal arrangements of Glasgow for the aid of 
 the poor. These are so unlike anything we have 
 in this country, that very possibly I may commit 
 errors in endeavoring to explain to others what I 
 do not sufficiently well comprehend myself. 
 
 So far as I understand, the city of Glasgow is 
 divided into parishes, as our cities are divided 
 into wards. Over these parishes the magistrates 
 of the city, in many respects, hold jurisdiction. 
 I think they have a voice in the choice of a minis- 
 
88 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 ter. Collections for the poor are made at the 
 church door twice every Sabbath day. These 
 collections are paid over to the magistrates from 
 every parish, and are united with the annual 
 income accruing from legacies made in former 
 times by benevolent individuals for this purpose, 
 and with the assessment of poor-rates made upon 
 every individual. These sums are then divided 
 by the authorities among the several parishes, 
 and distributed by the officials of the government 
 to the poor who may have contrived to cause their 
 names to be inserted on the poor-roll. There 
 seems to be nothing left to the parish but to con- 
 tribute the money. But little personal examina- 
 tion was ever made by the officials who distrib- 
 uted it. There was no intercourse of any kind 
 between the giver and the receiver. It was, for 
 the most part, simply assessment on the one hand 
 on one party, and official distribution to the other. 
 In this way no kindly feelings would be enkindled 
 between the parties. What was received by the 
 pauper was considered as his right ; and it tended 
 directly to foster indolence and vice, and to wither 
 every sentiment of self-respect. In this manner 
 the cost of the poor in the parish of St. Johns 
 alone amounted to the immense sum of £1,400 
 annually ; and while it was doing nothing to di- 
 minish, it rather increased pauperism. 
 
 Dr. Chalmers was deeply impressed both with 
 
PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOIINS. 89 
 
 the economical and moral evils of this system, 
 and with the help of God he hoped to remove it. 
 His plan was, to have the parish of St. Johns set 
 off by itself; to have all the Sabbath collections 
 committed to the officers of the church ; to relin- 
 quish all claim on the fund raised by assessment, 
 and then to support all the poor of the parish 
 merely by its own benefactions. The magistrates 
 consented to the trial of the experiment, with 
 the almost universal belief that it was vain and 
 chimerical. All these changes could not of 
 course be made at once. This was, however, 
 the point at which he aimed, and what in fact 
 he ultimately accomplished. 
 
 The annual amount received from church col- 
 lections was £400 in the morning and afternoon 
 services, and <£80 in those of the evening. With 
 this sum Dr. Chalmers undertook to meet the 
 demands of the pauperism of the parish, which 
 had previously required XI, 400. 
 
 The distribution of this charity was committed 
 to the deacons of the church. The first care of 
 Dr. Chalmers was, to instruct them particularly 
 in the manner of discharging their office. The 
 directions which he gave them were minute and 
 precise. He says to them, " Whenever any one 
 applies through the deacon for admittance upon 
 our funds, the first thing to be inquired into is, 
 if there be any kind of work that he can do, so 
 
90 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 as to keep him altogether off, or as to make a 
 partial allowance serve for his necessities ; the 
 second, what his 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. If, after these 
 previous inquiries, it be found that further relief 
 is necessary, then there must be a strict ascer- 
 tainment of his term of residence in Glasgow, and 
 whether he rests on the funds of the Town Hos- 
 pital, or is obtaining relief from any other parish. 
 If, upon all these points being ascertained, the 
 deacon thinks him to be an object for our assist- 
 ance, he will inquire whether a small, temporary 
 aid will meet the occasion, and state this at the 
 first ordinary meeting of the deacons. But if, 
 instead of this, he considers him a fit subject for 
 a regular allowance, he will receive the assistance 
 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 before them, and received 
 upon the fund at such a rate of allowance as, upon 
 all the circumstances of the case, the meeting of 
 the deacons shall think proper. Of course, pend- 
 ing this examination, the deacon is empowered 
 to grant the same sort of discretionary aid as is 
 customary in other parishes." To another he 
 writes, " Be kind and courteous to the people, 
 
PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOHNS. 91 
 
 while firm in your investigations about tlicm ; 
 and just in proportion to the care with which you 
 investigate, will be the rarity of the applications 
 that are made to you." It was thus soon per- 
 ceived that the very last thing which a deacon 
 would allow was, that any family should be charge- 
 able on the parish funds. " If drunkenness be a 
 habit with the applicant," says he, " this in itself 
 is an evidence of means, and the firmest dis- 
 couragement should be put upon every application 
 of this kind." The drunken were told to give up 
 their drunkenness, and that until they did so 
 their case would not even be considered. The 
 idle were told to set instantly to work, and if they 
 complained that work could not be gotten, by 
 kindly application to employers they were helped 
 to obtain it. The improvident were warned that, 
 if, with such sources of income as they had, or 
 might have, they chose to squander and bring 
 themselves to want, they must just bear the mis- 
 ery of their own procuring. 
 
 Furnished with such instructions, and stimu- 
 lated by the letters and conversations of Dr. Chal- 
 mers, the deacons of St. Johns commenced their 
 interesting work. This was at first both deli- 
 cate and difficult. The people had been led to 
 suppose that Dr. Chalmers had invented a plan 
 by which aid was to be more freely and liberally 
 bestowed. This misconception was soon rectified. 
 
92 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 Nor was it difficult to carry the mind and feeling of 
 the community in favor of the methods proposed. 
 To acquire a proper knowledge of the character, 
 habits, and means of every applicant, required a 
 considerable expenditure of time, and the exer- 
 cise of no ordinary patience, firmness, and care- 
 ful discrimination. It was, however, some com- 
 pensation to know that the work, once done, did 
 not need to be done again ; and that the more 
 thoroughly it was done, the smaller would be 
 the number of the applicants. 
 
 Deceptions in great numbers had been practised 
 under the former methods of relief, but these faded 
 away under searching investigation. Some of the 
 cases were such as these : One woman who had 
 been receiving aid, who had four children and 
 one in arms, and whose husband was said to be 
 in the infirmary, was found to live a mile out 
 of the parish, and her husband was an indus- 
 trious weaver. She was a drunkard. Another 
 woman, in tears, applied for aid to bury a grown- 
 up daughter, who had died that day. Upon con- 
 sulting with another deacon, it was suggested 
 that she might be the same whom he had assisted 
 to bury her husband, who had died some six 
 months before. Upon finding the family, the 
 buried husband and dead daughter were found 
 performing all the usual functions of life. Again, 
 another man was found in the receipt of a weekly 
 
PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOHNS. 93 
 
 allowance, who had eight workmen under him. 
 By personal examination, such cases were dis- 
 covered ; and, so far as possible, the number of 
 persons receiving aid was limited to those only 
 who really needed assistance. 
 
 But this was not all. Those who were really 
 needy were, by kind words and friendly sugges- 
 tions, encouraged by all means to endeavor to 
 support themselves, and thus avoid the humilia- 
 tion of receiving public charity. Such efforts were 
 in many cases successful. Where aid was really 
 needed, Dr. Chalmers found a new source of relief 
 by awakening the sympathy of neighbors, and en- 
 couraging them to assist each other. It is remark- 
 able to observe how large a fountain of charity was 
 thus opened, and its streams soon gladdened the 
 poorest parts of the parish. Not only was aid for 
 the suffering thus readily and promptly extended, 
 but the poor at once rose from the class of receivers 
 into that of benefactors, and were thus taught the 
 luxury of doing good. And that the needy were 
 not in St. Johns parish worse provided for than 
 those in other parishes, was evident from the fact, 
 that nearly twice as many persons came into the 
 parish as left it. 
 
 At first, this work was laborious and time-con- 
 suming. After the deceptive cases had been sift- 
 ed out, and each of the deacons became acquaint- 
 ed with his district, and both they and' the appli- 
 
9-4 MEMOIR OF DR. CUALZIERS. 
 
 cants well understood the principles on which aid 
 would be afforded, the labor was easy. At the 
 last it appeared that the time occupied by the 
 deacons in the performance of their duty did not 
 average more than three or four hours a month. 
 In fact, the St. Johns deaconry, mingling as it 
 did familiarly with all the families, and proving 
 itself by word and deed the true but enlightened 
 friend of all, did far more to prevent pauperism 
 than to provide for it. 
 
 The results of this noble experiment may be 
 easily stated. After the first year, the church 
 of ( St. Johns assumed the whole cost of pauper- 
 ism in the parish, and this cost was met by the 
 Sabbath-day contributions at the door of the 
 church. It was all accomplished by an expend- 
 iture of £280 per ) r ear, without any cost to the 
 city, while previously it had required the sum 
 of £1,400. Nor was this all. The collections in 
 about four years had exceeded the expenditure by 
 £900 ; and of this excess, £500 were appropriated 
 to the endowment of one of the parochial schools, 
 to which we have previously alluded. Had this 
 plan been faithfully carried out in the other par- 
 ishes of Glasgow, and thus the whole city been 
 subject to the same management, the annual cost 
 of pauperism there would have been reduced from 
 the sum of £120,000 to that of £12,000 per year, 
 and an unspeakable blessing would have resulted 
 
PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. J0IIA T S. 95 
 
 to the social, moral, and religious interests of the 
 city. 
 
 It wns by many supposed that all this was 
 effected by the personal influence of a single in- 
 dividual, and that at his removal the experiment, 
 so successful in the hands of Dr. Chalmers, would 
 soon prove a failure. 
 
 In speaking on the subject before the General 
 Assembly, in 1822, Dr. Chalmers eloquently said, 
 " Do with the first adventurer as you will ; order 
 him back again to the place from which he had 
 departed ; compel his bark out of its secure and 
 quiet landing-place, or let it be scuttled, if you so 
 choose, and sunk to the bottom ; still, not to mag- 
 nify our doings, but to illustrate them, we must 
 remind you that the discovery survives the loss 
 of the discovery ship; for, if discovery it must 
 be called, the discovery has been made; a safe 
 and easy navigation has been found from the 
 charity of the law to the charity of kindness; 
 and therefore, be it now reviled, or be it now 
 disregarded as it may, we have no doubt on our 
 spirits, whether we look to the depraving pauper- 
 ism or to the burdened agriculture of our land, 
 that the days are coming when men, looking for 
 a way of escape from these sore evils, will be glad 
 to own our enterprise, and be fain to follow it." 
 
 But it was not left to theory or prediction to 
 settle this question. The Rev. Dr. Macfarlane 
 
96 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 succeeded Dr. Chalmers in the incumbency of 
 St. Johns, and he has left the following testi- 
 mony on this subject : " The experience of six- 
 teen months, during which I was minister of St. 
 Johns, confirmed the favorable opinion which I 
 previously entertained of the system. It worked 
 ivell in all respects. Yv r ith an income from 
 collections of not much exceeding £300, we 
 kept down the pauperism of a parish containing 
 a population of 10,000, and I know, from actual 
 observation, that the poor were in better condition, 
 and, except the worthless and profligate who ap- 
 plied and were refused assistance, were more con- 
 tented and happy than the poor in the other par- 
 ishes of Glasgow. I was also agreeably disap- 
 pointed at finding that Dr. Chalmers was not the 
 only person having sufficient influence to obtain 
 the aid of the respectable members of the congre- 
 gation in administering the affairs of the poor; 
 I bad not the smallest difficulty in procuring a 
 sufficient number of deacons for this purpose." 
 
 Ten years afterwards Dr. Chalmers informed 
 the committee of the House of Commons that the 
 whole cost of St. Johns' pauperism had for the 
 preceding year been <£384, or, deducting the ex- 
 pense for deserted children and lunatics, which 
 owing to peculiar circumstances, had come to 
 press heavily upon the parish, it was £232. 
 
 At the end of 1833, an English poor-law (5om- 
 
PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOHNS. 97 
 
 missioner, E. C. Tufnell, Esq., visited Glasgow, and 
 after careful inquiry as to the state of matters at 
 St. Johns, drew up a report, of which the follow- 
 ing is an extract: — 
 
 " This system has been attended with the most 
 triumphant success; it is now in perfect opera- 
 tion, and not a doubt is expressed by its managers 
 of its continuing to remain so. Its chief virtue 
 seems to consist in the closer investigation which 
 each new case of pauperism receives, by which 
 meafs the parish is prevented from being imposed 
 upon, and as it is well known by the poor that this 
 severe scrutiny is never omitted, attempts at impo- 
 sition are less frequently practised 
 
 This personal attention of the rich to the poor 
 seems to be one of the most efficient means of pre- 
 venting pauperism. It is a subject of perpetual 
 complaint that the poor do not receive the char- 
 ities of the rich with gratitude. The reason seems 
 to be, that the donation of a few shillings from a 
 rich man is no subtraction from the giver's com- 
 forts, and no proof of his interest in the poor man's 
 welfare. If the rich give their time to the poor, 
 they part with that which is known to be valuable 
 to the giver, and the poor esteem the attention the 
 more, as it implies an interest in their prosperity, 
 and they become more unwilling to press upon the 
 kindness of those who sympathize with them in 
 their distress and do their utmost to relieve it. 
 
 7 
 
/ 
 
 98 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 This feeling acts as a spur on the emotions of the 
 poor ; their efforts to depend on their own resources 
 are greater, and consequently the chance of their 
 becoming dependent on the bounty of others less." 
 Such were the labors which, in addition to the 
 supply of the pulpit at St. Johns, occupied the 
 attention of Dr. Chalmers. It will naturally be 
 supposed that his unbounded popularity, his ex- 
 tensive acquirements, his genial manners, and his 
 great conversational powers, would give him a 
 welcome introduction to circles of the highe^ re- 
 finement in Glasgow. Such was the fact. There 
 was hardly a drawing-room in Scotland that 
 would not have been honored by his presence. 
 But all the pleasure which this might have af- 
 forded him he cheerfully relinquished, and spejit 
 the time which general society would have con- 
 sumed, upon the lanes and closes of the poor and 
 degraded in Glasgow. He did this from a delib- 
 erate view of his duty as a minister. In his 
 remarks at the public dinner given to him in 
 Glasgow, one of the most remarkable that has 
 ever been given to a private individual, he refers 
 to this subject in the following words : " The 
 parish that was assigned to me as the field of 
 my labors " (a field, by the way, which he had 
 himself chosen), "introduced me, I may say, both 
 to the profit and the luxury of many acts of friend- 
 ship with the poor, and I have had but rare and 
 
PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOHNS. \ 9 
 
 occasional intercourse with the higher classes of 
 society in Glasgow." It is worthy of remark 
 that this very intercourse with the poor had, 
 among other things, been the occasion of the mo^t 
 signal manifestations of respect and veneration 
 and cordial attachment that any private individual 
 had ever received from every grade of his fellow- 
 citizens. 
 
 We have seen the extent of Dr. Chalmers's 
 labors among the poor. It may be asked, Did 
 not his labors in behalf of the rich suffer in con- 
 sequence ? the souls of the rich are as valuable 
 as those of the poor, and a minister of the gospel 
 may not innocently neglect one class of his parish- 
 ioners for the sake of benefiting the other. It 
 will be a. sufficient answer to these questions to 
 introduce the remarks of Dr. Hanna, in which he 
 gives a brief summary of the results of Dr. Chal- 
 mers's labors as a preacher. After mentioning a 
 number of cases, either as individuals or repre- 
 sentatives of classes, to whom his ministry, through 
 the blessing of God, had been eminently blessed, 
 he adds : " The more general effects of his minis- 
 try in its bearings upon the religious condition of 
 Glasgow and of Scotland lie open enough to obser- 
 vation. When Dr. Chalmers came to Glasgow, by 
 the great body of the upper classes of society evan- 
 gelical doctrines were nauseated and despised; 
 when he left it, even by those who did not bow to 
 
100 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 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 evangelism stood confounded with a driv- 
 elling sanctimoniousness or a sour-minded asceti- 
 cism ; when he left it, from all such false associa- 
 tions the Christianity of the New Testament stood 
 clearly and nobly redeemed. When Dr. Chalmers 
 came to Glasgow, for nearly a century the magis- 
 trates and the town council had exercised the city 
 patronage in a spirit determinately anti-evangeli- 
 cal ; when he left it, so complete was the revolution 
 which had been effected, that from that time for- 
 ward none but evangelical clergymen were ap- 
 pointed by the city patrons. When Dr. Chalmers 
 came to Glasgow, there and elsewhere over Scot- 
 land there were many most devoted clergymen of 
 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 and power 
 which he assigned to them ; when he left it, he 
 had exhibited such a model of facility, diligence, 
 and activity in all the departments of ministerial 
 labor as told finely upon the spirit and practise of 
 the whole ministry of Scotland. When Dr. Chal- 
 mers came to Glasgow, unnoticed thousands of 
 the city population were sinking into ignorance, 
 infidelity, and vice, and his eye was the first in 
 
PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOHNS. 101 
 
 this country to foresee to what a fearful magni- 
 tude that evil, if suffered to grow unrebuked, 
 would rise ; when he left it, his ministry in that 
 city remained behind him, in permanent warning 
 to a nation that had been slow to learn that the 
 greatest of all questions, both for statesmen and 
 for churchmen, is the condition of those untaught 
 and degraded thousands who swarm around the 
 base of the social edifice, and whose brawny arms 
 may yet grasp its pillars, to shake or destroy. 
 When Dr. Chalmers came to Glasgow, in the lit- 
 erary circles of the Scottish metropolis a thinly- 
 disguised infidelity sat on the seats of greatest influ- 
 ence, and smiled and scoffed at a vital and ener- 
 getic faith in the great and distinctive truths of 
 revelation, while widely over his native land the 
 spirit of a frigid indifference to religion prevailed ; 
 when he left it, the current of public sentiment 
 had begun to set in the contrary direction, and 
 although it took many years, and the labor of 
 many other hands, to carry that healthful change 
 onward to maturity, yet I believe it is not over- 
 estimating it to say, that it was mainly by Dr. 
 Chalmers's ministry in Glasgow, and by his efforts 
 in the pulpit and through the press, that the na- 
 tional opinion and sympathy were turned." 
 
 It was at the very time that Dr. Chalmers was 
 occupying this unrivalled field of usefulness, that 
 the church of St. Johns was startled by the an- 
 
102 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 nouncement that he had accepted the professor- 
 ship of Moral Philosophy in the University of St. 
 Andrews, the place of his education. The uni- 
 versity was quite remote, its funds were small, its 
 students comparatively few, the salary of the pro- 
 fessor was meagre, and Dr. Chalmers had already 
 declined six invitations to lucrative and highly 
 honorable situations. He called a meeting of his 
 elders, deacons, and Sabbath-school teachers, and 
 at once made known his decision, and the rea- 
 sons of it. His first reason was the failure of his 
 health, which had succumbed under the extraor- 
 dinary pressure which the necessities of the situ- 
 ation laid upon him. He says, " My very last at- 
 tempt at exertion out-of-doors has been followed 
 up by several weeks of utter incapacity for fixed 
 thought." This evident indication of an over- 
 worked brain was certainly a very impressive 
 monition. 
 
 The second reason was, that if it were possible 
 to relieve him of his duties, he could not with a 
 good conscience continue. His attention had of 
 late been strongly drawn to subjects of general 
 philanthropy, in writing upon which he believed 
 that he did what was pleasing to God. Should 
 his parochial labors be diminished, he should be 
 obliged to devote much of his time to the business 
 of authorship, instead of giving it all to the par- 
 ish ; and thus he would become, not in form, but 
 in fact, a pluralist. 
 
PAROCHIAL LABORS AT ST. JOHNS. 103 
 
 By removing to St. Andrews his labors and 
 responsibilities would be greatly diminished ; the 
 long vacation would give him ample opportunity 
 for recreation, the retirement of the place would 
 give him better command of his time, and he 
 would be the better able to pursue those studies 
 which seemed to hold forth the promise of a more 
 extended usefulness ; and especially he would 
 have an opportunity of teaching the truths of 
 religion to those who were so soon to become the 
 teachers of their fellow-men, as ministers of the 
 gospel, and as the leaders of public sentiment in 
 the various secular departments of public life. 
 
 It was evident to all that Dr. Chalmers had 
 fully decided the subject for himself, and that 
 remonstrances and entreaties were alike useless. 
 He left Glasgow amidst the universal regrets 
 of all classes of persons, whether of the Estab- 
 lished Church or Dissenters, whether Whig or Tory 
 in politics. The whole city loved and honored him, 
 and overwhelmed him with the universal expres- 
 sion of love and veneration, which was the more 
 emphatic because it was wholly unexpected. 
 
