1/23/11 LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON, N. J. From tne library of DR. JAMES McCOSH BX 9225 .C4 H26 1849 v. 2 Hanna, William, 1808-1882. Memoirs of the life and ' writings of Thomas ChalmerJ ^ •# lEMOIRS 1* JAN 23 1911 THE LIFE AND WRITINGS THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D. LL.D. BY HIS SON-IN-LAW, THE REV. WILLIAM HANNA, LL.D. VOL. IL iubH!8l)c6 for Sf)omas Constable SUTHERLAND AND KNOX, EDINBURGH. IIAIMTLTON, ADAMS, AND CO., LONDON. MDCCCT,. ili : 1 lUSIEl; r.Y TIlOJiAS COSSTABI. Fi'.INTEIl TO UKR MAJESTY. CONTENTS. riGXETTE OF St. ANDREWS. CHAPTER I. jFii'3t_Sej'moii in Glasgow — Ajipearance and Manner iu the Pulpit — Ex- tract from Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk — His Alarm as to this Visit — His Account of it when over — Admission and Introduction as Minister of the Tron Church — Sorrowful Remembrances of Kilmany — Visit to Burntisland and Kirkaldy — Address to the Inhabitants of Kilmany — Effect of Mrs. Chalmers's Return Avith him to Glasgow — Sight of Normanlaw from the Calton Hill — Letters to Mr. Edie and to Mrs. Morton — Description of Glasgow Annoyances, . . . 1-25 CHAPTER II. Mr. Thomas Smith — Singular Attachment to and Correspondence with him — His Illness and Death, ...... 26-01 CHAPTER III. The Degree of Doctor of Divinity conferred — Renewed Agitation on the subject of Pluralities — Sermon before the Society of the Sons of the • Clergy in Edinburgh — Debate iu the General Assembly of 1816 on Union of Offices — Anecdote of Dr. M'Crie — Remark of Lord Jeffrey after hearing Dr. Chahners's Speech— Sermon before the Lord High Commissioner, ........ 02-73 CHAPTER IV. Excursion in Fifeshire — Visit to Mr. Brown at Inverkeithing — AValk by the Sea-Beach at Elie — Complaints of the Glasgow Weavers — Society at An.struther — A Two Hundred Year Ancestor — Kilmany Re-visited,. 74-86 iv CONTEXTS. CHAPTER V. First delivery of the Astronomical Discourses — Scene in the Trongate — Publication of these Discourses — Their Extraordinary Popularity — Testimonies of Hazlitt and Canning — Foster's Review — Visit to London — Letter from James Montgomery, Esq., of Sheffield — Sermons in the Metropolis — London Popularity — Anecdotes of Mr. Canning, INIr. Wilberfoi'ce, &c. — The Journey Home — Letter to his Sister — Letter from Robert Hall, ....... 87-107 CHAPTER VL First Visitation of his Parish — Its Methods and Results — Checks and Interruptions — The Great Question at the Town Hospital — The Chris- tian Ministry Seculai-ized — His public Denunciations of the Evils of this System — Speech at the Anniversary of the Bible Society — Addition to the Eldership — Sabbath-School Society — The Question of Punishment — Origin of Local Sabbath-Schools — Dr. Chalmers's Ac- count of their first Institution and Eifects — His Defence of Sabbath- Schools, ........ 108-130 CHAPTER VII. The Vacancy at Stirling — The Appointment Ofi"ered and Refused — Articles on Pauperism in the Edinburgh Review — Excursion to An- struther — Sudden Recall — Sermon on the Death of the Princess Charlotte — Reason of its Publication — Argument on Behalf of Reli- gious Establishments — English and Scottish System of Pauper Man- agement Compared — Highest Exhibitions of his Power as a Pulpit Orator — Singular Scenes in the College Chapel and in the Tron Church — Extracts from his Journal — Instance of his Usefulness — His own estimate of Ills Popularity, ..... 131-164 CHAPTER Vin. His Father's Declining Health — Simmier Months at Anstruthcr — Daily Life in Glasgow — Visit of Professor Pictet and M. Vernot ; of Mr. Noel and j\Ir. Grey — Visitation of his Parish — The Rev. Legh Richmond — Mr. Cunninghame of Lainshaw — Meeting of the Jewish Society — Mr. Erskine of Linlathen — His Father's last Illness and Death — Hei'vey's and Newton's Works — The Doctrine of Imputed Righteousness — Pro- fessors Leslie and Brown — Lord Elgin and Paity— Sermon at Falkirk — Kind Attentions at Grangemouth — Plum-Jelly Operation — Death of Dr. Balfour — Panegyric upon his Character — Death of the Queen — Tribute to her Worth, ....... 165-205 CHAPTER IX. Publication of a Volume of Sermons — Translation to the Parish of St. John's — Visit to Dunblane — Attempts to extricate himself from the CONTENTS. V exciting Sj'steni of Pauper-Mauagement — Proposed as Candidate for the Natui'al Pliiloso2:)hy Chair in Edinburgh — Agitation in Glasgow — Anxieties of Dr. Chalmers — First Number of the " Civic and Christian Economy of Large Towns" — Opening of the Church of St. John's — Decision of the Magistrates and Council in his favour — Final Extrica- tion fi'om Difficulties, and Commencement of Parochial Operations in St. John's, ........ 206-228 CHAPTER X. Dr. Chalmers's Hereditary Attachment to the Old Parochial Economy of Scotland — His Ministry in Glasgow exclusively Parochial — Extent and Condition of the Parish of St. John's — Its Educational Necessities — Mode adopted for Meeting these Necessities — Erection of two School- Fabrics, and partial Endowment of four Schoolmasters — Educational Fruits of the St. John's Ministry^Esplanatory Address delivered at the Opening of the Macfiirlane Street Schools, . . . 229-24G CHAPTER XI. Correspondence with Mr. Wilberforce during the Winter 1819-20 — Description of the State of Glasgow dui'ing the period of the Radical Riots — Suggestions by Dr. Chalmers as to Political Measures for ameliorating the Condition of the People — Influence of the Religious Element, 247-271 CHAPTER XII. Illness of his Brother Alexander — Visits to Blochairn, Strathblane, and Glenfinart — Parochial Lodgings — Ministerial Activity — The Rev. Edward Irving — His Agency and their Operations — Instances of his Playful Familiarity — The Dinner in the Vestry — Anecdotes of Mr. Irving and Dr. Bell— Address to the Elders, .... 272-296 CHAPTER XHI. The St. John's Experiment of Pauper Management — Conditions under which it was itndertaken — Directions to Deacons — Mode of Conducting it — Illustrative Instances — The Results — Alleged Explanations of its Success — Testimony of Dr. Macfarlane — Report by Mr. Tufueli — Rea- .sons of its Relinquishment, ...... 297-318 CHAPTER XIV. Publication of a Volume of Sermons, and of the " Christian and Civic Economj^ of Large Towns" — Address to his Agency in October 1821 — Visit of King George IV. to Scotland in August 1822 — The Landing at Leith Pier — Enthusiastic Loyalty of Dr. Chalmers — Tour through England in Search of Information as to the State and Prospects of its Poor-Law Administration — Intercourse with Lord Calthorpe, Mr. Wil- berforce, Mr. Clarkson, Mr. Malthus, &c Sudden Death of Mr. Brown — Return to Glasgow, ...... .319-367 vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XV. Church ia Edinburgh Offered aud Refused — Correspondence with Principal NicoU as to the Vacant Chair of Moral Philosophy in the University of St. Andrews — Acceptance of that Chair — Letter of Explanation to his Agency — Erection of a Chapel of Ease in the Parish of St. John's — Ap- pearances before the Ecclesiastical Courts — Speech in the General Assembly of 1821 on the Theological Education of Candidates for the Holy Ministry — The Table Controversy — Case of Plurality of Offices — Induction of Principal Macfarlane as one of the Ministers of Glasgow, . 368-400 CHAPTER XVI. Dr. Chalmers in the Bosom of his Family — in Correspondence with his Relatives — in General Society — in Secret before God, . . . 401-408 CHAPTER XVII. Farewell Discourses in St. .lolin's and the Chapel of Ease — Spiritual Fruits of the Ministry in Glasgow— Estimate of its General Effects- Departure from Glasgow — Installation and Introductory Lecture at St. Andrews, ........ 460-485 APPENDIX. Appendix A. — Criticisms on the Address to the Parishioners of Kilmany — Letters from Dr. Stuart and Dr. Jones — Pamphlet by Mr. Braidwood and Mr. Walker, ..... . . 401-494 Appendix B. — Prayer at the Funeral of Mr. Thomas Smith, . . 494-496 Appendix C Speech on Pluralities, ..... 496-499 Appendix D. — Opinions of the Periodical Press on the Astronomical Discourses, ........ 499-501 Appendix E. — Speech on the Employment of Lay Agency in the Manage- ment of Religious Institutions, ...... SOl-SOO Appendix F Address to Elders at their Ordination, . . . 507-512 Appendix G Defence of Sabbath Schools, .... 512-517 Appendix II. — Letter to William Roger, Esq., .... 517-519 Appendix I. — Letter to James Ewiug, Esq., .... 519-522 Appendix K. — Letter to Mr. Wilbcrforcc — Address on Emigration, . 522-527 Appendix L. — Correspondence with the Rev. Mr. Morgan, . . 527-533 Appendix M. — Speech on Theological Education, . . . 533-543 Appendix N Correspondence with Monsieur Biot, . . . 544-548 Appendix 0. — Speech at the Farewell Dinner before leaving Glasgow, . 