 On Friday, the 14th of December, Dr. Chalmers 
 delivered his introductory lecture at St. Andrews, 
 the place of his residence for the next four years. 
 
 Of the various intellectual labors which Dr. 
 Chalmers prosecuted during this period, it is not 
 our purpose to take particular notice. He pre- 
 
104 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 pared and delivered his course of lectures on mor- 
 al philosophy ; he published the third volume of 
 his work on the Christian and civic economy of 
 large towns ; he gave much attention to the inter- 
 nal concerns of the University, and he took an 
 important interest in the proceedings of the Gen- 
 eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, of 
 which he was an active and most eloquent meir 
 ber. We, however, pass over these labors enti 
 our design being simply to present a view of * 
 efforts in every place for the promotion of tin. 
 cause of Christ and the salvation and benefit of 
 his fellow-men. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CHRISTIAN LABORS AT ST. ANDREWS. 
 
 position of Dr. Chalmers in St. An- 
 drews was peculiar. From Glasgow, an 
 active and wealthy commercial city that 
 had become proud of his talents, and 
 whose citizens crowded his place of wor- 
 ship in admiring multitudes, and where his in- 
 fluence may be described as almost unbounded, 
 he found himself in a small and quiet city, re- 
 mote from the great lines of travel, his busi- 
 ness, so far as official duty was concerned, being 
 to lecture to a class of one or two hundred young 
 men and boys. The population of St. Andrews 
 itself was large enough for the labors of many 
 Christian philanthropists ; but the elders and 
 deacons of St. Johns were absent. There was 
 no agency, even on the smallest scale, to carry 
 out any general operations over the town, or any 
 of its parishes. What, in these circumstances, was 
 the course to be pursued ? He might have at- 
 tempted to produce an impression upon the public 
 mind, and arouse St. Andrews from its apathy, 
 by such sermons as had produced those thrilling 
 
 105 
 
106 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 effects in Glasgow. He might have waited till 
 the people were generally moved, before he him- 
 self commenced a work which should affect sim- 
 ultaneously the whole city. In a man so singu- 
 larly gifted, this might have seemed a natural 
 and wise method of Christian effort. 
 
 But Dr. Chalmers did none of this. He began 
 his labors in the most quiet and unobtrusive way. 
 True to his own principles, as soon as the fatigues 
 of the first session were over, he marked out for 
 himself a district of the town adjacent to his place 
 of residence ; he visited its families, and invited 
 the children to attend a class in his own house, 
 on the Sabbath evenings. No public announce- 
 ment was made, no general invitation was issued ; 
 and the district appropriated being small, the 
 attendance on the class was at first limited. Yet 
 for that little group, composed of the poorest 
 children he could gather around him, he pre- 
 pared as carefully as he did for his class in the 
 University, — some stray leaves still existing on 
 which the questions for the evening are carefully 
 written out. As the existence of such a class 
 became better known, the applications for admis- 
 sion increased, and one or two of the parents 
 having obtained admission as auditors, others fol- 
 lowed, until the room was crowded. By the time, 
 however, that this class became burdensome from 
 its numbers, new and more important claims upon 
 his labor had arisen. 
 
CHRIS TIAN LAB ORS'AT ST. ANDRE TVS. 107 
 
 One of his pupils, Rev. Dr. Miller, of Glasgow, 
 gives us an account of his labors in a somewhat 
 different direction. " On being sent to college," 
 says Dr. M., " my father commended me to Dr. 
 Chalmers's spiritual care. His labors for the first 
 term rendered this impossible. In the next ses- 
 sion it was suggested to him that he might act 
 somewhat of a father's part to some of the chil- 
 dren of his old friends, by taking us into his house 
 on Sabbath evenings, and giving us that religious 
 instruction to which we had been accustomed at 
 home. He at once consented to this, and during 
 that winter, five of us met regularly on Sabbath 
 evenings, when he instructed us and dealt with 
 our souls as if we had been his own children. By 
 another year, this little meeting was noised abroad, 
 and, at the earnest solicitation of their parents, 
 other students were admitted to the privilege of 
 attending it, till the little company had increased 
 to about a dozen. It was his earnest desire not 
 to have a larger number, for he wished to look 
 on us and deal with us as in a family character. 
 And so he did in the way of parental counsel and 
 prayer, joined with the approved old fashion of 
 catechizing. By the next year, however, appli- 
 cations became so numerous and pressing, that 
 he at length yielded, and his large dining-room 
 was completely crammed with students of all sorts 
 and sizes. His course of instruction then became 
 
108 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 more like a familiar lecture, very simple and con- 
 versational, but more valuable on that account. 
 We all felt that we learned more of really Chris- 
 tian ethics at these meetings than by all his exer- 
 cises in the class-room of moral philosophy." 
 
 The increase of this class obliged Dr. Chalmers 
 to commit the care of the Sabbath school to another. 
 The person whom he selected for this office was John 
 Urquhart, with the record of whose talents, piety, 
 and early death many in this country are already 
 familiar. Of his success in this Christian labor, 
 as well as his eminent Christian character, Dr. 
 Chalmers was in the habit of speaking in the most 
 enthusiastic terms. In writing of his intercourse 
 with Dr. Chalmers at this time, Mr. Urquhart 
 remarks: "Dr. Chalmers has been more than kind 
 to me this year. As my school is held in his 3 
 I generally sup with him on Sunday evening. 
 I enjoy far more of his conversation than at tea 
 parties. I was much gratified by a walk which 
 had with Dr. Chalmers to visit the parents o. 
 the children who attend his school. The people in 
 some of the houses seemed to recognize him famil- 
 iarly ; so that he is probably frequently engaged in 
 these labors of love. He thinks such exercises as 
 visiting the poor and the rich the best introduction 
 to ministerial labor. ' This,' he said, as we were 
 going along, i is what I call preaching the gospel 
 to every creature; and that cannot be done by 
 
CHRIS TIAN LAB ORS AT ST. ANDRE WS. 109 
 
 setting yourself in the pulpit as a centre of at- 
 traction, but by going forth and making aggres- 
 sive movements upon the community, and by 
 preaching from house to house.' " Sentiments quite 
 similar to this last are to be found in Dr. Chal- 
 mers's Horse Sabbaticae. Thus, on 1 Cor. 14, 
 " Let me have a higher value for charity than for 
 all talent ; and of this latter too let me prize the 
 talent of useful instruction more than the powers 
 that please and astonish, and so are more fitted to 
 aggrandize him who owns them, and give him 
 a more splendid reputation among men. Never 
 let me aspire after such a language as might prove 
 an unknown tongue to the common people. Save 
 me from such literary ambition, and pardon, 
 God, my every wrong and vain effort at the wis- 
 dom of words, but let me deal with such words 
 as may be easily understood. Let me preach not 
 as a man of gifts, unintelligible to many, but as 
 a man of grace, commending myself to the con- 
 science of all." 
 
 But to return. The school of Mr. Urquhart, 
 in Dr. Chalmers's house, was not long alone. 
 It was good fruit, having seed within itself. A 
 number of schools had risen out of it, and at last 
 they quite studded the city, and a number of the 
 students of the University, encouraged by their 
 professor's example, had given themselves to simi- 
 lar labors. They proceeded to divide the town 
 
110 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 into districts, to visit all the families, and to es- 
 tablish schools in every necessitous quarter. Dr. 
 Chalmers wisely did not put himself at the head 
 of this movement, but encouraged the young men 
 to labor in connection with the parish to which 
 the district belonged. Principal Haldane and 
 several of the professors kindly encouraged the 
 movement. Nor was this a blessing confined to 
 the poor in whose behalf it was originated. Their 
 common engagement in the evening schools led the 
 students to hold Sabbath morning meetings for 
 prayer and counsel, — meetings at which the hal- 
 lowed fire that glowed in every breast grew warmer 
 at the touch of a congenial flame. 
 
 But this step only led to another. The visita- 
 tion of the districts, for the purpose of bringing 
 out the young to school, had revealed a great and 
 unexpected amount of religious indifference and 
 neglect among the adult population, — a discovery 
 which, when made by ardent youths panting to do 
 good, was not long in being followed up by active 
 efforts to relieve the destitution. The zeal, indeed, 
 which embarked in these efforts did not confine 
 itself to St. Andre vs, but flowed out upon ad- 
 joining districts. "There is a new system," said 
 Mr. Urquhart, " of religious instruction which 
 has been attempted at St. Andrews, which I think 
 is a most efficient system for evangelizing large 
 towns. The plan is very simple. We first in- 
 
CHRISTIAN LABORS AT ST. ANDREWS. Ill 
 
 quired after some persons residing in different 
 quarters of the town who were religiously dis- 
 posed. We called on these, and requested the 
 favor of a room in their house for a few of their 
 neighbors to assemble in for religious purposes. 
 We expected a group of eight or ten persons to 
 assemble, but were astonished to find the attend- 
 ance increase in some of the stations to fifty or 
 sixty. Many of these never went to church. 
 Churchmen and Dissenters all went hand in hand, 
 anjl we forgot that there was any distinction. We 
 have here Mr. H. (now Dr. Hoby), a Baptist min- 
 ister from London, who has come to attend Dr. 
 Chalmers's lectures, and has been very useful. He 
 and Mr. A. have established several preaching sta- 
 tions in the country round, where the people seem 
 eager to hear the gospel." 
 
 At the same time, while all this was going for- 
 ward, other doors were opened to fields of useful- 
 ness which Dr. Chalmers cheerfully entered. It 
 seems that a missionary society, composed of 
 Christians of different denominations, had for 
 some time existed in St. Andrews. Of this soci- 
 ety Dr. Chalmers was invited to become president. 
 He would not accept it until it had been offered 
 to and declined by others whose official position 
 entitled them to this token of respect. Having, 
 however, accepted it, he at once turned what 
 might have been merely an empty honor into an 
 
112 MEMOIR OF DR. CIIALMERS. 
 
 occasion of extensive usefulness. As the association 
 was composed of Christians of different denomi- 
 nations, he made himself particularly acquainted 
 with the history, success, or failure, and present 
 state of every missionary society. At each meet- 
 ing, he would direct the attention of the audience 
 to some particular society ; he would set forth the 
 excellences of each, read the most interesting ex- 
 tracts from its reports, interspersed throughout 
 with suggestions of his own, and followed up by 
 addresses calculated to animate his hearers with 
 the love of missions and every other good work. 
 
 The monthly meetings of the missionary society 
 bad previously been but ill-attended, but under 
 such ministrations the attraction grew, the attend- 
 ance swelled, the room was found to be too small, 
 and an adjournment at last took place to the Town 
 Hall. At these crowded assemblies, where many 
 of the most influential townspeople attended, old 
 prejudice was softened, and a new respect and at- 
 tachment to evangelical Christianity was in many 
 instances created. 
 
 Such were the changes which, by the grace of 
 God, were gradually going forward in the city 
 and vicinity of St. Andrews. At the same time, 
 changes of a still more remarkable character were 
 witnessed in the University itself. 
 
 " Whether the students of St. Andrews," says 
 Dr. Duff, "were in reality worse than the stu- 
 
CHRISTIAN LAB ORS AT ST. AXDRE WS. 113 
 
 dents of other colleges, I have no means of ascer- 
 taining ; but somehow or other they had obtained 
 a worse name. Historic truth requires it to be 
 recorded that the St. Andrews students as a whole 
 were, previously to the advent of Dr. Chalmers, 
 a singularly godless, Christless class. At the 
 United College there was only one who was re- 
 puted to be pious, and who dared to face the 
 dorision and the scorn of being so reputed. He 
 was the butt and the joke of every one, under the 
 familiar name of 6 the Bishop.' Nor was St. 
 Mary's or the Divinity College much better. In- 
 deed, some of the divinity students were even 
 more notorious for their impiety, immorality, and 
 riotous re veilings than any in the Philosophy Col- 
 lege. Such was the University of St. Andrews 
 before the day of its merciful visitation in Novem- 
 ber, 1823 ; such the region of sceptical darkness 
 and error 'On which the light of a great luminary 
 broke in ; such the mass of moral putrescence on 
 which a portion of quickening salt then fell ; such 
 the realm of spiritual death which was then dis- 
 turbed by the tread of a living man ! " 
 
 Shortly after Dr. Chalmers's arrival, and encour- 
 aged by his sympathies and countenance, a few of 
 the divinity students formed themselves into an 
 association, with the intention of reviewing and 
 supporting missions, which held its meetings in a 
 private room. The existence of such an associa- 
 
 8 
 
Ill MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 tion led to the subject of missions being frequently 
 spoken of among other students, so that, in vari- 
 ous ways, the minds of many were gradually pre- 
 pared to give it a candid consideration. 
 
 Early in the session of 1821-25, a few students 
 were assembled in the room of one of the saint- 
 liest youths that ever trod the stage of time, — the 
 pious, the devoted, the heavenly-minded Urquhart. 
 Among other religious topics, that of missions to 
 the heathen furnished a theme for conversation. 
 The question was started as to the possibility of 
 forming a missionary society among the students 
 of the. Philosophy College. The desirableness of 
 the object was admitted by all. There were many 
 tremblings of heart, and great misgivings on 
 account of the apathy of the majority, and the 
 scoffs of the enemies of the undertaking. Yet 
 there were some who were willing to endure all 
 this and more for a cause in behalf of which they 
 could confidently rely upon the promised aid of 
 an omnipotent Saviour. Their counsels at last 
 prevailed. Paper was produced, the scheme of a 
 Society was drafted, and to it the names of those 
 present attached. In a few days fifty or sixty 
 more names were added, a union was formed be- 
 tween it and the small association in the Divinity 
 College of which we have before spoken, and thus 
 originated the St. Andrews Missionary Society, 
 which at last ranked among its friends more than 
 o^-third of all the attendants of both colleges. 
 
CHRISTIAN LABORS AT ST. ANDREWS. 115 
 
 The society was formed, but where should they 
 hold their meetings ? Their number was too great 
 to be accommodated in any student's private room 
 in college. They naturally applied to the officers 
 of the college for the use of one of the lecture 
 rooms, once a month. This request was politely 
 but peremptorily refused. Some of the officers 
 regarded the meeting as thoroughly tmacademical, 
 and others as too puritanical and Methodistical, 
 and almost all believed that it would divert young 
 men from their appropriate studies. After much 
 effort they at length secured the use of a very 
 small and inconvenient school-room. This was 
 in the session of 1824-25. 
 
 The winter of 1825-26, however, witnessed a 
 surprising change in the prospects of the mission- 
 ary society. By this time, Dr. Chalmers's exercises 
 in the Town Hall had taken effect upon the minds 
 of thinking men and women. They became in- 
 terested in the history and objects of missions ; 
 so that what had been before looked on with con- 
 tempt, now that the facts were known, became an 
 interesting matter of conversation. Dr. Chalmers's 
 lectures on moral philosophy were imbuing his 
 class, and through them the city, with the ethical 
 principles of the gospel of Christ, and they saw 
 that he was in earnest, for he exemplified them in 
 his life. While in his lecture-room he enforced 
 the doctrine of benevolence, he was seen visiting 
 
11G MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 from house to house among the poorest of the 
 parish, conversing with them on the salvation of 
 the soul, and gathering their children into his 
 house for the instructions of a Sabbath school. 
 The students themselves nobly did their part in 
 removing the prejudices against the missionary 
 society. It had been in operation for a twelve- 
 month, and its members proved themselves to be 
 neither idle dreamers, visionary fanatics, nor care- 
 less and backward students. On the contrary, it 
 was found that its most zealous partisans were 
 precisely those who bore the highest character for 
 diligence, steadiness, and general good behavior; 
 and not only so, but were those who carried away 
 the highest honors in every department of classic 
 literature, science, philosophy, or theology. 
 
 Under exhibitions such as these, prejudice it- 
 self yielded. Some of the professors relinquished 
 their opposition, others became decidedly friendly. 
 Dr. Nichol, principal of St. Salvator's College, 
 received the missionary works sent to him thank- 
 fully, and of his own accord rendered to him pecu- 
 niary assistance. In 1824-5, no room could be 
 granted in the University in which they could 
 hold their meetings. In 1825-6, Dr. Haldane, the 
 principal of St. Mary's, voluntarily came forward, 
 and in the most cordial and generous manner 
 declared the Divinity Hall at their service, or any 
 other place which his influence could command. 
 
CHRIS TIAN LABORS AT ST. ANDRE WS. 117 
 
 The results of these efforts in the University 
 have already become a matter of Christian history. 
 Of the three hundred who, during his residence 
 in St. Andrews, were under his instruction, very 
 many are now filling posts of usefulness in the 
 church of Christ. The most remarkable fact in 
 connection with his instructions was, that a very 
 unusual number devoted themselves to the work 
 of foreign missions, and in that department of 
 Christian labor greatly distinguished themselves. 
 Among these may be mentioned Rev. Mr. Nesbit 
 of Bombay, Mr. John Adam, Dr. Alexander Duff, 
 Rev. Mr. Mackay ; and, last, Mr. John Urquhart 
 was in preparation for the same field of labor, 
 when he was called to serve in the upper sanctu- 
 ary. More than one missionary came out of each 
 college session, and two out of every hundred 
 students. " What other University record," asks 
 Dr. Hanna, " can present a parallel ? " 
 
 Of the general effect of Dr. Chalmers's labors, 
 Dr. Duff speaks with enthusiasm. "Altogether," 
 says he, " what a change in the course of two or 
 three years ! Whatever may have been the extent 
 of inward spiritual renovation, no one could ques- 
 tion the extent of outward, visible amelioration 
 in the religious aspect of things. Religion, which 
 had long settled down to zero, or many degrees 
 below it, was sensibly raised in its temperature, 
 and in some instances kindled into an inextin- 
 
118 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 guishable flame. The long repose of stagnation 
 and death, with its teeming brood of corruptions, 
 was effectually disturbed, and out of the strife 
 and conflict of hostile elements a new progeny, 
 fraught with life and purity, began to emerge, and 
 in the missionary libraries and assemblies and 
 prayer-meetings, the Sabbath schools and preach- 
 ing-stations in town and country, an extensive 
 machinery was erected for the diffusion of life- 
 giving influences all around. And all this sud- 
 denly springing into existence from the presence 
 of one man ! Those who could compare what St. 
 Andrews was immediately before Dr. Chalmers's 
 residence there, and what it was two or three 
 years after his arrival, were constrained to feel 
 that no language could more appropriately express 
 the greatness of the change than that of the 
 prophet Isaiah : ' The wilderness and the solitary 
 place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall 
 rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom 
 abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. 
 The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, and 
 the excellency of Carmel and Sharon ; they shall 
 see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of 
 our God.' " 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 dr. Chalmers's residence in Edinburgh — church 
 extension. 
 
 ^T was in the midst of this signal career of 
 Christian usefulness that Dr. Chalmers was 
 unexpectedly removed to Edinburgh, which 
 became his residence for the remainder of 
 his life. On the 31st of October, 1827, the 
 Town Council and magistrates of the city elected 
 him to fill the chair of Divinity in the University 
 of Edinburgh. He was not, however, expected to 
 commence the performance of the duties of the 
 professorship until the November of the following 
 year ; and thus the opportunity of a year's vacation 
 would be afforded him for the preparation of a 
 new course of lectures. He heard of his election 
 on Thursday, November first; and on Tuesday, the 
 sixth, his preparations had commenced. On the 
 third of November, 1828, he took a final leave 
 of St. Andrews, and proceeded at once to Edin- 
 burgh, to enter upon the discharge of the new 
 duties which he had assumed. 
 
 The first duty which pressed upon Dr. Chal- 
 mers was, of course, the preparation of his the- 
 
 119 
 
120 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 ological lectures, which he immediately com- 
 menced. This required special care, as his rep- 
 utation had attracted a large number of hearers 
 from the most intelligent classes of laymen in Ed- 
 inburgh. He was the man of the most mark in 
 Scotland. Tourists from England and the Con- 
 tinent, of any note, whether literary, religious, 
 or scientific, if they could procure introductions 
 to him, and frequently even without any, called 
 on him as a matter of course. These visits were 
 rendered the more time-consuming than they 
 would otherwise have been, by his abundant hos- 
 pitality, his genial temper, and the brilliancy of 
 
 his various and fascinating conversation. He was 
 
 I ° 
 
 known to be at the head of the General Assem- 
 bly of Scotland ; he paid great attention to all its 
 interests, and was a frequent member of its most 
 important committees. The authorship, to which 
 he had before directed considerable attention, was 
 now resumed as one of the permanent occupa- 
 tions of his life. The consideration of these inter- 
 esting topics we shall omit, wishing merely, as we 
 have proposed, to present the parochial and other 
 labors of Dr. C, in his efforts to advance the 
 cause of Christ and promote the salvation of 
 souls. 
 
 Two of the greatest efforts of his life, aside from 
 
 tose which may be styled truly parochial, were 
 
 that undertaken to promote the cause of church 
 
CHURCH EXTENSION. 121 
 
 extension ; and that which resulted in the origin 
 and establishment of the Free Church. We will 
 as briefly as possible allude to both of these, pre- 
 mising, however, that ecclesiastical cases in Scot- 
 land and America are so dissimilar that very 
 likely I may not succeed in making myself per- 
 fectly understood. 
 
 In order to take a correct view of Dr. Chalmers's 
 course through this period of his life, it will be 
 necessary briefly to allude to some of the admitted 
 truths by which his conduct was governed. I say 
 admitted truths, because, though some of them 
 may be matters of doubt to others, yet to him 
 they were all clear and indisputable verities. 
 
 1. In the year 1834, at a public meeting in Ed- 
 inburgh, Dr. Chalmers thus made known the noble 
 object to the accomplishment of which his whole 
 life was consecrated : " The dearest object of my 
 earthly existence" said he, " is the elevation of the 
 common people, humanized by Christianity, and 
 raised by the strength of their moral habits to a 
 higher platform of human nature; and by which 
 they may attain and enjoy the rank and consider- 
 ation due to enlightened and companionable men. 
 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 the uttermost, 
 I will resist even to the death, that alienation 
 which goes but to swell the luxury of the higher 
 
122 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 ranks at the expense of the Christianity of the 
 lower orders." 
 
 These words express the object to the attain- 
 ment of which his whole life was consecrated, 
 and for which, not theoretically but practically, he 
 was willing to make every sacrifice. 
 
 2. In the next place, he believed that the gospel, 
 and the gospel alone, had the power to elevate 
 men to their proper rank in this life, and prepare 
 them for glory, honor, and immortality in the life 
 to come. He was, therefore, intensely desirous 
 that the gospel might be preached to every crea- 
 ture; for he believed that until it is thus preached, 
 no proper trial is made of its power. 
 
 3. He became convinced from his own personal 
 observation that the gospel was not thus preached 
 in Scotland. In the cities especially, and to a 
 considerable extent in the country, the gospel was 
 preached to but a fraction of the inhabitants. A 
 portion of the highest rank, and more of the mid- 
 dle classes, might attend once on the Sabbath day, 
 the masses going very seldom, and most of them 
 not at all. If it were said that through those 
 who hear, the gospel finds its way to those who 
 hear not, the answer is, that such is not the fact ; 
 but that, on the contrary, the progress of luxury 
 is rendering wider and deeper the chasm which 
 divides the upper classes from the masses of the 
 community. He had found that a minister might 
 preach to admiring crowds on the Sabbath, and 
 
CHURCH EXTENSION. 123 
 
 preach the gospel in earnest, and then, within a 
 few stones-throw of the church, plunge into the 
 midst of a godless heathenism, as dark and be- 
 nighted as he could find in India. I much fear 
 that what was true of Glasgow is now, to a consid- 
 erable extent, true of many a ministration of the 
 gospel in our own country. 
 
 4. Dr. Chalmers believed that a remedy might be 
 found for this sad state of things in Scotland. He 
 had made the experiment in St. Johns. He had 
 left, the Tron Church, with all its opulence and 
 social consideration, in order to make it. He 
 had seen the changes which the gospel, when car- 
 ried to the families of the poor, had wrought in 
 four years. The case did not any longer admit 
 of argument ; it was open to the examination of 
 the whole community. The fact could not be 
 denied, and the cause could not be misunder- 
 stood ; it was all done simply by carrying the 
 teaching and the practice of the gospel of Jesus 
 Christ, attended by the Spirit of God, to every 
 family within the confines of the parish. 
 
 5. With that wonderful power of generaliza- 
 tion, and that confidence in general principles, 1 
 
 l A remarkable instance of Dr. Chalmers's confidence in general prin- 
 ciples occurred in his early history. At the time when he was rebuild- 
 ing the manse at Kilmany, the discovery of olefiant gas Was announced, 
 which it was said could be used with great advantage in place of 
 oil and candles, for the purposes of illumination. He at once placed 
 gas pipes through his house, confident that the time would come when 
 they would be needed. Probably this house was the first in Scotland 
 that was prepared to take advantage of the new discovery. 
 
124 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 by which he was so signally distinguished, he at 
 once transferred the cases of St. Johns and Kil- 
 many to the whole of Scotland. He saw every- 
 where, throughout his native country, the lower 
 classes sinking deeper every year in ignorance 
 and vice. Heathenism was actually gaining upon 
 Christianity ; and he trembled when he anticipated 
 the day when the careless, the rich, the luxurious 
 and effeminate, would come into collision with 
 ignorant, lawless and unprincipled masses. For 
 so universal an evil he sought for an equally 
 universal remedy. He longed to arouse the na- 
 tion to an attempt to avert a national evil. He 
 desired to call upon the disciples of Christ to 
 obey the last injunction of their Master, and go 
 forth bearing in their hands the message of sal- 
 vation, carrying it to the thousands around them, 
 that so the perishing multitudes might be rescued 
 from impending perdition. 
 
 6. There was another belief of Dr. Chalmers, 
 which, though somewhat out of place, may as 
 well be noticed here. It was, that since religion 
 is necessary to a nation's prosperity, if not indeed 
 to its permanent existence, it is the legitimate 
 duty of the government to uphold it. He desired, 
 therefore, an established church, for which the 
 government, either in whole or in part, should 
 erect houses of worship, establish parishes, and 
 pay the ministers. Having done so much, how- 
 
CHURCH EXTENSION. 125 
 
 ever, it must stop. " The church, thus established 
 in its religious and ecclesiastical concerns, must 
 be perfectly free. Government can no more lay a 
 finger on the minister or the people, while in the 
 discharge of the duties which they owe to Christ, 
 than a burglar may enter his neighbor's house. 
 An organized provision, as he said in another 
 place, is all that we contend for. We want, in 
 other words, a legal provision for the support of a 
 Christian ministry, without the slightest infringe- 
 ment on the spiritual prerogatives of the church, 
 or the ecclesiastical independence of her clergy- 
 men. We have no other communication with the 
 state than that of being maintained by it, after 
 which we are left to regulate the proceedings 
 of our great home-mission, with all the purity 
 and the piety and the independence of any mis- 
 sionary board. In things ecclesiastical, we decide 
 all. They are not, they cannot be forced upon us 
 from without. We own no head of the church but 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. Implicated as the church 
 and state are imagined to be, they are not so im- 
 plicated as that, without the concurrence of the 
 ecclesiastical courts, a full and final effect can 
 be given to any proceeding by which the good of 
 Christianity and the religion of our people may 
 be affected. There is not a clerical appointment 
 which can take place in any one of our parishes 
 till we have sustained it. In things ecclesiastical, 
 
126 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 the highest power of our church is amenable to 
 no higher power on earth for its decisions. It 
 can exclude, it can deprive, it can depose at pleas- 
 ure. External force might make an obnoxious 
 individual the holder of a benefice, but there is 
 no external- force in these realms that could 
 make him a minister of the Church of Scotland. 
 The king, by himself, or by his representative, 
 might be the spectator of our proceedings ; but 
 what Lord Chatham said of the poor man's house, 
 is true in all its parts of the church to which I 
 have the honor to belong. In England, every 
 man's house is his castle ; not that it is sur- 
 rounded by walls and battlements ; it may be a 
 straw-built shed ; every wind of heaven may whis- 
 tle around it, every element of heaven may enter 
 
 it, but THE KING CANNOT, THE KING DARE NOT." 
 
 Such were Dr. Chalmers's views, whether right 
 or wrong, of an established church, and such in his 
 opinion the relation which subsisted between it 
 and the government. We have gone into them 
 more particularly, because these, which he consid- 
 ered first principles, were the causes of one of the 
 greatest acts of his life, — the disruption of the 
 established church of Scotland. We have an- 
 other reason. Dr. Chalmers delivered a course 
 of lectures, by invitation, before a select audience 
 of the highest of the land, on religious establish- 
 ments, and he has been accused of great incon- 
 
CHURCH EXTENSION. 127 
 
 sistency, in so soon afterwards taking the lead in 
 breaking loose from the Scottish establishment 
 altogether. But it is to be remembered that it 
 was just these views of an establishment which he 
 maintained in London, and which were received 
 with rapturous applause by the ablest and noblest 
 of the realm ; and to no passage was that applause 
 more emphatic than to that just quoted, ending, 
 " the king cannot, the king dare not." His views 
 before his audience in London, and those in the 
 pulpit and the General Assembly, seem to me to 
 be identical. And yet, many of those who ap- 
 plauded this sentiment in London, when he hon- 
 estly, and in the spirit of a martyr, carried it into 
 practice in Edinburgh, were the loudest in accus- 
 ing him of inconsistency, while he only adhered to 
 that great principle which he had always held, and 
 so frequently and fervently advocated. 
 
 Before entering upon the labors of Dr. Chal- 
 mers in the work of church extension, it may be 
 well to allude to a pleasing incident which oc- 
 curred at this time. 
 
 In the year 1832, Dr. Chalmers was honored by 
 election to the moderatorship of the General As- 
 sembly. It is known that at the meetings of the 
 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the 
 majesty of Great Britain is represented by one 
 of the peers of the realm, who is present at all 
 the meetings, and who is supposed to add greatly 
 to the imposing nature of that august assembly. 
 
128 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 It had from time immemorial been the custom 
 for the High Commissioner to give a daily public 
 dinner, and the moderator a public breakfast to 
 
 the members of the Assembly, during the contin- 
 uance of the session. These entertainments were 
 given on the Sabbath as well as other days of the 
 week. To Dr. Chalmers this seemed a sort of 
 desecration of the Sabbath. The Sunday break- 
 fast he could discontinue at his own motion, but 
 he was always specially invited and expected to 
 attend the dinner at the High Commissioner's, and 
 how should he be excused ? Under these circum- 
 stances he wrote the following note to Lord Bel- 
 haven, his Majesty's representative : — 
 
 " Edinburgh, May 3, 1832. 
 
 " My Lord : — On the chance, which I now see 
 to be a likely one, of my becoming moderator of 
 the next General Assembly, there is one point 
 respecting which I beg to throw myself on the 
 indulgence of your Lordship. I could not without 
 pain be present at the public dinner on Sundays, 
 and I feel that nothing more is necessary than the 
 bare communication of this feeling, to make your 
 Lordship willing to dispense with my attendance 
 on these occasions. I have made no one else privy 
 to this communication, preferring that the matter 
 should be adjusted by a liberal and understood 
 arrangement between your Lordship and myself, 
 
CHURCH EXTENSION. 129 
 
 to its becoming a subject of public discussion. 
 At the same time, let me not disguise my convic- 
 tion (and I ask your Lordship to pardon the lib- 
 erty I take in expressing it), that it were better 
 if the Sunday dinners were altogether dispensed 
 with. I feel quite assured, my Lord, that did such 
 an arrangement originate with yourself, it would 
 be felt as a strong additional claim to those al- 
 ready possessed by your Lordship on the respect 
 and gratitude of the Church of Scotland. With 
 many apologies for this intrusion, 
 I have the honor to be, &c. &c. 
 
 " Thomas Chalmers. 
 
 "TO THE KlGHT HoiSrOJElABLE LORD BELHAVEN." 
 
 This letter met with the most gracious recep- 
 tion. The personal request was not only at once 
 acceded to, but the general suggestion was will- 
 ingly adopted. The Sabbath dinners, as well as 
 the Sabbath breakfasts, were then, and have since 
 that time been discontinued. " And, I believe I 
 may add," says Lord Belhaven, " that no measure 
 ever gave more general satisfaction." It is a 
 pleasing mark of distinction and remembrance 
 which thus attaches to Dr. Chalmers's moderator- 
 ship. 
 
 Throughout his life the soul of Dr. Chalmers 
 was engrossed with the idea of which we have 
 spoken, — the devising of means by which the gos- 
 
130 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 pel might be carried to every family of Scotland. 
 As early as 1817, he had made an effort for the 
 erection of twenty new churches in Glasgow. It 
 was then, at the commencement of his labors, 
 smiled upon as visionary. The effects of his min- 
 istry in due time worthily manifested themselves. 
 In 1834, Mr. Collins, a very intimate friend of Dr. 
 Chalmers, undertook to accomplish what had been 
 unsuccessfully attempted seventeen years before. 
 His object was to erect by private benevolence 
 twenty new parish churches. An association was 
 formed, the public was appealed to. No active step 
 was to be taken until X 20,000 were subscribed. 
 This was in the summer. Before the month of 
 October this sum was realized. In close coopera- 
 tion with Dr. Chalmers, he labored steadily for 
 the accomplishment of this object, and in 1841, 
 seven years from the inception of the undertaking, 
 these noble men saw the twentieth church com- 
 pleted. 
 
 The triumphant success which attended the effort 
 of a private individual, a layman, in Glasgow, had 
 its suitable effect upon the General Assembly of 
 the Established Church. It stimulated them to 
 serious effort, by showing them how abundant were 
 the rewards that accompanied Christian labor in 
 Scotland. Since the days of the Reformation the 
 population of Scotland had more than doubled 
 itself; yet the number of parishes and churches 
 
CHURCH EXTENSION. 131 
 
 had not increased. To maintain the same relative 
 amount of religious instruction, fourteen hundred 
 ministers and churches should be added. His 
 own investigations in the Tron parish satisfied 
 him that of the working classes generally not one- 
 half attended church, while large and crowded 
 districts existed in which not above one-eighth 
 had sittings in any place of worship, or made any 
 profession of Christianity. It was evident that 
 the masses of the people were living without God 
 in the world ; nay, it is hardly too much to say 
 that the whole country was steadily, in the midst 
 of religious forms, tending to heathenism. 
 
 As soon as Dr. Chalmers, by personal observa- 
 tion, became convinced that this was the fact, he 
 set himself at once to remedy the evil. He seems 
 to have been the first person who plainly looked 
 the matter in the face. The church, however, was 
 slow to move. In 1828, a committee was ap- 
 pointed on the subject, and they so far performed 
 their duty as annually to memorialize the gov- 
 ernment, and report year after year that nothing 
 had been done. At last, in 1834, quickened by 
 the successful efforts of Mr. Collins, the Assembly 
 reappointed its committee on church accommoda- 
 tion, furnished it with new powers and new in- 
 structions, and gave the best assurance that it w T as 
 in earnest by placing Dr. Chalmers at its head. 
 
 The Assembly had scarcely dissolved, when Dr. 
 
182 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 Chalmers summoned the large and influential 
 committee of which he was chairman, and pre- 
 sented his views of their position and their duties. 
 After alluding to the fact that a committee of this 
 sort had been in existence since 1828, and h^ad 
 unsuccessfully appealed to government ; and that 
 now the Assembly had conferred upon them new 
 and sufficient powers, he states that " if he had 
 been left to choose out of the countless diversities 
 of well-doing, this one, of convener of this commit- 
 tee, is that which he would have selected as the 
 most congenial to his taste, and the most fitted by 
 the high sense which he entertained of its impor- 
 tance for commanding the devotion of all his pow- 
 ers to it." At the conclusion of his address he 
 adds : "I trust the committee will not relax in 
 its exertions, and not relinquish them even though 
 it should require the perseverance of a whole gen- 
 eration, till we have made it a sufficiently thick- 
 set establishment, and brought it into a state of 
 full equipment; till churches have been so multi- 
 plied, and parochial charges so subdivided, that 
 there will not one poor family be found in our 
 land who might not, if they will, have entry and 
 accommodation in a place of worship, and reli- 
 gious instruction, with such a share in the personal 
 attentions of the clergyman as to claim him for 
 an acquaintance and a friend. " 
 
 Such was the noble idea which Dr. Chalmers en- 
 
CnURCH EXTENSION. 133 
 
 tertained of the duty to which he was called ; it was 
 no less than to send the gospel, with all its blessings 
 for time and eternity, to every family throughout 
 the whole of Scotland. And this was not mere the- 
 ory, — he was really in earnest about it; and for 
 the five subsequent years he gave to it all tlie time 
 which ,was not demanded by the duties of his pro- 
 fessorship, and those other labors of the press to 
 which he believed himself specially called. 
 
 In June, a few weeks after this appointment, 
 he had prepared a circular, which was approved 
 and immediately printed, and in a few days was 
 on its way to every corner of the land. The min- 
 isters were called upon, in virtue of the vote of 
 the Assembly, to take up collections in all their 
 parishes. He wrote letters personally to those on 
 whose liberality the church had the highest claim. 
 He corresponded with clergymen in every part of 
 Scotland. Nor did he stop here ; he appealed to 
 government for aid, and asked that when the 
 churches should be built by voluntary contribu- 
 tions, the government would make an allowance 
 for each minister who should be called to the par- 
 ish. In this part of the work his correspondence 
 was voluminous, and it brought him into imme- 
 diate contact with the ministry of the time. For a 
 while it appeared probable that he would succeed. 
 It seemed as if the government would look upon 
 his plan with favor. Objections, however, arose ; 
 
134 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 there were evident indications that the interfer- 
 ence of the government would be unpopular, and 
 in the end it was apparent that neither political 
 party would do anything about it. 
 
 Disappointed but not disheartened, he turned 
 with undiminished hope to the people. He re- 
 doubled his labors, issued pamphlet after pamph- 
 let, wrote in every direction, and at the close of 
 the year made his first report to the Assembly. 
 From this report it appears that in a single year 
 upwards of sixty-five thousand pounds (325,000 
 dollars) had been contributed, and sixty-four new 
 churches, about as many as the whole preceding 
 century had given birth to, had been or were 
 being built in connection with the Establish- 
 ment. 
 
 During the years 1835-36-37, the great object 
 of home evangelism was prosecuted with unflag- 
 ging devotion. To the means already in use, 
 another and important mode of arousing the at- 
 tention of the people was added. A sub-commit- 
 tee was formed for the purpose of organizing 
 meetings, in various parts of Scotland, which 
 should be addressed by influential individuals who 
 should advocate the cause in the most popular 
 and effective manner. Associations were formed 
 in every part of the land. Dr. Chalmers himself 
 took several journeys into various parts of Scotland, 
 presenting the subject to multitudes with all the 
 
CHURCH EXTENSION. 135 
 
 power of his eloquence. The result was most en- 
 couraging. As the result of four years' labor, he 
 announced to the Assembly that nearly two hun- 
 dred churches had been added to the Establish- 
 ment, for the erection of which upwards of two 
 hundred thousand pounds (about a million of 
 dollars) had been contributed. He adds: "The 
 work is still far from its termination ; it has, so to 
 speak, only begun. Cases of the most helpless 
 and affecting destitution remain to be overtaken. 
 There are wastes of poverty, irreligion, and crime 
 which have still to be redeemed, and which noth- 
 ing but the effective operation of a territorial Es- 
 tablishment, wisely, strenuously, and perseveringly 
 conducted, is adequate to subdue; and until every 
 such moral wilderness is explored and reclaimed, 
 and the whole country presents the aspect of a field 
 which the Lord hath blessed and is causing to 
 bring forth the fruits of righteousness, the com- 
 mittee may not rest from their labors, nor the 
 people from their hearty and zealous cooperation." 
 It is not necessary to follow Dr. Chalmers mi- 
 nutely to the close of this protracted and most 
 successful effort. In the year 1889, he devoted 
 himself to journeys into various parts of Scotland, 
 and everywhere, as we have remarked, with en- 
 couraging success. He was now in his sixtieth 
 year, and was beginning to feel the effects of age. 
 In making his last report to the Assembly, he thus 
 
136 MEMOIR OF DR CI1 AIMERS. 
 
 alludes to himself: " The convener of your com- 
 mittee, who has prepared the above report, craves 
 permission to close it with one brief paragraph 
 that is personal to himself. He finds that the 
 labors and requisite attention of an office which for 
 six years he has so inadequately filled, have now 
 become too much for him ; and for the sake of 
 other labors, and other preparations more in keep- 
 ing with the arduous work of a theological pro- 
 fessorship, as well as with the powers, and he may 
 add the prospects and duties of advanced life, he 
 begs that he may now be suffered to withdraw. 
 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 not let go the confi- 
 dent hope that under the smile of an approving 
 Heaven, and with the blessing from on high, glori- 
 ous things are yet in reserve for the parishes of 
 Scotland ; and though his hand, now waxing fee- 
 ble, 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." 
 