548-552 MEMOIRS THOMAS CIIALMEES, D.D. LLD. MEMOIRS THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D., LL.D. CHAPTER I. FIRST SERMON IN GLASGOW— APPEARANCE AND MANxVER IN THE PULPIT— EXTRACT FROM PETER'S LETTERS TO HIS KINSFOLK— HIS ALARM AS TO THIS VISIT— HIS ACCOUNT OF IT WHEN OVER — ADmSSION AND INTRODUCTION AS MINISTER OF THE TRON CHURCH— SORROWFUL REMEMBRANCES OF KILMANY— VISIT TO BURNTISLAND AND KIRK ALDY— ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF KILMANY— EFFECT OF MRS. CHALMERS'S RETURN WITH HIM TO GLASGOW— SIGHT OF NORMANLAAV FROM THE CALTON HILL- LETTERS TO MR. EDIE AND TO MRS. MORTON— DESCRIPTION OF GLASGOW ANx\OYANC£S. The first sermon which Mr. Chalmers preached in Glasgow was delivered before the Society of the Sons of the Clergv, on Thursday the 30th day of March, 1815, a few months after his appointment, and a few months previous to his admission as minister of the Tron Church. The recent excitement of the canvass, the rumours strange and various, which crossing the breadth of Scotland were circulating in all quarters through the city, the quickened curiosity of opponents, the large but somewhat tremulous expectation of friends, drew together a VOL. II. A 2 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1815. vast multitude to hear Lim. Among tlie crowd which filled the Church was a young Oxford student, himself the son of a Scottish minister, who had been surprised by hearing Mr. Chalmers's work on the Evidences of Christianity mentioned with high api^roval, within the walls of an English University, shortly after the date of its publication. The keen dark eye of the youthful auditor fixed itself in searching scmtiny upon the preacher, and a few years later his graceful and graphic pen drew the following sketch : — " I was a good deal surprised and pcrjDlexed with the first glimpse I obtained of his countenance, for the light that streamed faintly upon it for the moment did not reveal anything like that general outline of feature and visage for which mv fancy had, by some strange working of presentiment, prepared me. By and bye, however, the light became stronger, and I was enabled to study the minutiae of his face pretty leisurely, while he leaned forward and read aloud the words of the Psalm, for that is always done in Scotland, not by the clerk, but the clergjnnan himself At first sight, no doubt, his face is a coarse one, but a mysterious kind of meaning breathes from every part of it, that such as have eyes to see cannot be long without discovering. It is very pale, and the large half-closed eyelids have a certain drooping melancholy weight about them, which interested me very much, I understood not why. The lij)s, too, are singularly pensive in their mode of falling down at the sides, although there is no want of richness and vigour in their central fulness of curve. The upper lip, from the nose downwards, is separated by a very deep line, which gives a soi't of leonine firmness of expression to all the loAver part of the face. The cheeks are square and strong, in texture like pieces of marble, with the cheek-bones very broad and prominent. The eyes themselves are light in colour, and have a strange dreamy heaviness, that conveys any idea rather than that of dulness, JUT. 35. DESCEIPTION OF HIS I'EHSONAL ATPEARANCE. 3 but which contrasts in a wonderful manner witli the dazzling watery glare they exhibit when expanded in their sockets, and illuminated into all their flame and fervour in some moment of high entranced enthusiasm. But the shape of the forehead is, perhaps, the most singular part of the whole visage ; and, in- deed, it presents a mixture so xcry singular, of fomis commonly exhibited onh" in the widest separation, that it is no wonder I should have required some little time to comprehend the mean- ing of it. In the first place, it is without exception the most marked mathematical forehead I ever met with — being far wider across the eyebrows than either iir. Playfair's or Mr. Leslie's — and having the eyebrows themselves lifted up at their exterior ends quite out of the usual line, a peculiarity which Spurzheim had remarked in the countenances of almost all the great mathematical or calculating geniuses — such, for example, if I rightly remember, as Sir Isaac Newton himself, Kaestener, Euler, and many others. Immediately above the extraordinary breadth of this region, which, in the heads of most mathema- tical persons, is surmounted by no fine points of organization whatever, immediately above this, in the forehead, there is an arch of imagination, canying out the summit boldly and roundly, in a style to which the heads of very few poets present anything comparable, while over this again there is a grand apex of high and solemn veneration and love, such as might have graced the bust of Plato himself, and such as in living men I had never beheld equalled in any but the majestic head of Canova. The whole is edged with a few crisp dark locks, which stand forth boldly, and affurd a fine relief to the death-like paleness of those massive temples. * * * Of all hmnan compositions there is none surely which loses so much as a sermon does when it is made to address itself to the eye of a solitary student in his closet and not to the thrilling ears of a mighty mingled congregation, through the very voice * MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1815. whicli nature lias enriched with notes more expressive than words can ever be of the meanino^s and feelings of its author. Neither, perhaps, did the v/orld ever possess any orator whose minutest peculiarities of gesture and voice have more power in increasing the effect of what he says — whose delivery, in other words, is the iirst, and the second, and the third excellence of his oratory — more truly than is that of Dr. Chalmers. And yet were the spirit of the man less gifted than it is, there is no question these, his lesser peculiarities, would never have been numbered among his points of excellence. His voice is neither strong nor melodious, his gestures are neither easy nor graceful ; but, on the contrary, extremely iTide and awkward ; his pronunciation is not only broadly na- tional, but broadly provincial, distorting almost every word he utters into some barbarous novelty, which, had his hearer leisure to think of such things, might be productive of an effect at once ludicrous and offensive in a singular degree. But of a truth, these are things which no listener can attend to while this great preacher stands before him armed 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 com- mences in a low drawling key, which has not even the merit of being solemn, and advances from sentence to sentence, and from paragraph to paragraph, while you seek in vain to catch a single echo that gives promise of that which is to come. There is, on the contrary, an appearance of constraint about him that affects and distresses you. You are afraid that his breast is weak, and that even the slight exertion he makes may be too much for it. But then, with what tenfold richness does this dim preliminary curtain make the glories of his eloquence to shine forth, wdicn the heated spirit at length shakes from it its chill confining fetters, and bursts out elate and rejoicing in iET.35. THE BREAKING UP OF A MINISTER'S FAMILY. '6 the full splendour of its disimprisoned wings. * * * I have heard nianv men deliver sermons far better arrang-ed in reo'ard to argument, and have heard verj many deliver sennons far more unifonn 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 elo- quence is capable of producing an effect so strong and irre- sistible as his."* Mr. Chalmers's first sermon at Glasgow was chiefly occupied Avith the enforcement and illustration of principles apjilicable alike to all forms and varieties of Christian charity. -f- It con- tained in embryo his whole theory as to the proper treatment of pauperism, and is remarkable thus as indicating how fimily established in his mind that theory had become even before his labours as a city clergyman had commenced. But that particu- lar institution whose claims he had undertaken to advocate was not forgotten ; and in making an appeal to his hearers on be- half of the orphan children of clergymen, the following picture of the breaking up of a minister's family was presented : — " When the sons and the daughters of clergymen are left to go, they know not whither, from the peacefulness of their father's dwelling, never were poor outcasts less prepared by the educa- tion and the habits of former years, for the scowl of an iinpity- ing world ; nor can I figure a drearier and more aifecting con- trast than that which obtains between the blissful security of their earlier days, and the dark and unshielded condition to which the hand of Providence has now brought them. It is not necessary, for the purpose of awakening your sensibilities on this subject, to dwell upon every one circumstance of distress which enters into the suflferings of this bereaved family ; or to tell you of the many friends they must abandon, and the many * Peter^s Letters to his Kinsfolk, 2(1 edit., vol. iii. pp 267-273. t See Works, vol. xi. pp. 389-425. 6 MEMOIRS OF DE. CHALMEKS. 