 When he resigned his office as a member of the 
 committee for church accommodation, the result 
 of his labors may be thus summed up. There 
 had been added to the Established Church of 
 Scotland, through the efforts of the committee. 
 
CHURCH EXTENSION. 137 
 
 two hundred and twenty-two churches, at the cost 
 of £305,747 lis. 2id., 1 or more than a million 
 and a half dollars. Such were the results of the 
 labors of Dr. Chalmers in the cause of church 
 extension. 
 
 1 A pound is reckoned at $4.80 American currency. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LABORS CONNECTED WITH THE ORIGIN AND ESTAB- 
 LISHMENT OF THE FREE CHURCH. 
 
 E have seen above how greatly the labors 
 of Dr. Chalmers were blessed in the 
 matter of church extension. But this 
 was only a part of his work. For the past 
 five years a great change had been vis- 
 ible in the Assembly of the Established Church. 
 For a long period preceding, it had sunk into 
 a condition of formalism, and might have been 
 with too much truth denominated an incubus 
 upon the cause of Christ. A gradual but steady 
 improvement had, however, taken place ; and 
 it was evident from the majorities on all im- 
 portant questions, that a new spirit had been 
 breathed into the Assembly, and that neither 
 with the masses of the communicants, nor with 
 the members of the Assembly, their delegates, 
 was religion to be any more a matter of form. 
 The amount collected for the public religious 
 enterprises in which the Assembly was engaged 
 was in 1839 fourteen times greater than it had 
 been in 1834. Speaking of this brief but brilliant 
 
 138 
 
TEE FREE CEURCE. 139 
 
 \ 
 
 period, Dr. Chalmers says, " We abolished the 
 union of offices, we are planting schools, we are 
 multiplying chapels, we are sending forth mission- 
 aries to distant parts of the world, we have puri- 
 fied and invigorated the discipline, we are extend- 
 ing the church and rallying our population round 
 its venerable standard, we are bringing the sec- 
 taries again within its pale, and last, though not 
 least, we have reformed the patronage ; 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 assistantship, 
 or to a preaching station, with its home-week of 
 Christian usefulness among the families of the 
 surrounding poor, as the best preparation for the 
 duties of their high calling." We by no means, 
 of course, assert that these changes in the Estab- 
 lished Church were owing to Dr. Chalmers alone. 
 With him were associated Drs. Thompson, Cand- 
 lish, Welsh, Gordon, Cunningham, and many oth- 
 ers, men of distinguished ability ; still it is no 
 exaggeration to say that they all looked upon him 
 as their leader, by far the most important man 
 of them all. When he relinquished the labor 
 of the church extension committee, he consid- 
 ered the active work of his life as ended. He 
 had begun to feel the infirmities of age. He had 
 suffered one attack of disease that plainly indicated 
 to him his danger from paralysis. He desired to 
 
140 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 I 
 
 retire from public service, except the duties of 
 his professorship, and devote the remainder of his 
 days to more private Christian effort, and the prep- 
 aration of his own soul for the glorious change 
 which was rapidly approaching. 
 
 But little did he know of the labors which were 
 yet to be devolved upon him. Little did he antici- 
 pate that the prosperous effort and the Christian 
 unity of the Assembly were to be exchanged for ear- 
 nest if not bitter contention, ending at last in a wide 
 disruption ; and that he would be called upon to 
 assume the heaviest responsibility throughout this 
 succession of changes. 
 
 It will be perceived, of course, that we refer to 
 the non-intrusion controversy, the disruption, and 
 the establishment of the Free Church of Scotland. 
 To enter into a narrative of these transactions in 
 detail is not our purpose. Nor is it necessary. 
 Our modes of thinking in this country are widely 
 different from those in Scotland. While we agree 
 with Dr. Chalmers and his associates in many re- 
 spects, yet in others, especially his unwavering 
 attachment to establishments, we greatly differ. 
 It is evident, therefore, that to enter upon the 
 subject at large would consume more time than 
 it can reasonably demand, and, what is more, it 
 would be time that can be much more satisfac- 
 torily employed. We shall therefore only pre- 
 sent such of the more important facts as will en- 
 
THE FREE CHURCH. 141 
 
 able us to form a conception of the labors which 
 Dr. Chalmers felt himself called upon to under- 
 take. 
 
 Some time in the year 1834 the Earl of Kin- 
 noul, the patron, presented to the parish of Auch- 
 tcrarder, in Perthshire, a Mr. Young, as the min- 
 ister of the church then vacant. After he had 
 preached on two successive Sabbaths in the pulpit 
 of the late vacant church, a day was appointed for 
 moderating a call, that is, for inviting the people 
 to express their concurrence in his settlement. 
 In a parish containing three thousand souls, only 
 two of its inhabitants came forward on that day 
 to sign the call ; and when an opportunity was 
 afforded for the male communicants to express 
 their dissent, out of three hundred entitled to 
 this privilege, two hundred and eighty-seven gave 
 in their names as dissentients, and all expressed 
 their readiness to make solemn declaration that 
 they were actuated by no factious or malicious 
 motives, but solely by a conscientious regard to 
 the spiritual interests of themselves and the con- 
 gregation. The Presbytery declined to ordain 
 Mr. Young, and the case came before the General 
 Assembly. Acting in obedience to the directions 
 of the Assembly, the Presbytery in 1835 rejected 
 Mr. Young, so far as regarded this particular 
 presentation. To the astonishment of the church, 
 the patron and his presentee brought an action 
 
142 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 against the Presbytery, before the Supreme Civil 
 Court. After a full hearing, the court decided 
 that the Presbytery had acted illegally, and in 
 violation of their duty, and contrary to the pro- 
 visions of certain statutes. An appeal was carried 
 to the House of Lords, which sustained the deci- 
 sion of the Court of Sessions. Subsequently Lord 
 Kinnoul and Mr. Young raised a second action 
 against the Presbytery of Auchterarder, to recover 
 damages, laid at £16,000 (876,800), by way of 
 compensation for the injury sustained by the patron 
 and presentee, in consequence of Mr. Young's re- 
 jection. The Court of Sessions found this action 
 relevant, and on the 9th of August, 1842, the House 
 of Lords, sitting as a court of appeals, confirmed 
 the judgment, and declared that damages were 
 recoverable by the pursuers. /A variety of other 
 cases followed, in which the civil courts, sustained 
 by the House of Lords, assumed the entire con- 
 trol of the church in matters purely spiritual and 
 ecclesiastical. To enter into them in full is not 
 necessary, but we insert, from a protest drawn up 
 by Dr. Chalmers, the several points in which the 
 civil power assumed the government of the church. 
 
 They assumed, — 
 
 1. That the courts of the Church by law estab- 
 lished, and members thereof, are liable to be co- 
 erced by the civil courts, in the exercise of their 
 spiritual functions, and in particular in the ad- 
 
THE FREE CHURCH. 143 
 
 mission to the holy ministry and the constitution 
 of the pastoral relation, and that they are subject 
 to be compelled to intrude ministers on the re- 
 claiming congregations, in opposition to the fun- 
 damental principles of the church, their views 
 of the Word of God, and to the liberties of 
 Christ's people. 
 
 2. That the said civil courts have power to 
 interfere with and interdict the preaching of the 
 gospel and administration of the ordinances as 
 authorized and enjoined by the church courts 
 of the Establishment. 
 
 3. That the said civil courts have power to 
 suspend spiritual censures, pronounced by the 
 church courts of the Establishment, against min- 
 isters and probationers of the church, and to in- 
 terdict their execution as to spiritual effects, func- 
 tions, and privileges. 
 
 4. That the said civil courts have power to re- 
 duce and set aside the sentences of the church 
 courts of the Establishment deposing ministers 
 from the office of the holy ministry, and depriving 
 probationers of their license to preach the gospel, 
 with reference to the spiritual status, functions, 
 and privileges of such ministers and probationers, 
 restoring them to the spiritual office and status 
 of which the church courts had deprived them. 
 
 5. That the said civil courts have power to de- 
 termine on the right to sit as members of the 
 
144 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 supreme and other judicatories of the church by 
 law established, and to issue interdicts against 
 sitting and voting therein, irrespective of the judg- 
 ment and determination of said judicatories. 
 
 6. That the said civil courts have power to su- 
 persede the majority of a church court of the Es- 
 tablishment, in regard to the exercise of its spirit- 
 ual functions as a church court, and to authorize 
 the minority to exercise the said functions, in op- 
 position to the court itself, and to the superior 
 judicatories of the Establishment. 
 
 7. That the said civil courts have power to stay 
 processes of discipline pending before courts of the 
 church by law established, and to interdict such 
 courts from proceeding therein. 
 
 8. That no pastor of a congregation can be ad- 
 mitted into the church courts of the Establish- 
 ment, and allowed to rule as well as to teach, 
 agreeably to the institution of the office by the 
 Head of the church, nor to sit in any of the judi- 
 catories of the church, inferior or supreme, and 
 that no additional provision can be made for the 
 exercise of spiritual discipline among the mem- 
 bers of the church, though not affecting any patri- 
 monial interest, and no alteration introduced in 
 the state of pastoral superintendence and spirit- 
 ual discipline in any parish, without the sanction 
 of a civil court. 
 
 So far as I am able to determine, these allcga- 
 
 ivi Aj 
 
THE FREE CHURCH. 145 
 
 tions are sustained by the facts in the history of 
 the case. 
 
 " All which jurisdiction and power, on the part 
 of the said civil courts " (say the protest-ants) 
 u severally above specified, whatever proceedings 
 may have given occasion to its exercise, is in our 
 opinion in itself inconsistent with Christian lib- 
 erty, and with the authority which the Head of 
 the church lias conferred on the church alone." 
 
 Immense efforts were made by Dr. Chalmers 
 and the leading members of the Established 
 Church to prevent a collision. Committee after 
 committee visited London to confer with the min- 
 istry and the most prominent members of parlia- 
 ment Their hopes were excited both by the Whig 
 and the Tory party, but all were destined to end 
 in utter disappointment. Both ministry and par- 
 liament were inexorable. Lords Brougham and 
 Cottenham, and indeed I believe all the law lords, 
 were against them, holding distinctly that the 
 civil power had this authority over an Established 
 Church. At last it became evident that those 
 who supported the doctrine of non-intrusion must 
 submit the church to the will of the civil courts, 
 in matters purely spiritual and ecclesiastical, or 
 they must leave the church and resign their bene- 
 fices. They at once chose the latter alternative. 
 
 The fact of the disruption is in itself so inter- 
 esting that it is well worth insertion. The an- 
 10 
 
146 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 nual meeting of the General Assembly for the 
 year 1843 arrived^) The day, May 18th, came for 
 the opening of the Assembly, and all Edinburgh 
 was thronged with visitors, all expecting that be- 
 fore the sun should set some act involving the 
 clearest interests of the church would take place. 
 After some preliminary proceedings, Dr. Welsh, 
 the moderator, entered and took the chair. Soon 
 afterwards his Grace the Lord High Commis- 
 sioner was announced, and the whole Assembly 
 rose and received him standing. Solemn prayer 
 was then offered up. The members having re- 
 sumed their seats, Dr. Welsh rose. By the eager 
 pressure forward, the " Hush ! hush ! " that burst 
 forth from so many lips, the anxiety to ^liear 
 threatened to defeat itself. The disturbance lasted 
 but a moment. " Fathers and brethren," said 
 Dr. Welsh, — and now every syllable fell upon the 
 ear amid the breathless silence that prevailed, — 
 " according to the usual form of procedure, this 
 is the time for making up the roll. But in conse- 
 quence of certain proceedings affecting our rights 
 and privileges, proceedings which have been sanc- 
 tioned by her Majesty's government and by the 
 legislature of the country, and more especially 
 in respect that there has been an infringement on 
 the liberties of our constitution, so that we could 
 not now constitute this court without a violation 
 of the terms of union between church and state 
 
THE FREE CnURCII. 1-17 
 
 in this land as now authoritatively declared, I pro- 
 test against our proceeding further. The reasons 
 which have led me to come to this conclusion are 
 fully set forth in the document which I hold in my 
 hand, and which, with the permission of the house, 
 I will now proceed to read." After reiterating 
 the injuries which had led to the present crisis, 
 he closed as follows : " We protest that in the cir- 
 cumstances in which we are placed it is and shall 
 be lawful for us, and such other commissioners 
 chosen to the Assembly appointed to have been 
 this day holclen as may this day concur with us, 
 to withdraw to a separate place of meeting for 
 the purpose of taking steps along with all who 
 adhere to us, maintaining with us the confession 
 of faith and the standards of the Church of Scot- 
 land, for separating in an orderly way from the 
 Establishment, and therefore adopting such meas- 
 ures as may be competent to us, in humble de- 
 pendence on God's grace and the aid of the Holy 
 Spirit, for the advancement of his glory, the ex- 
 tension of the gospel of our Lord and Saviour, 
 and the administration of the affairs of the Lord's 
 house according to his holy word ; and we now 
 withdraw accordingly, humbly and solemnly ac- 
 knowledging the hand of the Lord in the things 
 that have come upon us because of our manifold 
 sins, and the sins of our church and nation ; but 
 at the same time with assured conviction that we 
 
1-18 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 are not responsible for any consequences that may 
 follow from this our enforced separation from an 
 Establishment which we loved and prized, through 
 interference with conscience, the dishonor done to 
 Christ's crown, and the rejection of his sole and 
 supreme authority as King in the church." 
 
 Having finished the reading of this protest, Dr. 
 Welsh laid it on the table, turned and bowed 
 respectfully to the Commissioner, left the chair, 
 and proceeded along the aisle to the door of the 
 church. Dr. Chalmers had been standing imme- 
 diately on his left. He looked vacant and ab- 
 stracted while it was being read, but Dr. Welsh's 
 movement awakened him from his revery. Seiz- 
 ing eagerly his hat, he hurried after him with all 
 the air of one impatient to be gone. Mr. Camp- 
 bell of Menzie, Dr. Gordon, Dr. Macfarlane, Dr. 
 McDonald followed him. The effect upon the 
 audience was overwhelming. At first a cheer 
 burst forth from the galleries, but it was almost 
 instantaneously and spontaneously restrained. It 
 was felt by all to be an expression of feeling un- 
 suited to the occasion. It was checked in many 
 cases by an emotion too deep for any other utter- 
 ance than the fall of sad and silent tears. The 
 whole audience was now standing gazing in still- 
 ness upon the scene. Man after man, row after 
 row, moved all along the aisle, till the benches on 
 the left, lately so crowded, showed scarce an oc- 
 
THE FREE CHURCH. 149 
 
 cupant. More than four hundred ministers and 
 a still larger number of elders had withdrawn. 
 Thus was the Established Church of Scotland 
 rent in twain, and the Free Church called into 
 being. 
 
 Lord Jeffrey was sitting reading in his quiet 
 room when one burst upon him, saying, " Well, 
 what do you think of it ? more than four hundred 
 of them are actually out." The book was flung 
 aside, and springing to his feet, Lord Jeffrey ex- 
 claimed, "I'm proud of my country ! There's 
 not another country upon earth where such a 
 deed could have been done." 
 
 The non-intrusionists at once repaired to a large 
 hall that had been previously prepared, and im- 
 mediately organized themselves into a General 
 Assembly by choosing Dr. Chalmers moderator by 
 acclamation. They proceeded to business imme- 
 diately, and took such measures as were necessary 
 for the establishment and perpetuity of a Presby- 
 terian Church of Scotland. They continued in 
 session about a fortnight, engaged in deep and 
 earnest deliberation, and their proceedings were 
 marked by great forethought, determined purpose, 
 and entire unanimity. 
 
 The position of Dr. Chalmers on this occasion ~"T 
 was such as rarely falls to the lot of man. Here 
 were more than five hundred ministers who by 
 one act had relinquished their churches, their 
 
150 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 houses of residence, their means of support, and 
 who with their families were cast helpless on the 
 world. Nor was this all ; they had incurred the 
 dislike if not the scorn of the large majority of 
 the upper classes, who could not possibly under- 
 stand the principles by which they were gov- 
 erned. These men had followed Dr. Chalmers 
 because they believed him to be right, and still 
 they looked to him as their truest friend, and by 
 far their most powerful advocate. He felt the 
 responsibility of his situation in his inmost soul, 
 and though worn out by previous labors, and of 
 course, like the rest of them, deprived of his office, 
 he threw his whole being into the cause. It was 
 necessary to build five hundred churches, and a 
 manse for each, to raise a fund to aid in the sup- 
 port of the churches which then were feeble, to 
 erect school-houses, to establish a college and the- 
 ological seminary, and to support their missions 
 abroad. The undertaking seemed hopeless. But 
 few of the rich or noble were his friends, or the 
 friends of the undertaking. Most of his once 
 cherished associates of the upper classes looked 
 upon him as a disturber of the peace, and almost 
 as a rebel against the government. His hope was 
 in God, who does not desert a righteous cause, 
 and on the middling classes, and the poor, from 
 whom God commonly selects his chosen ones. 
 j Before the disruption took place Be had done 
 
 
the free cnuRcn. 151 
 
 what was practicable to prepare for it. The fact 
 that five hundred ministers for conscience sake had 
 made such sacrifices, aroused the feeling of good 
 men everywhere, and specially in Scotland. He 
 was appointed convener of the committee on the 
 sustentation fund, and before the close of the first 
 session of the Assembly he was able to report that 
 six hundred and eighty-seven associations had been 
 formed for the support of the ministry, two hun- 
 dred and thirty were in full operation, and had 
 already transmitted to the treasury £17,000 ($81,- 
 600) ; and he added that if the remaining associa- 
 tions acted with the same liberality, the collections 
 would amount to £74,000 ($855,200) per year. 
 
 In one week, £ 16,578 ($79,574) had been col- 
 lected from associations, for the fund for building 
 churches, which, added to v the larger donations 
 from individuals for this object, made previous 
 to the disruption, presented a no less sum than 
 £104,776 ($502,924) already available for the use 
 of the building committee. Dr. Chalmers was 
 encouraged by this beginning, but to him it was 
 only the beginning. He says, " We shall not stop 
 short, I trust, in our great and glorious enterprise, 
 till, in language you have already heard, the light 
 of the gospel be carried to every cottage door within 
 the limits of the Scottish territory. This will open 
 a boundless field for the liberality of our Christian 
 brethren ; a bright and beautiful ulterior to which 
 
1,52 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 every eye should be directed, that each may have 
 in full view the great and glorious achievement 
 of a church commensurate with the land in which 
 Ave dwell ; and every heart be animated with the 
 magnificent aim, to cover it with the requisite 
 number of churches, and, with God's blessing on 
 the means, Christianly to educate, and, in return 
 for our performance and prayers, to Christianize 
 the whole of Scotland." Thus far-reaching and 
 expansive were his views, and thus did the great 
 object of his life give coloring and direction to 
 every effort. He had been obliged, for con- 
 science sake, to leave the Establishment ; he was 
 laboring to organize and sustain another church 
 which had grown out of the disruption ; but also 
 he had never forgotten the object to which in early 
 days he had consecrated his life, to raise to their 
 appropriate level the degraded masses of Scotland, 
 by carrying the gospel, witli the influences of the 
 Spirit, to every family of the land. 
 
 During the first year of the Free Church the 
 sufferings of many of the ministers were extreme. 
 These were all borne, however, in the spirit of men 
 who chose rather to suffer affliction with the peo- 
 ple of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for 
 a season. To relieve their distresses Dr. Chal- 
 mers left no effort unemployed. He seized every 
 opportunity fbr making tours over Scotland, and 
 to call men of every rank to their aid. At the 
 
THE FREE CHURCH. 153 
 
 next annual meeting of the Free Church Assembly, 
 the reports were yet more encouraging. The mis- 
 sionaries in foreign stations had, without excep- 
 tion, declared their adhesion to the Free Church. 
 For their support the Free Church, in addition to 
 her other expenditures, appropriated .£32,000 
 ($158,600), a sum greater by £12,000 ($57,600) 
 than had been raised by the undivided church the 
 year before the disruption. In the first year of 
 its existence, the church, which at its commence- 
 ment numbered 470 clergymen, had erected 500 
 churches; and yet the work of church-building 
 was far from finished, for the people had forsaken 
 the Establishment in a much higher ratio as to 
 numbers than the ministers, and more than 700 
 churches were required to accommodate the con- 
 gregations who were ready to attach themselves 
 to the Free Church. As many as 114 candidates 
 had been ordained in the course of the year, add- 
 ing nearly one-fourth to the number of ministers. 
 Setting aside the generous aid rendered by stran- 
 gers, upwards of £300,000 ($1,440,000) had been 
 contributed by a community which at that time 
 could not embrace so much as one-third of the 
 people of Scotland. 
 
 In 1844, Dr. Chalmers was obliged by increas- 
 ing infirmity to withdraw from public labor in 
 the Assembly of the Free Church. He however 
 lived to witness its progress to the close of its 
 
 20 
 
154 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 fourth year. The result at this time is worthy 
 of the deepest consideration. Here was a Ohrife 
 tian community not of the wealthiest classes, upon 
 which 470 clergymen had suddenly been thrown, 
 and which had not only accepted and fulfilled the 
 obligation to sustain them, but in four years had 
 added 250 more to the regular ministry which it 
 upheld. At a cost of £450,000 (82,160,000) it had 
 erected churches for all its congregations, and in 
 addition to this had subscribed £100,000 ($480,- 
 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 ($1,440) to £400 
 (81,920) per annum was attached. It had 340 
 students under education for the holy office, among 
 whom bursaries and scholarships to the amount of 
 £700 (83,360) had been distributed in a single 
 year. By one effort it had raised £50,000 ($240,- 
 000) for the erection of 500 school-houses, and it 
 had already connected with it about 600 schools, 
 in which nearly as many children were instructed 
 in the ordinary branches of education as were in 
 attendance at all the endowed parochial schools 
 in Scotland. For the teaching and training of 
 schoolmasters it had two extensive normal estab- 
 lishments, one in Glasgow, the other in Edin- 
 burgh. At home, 110 licentiates and 116 cat- 
 echists were engaged in the spiritual instruction 
 of the people, while abroad it had agents in every 
 
THE FREE CHURCH. 155 
 
 quarter of the habitable globe. At Perth, at Jassy, 
 at Berlin, at Constantinople, seventeen mission- 
 aries and assistants were endeavoring to promote 
 the conversion of the Jews. At Calcutta, Madras, 
 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 teach- 
 ers and assistants, both native and European, 
 from whom 4,000 Indian children were receiving 
 a complete Christian education. In Nova Scotia, 
 the Canadas, the West Indies, the Cape, Aus- 
 tralia, Madeira, Malta, Leghorn, and Gibraltar, 
 there were ministers supported in whole or in 
 part by the bounty of the Free Church, while 
 £1000 ($4,800) per annum had been intrusted to 
 the evangelical societies of France and of Geneva, 
 to aid in the circulation of the gospel over the con- 
 tinent of Europe. In 1847 the Free Church raised 
 for educational and missi onary purposes three t imes 
 as much as the United Church of Scotland did in 
 1843, the year of the disruption. It had contin- 
 ued for loTiT'years to yield the princely revenue of 
 £300,000 (11,440,000), and in that short period 
 had contributed about a million and a half pounds 
 to the Christian cause. All this was done by a 
 church which commenced in 1843, stripped of 
 everything but a pure conscience and a solemn 
 determination to lose everything rather than the 
 
156 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 favor of God. I do not know that the history of 
 the world records an instance of more noble lib- 
 erality, or an instance in which simple trust in 
 God has received a richer and more signal re- 
 ward. Here was a community only four years 
 old, which had already attained the standing of 
 an old, intelligent, zealous, and most successful 
 church of Christ. Of the part which Dr. Chal- 
 mers took in this Herculean work, I suppose 
 Were he present he would only allow us to say 
 with the apostle, "I labored more abundantly 
 than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God 
 which was with me." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 dr. Chalmers's labors at the west port. 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING the great success of 
 Dr. Chalmers in his labors for the Free 
 Church, he was not satisfied with the re- 
 sults. He had looked at the whole popu- 
 lation of Scotland, and made himself ac- 
 quainted with its gigantic evils. He had hoped 
 to arrest a general decline by arousing to Christian 
 action the whole population. To accomplish this 
 purpose he had commenced the effort in the Es- 
 tablished Church to multiply churches, and thus 
 to scatter thickly over the land the means of 
 grace. He hoped to see the whole of Scotland 
 divided into parishes of a manageable size, and 
 each parish subdivided into districts, and each 
 district confided to the care of a deacon, elder, 
 or some other active Christian, who should estab- 
 lish Sabbath schools, and carry the gospel to every 
 one of its families. It was a noble conception and 
 worthy of the man. He was proceeding in this 
 work with his characteristic ardor, and had al- 
 ready reported the erection of 222 churches, when 
 his efforts were arrested by the rise of the non- 
 157 
 
t 
 
 158 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 intrusion controversy. He found that he might be 
 laboring to no purpose. He at once asked him- 
 self, Of what use will it be to multiply churches, 
 if their spiritual and ecclesiastical affairs are to 
 be governed, not by the New Testament, but by 
 the arbitrary decisions of the Court of Session?. 
 He then looked to the Free Church. He had 
 been obliged for conscience sake to abandon the 
 Established Church and take the lead in organ- 
 izing one which, receiving no emolument from 
 the state, would be free to govern itself simply by 
 the laws of the gospel. He had seen, if we mis- 
 take not, as many as 700 churches erected for the 
 ministers of that Church, yet these were but 
 sparsely scattered over the moral waste, and prob- 
 ably their faith and zeal and hope were far differ- 
 ent from his. They were so much engaged in 
 reorganizing their churches, and settling down to 
 their former positions, and having everything ac- 
 cording to the immemorial usages of the Kirk of 
 Scotland, that they in some degree forgot their 
 character as ministers of what Dr. Chalmers glo- 
 ried in considering a missionary church. Besides, 
 if an outsider might be permitted to hazard an 
 opinion, he had greatly erred in the principles 
 which lay at the foundation of the sustentation 
 fund. It was so managed that a minister might 
 look to that for his support, instead of relyimg on 
 his efforts, by the aid of the Spirit, to bring under 
 
LABORS AT WEST PORT. 159 
 
 the influences of the gospel the impenitent around 
 him. 
 
 What then was Dr. Chalmers to do? To the 
 public and executive labors which he had thus far 
 performed he felt himself wholly unequal. The 
 great object of his life had not been realized, nor 
 did he perceive those tendencies in operation 
 which would insure its accomplishment. The gos- 
 pel for all the families of Scotland had been the 
 motto of his life. He could no more surrender 
 it than he could cease to exist. If his general 
 efforts, though apparently successful, had not ac- 
 complished all that he expected, was he to give 
 up the work in despair ? That was not the nature 
 of the man. To this object he had devoted his 
 life, and he must labor at it till death. He at 
 once looked at the subject from an opposite point 
 of view. What could not be done in the mass, 
 might be done in detail. Though he could not 
 work a reformation in the whole of Scotland, he 
 might, by the grace of God, do it for a particular 
 and definite portion. He could thus show what 
 the gospel could do, if brought home in love and 
 faith to the hearts of individual men. The Chris- 
 tian world would then see what a power it held 
 in its hands, and might also learn the means by 
 which this power is to be exerted. Pie was thus 
 brought, in consequence of his past disappoint- 
 ments, to adopt the very rule which the Saviour 
 
100 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 has made known for the extension of the cause of 
 Christ: " The kingdom of heaven is like leaven 
 which a woman took and hid in three measures of 
 meal, until the whole was leavened" We know 
 the nature of this process. Each atom of leaven is 
 brought into contact with a particle of unleavened 
 meal. This last becomes leavened, and it affects 
 the atom next it, and thus onward, until the whole 
 mass becomes leavened. Preaching is good, but it 
 may be so performed that but a small portion of 
 the masses ever hear it ; so that few of those who 
 hear understand it ; and of those who understand 
 it, a still smaller portion ever dream of being influ- 
 enced by its utterances, if indeed its utterances be 
 of such a nature as clearly to tend to any practical 
 result. It is when the minister simply and ear- 
 nestly tells men of their clanger, and urges them 
 in penitence and faith to accept of the offers of the 
 gospel, and carries his message to individuals at 
 their homes, and when each of his brethren, fol- 
 lowing his example, leavens the mass immediately 
 around him, that the power of the gospel is man- 
 ifested. If the church of Christ acted everywhere 
 on this principle, the kingdoms of this world would 
 soon become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his 
 Christ, 
 
 Dr. Chalmers determined at once his mode of 
 action. Writing to a friend on this subject, he 
 says, " Indulge me if I feel encouraged to state 
 
LABORS AT WEST PORT. 1G1 
 
 the grievous spiritual destitution of the thousands 
 and tens of thousands in all our large towns who 
 are utter strangers to all the habitual decencies of 
 a Christian land. I could not in my own individ- 
 ual strength, even though aided by the means and 
 energies of all my acquaintances, ever think of 
 coping with this enormous evil en masse, or in all 
 its magnitude and entireness. I feel very confi- 
 dent as to the likeliest steps by which, piecemeal 
 and successively, the whole even of this great and 
 growing evil might be overtaken. But the most 
 that I can personally undertake to do is, to work 
 off one model or normal specimen of the process 
 by wliich a single locality might be reclaimed 
 from this vast and desolate wilderness ; and after 
 the confirmation of my views by a made-out expe- 
 rience of this sort, pressing it on the imitation 
 of all other philanthropists of all other localities, — 
 such do I hold to be the efficiency of the method, 
 with the divine blessing, that perhaps^as the con- 
 cluding act of my public life, I shall make the 
 effort to exemplify what as yet I have only ex- 
 pounded. I attach to this enterprise so much 
 importance, that now I have done all I can for 
 the Free Church at large, I mean to give up all 
 general business, and with God's help will devote 
 my remaining strength to the special object which 
 I have now explained." 
 
 Preparatory to the commencement of this effort, 
 11 
 
lbZ MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 he delivered four public lectures in Edinburgh, in 
 which, with all the freshness of his youthful daj^s, 
 he explained the principles on which he intended 
 to proceed, and especially urged the importance of 
 building a place of worship for each degraded dis- 
 trict. But as the church must of necessity belong 
 to some one denomination, and as under his care 
 it would naturally belong to the Free Church, it 
 might seem to some that he was merely laboring 
 to promote the extension of the sect with which 
 he was so intimately connected. It was on this 
 occasion that, rising far above the petty distinc- 
 tion of rival denominations, he uttered with the 
 most fervid eloquence these memorable words : 
 
 T^^YVho cares for the Free Church compared with 
 the Christian good of the people of Scotland ? 
 Who cares about any church but as an instru- 
 ment of Christian good ? for be assured, that the 
 moral and religious well-being of the population 
 is of infinitely higher importance than the ad- 
 vancement of any sect." It were well if these 
 sentiments were adopted by every disciple of 
 Christ. 
 
 Dr. Chalmers proceeded to select a portion of 
 Edinburgh, which should present the most deci- 
 sive evidence of the truth or falsehood of his the- 
 ory, and the practicableness of his plans of reform. 
 Some years since the whole civilized world was 
 startled by the discovery of a kind of atrocity in 
 
LABORS AT WEST POET. 1G3 
 
 Edinburgh that had never before been heard of. 
 A miscreant by the name of Burk, with one or 
 two associates, had been in the habit of alluring to 
 their den vagrants, whom they first intoxicated 
 and then murdered, and whose bodies they then 
 sold to surgeons for dissection. A crime so un- 
 heard of, thrilled the land with horror, and marked 
 out the district in which they were committed as 
 the opprobrium of Christendom. By an accurate 
 survey, it was found that the main street and its 
 adjoining wynds contained 411 families ; of which 
 45 were attached to some Christian communion, 
 TO were Roman Catholics, and 29G had no con- 
 nection with any church whatever. Out Of a 
 gross population of 2,000, three-fourths of the 
 whole, or about 1,500 of the inhabitants, were liv- 
 ing within the sound of many a Sabbath bell, and, 
 with an abundance of contiguous church accom- 
 modation were lost to all the habits and all the de- 
 cencies of a Christian life. In these families the 
 number of children capable of attending school 
 was only 411, and of these 290 were growing up 
 altogether untaught. The physical and moral 
 condition of this community was deplorable ; one- 
 fourth were paupers on the poor roll, and one- 
 fourth were street beggars, thieves, and prosti- 
 tutes. When Mr. Tasker, who was afterwards 
 their minister, made his first visits to some of the 
 filthiest closes (alleys), it was no uncommon thing 
 
1G-4 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 for him to find from twenty to thirty men, women, 
 and children huddled together in one putrid dwell- 
 ing, lying indiscriminately on the floor, waiting 
 for the return of the bearer of some well-con- 
 cocted begging letter, or the coming on of that 
 darkness under which they might easily sally out 
 to earn the purchase-money of renewed debauchery. 
 On one occasion he entered a tenement with from 
 twelve to twenty apartments, where every man and 
 woman were so drunk that they could not hear 
 their own squalid children crying in vain to them 
 for food. He purchased some bread for the chil- 
 dren, and entering a few minutes after a neigh- 
 boring dram-shop, he found a half-drunk mother 
 driving a bargain for more whiskey, with the very 
 bread which her famishing children should have 
 eaten. He went once to a funeral and found the 
 assembled company all so drunk around the 
 corpse that he had to go and beg some sober 
 neighbors to come and carry the coffin to the 
 grave. These were extreme cases, indicative, how- 
 ever, of a deep and general moral corruption. 
 This was the West Port; the district which Dr. 
 Chalmers selected as the place in which he might 
 display to Christian people the efficacy of the 
 gospel of Christ. 
 
 It was indeed a formidable enterprise ; to many 
 it would have seemed altogether hopeless, to come 
 into close quarters with such a population. Aid- 
 
LABORS AT WEST PORT. ■ 165 
 
 ed, however, by that band of zealous associates 
 which his public lectures, and the many private 
 interviews by which they were followed up, had 
 gathered around him, he went hopefully forward. 
 
 The plan of operations laid down by him was 
 sufficiently simple, but it needed zeal, regularity, 
 and devoted perseverence to carry it into execu- 
 tion. 
 
 The West Port was divided into twenty dis- 
 tricts, containing each about twenty families. Over 
 each of these districts a visitor was appointed, 
 whose duty it was to visit once a week all the fam- 
 ilies committed to his care, by all such attention 
 and services as he could offer to win their good-will 
 and by reading the Scriptures, and distributing 
 tracts, by entering into conversation, and by engag- 
 ing in prayer, to promote, as fit openings were 
 given, their spiritual welfare. A printed slip drawn 
 up by Dr. Chalmers was to be left in every house 
 by each visitor, explaining the object of his pres- 
 ent and future calls. The purpose of the visitor 
 is thus explained. He declares that his main rea- 
 son for visiting them, and what he chiefly seeks 
 after, is the good of never-dying souls, and that 
 he feels it to be his duty to seek for the good of 
 theirs ; that the rich and the poor are too widely 
 separated, and he desires by kind offices to render 
 them more acquainted with each other ; that he 
 desires the education of their families, and that a 
 
1G6 MEMOIR OF DR CHALMERS. 
 
 good school will soon be opened for their children, 
 and as the gospel is needed for all, a church for 
 their own use will soon be erected among them, 
 and Sunday schools on Sunday evenings estab- 
 lished for them and their children ; and, lastly, 
 that in this work for their good he expects them 
 to be co-workers with him, and that those who do 
 not need his aid will unite with him in extending 
 aid to others. 
 
 The arrangements were thus made, the visitors 
 engaged, the districts defined, and the work of 
 visiting commenced. Which department of this 
 multiform and varied aggregation of wickedness 
 and pollution should be attacked first? for Dr. 
 Chalmers intended in the course of his labors to 
 attack it all, and render the reformation thorough. 
 As the demand for education precedes that for 
 spiritual instruction, he determined as a first step 
 to open a school somewhere in the West Port, and 
 the visitors were advised to pay particular atten- 
 tion to the children, and to persuade the parents 
 to send their children to the school which would 
 ere long be opened in some convenient place. 
 
 In the prosecution of this plan there were two 
 points to which he attached special importance. 
 To protect the purity of the enterprise, he was most 
 anxious that his agents should not become almo- 
 ners, and should dispense as little money as pos- 
 sible among the poor. In illustration of his views, 
 
LABORS AT WEST PORT. 167 
 
 he related his own experience. When he under- 
 took his visitation of the Tron parish, he at once 
 plunged into the regions where wretchedness and 
 misery abounded. "What surprised him most was the 
 apparent interest and cordiality with which he was 
 received. There was even a competition for him, 
 each one wanting him to come to their own house. 
 " But I soon found," says he, " that I was thought 
 to have great influence in the city charities, and 
 I found that this was the subject which they con- 
 stantly broached, whenever they got me into their 
 houses. I saw that this would vitiate my influ- 
 ence among them. I saw that it would never do 
 if I were to go among them first as a dispenser 
 of temporal good things, and then as urging upon 
 them the things which make for their everlasting 
 peace. I felt the want of compatibility between 
 the two objects, and I determined to cut my con- 
 nection with them all. I let the people under- 
 stand that I dealt only in one article, and that if 
 they valued the advantages of Christian instruc- 
 tion, they were welcome to all that I could do for 
 them. Thus I disabused them of the notion that 
 I had an inexhaustible treasury to dispose of, and, 
 if it was necessary, let them know that if I did any- 
 thing pecuniarily for them, it must be at my own 
 expense, and I was not very rich. The effect of 
 this frankness between me and the people was, 
 
1G8 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 that, if there was any difference, they received me 
 more cordially than ever." 
 
 Dr. Chalmers carried this principle throughout 
 with unflinching tenacity of purpose. He said, 
 " Besides, I had an elder, a person of great benev- 
 olence, but not so discriminating in this respect 
 as I should have liked. When I instituted the 
 Sabbath-school system, it was reported to me that 
 he was devising, and had gone a considerable 
 length in forming a local Sabbath-school clothing 
 society, for the parish of St. Johns. ' Sir,' said I 
 to* him, 'your society will blast our Sabbath-school 
 enterprise. I wish to have 1,200 scholars ; do } r ou 
 mean to clothe all these ? ' ' No,' said he, ' only 
 the most necessitous.' 'Well,' said I, 'but all 
 these will wait their turn to be clothed, and we 
 shall get no more than a fraction. My object is 
 that they should come with the clothes they have 
 on ; so do not embarrass us with your society.' I 
 accordingly got the society knocked on the head. 
 You may go forth with perfect safety, having this 
 inscription on the front of your enterprise. Ed- 
 ucation for all; but what would be the effect if 
 you were to go forth with this inscription, Money 
 or meat for all. If you go forth with that inscrip- 
 tion, it will require but little effort on the part of 
 the people, by a trifle more of dissipation or of 
 indolence, to qualify themselves for relief in that 
 way." 
 
LABORS AT WEST PORT. 169 
 
 In the second place, he was strenuously opposed 
 to the proposition to make the education gratuitous. 
 " I do not think," said he to his visitors, " that you 
 will accomplish any permanent good for the popu- 
 lation, unless you enlist them as fellow-workers in, 
 or at least as fellow-contributors to, the cause. I 
 think that the great and radical error in the man- 
 agement of our population has just proceeded from 
 the idea, that they are utterly helpless and unable 
 to do anything for themselves. I want to train up 
 the families in the sentiment that education is 
 worth its price, and win them to the paying of that 
 price. I am unfriendly to gratuitous education, 
 nor do I wish that any of our agents or the people 
 themselves shall, in the imagination of our indefi- 
 nite resources, look for any relaxation of this system. 
 The lesson which I am continually giving out is, 
 that we shall not be able to do aught which is per- 
 manently effectual for the people's good, unless 
 they will lend a hand, and do something for them- 
 selves." 
 
 Dr. Chalmers held his first regular meeting with 
 his agents in Portsburgh Hall, an old court-house 
 within the bounds of the West Port, on Satur- 
 day evening, July 27, 1844. Having made their 
 weekly round among the families, the visitors were 
 to assemble here every Saturday evening, to give 
 in their reports, and to converse together about the 
 most effectual method of carrying on the enterprise 
 
170 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 upon which they had fairly embarked. At these 
 meetings Dr. Chalmers presided, and when pi\ - 
 vented by illness from attending, he addressed 
 notes to the chairman. In these he expresses his 
 interest in the object as greater than even in that 
 of the general church committees, and declares that 
 he never can abandon it until obliged by absolute 
 necessity. He asks to see the minutes made dur- 
 ing his necessary absence, and on reading them 
 expresses his joy at the progressive liking which they 
 feel for the families of their respective districts. 
 