1815 fliarms of that peaceful neighbourhood which they must quit for ever. But when they look abroad, and survey the innumer- able beauties which the God of nature has scattered so profusely around them — when they sec the sun throwing its unclouded splendours over the whole neighbourhood — when, on the fair side of the year, they behold the smiling aspect of the country, and at every footstep they take, some flower appears in its loveliness, or some bird oifcrs its melody to delight them — when they see quietness on all the hills, and every field glow- ing in the pride and luxury of vegetation — when they see summer throwing its rich garment over this goodly scene of magnificence and glory, and think, in the bitterness of their souls, that this is the last summer which they shall ever witness, smiling on that scene which all the ties of habit and of afiection have endeared to them — wlien tliis thought, melan- choly as it is, is lost and overborne in the far darker mela!i- clioly of a father torn from their embrace, and a helpless family left to find their way unprotected and alone through the lower- ing futurity of tliis earthlv pilgrimage, Do you wonder that their feeling hearts should be ready to lose hold of the promise, that lie who decks the lily fair in flowery pride, will guide them in safety through the world, and at last raise all who believe in Him to the bloom and the vigour of immortality ? The flowers of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin, yet your Heavenly Father careth for tliem — and how much more careth He for you, 0 ye of little faith." One Avho heard this passage delivered,* has told us, that " the tears of the father and preacher fell like rain-drops on the manuscript." And from many another eye besides that of the preacher the soft waters of sensibility were seen to flow. Before leaving Fifeshire to preach in Glasgow upon this occasion, Mr. Chalmers had written to liis friend Mr. Tennent: — * The Very Rev. E. B. Ramsay in his Bunjrai'hical Notke of Dr. Chalmens. ^T. 35. THE REV. SIR HENRY MONCREIFF. 7 " I feel greatly comforted by your assuring me of tlie friend- ship of my future people, and their desire to make me happy. In this case, they must not overwhelm me by their attentions. I shrink from the fatiguing intercourse of dinners and large companies. I have got as much of this proposed to me for the four days I am to spend with you as would serve me for four weeks. This is all very natural and very kind ; but you, my dear Sir, will know how to explain it if I shall find it necessary to study as gradual a transition as possible from the happy coolness and peacefulness of my present situation." And on returning to Kilmany, Mr. Chalmers wrote to his sister, Mrs. Morton : — " Since Avriting you last, I have been in GlasgoAv, and preached to them, and spent four days with them, and have been carried through such a round of introductions, and seen such a number of people, that it is impossible for me to re- member one-fourth part of them, and far less to have got so near any one of them, as to give you a particular account of him. All I shall say on that subject is, that Dr. Macgill, my prede- cessor, and now Professor of Divinity, appears to be a very in- teresting personage. The time of my removal is yet uncertain." The day of his admission to his new charge was at lengtli fixed to be Friday the 21st day of July. It is the Scottish custom that on the Sabbath Avhich follows his ordination or admission, the new minister should be introduced to his people by a friend, who conducts the forenoon service. It had been suggested to him that the Rev. Sir Henry Moncreiff of Edin- burgh should, in this instance, be requested to undertake that duty ; and as his personal acquaintance with that eminent clergyman appeared to Mr. Chalmers too limited to justify a personal application, Dr. Balfour conveyed t,he request. So soon as he heard of its being complied with, Mr. Chalmers hastened to express his gratitude : — " It is with the utmost pleasure that I am given to understand by Dr. Balfour that you 8 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1815. have consented to introduce me to my new charge in Glasgow. I fear you will think me very impudent and presuming in having ventured to propose a favour of such magnitude, nor could I ever have thought of taking such a liherty had it not been suggested to me by a clerical friend, in whose friendship and wisdom and tact I have the utmost confidence, and whose intimacy with yourself gave me the security that there was nothing improper in submitting to you such a proposition. Be assured of my utmost gratitude for your compliance ; and I have only to regret that, from my state of health, which does not admit of very frequent or severe exertions in the way of preach- ing, I may not be able to repay your kind service to the ex- tent to which I consider it entitled. Your countenance on an occasion so interesting to myself will, I trust, never be forgot- ten by me, and it goes far to soothe my transition to the new field of laboui: which Providence has assigned me, when I ob- serve so much done to secure me a respectable outset." On Thursday, the 18th day of July, the manse of Kilmany was finally forsaken. His last days in Fifcshire were given to his parents ; and leaving his family at Anstruther, Mr. Chalmers proceeded by way of Edinburgh to Glasgow, where on the very day of his arrival the first of those journal letters was com- menced, which afterwards, when separated for any length of time from Mrs. Chalmers, he so faithfully continued, and out of which our future pages will be so frequently and liberally enriched. " Glasgow, July 20th, 1815. — I breakfasted this morning in Edinburgh with Mr. Payne, an Independent clergyman, and got forward in the coach with Mr. Paul, your visitor, and Mr Fletcher of the London Missionary Society : was conducted to my lodgings almost immediately by Mr. John Wood. They con- sist of a dining-room and bed-room, perhaps not so stylish as I ^T. 35. THE ADMISSION. 0 could have wished, but in a high airy situation, as fresh and pure as Kilmany itself, with no other substantial drawback than that another room cannot be got in the same house, and that the landlad}^, Avith every disposition to oblige me and make me comfortable, has a quantity and volubility of talk upon every subject, which is a little annoying. * * * Friday 21s^, eleven o'clock. — Breakfasted in my own room pleasantly and comfort- ably. I thank God that He makes me feel so tranquil ; but, oh what alienation from Him have I to struggle with in this scene of visible and temporal allurement ! Called on Dr. Balfour, and there met Sir Henry MoncreifF. The town is very thin at pre- sent ; but a number of people have come from the country to be present at this occasion. * * * Four o'clock. — I have got the admission over. It was a pretty formidable thing. There were three chairs put in the middle passage before the pulpit. I was placed in the middle one, and Sir Henry Moncreiif and Dr. Adamson on each side of me. I had to stand during a pretty long address. In coming out I stood at the door, and had to shake hands with the people. An immense number I had to do this with — and sometimes I got three hands in my loof at once. Mr. Melvil is now with me. We sit down to dinner at five ; and as Mr. Melvil is waiting, and I fear I may not have time to write any for the post after dinner, I shall con- ^clude. , May God pour His best blessings upon you and my dear little Anne. Tell Isabel that I am sorry if I hurt her feelings on the morning of my departure, and hope she will mind my wishes and forget the eagerness with which I expressed them. Compliments to all my dear friends at Anster. Do write me soon." " Glasgow, July '26th, 1815. — I beg that you would write me frequently ; for though here I am surrounded with attentions, yet I have met with nothing that can at all replace the objects I have abandoned. * * * I have gathered thus much, at least, 10 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1815- from the present state of my feelings, that you are my most valuahle and necessary companion, and truly a help meet for me. Mciy God spare you and our little one. May He bring us soon together in health and in safety ; and oh ! that He would jiossess our hearts with one principle and one s^nnpathy on the greatest and most deeply intei'esting of subjects. '■ On Sunday Sir Henry Moncreiff preached an hour and twenty minutes in the forenoon — I preached an hour and a quarter. The crowd was immense. Mr. Simeon of Cambridge was one of my hearers, and afterwards met with me. He is a most delightful man. I got twenty-two calls on Monday, eigh- teen on Tuesday, and to-day I missed a number from being out. * * * May the God of all mercy bless you and my dear Anne Avith all that is precious." " Glasgow, August ith, 1815. — I have not yet collected suffi- cient materials for filling up a letter, but I now write under the impulse of the recollection that this is our marriage-day. Xor can I refrain from expressing not merely my ardent and unabated affection for you — an aifection which I can assure you has suffered no decay, but is fresher and livelier and more determined than ever ; but I also write to express my gratitude for your unwearied anxiety for all that could con- duce to my comfort — an anxiety which you have ever kept up under all my perverseness, and all my peculiarities of habit and of temper, and all the annoyances I have given you, and all the wilfulness with which I have adhered to my own taste and my own inclination, unmindful as I have often been of your feelings, and ever disposed to make my way take the prece- dence of your way. May God long preserve you a comfort to me. May He touch cur hearts with a united sentiment of fear to Him and faith in the Lord Jesus, that we may live as fellow-travellers to one eternal home, and dj'ing unto the worhl, iwaj feel our affections more and more placed upon eter- MT.35. IIEMEMBIJANCES OF KILMANY. 11 iiity. Oil ! my dear G., clicrish in your heart tlie obligation we both owe to her who is the dear pledge of our love to one an- other. Let us qualify ourselves to be her example and her teachers. Never give up the habit of praying for her and for one another ; and remember that you cannot begin too early to protect her from the mistaken indulgence of friends and the evil influences of a world lying in wickedness. * * * Do write me immediately. Give my kindest aftections to my father, mother, and family. Thomas Chalmers." Mr. Chalmers's eye was too single to be blinded by that blaze of unparalleled popularity which at the very commence- ment of his ministry broke around him at Glasgow. His earlier affections were too strong and too tender to be overborne or obliterated by the flattering adulations of crowding multitudes of strangers. Often in the midst of the most animating bustle, himself the central object of all kinds of public attention, he stood with drooping eyelid and dreamy look, lost to all around, his imagination Avandering over the homesteads of Kilmany, his heart holding intercourse with the dear friends he had left behind in Fifeshire. About a fortnight after his settlement he wrote to Mr. Robert Edie : — " Glasgow, August lOth, 1815. — I have not heard from Kil- many since I came here. * * * I cannot yet bring myself to think of my old neighbourhood without pain, and the whole parting scene passes before me in the form of a very gloomy and oppressive recollection. I see that it will require great arrangement to secure me the right command of time for my studies. I am striving to keep my day from being broken in upon till twelve o'clock, and then callers, and poor, and people of all descriptions, come in upon me at the rate say of twenty per day. I then go out to meetings and visits in the toAvn, and ondeavour always to have an hour's walk in the country before 12 ilEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1.S15. dinner. I am sadly teased with invitations, but this too I am striving to reduce to some kind of moderation ; and I hope that in the process of time I shall be able to accommodate myself pleasantly and serenely to the state of my actual circum- stances. " I mean to leave Glasgow on Monday the 28th of August, and spend a fortnight between Kirkaldy and Burntisland at sea-bathing. I would willingly come to Kilmany, but I know the effect would be just another gloomy scene of regret and melancholy at leaving it. This, I trust, will not operate as an objection to the more deliberate visit which I propose to pay next summer ; but at present the wound is too fresh and too recent to admit of being so soon tampered with. " It gave me great pleasure to meet Alexander Paterson after I left you, who cheered me with encouraging infomiation respecting some of his acquaintances in the parish. Oh that it might turn out to be a genuine work of the Spirit of God upon their consciences ! I have earnestly to entreat of you that you hold fast all right and serious impressions : and be assured that there would not have been so much said in the Bible about backsliding, and taking heed lest we fall, and strength- ening the things which remain, had there not been a strong tendency to relapse on our part ; and it is right that we should be aware of this, and that our vigilance should be directed to the point of danger and alarm, and that we should make in faith a daily and an hourly commitment of ourselves to those promises which are in Christ Jesus, of not being tempted be- yond what we are able, and of being strengthened by Him to do all things. " I beg of you to offer the expression of my sincere regard to all the members of your family. I sympathize with Mrs. Edie, whose affection for poor David, whom she had so long and so anxiously tended, must have received a deep wound from his JET.35. OLD ACQUAINTANCES REMEMBERED. 13 affecting departure. Tell me if Miss Edie is better of lier cold ; and I should like also to know about Miss Miles, whom I had visited twice or thrice before leaving the countiy. Give my kindest remembrance to Thomas Key, Robert Dewar, and Alexander Paterson, senior. Remember me to Mr. and Miss Aitkin. When I name these acqu.aintances, I think of their houses, and a lively image of my old peaceful neighbourhood enters into my mind, and throws me into a flood of tenderness. Let me not forget Mrs. Bonthron. Is the heddel got better ? I beg that Mr. Edie may inform me through your letter of Mary Farmer and John Dandie, as to their circumstances. Tell William Henderson that, though he could not speak when we last saw each other, I had a very deep impression both of his regard for me and his wife's. Speak of me to Effie Nicholson, and though I do not name all the villagers, I love them all, and often think of them all. Give my kind compliments to Mr. and Mrs. Robertson. " I consider a letter to you as equivalent to a letter to your father, and I hope he will consider it as such ; and it will give me great pleasure to have immediately a letter either from you or him in return. But let it be long and closely Avritten, and rest assured that it cannot be too particular. Every one piece of infomiation respecting any one either of the parish or village will interest me greatly. Crowd all the intelligence you can think of into the letter, for I have a great appetite to know and to hear respecting you all. Could I know of any rejoicing in the truth and walking in the truth, it would be an exquisite gratification. I beg you will write your letter more closely than I have done, and do it on a long sheet, if you have it. With prayers for you and all your relatives, believe me to be, my dear Sir, yours with most sincere regard, — Thomas Chalmers." Agreeably to the intention expressed in this letter Mr. 14 . MEMOIES OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S15. Chalmers left Glasgow on Monday the 28th August, to spend a fortnight between Burntisland and Kirkaldy, and to bring his family back with him on his return. On reaching Burnt- island he wrote to his mother, telling her why it was that he asked upon this occasion to be excused from coming to An- struther. " In spite of all this, however," he adds, " I still viay come, but I should like to know if you have any par- ticular reason for wishing me, and then I will consider that I must come. I beg you will let me know in the spirit of con- siderate kindness — for there is an ordinary style of kindness which drives everything before it, and will not be satisfied un- less you dine with us, and take up A^our abode with us, and pays no regard to one's health, or convenience, or wishes, and insists upon carrying its own object ; — there is a kindness of this sort, I say, which I have been fatigued with since I last saw you, which I feel to be most oppressive, and which, I think, is utterl}'' undeserving of its name. Oh ! Avlien will true kindness come to be understood, and instead of fatiguing its object by its exactions and souring him by its complaints, will give all jealousy to the wind, and delight in ministering to his con- venience by making him welcome when present, and by cordi- ally giving way to his circumstances when it is more agreeable for him to be absent ! " One great inducement would be to see Helen ; but I trust that Helen understands how a man may exercise friendship towards her in the act of thinking of her, though she is not just within the sphere of his vision. Give her my kindest assurances of aifection and good-will. Be as frank in your let- ter to me as I have been in my letter to you. Tell me what your wish is upon this subject, and I shall cheerfully do it." His friends at Anstruther did not urge his coming, and he thus thanked them for the spirit of considerate kindness which they had displayed : — " It is a substantial accommo- JF.T.%-,. OPPRESSIVE CRO^VD IN HIS CHURCH 15 elation to mc tliat I am not under the necessity of going to Anster at present. I am regularly sea-batliing, and find myself much the better of it. Be not alanned about me, as I mean to be ftir more moderate in my exertions ; and I hope that with Mrs. Chalmers interposing her advice, and being quite in earnest that I should not take too much upon me, I sh.all be enabled to suit my exertions to mj strength. My general health is remarkably good ; and after the oppressive crowd in my church has subsided a little, I trust that, by the favour of God, I may be enabled to preserve my health amongst them. * * * " Tell Helen how much I think of her toleration in not draff- ging me twenty-five miles for the mere purpose of a mutual look at one another." Although unable at this time to visit Kilraany he had no longer to complain of being left without information regarding it. Writing from Kirkaldy in the beginning of September, he tells his sister, Mrs. Morton, — " I continue to get the most affectionate and interesting letters from Kilmany. I feel a painful tenderness about my old parish. I am writing an address to them at present, part of which has gone to the press. I cannot venture upon pathos in this composition. I feel too sore when I make this attempt. It is one or two topics of practical instruction that I have taken up ; and I pray God that it may be useful amongst them." His chief Kilmany correspondent was Mr. Robert Edic, who having striven in one of his letters to gratif}^ as he could the strong craving for all kind of information about old friends, was, in return, rewarded by receiving the following reply : — " Kirkaldy, September 5th. — I received your most interesting letter, and wept over it. I trust that your family will be taught of God, and be enabled to spread a savour of good things over the neighbourhood around them. You cannot write too often, 16 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1815. too minutely, or at too great length. I feel that I shall ever take a great interest in my old parish ; and it is my wish that God would make me more mindful of them all, and