 The time had now arrived for the opening of a 
 school. But where was a room to be obtained ? 
 The only place which could be secured was one 
 at the end of the very close down which Burk and 
 his associates had dragged their unconscious vic- 
 tims. Fronting that close, in which those horrid 
 murders had been committed, stood an old de- 
 serted tannery, whose upper store loft, approached 
 from without by a flight of projecting wooden 
 stairs, was selected as affording the best accommo- 
 dation that the neighborhood could supply. Low- 
 roofed and roughly-floored, its raw, unplastered 
 walls, pierced at irregular intervals with windows 
 of unshapely form, it had little either of the scho- 
 lastic or ecclesiastical in its aspect ; but never was 
 the true work of the school or the church done 
 better than in that old tannery-loft of the West 
 Port. 
 
LABORS AT WEST PORT. 171 
 
 Dr. Chalmers invited all the inhabitants of the 
 neighborhood to meet him there, on Wednesday, 
 Nov. 6. By this time the frequent calls of the 
 visitors had awakened a general curiosity, and the 
 invitation was accepted, the loft presenting a larger 
 assembly of what he called genuine West Porters 
 than he had met together for many years. Acting 
 upon the saying of Talleyrand, that " there is 
 nothing formidable in meeting with the very low- 
 est of the people, if you only treat them frankly," 
 Dr. Chalmers told them all that he and his friends 
 intended to do for them, and what he expected 
 them to do for themselves. He told them, in 
 homely but vigorous terms, that a school was to 
 be opened for their children, and that one of the 
 best teachers in the country had been obtained for 
 it, but that they must pay two pence a week for 
 each child's education ; that the article they were 
 to be supplied with was worth a great deal more 
 than that, and that they were quite able, and he 
 was sure would be quite willing, to pay that much 
 for it. The audience were quite delighted with 
 the address, and quite persuaded that they both 
 should and could do all that was required. 
 
 The school was opened with 64 day scholars and 
 57 evening scholars, Nov. 11th, 1844, and in the 
 course of a single year no fewer than 250 were in 
 attendance, and chiefly from West Port. 
 
 The educational part of the process having been 
 
172 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 thus fairly sot agoing, the higher and more diffi- 
 cult operation of bringing the adult part of the 
 population under regular spiritual instruction was 
 •commenced. On the forenoon of Sabbath, Dec. 
 22d, Dr. Chalmers opened the tannery-loft for 
 public worship. In the evening, however, when 
 the city missionary preached, the whole fruit of all 
 the visits, advices, and entreaties, that had been 
 lavished upon them, was an audience of about a 
 dozen adults, mostly old women. The prospect 
 was sufficiently discouraging. The services were, 
 however, regularly continued thrice in each Sab- 
 bath, and the private agencies were renewed. In 
 April, 1845, Dr. Chalmers was so fortunate as to 
 secure the services of Rev. Mr. Tasker, a gentle- 
 man eminently fitted for the station ; the attend- 
 ance grew under his ministry, and at the close of 
 the year the nucleus of a good congregation began 
 to appear. 
 
 The scheme, however, was obviously working at 
 a disadvantage so long as an apartment so diffi- 
 cult of access, and so rudely fitted up, formed at 
 once the school-room and the church. Ground 
 therefore was purchased, and all other needful 
 steps taken, for the erection, within the West Port, 
 of a church and a school-room. Meanwhile, under 
 the zealous ministry of Mr. Tasker, and with the 
 aid of those ladies and gentlemen who, with the 
 utmost devotedness, gave themselves to the work, 
 
LABORS AT WEST PORT. 173 
 
 all the different operations which the good of the 
 population required were carried on : a library, a 
 savings bank, a washing house, and a female in- 
 dustrial school, were all established and all suc- 
 ceeded. Dr. Chalmers preached frequently in the 
 loft, addressed several meetings of the inhabitants, 
 to explain to them the different parts of the scheme 
 as they were successively instituted, presided at 
 many of the agents' meetings, and was in fact the 
 central spring that set the whole machinery in 
 motion. 
 
 There may have been other works of his hands 
 on which a larger amount of labor was bestowed, 
 but there was none over which so many prayers 
 were offered. In his "Horse Sabbaticae," in which 
 on the Sabbath day he utters the deepest feelings 
 of his soul, he frequently makes mention of the 
 work at West Port as one of those which laid near- 
 est to his heart. His prayers for this object are 
 such as these : " Moving fearlessly onward, may I 
 obtain such possession of the West Port as that the 
 gospel of Jesus Christ shall have the moral ascend- 
 ency over a goodly number of its families. Let 
 me not forget the conquests of thine all-subduing 
 grace, and the preservations of thy faithful servants 
 in the history of the missions of other clays. And 
 in this, as well as in other work, let it be my care 
 to follow thee fully ; neither let me go up thither 
 unless thy presence and favor go along with me. 
 
174 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 We would give thee no rest until thou hast opened 
 the windows of heaven and caused righteousness to 
 run down that street like a mighty river ; and let 
 such a memorial of Christian philanthropy be set 
 up in that place, as to be a praise and example 
 both in the city of our habitation, and in the other 
 cities of our land." 
 
 Again, " my God, give me the power of order- 
 ing matters aright in the West Port; let all be 
 peace and harmony, and no confusion there. Direct 
 all my footsteps in that undertaking, and may I more 
 and more be made to abound in such suggestions 
 as thy Spirit will prompt and approve of. Let me 
 keep all the impulses of my own spirit under the 
 subjection of a presiding and circumspect wisdom. 
 And more especially, God, let me understand 
 thy will in regard to the right plan and perform- 
 ances of a female agency. May their work be 
 abundantly blessed and countenanced from on 
 high, and have a happy effect on the families. Let 
 me beware of mine being too much of a restraining 
 authority, and let me seek that all things be done 
 to edification, and all things be done decently and 
 in order." 
 
 Again, " Bestow upon me in larger measure and 
 proportion the grace which thou didst so plentifully 
 bestow upon the churches of Macedonia. Let it 
 spread abroad more and more among the sadly de- 
 ficient congregations of our Free Church. Do thou 
 
LABORS AT WEST PORT. 175 
 
 begin it even now among the families of the West 
 Port. Make them willing in the day of thy power, 
 that abounding in all that is good, they may abound 
 in this grace also. It is still bnt a day of small 
 things ; Oh, do thou brighten it onward even until 
 the latter-day glory. Cause the poorest to take 
 part in the fellowship of Christian charity." 
 
 Again, " And I pray not for myself alone, but for 
 him that labors in holy things among the families 
 of the West Port. Prosper, Lord, his medita- 
 tions on thy holy Word. Let me ever rejoice in 
 the endowments which thou hast pleased to bestow 
 upon him ; do thou guide and encourage him, 
 Lord. May he be enabled to wait upon thee with- 
 out distraction, and let him so minister that not 
 only his own profiting, but the profiting of those 
 under his charge, may appear unto all. Oh, may 
 he not only be saved himself, but may he be the 
 instrument of salvation to many, and may both he 
 and I be carried in safety and at length with tri- 
 umph to that prosperous consummation for which 
 we are jointly laboring." 
 
 These Christian efforts from time to time pro- 
 duced a gradually increasing effect. As the results 
 began more visibly to appear, the efforts of Chris- 
 tian friends were redoubled. Dr. Chalmers was 
 supplied not only with funds to build a church and 
 a school-room, but to purchase and fit up a tene- 
 ment of houses as model-houses for working-men, 
 
176 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 in which, at a low rent, additional means of clean- 
 liness and comfort were enjoyed. He could begin 
 to appeal tp what had already been done, to mani- 
 fest what could be accomplished in other places 
 by the use of the same means. " If," said he, 
 " the hundreds of Christian philanthropists in 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the thousands in 
 London, were, in little separate bands, to select their 
 •respective localities, and do the same thing, a 
 single decade of years might not pass away with- 
 out our being landed in the blessed result of a 
 better and happier generation." 
 
 At last, on the 19th of February, 1847, the West 
 Port church was opened for public worship by 
 Dr. Chalmers, and on the 25th of April he pre- 
 sided at the first sacrament administered within 
 its walls. On the following Monday, he said to 
 Mr. Tasker, "I have now got the desire of my 
 heart. The church is finished, the schools are 
 flourishing, our ecclesiastical machinery is about 
 complete, and all in good working order. God 
 has indeed heard my prayer, and I could noiv lay 
 down my head and die in peace." On the next clay 
 lie wrote to Mr. Lennox, of New York, as follows : 
 " I wish to communicate to you what to me is the 
 most joyful event of my life. I have been intent 
 for thirty years on the completion of a territorial 
 experiment, and I have now to bless God for the 
 consummation of it. Our church was opened on 
 
LABORS AT WEST PORT. 177 
 
 the 19th of February*, and in one month my anx- 
 ieties respecting an attendance have been set at 
 rest. Five-sixths of the sittings have been let, 
 but the best part of it is, that three-fourths of 
 these are from the West Port, a locality which 
 two years ago had not one in ten church-goers 
 from the whole population. I presided there on 
 Sabbath last over its first sacrament. There were 
 132 communicants, and 100 of them were from 
 the West Port." 
 
 Scarcely two years had elapsed, and yet how 
 great was the transformation ! When the work 
 began, the number attending all the places of wor- 
 ship did not exceed one-eighth of the whole pop- 
 ulation. In the new church, 300 sittings were 
 taken as soon as it was opened, and 100 were ad- 
 mitted to tha first communion. When the work 
 began, of those capable of education three-fourths 
 were not at school ; already, the ratio had been 
 reversed, and three-fourths were in regular attend- 
 ance. Many of these children were of the poorest 
 class, yet school-fees, amounting in the aggregate 
 to upward of £10 per annum, had been cheerfully 
 and gratefully paid by their parents. The change 
 was beginning to show itself in the outward ap- 
 pearance of the inhabitants. He says, " We have no 
 recollection of anything so sudden as the trans- 
 ition in the aspect of these girls, from the time of 
 their first raggedness as they were found running 
 
 12 
 
178 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 about the streets in that destitute locality, to the 
 personal cleanliness and respectability which they 
 now exhibit. Their appearance, indeed, is alto- 
 gether delightful. The boys have not made so 
 large an advance as the girls ; but altogether the 
 schools present a most attractive and delightful 
 spectacle. When we recollect that these poor 
 people have all the capacities of human spirits, 
 that they have talents, that they have imperishable 
 souls, that they arc on a full level of equality with 
 ourselves in all that is essential to man, and that we 
 have nothing to do but to go and do them justice, 
 and to give Tip the shameful neglect which we have 
 indulged toward the lower classes for half a centu- 
 ry, — I would say for almost a whole century, — it 
 is not to be told to what a height of advancement 
 morally, intellectually, and economically they are 
 capable of being raised, even in the present gen- 
 eration." 
 
 This opening of the church at West Port, and 
 the administration of the communion there, were 
 among Dr. Chalmers's last public acts. The com- 
 munion was in April ; on the 30th of the follow- 
 ing May he was called to receive his reward. God 
 permitted him to witness the commencement of 
 the realization of his fondest hopes. He saw this 
 lisgusting wilderness beginning to blossom like 
 the rose, and fruit first appearing from the seed 
 which he had sown with many tears and prayers ; 
 and having seen this he fell asleep. 
 
LABORS AT WEST PORT 179 
 
 There were some who not unnaturally feared 
 that his removal would be fatal to the success of 
 this great moral experiment which he had orig- 
 inated, and with such self-denying effort labored 
 to carry to completion. But it was not so. After 
 five years, under the admirable management of 
 Mr. Tasker, each year has witnessed an advanc- 
 ing progress. In its educational department the 
 work is complete. In the different male and 
 female day and evening schools, between 400 and 
 500 children are in attendance ; nor is it known 
 that there is a single child of a family resident 
 within the West Port that is not at school. Of 
 what other like district in this country could the 
 same be said, and by" what other instrumentality 
 could it have been accomplished ? It was the dis- 
 trict-visiting, and the zeal especially of those la- 
 dies by whom a special oversight of the children's 
 regular attendance at school was undertaken, by 
 which this great achievement has been mainly 
 accomplished. The habit of church attendance 
 has become as general and regular within the 
 West Port as it is in the best conditioned districts 
 of Edinburgh. The church is filled to overflow- 
 ing ; and while these pages (the Memoir by Dr. 
 Hanna) are going through the press, the people 
 of the West Port, who among themselves contrib- 
 uted no less than £100 for the building of this 
 church at first, are contributing at an equal rate 
 
180 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 for the erection of a gallery. During the last 
 year, besides meeting all the expenses necessary 
 for the support of Christian ordinances, amount- 
 ing to nearly £250 (81,200), the West Port con- 
 gregation has contributed £70 (8336) to mission- 
 ary and educational objects. 
 
 At the same cost, adds Dr. Hanna, among the 
 same class, within the same limits, and during the 
 same time, there never have been accomplished, 
 in this or any other land, anything like the 
 same educational and spiritual results. It stands 
 the only instance in which the depth of city igno- 
 rance and vice have been sounded to the very 
 bottom ; nor can the possibility of cleaning the 
 foul basement story of our social edifice be doubt- 
 ed any longer. How the spirit of the departed 
 would have rejoiced had he lived to witness what 
 the West Port now presents, and how gladly would 
 he have hailed every token that the lessons given 
 forth thereby were not likely to be lost. We know 
 how willingly he would have seen every other 
 thought of his heart and every other work of his 
 hands perish from the remembrance of his fellows, 
 if only the guiding light were followed, which this 
 example furnished, as the best method of raising 
 the sunken millions of our fellow-countrymen to 
 a higher level of character and comfort on earth, 
 and preparing them for glory, honor, and immor- 
 tality hereafter. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTER — DEATH. 
 
 AVING- thus briefly related some of the 
 most important facts in Dr. Chalmers's his- 
 tory, it seems proper, in conclusion, to pre- 
 sent some of the traits of his personal char- 
 acter. 
 
 Of the intellectual gifts of Dr. Chalmers it is 
 needless here to speak. There are few; writers of 
 the age whose productions are so voluminous, or 
 on a greater variety of subjects, or so universally 
 read and admired. In early life, he was highly 
 distinguished for his love of the mathematics, and 
 his successful prosecution of them. His attain- 
 ments in all the branches of natural philosophy, 
 especially of chemistry, were equally remarkable. 
 As we have seen, he lectured on mathematics and 
 chemistry at St. Andrews with high reputation when 
 quite a young man, while minister hi Kilmany. 
 Indeed, his mind seemed to turn in obedience 
 to his will to any subject that presented itself, 
 and it grasped almost every subject with equal 
 success, — one of the surest evidences of the high- 
 est type of human genius. 
 
 181 
 
182 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 One of the most remarkable of the elements of 
 his character was what I may perhaps denominate 
 a universal and tenderly susceptible sympathy 
 with everything that lives. He loved nature in 
 all her aspects with intense affection, and he 
 seemed to become almost a part of everything 
 he loved. "It is," said he once, "a curious faculty 
 that I have of magnifying things. Now I find no 
 difficulty in looking at this," a little tuft of tree- 
 moss which he held in his hand, " as if I were an 
 animalcule living there within it, and these little 
 fibres a great pine forest with fine green mounds 
 in it." As we may suppose, his love of scenery 
 was intense ; from the least to the greatest it all 
 delighted and excited him. In his garden he took 
 great pleasure, noticing every change with almost 
 the freshness and pleasure of a child. Coming 
 into the house one day, he said to his daughters, 
 " It's a noble instrument, a garden. I have just 
 counted all the things in flower in all the walks, 
 and there are just 320." He was always the first 
 to bring in the first snowdrop of the season, of 
 which flower he was passionately fond. The writer 
 well remembers walking with him through the 
 Edinburgh Botanical Garden, and the earnestness 
 with which he expatiated on the peculiar beauty 
 or the remarkable physical peculiarities of the 
 most noteworthy plants that came within our 
 view. 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTER — DEATH. 183 
 
 But Hj^as— the scenery of England and Scot- 
 land in which he particularly revelled. His vaca- 
 tions were generally spent-in-travelling, and in his 
 journeys he selected not the most direct but the 
 most picturesque routes. On one of his excur- 
 sions he said to a friend that he intended to accom- 
 plish the resolution which he had formed, of tak- 
 ing a view of the country from the steeple of every 
 cathedral in England. The views remarkable for 
 beauty or sublimity which came within his reach 
 1. ■ sought after without regard to fatigue, or any 
 form of personal annoyance. And it was his 
 habit to find out every spot of singular beauty in 
 the vicinity of his residence, and he could never 
 be at ease until he had led his visitors from abroad 
 to admire the scenery in which he took so much 
 delight. And what is the more to be remarked, 
 these scenes which he gazed upon with absorbing 
 delight seemed engraved on his recollection for- 
 ever. The effect of this habit is very manifest in 
 his style. It furnished him with unlimited rich- 
 ness of illustration, and enlivened every descrip- 
 tion of nature with a graphic vividness which is 
 rarely to be found in the same degree in any other 
 writer. His hearers seem unconsciously to be 
 transported to the very scene which he describes ; 
 they see with his eyes, they hear with his ears, 
 and they sympathize with him in the intense emo- 
 tion which seemed almost to overmaster him. 
 
184 MEMOIR OF DR. CTIALMERS. 
 
 Those who are familiar with his works will read- 
 ily remember the vivid and life-like character 
 which this peculiarity impresses upon several of 
 his finest passages. 
 
 But this mysterious element of sympathy was 
 exhibited in its greatest power in his relations 
 with humanity. His love for man was intense, 
 and he felt that every human being was his brother. 
 "Wherever he happened to be visiting, his attention 
 was always directed to the children. He was the 
 playmate of his own children, and not unfrequently 
 was found by his visitors romping with them like 
 one of their playmates. He felt himself one with 
 all the thousands of outcasts with whom he became 
 acquainted in his pastoral visitations. In them 
 he saw the degraded masses throughout his native 
 country, and he imposed upon himself the labor 
 of attempting to elevate and renew jhem with a 
 self-devotion that ended only with his life. This 
 moved him to his labors at Kilmany. It increased 
 in power, as with his own eyes he beheld the misery 
 which festered in the Tron parish and in St. 
 Johns. This established the Sabbath school in St. 
 Andrews, and stimulated him to those labors which 
 led to so glorious a result. It was the hope of 
 filling Scotland with Christian institutions that 
 strengthened him to labor until he saw 222 
 churches erected for the Establishment. In the 
 hope that the Free Church would accomplish this 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTER — DEATH. 185 
 
 object, even in declining health he again put on 
 the harness, and did not lay it aside until he had 
 been the means of building 600 churches for its 
 accommodation. When he feared that the wish 
 of his heart would not be accomplished through 
 this latter agency, aged and feeble, but with un- 
 changed love for the fallen and degraded, if he 
 could not move the whole country, he resolved to 
 show what might be done by one example, and he 
 commenced his great missionary work at the West 
 Port. In its filthy alleys and dirty workshops he 
 spoke to these degraded men and women, with an 
 outpouring love and a tender earnestness, with 
 which not even his most admired efforts at the 
 Tron Church and St. Johns could be compared. 
 
 But his love and sympathy for man was unlim- 
 ited. He labored with every class and for every 
 class, and many of his intimate friends were among 
 the most distinguished men of the realm. In 
 Glasgow, in Edinburgh, and in London his congre- 
 gations were in a large part composed of the most 
 eminent men in the various departments of liter- 
 ary and social life. Men of science, men of learn- 
 ing, statesmen, lawyers, millionaires, when they 
 came within the sound of his voice, yielded at once 
 to the spell of his wonderful eloquence. They 
 felt themselves at one with the speaker ; his spirit 
 seemed to commune with theirs and to sway them 
 all at his single will. The whole audience seemed 
 
186 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 to feel as one man, and, as they retired from the 
 sound of his voice, felt conscious that they, for th - 
 time at least, were formed after the model of this 
 wonderful orator. 
 
 As a public speaker he owed nothing to personal 
 appearance. He was of the ordinary height, and 
 rather strongly if not heavily built. His eye was 
 commonly dull and'frequently dreamy ; but when 
 engaged in earnest speaking " it was lighted up 
 to a glow." His gestures were awkward and his 
 action not graceful. His pronunciation was so 
 broadly Scottish, that an American, until several 
 sentences had been spoken, could not fully under- 
 stand him. The tones of his voice must have been 
 perfect almost beyond example. Rich, varied, 
 flexible, of vast compass, they clothed the burning 
 thoughts of the speaker with such an utterance 
 as conveyed to the hearer every shade of feeling 
 with which he himself was agitated. The tender- 
 ness of pity, the scoff of contempt, the disgust at 
 meanness, the buoyancy of hope, and the shudder 
 of despair, thus penetrated the heart of every 
 hearer, and rung in his ears for weeks ' after the 
 occasion had passed away. 
 
 With feelings so strong and excitability so acute, 
 it could hardly be expected that he should not be 
 easily moved. Falsehood, treachery, hypocrisy, 
 and selfishness, instantly startled him, and he be- 
 came sternly indignant. It was, however, but for 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTER — BEAT II. 137 
 
 a moment. Benevolence soon drowned his anger 
 forever, and he was perhaps the first to make ex- 
 cuses for the offenders, and join in the laugh which 
 his excitement had occasioned. While he was one 
 day very busily engaged in his study, a man en 
 tered, who at once propitiated him, under the 
 perplexity of an unexpected interruption, by tell- 
 ing him that he called under great distress of 
 mind. " Sit down, sir ; be good enough to be 
 seated," said Dr. Chalmers, turning eagerly and 
 full of interest from his writing-table. The visitor 
 explained to him that he was troubled with doubts 
 about the divine origin of the Christian religion, 
 and being kindly questioned as to the nature of 
 his doubts, he gave among other difficulties what 
 is said in the Bible about Melchisedec being without 
 father, without mother, etc. Patiently and anx- 
 iously Dr. Chalmers sought to clear away every 
 successive difficulty as it was stated. Expressing 
 himself greatly relieved in mind, and imagining 
 that he had gained his end, " Doctor/' said the 
 visitor, " I am in great need of a little money at 
 present, and perhaps you could help me in that 
 way." At once the object of the visit was seen, 
 and a perfect tornado of indignation burst upon the 
 deceiver, driving him in very quick retreat from 
 tl;e study to the street door, these words escaping, 
 among others : " Not a penny, sir ; not a penny. It 
 
188 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 is too bad, it is too bad ; and to haul in your hypoc- 
 risy upon the shoulders of Melchisedec ! " 
 
 A similar incident occurred in the latter part of 
 his life, when he was told that it was objected by 
 some minister, that if many churches like that at 
 West Port were erected, it might draw away some 
 hearers from the existing Edinburgh ministers. 
 It created a storm of indignation. " And for the 
 sake," said he, " of those that would drop from this 
 and that man's congregation, am I to let the 
 masses live in dirt and die in darkness ? Hor- 
 rible ! to make a rabbit-warren of human souls. 
 Can that man believe what he preaches, who would 
 stand by and see hundreds sink into an unpre- 
 pared eternity, rather than run the risk of Mr. 
 John This (spoken with an ironical drawl) or Mr. 
 James That being lost to his congregation. There 
 is a vast deal of spurious faith, and I see more and 
 more the meaning of the Saviour's question, ' When 
 the Son of Man cometh shall he find faith on the 
 earth?'" 
 
 In reading his " Horae Sabbaticse" and his journals, 
 one would be led to suspect that Dr. Chalmers was 
 a full feeder, or that he was in the habit of indulg- 
 ing in the luxuries of the table. This, however, 
 was not the fact ; he was, on the contrary, remark- 
 ably abstemious. His self-condemnations had 
 respect to the rule which he had formed for him- 
 self, and not to the actual fact. Every incapacity 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTER — DEATH. 189 
 
 for intellectual effort or spiritual exercise, he was 
 disposed to attribute to an excess in eating, which 
 it was his duty to subdue. Thus, one night after 
 supper, at Merchistown Castle, he enters in his 
 journal, " Exceeded to-night at supper." The 
 fact really was, that at supper a water biscuit, thin 
 as a wafer, but of large circumference, was put 
 upon the plate before him. As he got into an 
 animated conversation he continued breaking down 
 this biscuit into small parts and eating them. 
 When he discovered that the biscuit was all con- 
 sumed he expressed himself surprised and shocked, 
 though this was all that he had partaken of, and 
 when he retired made the entry in his journal to 
 which we have alluded. 
 
 The habits of Dr. Chalmers, so far as intellectual 
 labor was concerned, were peculiar, and in many 
 respects worthy of profound reflection. In the 
 first place, he adhered inflexiblvJo r ihe-.xiile r ^wZ/a 
 dies sine linea, — compose something every day. 
 Except during the first winter at St. Andrews, he 
 never exceeded two or three hours at a sitting in 
 severe composition, and there was seldom more 
 than one sitting in the course of the day. The 
 tension of his mind during the effort was extreme, 
 but it was never so long continued as to induce 
 fatigue or exhaustion. During the last six or 
 seven years of his life, his daily modicum of original 
 composition was completed before breakfast, and 
 
190 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 all done in bed. The preparatory ruminating or 
 excogitating process was slow, but it was complete. 
 " I have often fancied," he once said, " that in one 
 respect I resembled Rousseau, who says of himself 
 that his processes of thought vrevejslqw but ardent" 
 — a curious and rare combination. In proportion, 
 however, to the slowness with which his conclusions 
 were reached, was the firmness with which they 
 were riveted. Hence, with the exception of the 
 change in his religious sentiments in the early 
 part of his ministry at Kilmany, though he has 
 been often accused of inconsistency, there is not 
 one of his published or formally expressed opinions 
 that he had ever occasion to alter. This slow and 
 deliberate habit of thinking gave him great advan- 
 tage when the act of composition came to be per- 
 jGorme4r- He had never the double task to do, at 
 once of thinking what he should say, and then how 
 he should say it. The one was over before the 
 other commenced. He never began to write till 
 in its subjects, and the order and proportion of its 
 parts, the map or outline of the future composition 
 was laid down ; and this was done so distinctly, 
 and, as it were, authoritatively, that it was seldom 
 violated. When engaged, therefore, in writing, 
 his whole undivided strength was given to the best 
 and most powerful expression of preestablished 
 ideas. In a word, he never wrote a sermon or de- 
 livered a speech for which he had not deliberat dy, 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTER — DEATH. 191 
 
 and as perfectly as he could, prepared a skeleton 
 of the thought. When this had been finished, the 
 work of preparation was, for the best part, done. 
 
 It deserves, also, to be remarked, that in thus 
 writing out his thoughts, either for the pulpit or 
 the press, he most commonly employed short- 
 hand. He could read it himself with the utmost 
 case, and it was, we presume, in the case of writing 
 for the press, transcribed for him by others. By 
 this means lie was able to do more in the same 
 amount of time than other men, and could, with less 
 delay, transfer to the page the burning thoughts 
 with which his whole soul was impassioned. 
 
 In this careful preparation, in doing all the 
 work of thinking before the writing was com- 
 menced, he took the only method by which good 
 composition can be produced. It is also probably 
 true, that he acted wisely in allotting fewer hours 
 in a day to earnest intellectual work than are 
 commonly employed by men of similar pursuits. 
 Yet he was one of the most voluminous writers 
 of his time, and one of the most effective. He 
 did more and better with his two or three hours 
 a clay, than men who give up to solid mental oc- 
 cupation ten, twelve, or fourteen hours daily. 
 Though he had several attacks of illness, yet he 
 was never an habitual invalid. This surely indi- 
 cates that he was obeying the physical laws of his 
 being. The brain can labor vigorously at original 
 
192 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 work but few hours at a time. It is better to 
 seize these then, and to vigorously employ them, 
 than to pore over work in dogged resolution. In 
 general, we may be assured that hard writing be- 
 comes hard reading and hard hearing. A remark 
 which he makes in connection with this subject is 
 worth remembering, and we have never met with 
 it elsewhere. " I find," he says, " that success- 
 ful exertion is a powerful means of exhilaration, 
 which discharges itself in good humor upon oth- 
 ers." His own morning compositions seldom failed 
 in this effect, as he came forth from them beam- 
 ing and buoyant, with a step as springing as that 
 of childhood, and a spirit overflowing with benig- 
 nity. Although the solid work of the day was 
 over, his occupation was not gone. The time 
 which remained was devoted to Biblical readings, 
 to the improvement of his theological lectures, to 
 reading the best English authors, to correspond- 
 ence, to hospitality, to intercourse with his family, 
 and to those labors of philanthropy in which he 
 was so deeply interested. 
 
 With all his social cheerfulness and beaming 
 joy, there were tokens not a few of an internal 
 conflict, glimpses of an inward desolation which 
 told unmistakably, that, like David, he felt himself 
 to be a stranger on this earth. "I would not live 
 always " was a sentence which he often uttered. 
 " What a wilderness this world is to the heart, with 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTER — DEATH. 193 
 
 all it has to inspire happiness. I am more conver- 
 sant with principles than with persons. I begin 
 to suspect that the intensity of my own pursuits 
 has isolated me from living men, and that the% is 
 a want of amalgamation about me which cements 
 the companionships and closer brotherhoods that 
 obtain in society. I have a great and growing 
 sense of desolation. These are perhaps the feel- 
 ings which arise in advanced life from the necessity 
 of the case, and belong to a mind of originality 
 and independence, and from that sense of respon- 
 sibility which withdraws instinctively from all 
 ambiguous or useless associations." He adds, 
 " What a marvellous solitude every man bears 
 about him ; and then that other and mysterious 
 seclusion, the intervening veil between us and the 
 Deity. You would think," speaking in a hesitat- 
 ing tone, " that lie would delight to manifest him- 
 self to his creatures. No doubt the obstacle is 
 in the subjective ; the clearer the reflecting me- 
 dium the brighter the manifestation. That is 
 strikingly put in Matthew. The pure in heart 
 shall see God. I look upon it as a strong proof 
 of our alienation from God ; for how short a time 
 we can sustain a direct contemplation of him ; 
 what a mighty transformation, when the veil of 
 outer things shall be withdrawn, and we stand 
 naked and alone before him with whom we have 
 to do!" 
 
 13 
 
194 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 " During the summer before his death, Dr. Chal- 
 mers visited Jedburgh, where there had occurred 
 lately a somewhat remarkable revival of religion. 
 He spent several days in the village, principally 
 in company with its pastor, Rev. Mr. Purves. 
 Mr. P.'s account of these interviews presents one 
 of the liveliest portraits of the inner life of Dr. 
 Chalmers, and of its beaming forth in every form 
 of Christian benignity, that we have ever met with. 
 Though the extracts which we make from this 
 lotter are long, we think they will be read with 
 interest. 
 
 " We have known much of him as an unrivalled 
 orator ; we now look upon him with a deeper interest 
 as the loving disciple of the blessed Saviour 
 
 "What struck me most in his deportment," 
 says Mr. P., "was the patriarchal simplicity and 
 parental benignity of character which everything 
 he did and said so beautifully displayed. The 
 genial and kindly interest he took in every one, 
 the delicate attention he paid to all, even to the 
 youngest child around him, the happy-heartedness 
 he so obviously felt in the prosperity of the young 
 ministers as he drew them out to state the circum- 
 stances in which they were placed, and the mod- 
 esty and kindliness with which he dropped a word 
 of advice or of encouragement to them, formed 
 altogether one of the loveliest moral pictures I ever 
 beheld. 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTER — DEATH. 195 
 
 "But to pass from the general features of his 
 character, — what to me was especially worthy of 
 note, was the spiritual light in which he presented 
 himself. Some heard him lament that the cir- 
 cumstances in which he had been placed had al- 
 ways kept him in the outer court of the temple, 
 and that the inner and more spiritual sphere he 
 had rather looked forward to as a land of Beulah 
 in the distance than one actually attained to and 
 enjoyed. Whether this was the confession of 
 mere humility alone, I have no means of knowing. 
 But I will say, that of all the individuals or pri- 
 vate Christians who have been here since there 
 was a little quickening of the Spirit of God among 
 the people, Dr. Chalmers showed by far the deep- 
 est interest in their spiritual state and history. 
 It formed the staple of our discourse during the 
 two happy days we spent together. He asked me 
 to recount to him all the prominent cases of con- 
 version which had come under my notice, and 
 never seemed to weary in listening to such details 
 as I could give him. Often and often would he 
 break in on the little narratives with expressions 
 of the highest delight, saying it had been his life- 
 long wisli to breathe in a spiritual atmosphere, 
 and that it was a kind of heaven upon earth to do 
 so. Even before we left the pulpit, on the Sab- 
 bath when he preached for me, he remarked what 
 a delight he had in preaching to and worshipping 
 
198 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 with a people who had so much of the simple, sol- 
 emn spirit of Christianity in their aspect ; it was 
 so different from the pressure and bustle and stare 
 he had been so much accustomed to, and which 
 was often so alien from true worship. I do not 
 know how many persons he pointed out with whose 
 countenances he had become arrested, and with 
 whose history he begged to be made acquainted. 
 With one of these persons he seemed to be spe- 
 cially taken, whose eye had never been removed 
 from him for a single moment, and who remained 
 riveted to her seat till every other member of the 
 congregation had left the place. When informed 
 that she was a kind of poor Joseph (imbecile), 
 whose mind was weak on all points but religion, 
 his interest in her was still more deepened. After 
 I told him how, when the news of the disruption 
 had reached the place, she had gone into a neigh- 
 bor's house and with a face beaming with delight 
 had said, ' Have you heard the good news ? Man 
 is to have no more rule in Christ's house ; we are 
 to have no other master now but himself,' he 
 dwelt on it at the time, and afterward in our sub- 
 sequent intercourse often reverted to it as one of 
 the happiest sayings elicited by our controversy ; 
 adding it was one of the many proofs that while 
 the prominent points of our controversy could by 
 no act be made to penetrate the higher intellects of 
 the land, they seemed to be instinctively and intu- 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTER — DEATH. 197 
 
 itively seized by those who, though simple, were 
 taught by the Spirit of God. 
 
 " It was at his own request that, after we had 
 seen the few antiquarian curiosities of the place, 
 we spent the rest of the day in visiting as many 
 of the people as possible who had lately, to all 
 appearance, undergone a saving change of char- 
 acter. It was, unfortunately, at the season when 
 their employments took them from home to the 
 surrounding country, and as I was not to inti- 
 mate our purpose, but to take them in their usual 
 guise and occupations, it was somewhat difficult 
 to accomplish our purpose. You can easily im- 
 agine also, that, as they know by report, and 
 from hearing him on the preceding day, who the 
 illustrious visitor was, the people in general were 
 more disposed to listen than to speak. And what 
 still more increased the difficulty of letting him 
 see their every-clay and spiritual being was the 
 circumstance, that on its being known that he was 
 in any house, neighbors, of a religious character 
 at least, dropped in, whose presence somewhat 
 damped the freedom of communication on Chris- 
 tian experimental subjects. Notwithstanding all 
 these obstacles, we saw a considerable number of 
 recent converts to more or less advantage ; and 
 I may particularly note one house, with the group 
 that assembled, with which he seemed specially 
 taken, as I know the people themselves were 
 
198 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 struck with the singular outpouring in prayer 
 with which of his own accord he closed the inter- 
 view. 
 
 " The plan was, I was quietly and incidentally 
 tojdraw-tlie. people into conversation which might 
 show the inner being, without their being aware 
 of the purpose, while he was simply to listen. It 
 happened fortunately, in the case referred to, that 
 I got next to a woman whose impressions of divine 
 things were but recent, whose experiences also, 
 both of sorrow and joy, had been so deep that she 
 had found it nearly impossible to confine either to 
 her own breast, and who was at this time laboring 
 ■under that disease which a short time afterwards 
 transmitted her spirit to glory, and which even 
 then may have given her soul such a presentiment 
 of her approaching end as to make her more free 
 and communicative than others would have been. 
 She accordingly, with great modesty and interest, 
 in her own homely way, in answer to the ques- 
 tions which my knowledge of her previous history 
 enabled me to put to her, gave the leading points 
 of her change, her awakening to a sense of her 
 lost condition, and the method in which God had 
 brought her to a state of peace and joy in believ- 
 ing. Never shall I forget the scene which pre- 
 sented itself, when, near the close of the narrative, 
 I turned round to see its effect upon our venerable 
 father. The whole scene was such a one as a 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTER — DEATH. 199 
 
 painter would have liked to perpetuate. There 
 were two beds running along one side of the apart- 
 ment, on the edge of which ten or a dozen persons 
 had, since the interview began, ranged themselves, 
 including one of our humble elders, and several 
 individuals who, during the two or three previous 
 years, had been turned from darkness to light. 
 The countenances of several of these, as they 
 were lighted up with Christian sympathy, — one 
 more especially, whose foreign and gipsy-like fea- 
 tures, and fine black eyes swimming all the time 
 i:> tears, — greatly arrested Dr. Chalmers, as he 
 told me afterwards. But he himself was the most 
 interesting object of all. The figure he presented 
 was not a little grotesque, but profoundly affect- 
 ing. He was himself in a corner of the apart- 
 ment, facing the little group, but rather behind 
 the woman and me. The person in whose house 
 we were had been baking bread before we entered, 
 and the table at the end of which he had placed 
 himself was covered with meal. Not observing 
 this, he had placed one elbow in the midst of it, 
 and pulling out a drawer in an old wardrobe on 
 the other side, on which to rest his other elbow, 
 there he was, sitting in this posture, with a hand 
 behind each ear to catch what was passing, and 
 with a countenance so inexpressibly bland and 
 benignant, on which the interest, sympathy, and 
 delight of the good man's heart had cast such a 
 
200 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 heavenly radiance, as I shall never forget while I 
 live. He put several questions himself to the 
 elder referred to, as to the former and present 
 state of things ; which, having been long in the 
 place, he was able to answer, and did answer in 
 a way which evidently deepened the interest 
 already depicted on Dr. Chalmers's countenance. 
 He then, as I have mentioned, of his own accord, 
 engaged in prayer with and for the little group 
 around him, like a father or one of the ancient 
 patriarchs, commending them to the care and 
 keeping of God Almighty. It was a wonderful 
 outpouring, full of unction, compared with which 
 even his eloquence was but tame. Indeed, the 
 whole scene was one of uncommon interest. I 
 felt at the time that, if circumstances had kept 
 him in the outer court most of his life, all the 
 man's likings, his deepest affections, his whole 
 heart, were within the veil. He said to me, as we 
 stepped out into the street, and he pressed my arm 
 in his, ' That is one of the most interesting groups I 
 ever beheld.' And I must say that, though I have 
 seen him in many positions of the deepest interest, 
 — in the pulpit, the professor's chair, the chair of 
 the first Free Assembly, and, better than all, 
 among his ragged children in the West Port, — I 
 don't know but, now that the ripened spirit is re- 
 moved to a more congenial world than this, my 
 memory dwells with fonder delight on the picture 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTER — DEATH. 201 
 
 of the venerable man in this humble cottage than 
 anywhere else it has been my lot to see him. 
 There was more of character, and of the highest 
 style of character, — Christian benevolence, spir- 
 ituality, heavenliness, — displayed in that humble 
 dwelling than I had ever seen anywhere else. 
 His visit left a most happy and hallowed impres- 
 sion upon not only myself and those privileged 
 to be in nearest contact with him, but I may say 
 on the whole place ; the benignity and goodness of 
 the man eclipsed even his greatness, leaving such 
 an odor behind as made one feel it was even ' as if 
 an angel shook his wings.' " 
 
 Sneh wns-the heavenly state of mind which Dr. 
 Chalmers enjoyed, when, having laid aside, for the 
 most part, public labors, his soul took its natural 
 direction, and he was permitted to realize his en- 
 trance into the land of Beulah, for which he had 
 so iong sighed. 
 
 SobTfafter the communion of the West Port 
 Church, in April, 1847, he was obliged to go to 
 London in order to give his evidence before a Par- 
 liamentary committee. He accomplished his ob- 
 ject, saw several friends in London and vicinity, 
 and on his return took occasion to visit his sister, 
 Mrs. Morton. "It was," said his niece, "most 
 delightful to watch his countenance. I never saw 
 anything like the smiles that gleamed one after 
 another over it. He looked so happy, so innocent, 
 
202 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 so childlike, that one could hardly fancy him the 
 person before whom men of the greatest intellc 
 felt conscious of inferiority." Every day he reau 
 and prayed with Mrs. Morton in her own room. 
 Taking her daughter aside on the last day he was 
 at Whitfield, he took down the Bible, and said, 
 " Come and look here." He then followed with his 
 finger every word as he read the tenth verse of the 
 fiftieth chapter of Isaiah. " Who is among you that 
 feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his ser- 
 vant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light, 
 let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay 
 upon his God." " Now, I am sure you have the 
 fear of the Lord before you, thus obeying his voice. 
 It would be very delightful to see Jesus as he is, 
 at the right hand of God ; but all do not enjoy 
 this ; it is not given to all, but all may obey his 
 voice. You obey that voice by honoring your 
 father and mother, by attending to your household 
 duties, and if at any time you be in darkness, see 
 here what you have to do. You know that the 
 name of a person is little compared with his pres- 
 ence, and yet the Lord bids you take his name, 
 and lean upon it, and stay yourself upon it, and 
 that will be enough for you." In his last prayer 
 with them, he prayed that one and all of them 
 might be shielded under the ample canopy of the 
 Redeemer's righteousness ; that every hour that 
 struck, every day that dawned, every night that 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTER — DEATH. 206 
 
 darkened around them, might find them mooter 
 for death and for the eternity that follows it ; and 
 that, when their earthly course was finished, they 
 might meet and spend together a never-ending Sab- 
 bath in the bright abodes of purity and peace. 
 