more fervent in my daily prayers for them than I have ever yet been. " I have a short address to Kilmany in the press. I was obliged to confine myself very much to one topic. I hope I may have been well directed in my choice of it ; and it will give me pleasure to hear from you afterwards that it is read with acceptance and impression by my much loved people. * * * I mean, if I can get hold of ' Witherspoon on Regene- ration' in Edinburgh, to send you a copy. It is a truly im- portant treatise, and I think will be much liked both by you and Mr. Paterson. I hope you are both holding fast your con- fidence. What a privilege, when we are enabled by faith to say of God, each for and of himself, that He is my God. Now, all have a warrant for this. God does not refuse us, but how many of us refuse Him ? He is pleased with the faith of a creature saying of Him that He is my God. With such a faith as this how delightful is existence ? How light are all its cares ? How calm and clear that soul which can so rest upon God. Do, my dear Sir, dwell much upon the promises, and shut not your eye upon the precepts. They go hand in hand. By the one you are enabled to fulfil the other ; and with the joys of the Christian faith to combine the diligence of the Christian practice. " I am obliged to conclude for want of time ; but do you write me soon, and fill up every corner of your letter to me." The Address to the Inhabitants of Kilmany referred to in the preceding letter, excited on its appearance considerable and un- expected censure. Private remonstrances, letters from friends, pamphlets and reviews,* informed its author that he was * See Appendix A. ^T. 35. ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF KILMANY. 17 believed by many to give an unwise and unscriptural advice in urging those who, in the first stages of religious earnestness, feel unsettled and insecure as to the ground of their acceptance with God, to set themselves immediately, and with all diligence, to renounce every obviously wrong thing they had hitherto practised, and to do every obviously right thing which they had neglected. But neither private censure nor public assault could tempt Mr. Chalmers into controversy. The impression made at the time upon his mind was expressed in the following letter to Mr. Edie. His latest and maturest judgment saw nothing in the Address, as it originally stood, to alter or explain aAvay : — " Glasgow, November 2oth. — I am glad to observe from you that the printed Address was not unacceptable to many. It has excited a good deal of speculation both in Glasgow and Edinburgh ; and I confess I should have been better pleased had I heard of its practical impression on the consciences and lives of some readers than of all those approvals and objections which imply nothing more than an anxiety to give the truths I have brought forward a right adjustment in their speculative system. It would comfort me much to know that it told prac- tically on a willing and obedient people in your neighbour- hood. If it has no other eifect than to set them a-doing and be satisfied with themselves, it does mischief ; and sorry should I be if, in my attempt to divide the word of truth, I have failed in giving the faith, the humility, the godliness of the New Testament, that high supremacy which belongs to them. Oh ! my dear Sir, never forget that while called upon to be strong it is to be strong in the grace that is in the Lord Jesus. Have your eye ever directed to Him as the alone fountain out of whose supplies you obtain strength for doing anything aright. Go to God on the firm ground of His righteousness as your alone plea for acceptance before Him ; and remember VOL. II. B 18 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1815. that it is only through the channel of His mediatorship that you get that washing of regeneration and that renewing of the Holy Ghost which lie at the bottom of all right and spiritual obedience. " I was in Edinburgh a fortnight ago, giving a little assist- ance at their sacrament. From the top of the Calton Hill I saw Normanlaw, an object visible from the west window of my manse. Dr. Jones was with me, but this did not hinder me from gazing on the pinnacle w^th a most eager direction of my heart to that dear vale which stretches eastward from its base. Oh ! with what vivid remembrance can I wander in thought over all its farms and all its families, and dwell on the kind and simple affection of its people, till the contemplation becomes too bitter for my endurance — and contrast the days which now are with the days which once were, when I sat embosomed in tranquillity and friendship, and could divide the whole time between the pursuits of sacred literature and the work of dealing out simple and spiritual teaching among my affection- ate parishioners. This system is now, I grieve to say it, greatly broken up ; and one must signalize himself by resisting every established practice, or spend a heartless, hard driving, dis- tracting, and wearing out life among the bustle of unminis- terial work, and no less unministerial company. I do not know what it will come to, but I can easily perceive that I shall not be right till I get myself emancipated from the multiplied drudgery of these ever-recurring avocations ; and should I obtain this emancipation, then I grant you that Glasgow is a highly interesting field — that much kindness and much prin- ciple are to be found in it — that the good which is to be done and the good which might be done are incalculable, and that I have already met with individuals in whom I can enjoy all that undisguised sincerity of friendship, and all that sympathy of Christian feelina- wliicli so often cheered and refreshed me ;et. :>.5. LETTERS TO MK. WATSON. 10 when I lived in your village, and could obtain at a call the benefit and the pleasure of your evening conversations." After a refreshing fortnight inFifeshire, Mr. Chalmers returned to Glasgow on Saturday the 16th September, and removed from his solitary lodgings in Rotten-row to a family establishment in Charlotte Street. The happy eifect of this change is indi- cated in the contrast between two letters to his old friend and neighbour, the Rev. Mr. Watson, minister of Leuchars, the first written at the close of his first week in Glasgow, the second about a month after his settlement in Charlotte Street : — " Glasgoiu, July 29th, 1815. — I seize the opportunity of a half-hour to Avrite you a few words. I can give you no satis- faction whatever as to my liking or not liking Glasgow. Were I to judge by my present feelings, I would say that I dislike it most violently ; but the present state of my mind is not a fair criterion — at a distance from my family, and in a land of strangers ; and though beset with polite attentions, feeling that there is positively nothing in them all to replace those warmer and kindlier enjojnnients which friendship brings along with it. What is to come out of it I know not ; but I may at least sa}^, that all around me yet carries the aspect of desola- tion. This, however, I am sensible is due to me and not to them — for smarting, as I do, under the agonies of a sore separation, and broken loose, as it were, from the whole world of my former acquaintances, I am not in a state for appreciat- ing or enjoying the undoubted worth and excellence of many who have come under my observation. " I have got about one hundred calls in the course of this week, and I foresee a deal of very strange work in the business of a Glasgow minister. What think you of my putting my name to two applications for licenses to sell spirits, and two certificates of being qualified to follow out the calling of pedlars, 20 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1815. in the course of yesterday ? Glasgow is a great tliorouglifare to the religious world. The most remarkable men I have met with in that way since my arrival are Mr. Simeon of Cambridge and Mr. Walker of Dublin. " I called at Pilmuir on my way west ; and were anything necessaiy to revive and perpetuate the friendship I have ever felt for Mrs. Fortune, the kind and benignant reception I re- ceived from her, though I had not seen her for about six years, awoke my every sentiment of tenderness and regard. I was in great heaviness, and felt all the bitterness of a man who was going he knew not whither ; and in my whole progress, indeed, from Kilmany to Glasgow, I had the feeling as if all the scenes and all the friendships of my former years were dying away from me, nor have I found a single object to occupy the cheer- less blank which the warm associations of other days have left behind them. " I would think of your dear and quiet neighbourhood if I could do it without anguish ; but I have no pleasure in the roaming of my fancy over the charms of a scenery I have aban- doned. Tell Mrs. Watson that she is the object of my daily prayers, and that I can never think of her without the most grateful sense of all her forbearance with me. May the blessing of God rest on your peaceful habitation. May your hearts be united to fear him. May you live together as fellow-travellers to eternity ; and may you and your children after you find their final settlement in that unfading home where there is no sad- ness and no separation." " Glasgow, October 27th, 1815. — It is just as you said. Mrs. Chalmers has come, and time has had space to operate, and all the familiarities of a sheltered home and a friendly neighbour- hood are gathering around me, and I am every day getting more reconciled to my new situation, though I trust that the former home Avill never lose its place in my memory, and the fomier JET. 35. GLASGOW A WONDERFUL PLACE. 21 friends will never lose their place in my affection. I can think of you all with less pain, but with not less tenderness, and I regale myself with the hope of a deliberate visit in summer, as one of the most blissful visions of futurity on this side of time, " This, Sir, is a wonderful place ; and I am half entertained and half provoked by some of the peculiarities of its people. The peculiarity which bears hardest upon me is the incessant demand they have upon all occasions for the personal attend- ance of the ministers. They must have four to every funeral, or they do not think that it has been genteelly gone through. They must have one or more to all the committees of all the societies. They must fall in at every procession. They must attend examinations innumerable, and eat of the dinners con- sequent upon these examinations. They have a niche assigned them in almost every public doing, and that niche must be filled up by them, or the doing loses all its solemnity in the eyes of the public. There seems to be a superstitious charm in the very sight of them, and such is the manifold officiality with which they are covered that they must be paraded among all the meetings and all the institutions. I gave in to all this at first, but I am beginning to keep a suspicious eye upon these repeated demands ever since I sat nearly an hour in grave deliberation with a number of others upon a subject connected with the property of a corporation, and that subject was a gutter, and the question was whether it should be bought and covered up, or lot alone and left to lie open. I am gradually separating myself from all this trash, and long to establish it as a doctrine that the life of a town minister should be what the life of a country minister might be, that is, a life of intel- lectual leisure, with the otium of literary pursuits, and his en- tire time disposable to the purposes to which the Apostles gave themselves wholly, that is, the ministry of the Avord and prayer. " My sacrament takes place on Sunday-week. I have had a 22 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1815. very interesting set of young communicants. Their number is only twenty-two. The truth is, that in large towns, where it is so easy to escape observation, peoj)le do not come forward to the sacrament so much from the mere impulse of example. There is more of a real principle in the matter ; and I have met with some very delightful exhibitions of tlie genuine work- ing of humility and conviction in the minds of my visitors. " The University is now sitting, and the society of professors and students will add another veiy agreeable infusion to the general society of the place. " Tell Miss Lawson that I was asking for her. I cannot name a person but my imagination summons up the localities of your dear and interesting neighbourhood. May the Lord Jesus see much of the travail of His soul among the people of your parish, and may He grant, that though here at a distance from each other, we may so live and so walk in His faith and obedience that we shall be found in fellowship together at the side of His everlasting throne. Thomas Chalmers." The wide forthgoings of his own cordial disposition which invited and encouraged approach, and the celebrity which had now gathered round his name, made him the object of attrac- tion to thousands. Modestly blind to all this, he continued to regard and to describe the annoyances to which he was con- sequently exposed as the ordinaiy accompaniments of every city ministry. One of the earliest of those details in which he so often afterwards indulged is given in a letter to his sister, who had recently been severely tried in her own family : — " Glasgow, January 5th, 1816. — j\Iy ever dearest Jane, — "We have now fairly settled in Glasgow, and I can speak more con- fidently as to my taste and liking for my new situation. Our establishment consists at present of my wife, daughter, Charles, two boarders, Messrs. Laird and Scriba, and finally, tliree seiTants. ^T. 35. GLASGOW ANNOYANCES. 23 Our domestic society is agreeable enough. My great time for it is an hour after supper, being much employed through the day. We live in ia house at £15 a year, which is looked upon as cheap in Glasgow, and is a pretty fair specimen of the prices of other things. We have, however, a great deal of accom- modation, insomuch that Miss Pratt lived some months with us, and Miss Margaret Balfour of Dundee, your favourite, spent a few weeks with us. Her father came for her, and he is almost the only interesting acquaintance we have seen from our old neighbourhood since our arrival in this place. " So much for the home department. As to the foreign, my chief annoyance is the quantity of secular work which has been suifered to accumulate on the clergy — such as the busi- ness of the poor, and of hospitals, and of public institutions. This I have set my face against, and though I have a good deal of opposition to encounter, yet I am persuaded that I have the solid countenance and approbation of all who value the pure objects of the Christian ministry, who have reflected well on the separate and spiritual nature of their employments, and formed a right comparative estimate of the benevolence which points to time and that which points to eternity. " My next annoyance is the multitude of calls and invita- tions. The first I have not nearly returned, and they will not be repeated ; the second I have accepted only to a limited extent, and of late I have been obliged by my tendency to cold to decline them all, which I shall probably continue to do during the winter months. In this I have a few clamours to contend with, but I have a numerous set of friends who value ray health and usefulness, and am borne up by their approving testimony in this particular also. " My third annoyance is the fatigue of preaching. The church is in a confined situation, and crowded to excess. It is partly my o^vn fault, for I preach louder and longer than I 24 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1815. used to do. I am to make tlie diminution of my fatigue a serious object, and in this I am so heartily sympathized with by my congregation, that they are just now pressing an assist- ant upon me for half the day. I hope I shall not find this necessary. " My fourth annoyance is the want of seasoning to the air and climate of Glasgow. The frost has an opposite effect to what I was counting on. It condenses the smoke of the public works and sends it down in the fonn of darkness visible through the streets and passages. Here the kindness of the people is unbounded. I spend a great j)art of my time among the neighbouring villas of the to^\^l. I am just now writing you from one of those pure country houses. My feelings are not at all peculiar or alarming. Every ncAV comer requires such a seasoning ; and Dr. Lockhart, one of the clergy, told me that he was miserable his first winter here, and has enjoyed uninteri-upted health ever since. I have said so much of the disadvantages that I have left no room for the encouragements ; — these I shall postpone to my next letter, for I will not en- croach on the space that I have been in the habit of devoting to the first and most valuable of all subjects. " I trust that my dear Jane is every day finding the Saviour more precious to her soul, and is receiving such larger supplies of that faith which is not of ourselves, but is the gift of God, that she is enabled more and more to rest on Him for the ful- filment of all His promises. What I should like to realize is the feeling of being a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth — to shake off that obstinate delusion which binds me to the world as my home — to take up with eternity as my settled habitation — and transfer the wishes and the interests and the hopes which are so apt to grovel among the objects of a perishable scene, to the realities and the glories of Paradise. Let this be our diligent aspiring at this season of the year ; and oh how it rr:T. 35. LETTER TO MRS. MORTON. 