 On the night of Friday, May 28, he arrived in 
 Edinburgh, with no particular marks of fatigue 
 or exhaustion. On the forenoon of Saturday, he 
 was engaged in preparing a report for the Gen- 
 eral Assembly of the Free Church then in ses- 
 sion. On Sunday he felt more the effects of 
 fatigue, though he accompanied Dr. Cunningham 
 to his place of worship at Morning Side. He spent 
 the evening with his family, as usual, charming 
 every one by his genial benignity. After supper, 
 he said to a clergyman who happened to be stay- 
 ing with him, " You gave us worship in the morn- 
 ing ; I am sorry to ask you again to give us worship 
 in the evening." " Not at all," said he ; " I shall 
 be happy to do so." " Well," replied he, " you 
 will give worship to-night, and I expect to give 
 worship to-morrow morning" 
 
 During the whole evening, as if he had kept his 
 brightest smiles and fondest utterances to the last, 
 and for his own, he was peculiarly bland and be- 
 nignant. " I had seen him frequently," says Mr. 
 Gemmel, " at Fairlie in his happiest moods, but I 
 never saw him happier. Christian benevolence 
 beamed from his countenance, sparkled in his eye, 
 
204 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 and played upon his lips." Immediately after 
 prayers be withdrew, and bidding bis family re- 
 member tbat they must be early to-morrow, be 
 waved bis band, saying, " A general good-night." 
 
 Next morning before eight o'clock, Professor 
 McDougal, who lived in the bouse adjoining, sent 
 to inquire about a package 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 
 until another person called with a second message. 
 She then entered the room ; it was in darkness ; she 
 spoke, but received no response. At last she threw 
 open the window-shutters and drew aside the cur- 
 tains of the bed. He sat there, half erect, his head 
 reclining gently on the pillow, the expression on 
 his countenance that of fine and majestic repose. 
 She took his hand, she touched his brow ; he had 
 been dead for hours ; very shortly after that part- 
 ing salute to his family, he had entered the eternal 
 world. His departure must have been wholly with- 
 out pain or conflict. The expression of the face, 
 undisturbed by any trace of suffering, the position 
 of the body, so easy that the least struggle would 
 have disturbed it, the very posture of his arms, 
 hands, and fingers, known to his family as that 
 into which they fell naturally in moments of entire 
 
PERSONAL CHARACTER — DEATn. 205 
 
 repose, conspired to show that, saved all strife with 
 the last enemy, his spirit had passed to its place of 
 blessedness and glory in the heavens. 
 
 The funeral took place on Friday, June 4th. 
 Never before, says the " Witness," did we behold 
 such a funeral, — nay, never before in the memory 
 of man, did Scotland witness such a funeral. It 
 seemed as if all Edinburgh, nay, all Scotland, was 
 in tears. It was a solemn tribute spontaneously 
 paid to departed goodness and greatness by the 
 public mind. " We are confident," says the writer, 
 " we rather underestimate than exaggerate their 
 numbers when we state that the spectators of the 
 funeral must have rather exceeded than fallen 
 short of a hundred thousand persons. There was a 
 moral sublimity in the spectacle. It spoke more 
 emphatically than by words of the dignity of in- 
 trinsic excellence, and the height to which a true 
 man may attain. It was the dust of a Presbyterian 
 minister that the coffin contained, and yet they 
 were burying him amid the tears of a nation, and 
 with more than kingly honors." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 E have completed the narrative of that 
 portion of the life of Dr. Chalmers which 
 was either strictly parochial or else devot- 
 ed to direct labor for the extension of the 
 kingdom of Christ. It may not be inop- 
 portune now to offer some suggestions which nat- 
 urally arise from a review of the course of life 
 which we have thus briefly presented. Such sug- 
 gestions, though they might occur to every reader, 
 may not be wholly useless ; for our own reflec- 
 tions frequently impress themselves upon us more 
 strongly when we find that they have also arisen 
 in the minds of others. 
 
 Our acquaintance with Dr. Chalmers as a min- 
 ister commenced with his ordination at Kilmany. 
 He was then distinguished as a mathematician 
 and a chemist, and a popular lecturer upon his 
 favorite sciences. To these pursuits he gave the 
 greater portion of his time, allotting only two clays 
 in the week to the labors of his parish. When it 
 was made a matter of complaint that he was thus 
 a pluralist, performing another service than that 
 
 206 
 
CONCLUSION. 207 
 
 which was really parochial, he boldly answered 
 that he performed all his official duty ; he supplied 
 his pulpit, and visited his parish annually, accord- 
 ing to the rules, and challenged comparison with 
 any of his brethren. He considered his service 
 merely professional, and that, if he did all that cus- 
 tom demanded, he might employ the remainder of 
 his time as was most pleasing to himself. But a 
 change came over him. By the Spirit of God, he 
 was led to look upon time and eternity, sin and its 
 condemnation, the helpless guilt of man and the 
 way of salvation through Christ, the moral trans- 
 formation wrought by the gospel and the eternal 
 blessedness of the believer, as matters of solemn 
 reality. They took full possession of his inmost 
 soul. He gave himself up with his whole heart to 
 realize in his own case that course of life which 
 these truths indicate, and to make them known 
 with all his powers to his dying fellow-men. He 
 was assured that, though all men needed a knowl- 
 edge of the truths of the gospel, those needed 
 them most who were living in brutish ignorance 
 and vice, the lowest class of the population, spe- 
 cially in large towns and cities. To these latter 
 he consecrated himself with more than missionary 
 devotion. He gave his whole life to the work of 
 raising the masses of his countrymen to the level 
 of respected and respectable citizens here, and to 
 securing their preparedness, by a life of piety, for 
 
208 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS 
 
 blessed immortality hereafter. The entire week, 
 instead of two days of it, was now too short for 
 his labors at Kilmany, and afterwards, when he 
 engaged in authorship, all his publications had 
 respect to this noble undertaking, in some form 
 or other. 
 
 When he was called to the Tron Church, the 
 same idea animated him. He found himself pos- 
 ed of an eloquence which thronged his church 
 to overflowing, and placed him, by universal ac- 
 knowledgment, at the head of the pulpit in Glas- 
 gow. But this did not satisfy him. He saw that 
 his voice reached only those few who occupied the 
 apex of the social cone. There were thousands all 
 around him who had never heard of a Saviour, 
 and who knew nothing either of sin or salvation. 
 He at once plunged into the scenes of misery and 
 vice in his parish, determined to grasp and measure 
 for himself the depths of depravity which festered 
 in the district over which he had been appointed a 
 minister of Christ. Here, however, he found his 
 efforts thwarted by municipal regulations which 
 had grown hoary with age, and which tended to 
 render all his labors ineffectual. 
 
 In the fulness of his unexampled popularity at 
 the Tron Church, he resolved to enter a more un- 
 embarrassed field of labor. Forsaking all the 
 endearments of an old, influential, and wealthy 
 parish, he accepted the ministry of St. Johns, a 
 
CONCLUSION. 209 
 
 new church, situated in one of the poorest districts 
 of Glasgow, where he could act without magisterial 
 interference. His success here has been noticed in 
 the preceding pages. His labors in this field, how- 
 ever, were largely directed to the removal of pauper- 
 ism, and he endeavored to show that the metropol- 
 itan plan of charity had no effect, except to increase 
 the evils which it was intended to remedy. While 
 thus engaged, his multiplied labors had begun to 
 tell seriously on his health. He found that he 
 could perforin them no longer, and he resolved on 
 making an immediate change. 
 
 While at St. Johns, several of the most wealthy 
 parishes had been offered to him, whe#e, with 
 abundant salary and much lighter labor, he might 
 have enjoyed all the pleasures of high ecclesiastical 
 position. He, however, refused them all, and ac- 
 cepted a professorship at St. Andrews University, 
 the living from which could not be reckoned higher 
 than £300 (81,440) a year. 
 
 He found St. Andrews, both city and University, 
 at a low ebb of spiritual indifference. His desire 
 of preaching the gospel to the poor could not be 
 gratified by public ministrations. There were, 
 however, all around him, children having immortal 
 souls, and he had a house of his own. He soon col- 
 lected a class into a Sabbath school. This was a 
 fruit of which the seed was in itself. It spread 
 over the whole city in the manner already indicat- 
 
 14 
 
210 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 ed. In our efforts to clo good, it will generally be 
 found that the work which God places immediately 
 before us, though it may seem small and of little 
 promise, is really the effort which he will bless, 
 and which he will carry out by his own power to 
 the most magnificent results. It was signally thus 
 with the Sabbath schools of Robert Raikes. 
 
 Dr. Chalmers was after a few years appointed 
 Professor of Theology in the University of Edin- 
 burgh. Here he prosecuted his labor for the 
 masses, by the attempt to multiply churches. 
 When this effort was arrested by the disruption, 
 he carried on the same design in behalf of the 
 Free Church. When, after two or three years, 
 this church did not realize his expectations in this 
 respect, he turned at last to his crowning effort at 
 the West Port. Here God gave him the desire of 
 his heart, and he was not called away until he, in 
 joyous gratitude, could say, " I can now lay down 
 my head and rest in peace, for mine eyes have seen 
 thy salvation." 
 
 From this brief review of the career of Dr. Chal- 
 mers, we see that in obedience to the Saviour's 
 command he consecrated himself to the work of 
 carrying the gospel to every creature. Unparal- 
 leled multitudes crowded to hear, admire, and 
 honor him. But he saw that thus he was not 
 yielding obedience to the Master's command. 
 Those who came were but few in comparison with 
 
CONCLUSION. 211 
 
 the multitudes who did not come. The poor, de- 
 graded, and vicious would never enter those mag-, 
 niiicent temples, commonly called the houses of 
 God. The gospel must be carried to them; and 
 wherever he went, he at once commenced the 
 performance of this duty. He marked out a 
 district, he sought out fellow-laborers, he labored 
 with them; he was certain that thus the gospel 
 in love and affection would be carried to every 
 family. And never did the gospel fail to produce 
 its effect. This, which he denominated his terri- 
 torial system, is, if I may so call it, one of the 
 most important discoveries in philanthropy. It is 
 worthy of the thoughtful consideration of all good 
 men. Were any of our cities thus divided into 
 districts, each under the care of a small number 
 of the disciples of Christ, who would carry the 
 gospel to every family, and practically exhibit the 
 love of the Saviour to the fallen and miserable, 
 in ten years moral and social changes would be 
 witnessed that would cheer the heart of every 
 benefactor of his race. 
 
 And it is to be remarked that the wisdom of 
 Dr. Chalmers's plans was commensurate with his 
 charity. He saw that notwithstanding the thou- 
 sands of pounds which were given by the city to 
 support the poor, together with the vast amount 
 that was contributed by individual liberality, pau- 
 perism was every year more distressing, and that 
 
212 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 it was rapidly on the increase. He arrived at tins 
 conclusion : that the mere giving of money by the 
 public is rather a curse than a blessing, and that 
 even in the case of private charity it is frequently 
 of the same character ; that the law of the New 
 Testament is perfectly economical and merciful, 
 — if a man will not work, neither shall he eat. 
 God spreads before us the fertile earth, abundant 
 for the supply of all the wants of man ; but it is 
 his will that we should obtain our part of this 
 abundance only as the remlLnf-labor. Hence he 
 established it as an axiom, that it is of no use to 
 attempt to help the poor unless you engage them to 
 aid in helping themselves. He would allow but lit- 
 tle to be given in charity, and then in only extreme 
 cases. Relief was granted only to those who 
 were disabled, and then only for a season, if their 
 relatives were able to help them. Pains were 
 taken to find labor for all who were able to work. 
 The principle of self-respect was constantly incul- 
 cated, and they were taught to be ashamed of 
 being on the poor-roll. Even education was not 
 afforded as a gratuity ; all were obliged to pay for 
 it, — not at its full price, for much was done in the 
 work of preparation by charity; but none were 
 deprived of the pleasure of feeling that they paid 
 for it. It was by such labors as these that in a 
 few years the parish of St. Johns, instead of de- 
 manding £1,200 ($5,760) for supporting it in mis- 
 ery and vice, was more than able to support itself. 
 
CONCLUSION. 213 
 
 From the labors of Dr. Chalmers at St. An- 
 drews we also learn another important lesson, 
 lie was here placed in a situation where no 
 opportunity was afforded for labor in the cause 
 of Christ by public ministrations. The only door 
 of usefulness open to him, which is equally open 
 to all of us, was to teach a few poor children in his 
 own house. Not despising the day of small things, 
 he immediately seized upon this mode of useful- 
 ness, and in the result it was seen that this was 
 the very path that led to the greatest and most 
 blessed results. The work, commencing with a 
 few small children, gradually spread, until schools 
 and preaching stations thickly dotted the whole 
 town and vicinity, and the University itself, once 
 notorious as a place of riot and dissipation, was 
 cleansed and purified, and became a garden of the 
 Lord. Let us never, then, draw back from a good 
 work because we can only labor on a small scale. 
 Though the beginning be small, God only knows 
 how greatly the latter end may increase. Let us 
 adopt, as did Dr. Chalmers, the maxim of the 
 missionary Eliot, " Prayers and pains, with the 
 blessing of God, can do anything." 
 
 In the West Port the labors of Dr. Chalmers 
 were of a more decidedly evangelical character. 
 He had from the beginning the design and the 
 hope that he might bring this district under the 
 influence of the gospel, and thus, while being the 
 
214 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 means of saving the souls of men, he might also 
 raise them to the level of respectable citizens. 
 The place which he selected was to human appear- 
 ance the most unpromising. It was not only the 
 most vicious and degraded portion of Edinburgh, 
 but its crimes had rendered it notorious through- 
 out *4ie civilized world. No more vicious and 
 degraded locality could be found in any of our 
 cities. Yet into these very dens Dr. Chalmers 
 and his associates, both men and women, strong 
 in faith and love, boldly entered, providing educa- 
 tion for the children, work for the idle, and carry- 
 ing to every family the message of love from that 
 Saviour who died to redeem them. The Holy 
 Spirit wrought with them, and carried the mes- 
 sage of salvation with power to the hearts of those 
 wretched men. That old tannery loft became the 
 spiritual birthplace of immortal souls, and at this 
 moment it is infinitely more illustrious in the eyes 
 of Almighty God than St. Peters at Rome, with 
 all the splendors of its gorgeous flummery. 
 
 The result has been already alluded to. In 
 less than four years two-thirds of the children of 
 this degraded district were at school, and a church 
 was formed of one hundred and thirty-two commu- 
 nicants. The work went on after the death of Dr. 
 Chalmers, until before long there was not a child 
 in a single family of the West Port, of suitable age, 
 that did not attend school ; and the moral charac- 
 
CONCLUSION. 215 
 
 ter and attendance on church, of the district, were 
 on a par with those of the most favored localities 
 of Edinburgh. 
 
 After this let no one consider human beings, 
 how degraded soever, beyond the reach of the sav- 
 ing influence of the gospel. The weapons of our 
 warfare are mighty through God to pulling down 
 of strongholds. Let us then, in the assurance of 
 faith and earnestness of love, go forth, confidently 
 expecting that when in simplicity of heart we labor 
 for him, Christ will give us the victory. Nor have 
 such results been confined to the West Port and to 
 the labors of Dr. Chalmers. The effects of carry- 
 ing the gospel in love among the degraded inhab- 
 itants of St. Giles, London, are much the same. A 
 multitude of children have been plucked from the 
 very jaws of destruction, by the Howard Mission, 
 from one of the worst localities in New York. We 
 expect missionaries to go ten thousand miles to 
 carry the gospel to people of a strange language ; 
 why should we not become missionaries to the 
 perishing and miserable at our own doors ? 
 
 Dr. Chalmers accomplished an amount of labor 
 in a lifetime which seems almost incredible, and 
 he worked hard until the day of his death. How 
 did he do this? He took but two or three hours 
 a day for hard work, and never suffered himself 
 to become exhausted. He had thus leisure fur 
 all his other multiplied and interesting avocations. 
 
216 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 Might we not derive an important lesson from his 
 example ? Many a minister never puts himself to 
 labor until the last days, perhaps the very last day 
 of the week. He writes throughout the whole 
 of Saturday, perhaps through Saturday night, and 
 even during a part of Sunday, of course for the 
 greater part of the time with a tired and worn-out 
 brain. He preaches in this condition on Sunday, 
 and is listless and Mondayish for several days after- 
 ward. The effects of this course in a few years 
 become visible. As it is said, he breaks down, 
 must take a voyage and a tour, from which he re- 
 turns to pursue the same course over again. Hence 
 it seems to be taken for granted, as one of the 
 providential arrangements of God, that a minister 
 of the gospel must be a pallid, broken-down inva- 
 lid, the object of universal pity and sympathy. The 
 example of Dr. Chalmers seems to teach us a (lif- 
 erent lesson. Here was a man doing more work 
 than any minister of his time, and, excepting in 
 one or two instances, in vigorous health; and dying 
 at the age of seventy, a robust and vigorous man, 
 in a green and fruitful old age. Why should not 
 we adopt as our maxim, " What other men have 
 dune, we, with the blessing of God, can do also" ? 
 And, lastly, it may be supposed that the life of 
 Dr. Chalmers was mostly objective, and that, while 
 he labored so much for others, his own heart was 
 suffered to go to waste. But it was not so. His 
 
CONCLUSION. 217 
 
 deep interest in his own personal salvation and in 
 the salvation of his relatives is everywhere apparent 
 in his journals and most familiar letters. In his 
 various devotional writings, we are struck with his 
 importunate, unceasing pleadings for holiness, and 
 his minute inspection of every thought, desire, and 
 motive of his heart. While lie cherished with the 
 most un [altering confidence the truth, that God 
 so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten 
 Son, that whosoever believcth on him should not 
 perish but have everlasting life ; while he believed 
 that we arc pardoned, not through our own works, 
 but through the alone righteousness of Christ, by 
 which also we are introduced to the favor of God, 
 he was just as earnestly engaged in striving after 
 holiness as if his entire salvation depended upon 
 his own works. In the height of his popularity he 
 was deeply despondent, on one occasion, because 
 he saw no fruit from his labors ; but he was at 
 once encouraged by learning of one who had by 
 his instrumentality been brought into the kingdom 
 of Christ. He rejoiced more over one sinner that 
 repented than in all the applause of his un- 
 precedented popularity. Let us all be imitators 
 of him, as he imitated Christ. Let us labor not for 
 the applause of men, not to advance our congre- 
 gations in social position, not to gather the rich 
 and the literary into our audience-rooms, but to 
 save immortal souls from perdition ; to carry the 
 
218 MEMOIR OF DR. CHALMERS. 
 
 gospel, with all its saving influences, to every 
 creature, until the kingdoms of this world be- 
 come the kingdoms of our God and his Christ. 
 
 "Servant of God, well done; 
 Rest from thy loved employ : 
 The battle fought, the victory won, 
 Enter thy Master's joy. 
 
 The voice at midnight came; 
 
 He started up to hear ; 
 A mortal arrow pierced his frame; 
 
 He fell, but felt no fear. 
 
 At midnight came the cry, 
 
 ' To meet thy God prepare ! ' 
 He woke and caught his Captain's eye, 
 
 Then, strong in faith and prayer, 
 
 His spirit with a bound 
 
 Left its encumbering clay : 
 His tent at sunrise on the ground 
 
 A darkened ruin lay. 
 
 The pains of death are passed; 
 
 Labor and sorrow cease ; 
 And lifers long warfare closed at last, 
 
 His soul is found at peace. 
 
 Soldier of Christ, well done ! 
 
 Praise be thy new employ, 
 And, while eternal ages run, 
 
 Rest in thy Master's joy." 
 
 THE END, 
 
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