25 would elevate and tranquillize us amid the troubles of tliat intervening period which is so soon to terminate. How little, my dearest, do all your past afflictions appear now that they have been endured ! Be assured that in a little time all your present and all your future will just bear the same character of lightness and insignificance. Do, then, be of good cheer. Do summon up confidence in God. Do let the pure light of faith disperse those darkening clouds of anxiety which so often beset and bewilder us. By such an exercise as this you do honour to God. The more unstaggcring your faith is amid the threatening appearances of sense, the more is God Avell pleased with it. It is a fine description of the faith of Abra- ham, that he hoped against hope. Do the same, my dear Jane ; and if you fail not in your faith, God will not fail in His faith- fulness. Let us walk no longer by sight. Let every trial of faith be to us a trial of patience also. Let the realities of a coming home be more and more familiar to us. Let us walk among them by contemplation, and let them shed a lustre over the daily doings of us who profess to be candidates for eternity. " Give my kindest remembrance and the compliments of the season to Mr. Morton. Yours, very affectionately, Thomas Chalmers." VOL. ir. 26 MEMOIKS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1815. CHAPTER 11. Mil. THOMAS SMITH— SINGULAR ATTACHMENT TO AND CORRESPON- DENCE WITH HIM— HIS ILLNESS AND DEATH. The desolation of heart felt hj- Mr. Chalmers on first coming to GlasgoAv was speedily repaired. When the eight years of his residence in that city closed, he bade farewell to such a band of devoted personal friends and fellow-labourers as seldom if ever have been seen to cluster round any single Christian philanthropist. And ere the first month of that residence had gone by, his aftections had alighted upon a youthful member of his congregation, to whom he speedily became bound b}'' ties of such peculiar strength and tenderness as threw over their brief earthly intercourse all the air of a spiritual romance. Mr. Thomas Smith, the son of a well known Glasgow publisher, was qualifying himself for the pro- fession of a writer or attorney. His family having interested themselves in Mr. Chalmers's appointment, he was early in- troduced to the notice of his new minister, and occasionally invited to accompany him in his daily walk or ride. His intellectual accomplishments, his refined taste, his gentle bear- ing, his pure and aspiring aims, soon won Mr. Chalmers's heart. But what gave him a still stronger hold upon that heart than any personal endowment, was his being so far as was known to Mr. Chalmers, the first-fruits spiritually of his ministry in Glasgow. As if all those afiections, which wrenched from their old objects were in search of new ones, had suddenly con- -TSr. 35. THE DAILY INTERCOURSE. 27 centrated on him, lie became the object of an attachment which, in the brief entries of a private journal, now reduced to the ordinary measure of a single line for each succeeding day, vents itself in such expressions as the following : — " Called on Mr. Thomas Smith ; 0 God, purify and christianize and give salu- tary eifect to my regard for him." — " Had long walks and con- versations with T. S. — 0 my God, save me from all that is idolatrous in my regard for him!" The occasional soon turned into daily intercourse, a trysting-place being appointed on the banks of the Monkland Canal, where each day at a set hour they met. And the general conversation of ordinary friendship soon flowed in that new channel into which it was directed by a heart yearning for the spiritual and eternal wel- fare of its object. Ere long, close and affectionate as it was, the out-door intercourse was not enough. There were meetings besides for reading the Holy Scriptures and for prayer ; and great as were the efforts and fatigues of the Tron Church pul- pit, an hour each Sabbath evening was set apart for conjoined devotion. Nothing was suffered to interfere with these daily meetings. " Should these flying showers be the order of this day," so writes Mr. Chalmers one bleak December morning, " it will blow up our proposed arrangement, in which case (and you can judge of this when the time comes) I would pro- pose that you should call on me as soon after two as jon find convenient, when Ave shall go through the regular business of the day ; and if the weather does not admit of exercise out of doors, I should then like to go to Stockwell* and have half an hour at bagatelle." Upon another morning of this same month, and as if unable to wait till a few hours brought round a perso- nal interview, Mr. Chalmers writes, — " I am not so well as to go to the Presbytery, but not so unwell as to be confined from walking. At the same time, I should like the walk to be in my * The residence of Mr. Smith. 28 MEMOIRS OF DE. CHALMERS. 1815. garden rather than at tlie usual rendezvous ; and if this reach you in time jou will oblige me much by bending your course to Charlotte Street so soon as released from business. " May your progress in all that is Christian become every day more sensible in your heart and life. May the grand pecu- liarities of the faith take their firm and effectual hold of you, and a resemblance to that very peculiar examj^le which the Author of this faith set before you be more and more visibly inscribed on every lineament of your character. May you grow in all that is delicate, and amiable, and honourable, and of good report. The semblance of all these may and has been attained out of Christ, but such a semblance as will not bear examination ; and be assured, my dearest of earthly friends, that those things of which Christ cannot say in the day of reckoning that they are done unto me, will, when sifted to the interior, be found to be not well done. If, on the impulse of natural compassion I surrender a sum of money to a charitable purpose ; — verily, I say unto you, that this deed has its reward. It is rewarded by the pleasure of the exercise, or by the grati- tude of the object, or by the reputation of a generous character in society, all of which rewards have their accomplishment in life, but reach not to eternity. Suppose I do the very same deed because Christ requires it of me, or because I have cultivated the feeling of compassion at His requirement. He who knows what is in man sees the principle of homage to Him in the performance, and He honours it accordingly with His testimony in the eventful day of our fate ; and thus the same external deed, which in one is of no account on the great scale of im- mortality, is in another a treasure laid up in heaven, a jewel in that crown of splendour which is to encircle the head of the righteous. I have heard the saying of our Saviour on that day turned to the purpose of magnifying benevolence at the expense of faith. Now the very I'cason why these deeds of ^T. 35. " I WOULD NOT LIVE ALWAY." 29 benevolence are so accounted of is, that they were done in faith — ' forasmuch as in doing it to these ye did it unto me/ " Indulge this effusion, and rest assured that it is the effusion of a heart which longs and which rejoices over you. May God spare us for many days a comfort and a means of establishment to each other. May we have much SAveet counsel together in this the land of our pilgrimage ; and after our course is finished, and we have passed through the trials and allurements of this deceitful scene, may we be found without spot and blameless before the throne of God's glory. Oh ! when I think of the ex- posures and the dangers of this world, and how the yearly thousands of victims are swelling the sad account of depravity and of its triumphs, when I think of all this and look to the blue serene of yon innocent and peaceful heaven of which our kind and good Saviour tells us that there is nothing there to offend, I can enter into the sentiment of the patriarch, ' I would not live alway.' " "December 8th, 1815. — This cold of mine is getting a little obstinate, and I have determined on the confinement of another day. I leave you to guess the best earthly expedient I have for alleviating the irksomeness of this confinement, and ti-ust the application of it to your much valued friendship. " Leave not business on my account ; but as you go through the world, 0 may the fear of God and a watchful and well principled conscience go as your guides and your safeguards along with you. " My prayer is, that you may never cease your exertions after an unsoiled gracefulness and brilliancy of character. Try and find your way to the sentiment, that this can only be done by the grace that is in the Lord Jesus, and should be done as an offering unto Him. Let all self-complacency be banished from our hearts. Let duty to God be the principle, and His 80 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. glory, rather than tlie adornment of self, be the object ; but amid all my distinctions about motives let me not perplex you out of that vigorous career in which I trust you will be always making progress and always abounding." Wlien a week at Blochairn or Kilmardinny* broke in upon the accustomed fellowship, an almost daily interchange of letters took place, occasioning a correspondence-j- in which the questions of election and vows and the propriety of attending public assemblies for dancing, were discussed. Step by step the Christian minister leads along the youthful and beloved disciple — thrown once or twice into anxiety, which breaks at last into exulting joy, as he discerns the clear and un- mistakable tokens of a true and firm and advancing faith in the Redeemer. With exquisite wisdom, too, is the counsel of the Christian adviser tempered. " I could not," he says in a letter dated Kilmardinny, January 6th, 1816, "write you my customary note yesterday, and propose to make up for it by a longer communication this day. I have received your different notes, which are every day advancing in interest, and suggest to my own mind most useful topics of consideration. May God grant you a large supply of the spirit of earnestness to be altogether what He would have you to be, and to do altogether what He would have you to do. You have great en- couragement in the saying, ' that whosoever willeth to do His will shall know of His doctrine.' I shall not confine myself to one particular topic, but come forward with a few mis- cellaneous points suggested by our whole correspondence. Firsts — Your intercourse with me filled up so much of your time. Leave not this time in a state of exposure to any * Blochairn, the country residence of C. S. Parker, Esq., and Kilmardinny, of J. Tennent, Esq., both attached friends, to wliose neighbouring villas Ur. Chalmers delighted to retire for study from the oppressive bustle of the city. f This correspondence it is proposed to publish hereafter. ^T. 35. PROPER EMPLOYMENT OF TIME. 81 adverse or questionable influence. Be at no loss how to dis- pose of it. It is a wise and admirable arrangement of mat- ters when such an employment is laid down for every hour as to beget no wavering, no idleness, no hesitation about what shall I turn to next. And remember that needful amuse- ment is not idleness — healthful relaxation is not idleness — attention to friends and acquaintances is not idleness — falling in with such arrangements in the way of business or visit- ing as your natural superiors expect you to concur in, and which are not hostile to principle, however offensive to taste and inclination, is not idleness. All this you may do unto the Lord, for He wills all this ; but may Heaven ever preserve you from such idleness as to escape from the misery of its own languor flies for resources to any one quarter where it may find them. Do study such a filling up of time as will keep you away from the evil communications of a world in wicked- ness ; and if, when you look around, you see an unvaried at- mosphere of corruption, think that Christ came to make unto Himself a peculiar people, and do nobly signalize yourself ; and in daring to be singular, lift your intrepid front against the tide of general example, and follow serenely the suggestions of principle amid all the ridicule of the world, and all its outcry. " Secondly, — You complain of the turmoil of business. In as far as it takes you away from the more congenial exercise of study or prayer or religious contemplation, I can conceive, my dear Sir, that it might be a matter of violent dislike to you. But remember that this is not of your own voluntary adoption. In your present circumstances business is laid upon you by another, and you are acquitting yourself of your duty to Him when you are giving your time and your attention to it. I can conceive a man who felt more happiness in the duties of the closet than in those of society, to be making a sacrifice of prin- ciple to inclination in the very midst of religious exercises. 32 MEMOIRS OF DE. CHALMERS. 1816. Do feel that you are religiously employed when you are giving your faithful attention to the matters of the office ; and instead of thinking that religion is a kind of secret indulgence to be snatched by a kind of stealth from the ordinary affairs of life, do make a study of spreading religion over all your daily path, and then will you realize the habit of walking before God all the day long, of doing all things to His gloiy. " Thirdly, — On the subject of resolutions I postpone many things to our future conversation ; but sure I am, that there are many things which God desires to be done, and which you could resolve upon the doing of, and actually do, on the infe- rior principle of prudence and interest. It delights me to think that on this ground you have already made such progress, and so signalized yourself But this delight would all vanish did I see you stop short and rest satisfied with a victoiy over the grosser profligacies of vice, and the attainment of obedience in its externals and its decencies ; and I can scarcely say how much I feel drawn to you by your last note, when you talk of your higher aspirings — when you tell me of your attempts to realize the presence of God in the hours of business, and of your dissatisfaction with yourself at the want of an entire and successful accomplishment. " Fourthly, — Do, my dear Sir, hearken diligently when I say, that now is the time for casting yourself more than ever on the sufficiency of Christ. Forgetfulness of God is such an act of spiritual disobedience, that it is said in the Psalms — ' They who forget God shall be turned into hell.' You complain of this forgetfulness. You may be mindful of Him more than others, but you are not mindful of Him up to the extent of His claim on you. You are therefore short of His glory ; you are a debtor to His law to do the whole law, and this debt you are never discharging. It is accumulating every hour upon you ; and with a right sense of this you must be an humbled, and .ET. 35. THE DUTY OF IMMEDIATE FAITH. 33 unless you have fled to the refuge set before you, you must be a disquieted and alarmed sinner. Now you may say that you have taken up with the Saviour already, and that all this is therefore gone by. But, my dear Sir, this taking up with Him as the ground of your acceptance with God is not an act of the mind which starts into perfection at once. It is a growing sentiment. It is getting fresh accessions from the experience of every day. Every recollection of your failures and your shortcomings should be giving it new strength — should be shutting you more up unto the faith of His atonement — should be giving you a livelier and a more affecting sense of your ex- treme and constant need of Him. And though I meant to expatiate on another topic, which I find I must postpone for want of room, I will barely state to you that, as it is affronting Christ not to put immediate faith in His testimony, so it is your duty now to trust Him ; it is lingering about your accept- ance of His offer not to accept of it at this moment. He makes you welcome to all the benefits of His Mediatorship at this instant of time ; and when there is strength offered along with forgiveness, be assured, my dearest friend, that when what is lacking in your faith is perfected, you will know what it is to rejoice in the Lord, and to combine with great quiet- ness and great confidence a rapid and shining progress in the new obedience of the gospel. " I have written the above in a very great hurry, and I fear that it may darken instead of edifying. I fear you may think it written in a tone of reproof This is so far from intended that I look on your mind as in a more satisfying state by your last than I ever before obsers'ed it. I am greatly interested in you. You fill up a large space in my heart. My prayers, I trust, will never cease to ascend daily in your behalf to our common Father. Do, my dear Sir, minister more and more comfort to me by your growing decision and steadiness. May light and 34 MEMOIES OF DK. CHALMERS. 1816. love and peace take up their firm establisliment in your bosom ; and may all the graces of the Spirit form you into one complete image of Him who is set before us as an example. — Yours, with warmest aifection, Thomas Chalmees." Towards the close of January an illness which did not for some weeks stop the forenoon interviews, occasionally pre- vented Mr. Smith from going to Charlotte Street on the Sab- bath evenings. " My ever dearest Sir/' so writes Mr. Chalmers on an occasion of this kind, " I have now given up all hope of your coming, and do feel your absence to be a blank to me. I am reading ' Law,' and find him very powerful ; and I have now sat down to the work of having that communion with my dear Christian friend in writing which I expected to have in the still sweeter exercise of talking face to face, and of ex- changing animated converse on a theme to which I trust we shall ever be bound by one wann and affectionate sympathy. Our week-day conversation and letters will, I trust, have ever much of Sabbath unction peiTading them ; but there is one point of distinction I should like to establish between the seventh day and the remaining six. Let all argument if pos- sible be banished from our Sabbath converse, and let us know what it is on that day to fill up an hour not with treating religion so much as an intellectual subject, but as an afiiiir of the heart, a matter of feeling and of devotion, that love to God may be made to burn within us, and the hope of an eternal Sabbath to elevate our hearts, and a refining purity of thought and of purpose to sanctify our every desire, and faith in the great Redeemer to be working all its peaceful influences upon our souls, and the contemplation of His bright example to be likening us to Him more and more, and the whole effect of our happy Sabbath hour to send each of us to his separate employment in that frame and temper of heaven which fills .OT. 35. THE SABBATH PRAYER. 35 the whole man with superiority to the vanities of the world, and a mild quiet benevolent tenderness for all who live in it. " Agreeably to this I shall not take up the remainder of my time with any topic of observation whatever, but recollecting that Dr. Samuel Johnson often wrote his prayers, and found this a more powerfully devotional exercise than if he had said them, I intreat my dear friend's indulgence if I do the same at present ; and as a blessing on that tender intimacy to which God, who turneth the heart of man whithersoever He will, has turned our hearts, is the great burden of my present aspiration to heaven, I send it to you that you may, if you approve, join in it, and that the promise may be realized in us, that if two shall agree touching anything they shall ask it shall be done unto them.'' " 0 God, do Thou look propitiously on our friendship. Do Thou purify it from all that is base, and sordid, and earthly. May it be altogether subordinated to the love of Thee. May it be the instrument of great good to each of our souls. May it sweeten the path of our worldly pilgrimage ; and after death has divided us for a season, may it find its final blessedness and consummation at the right hand of Thine everlasting throne. " We place ourselves before Thee as the children of error. 0 grant that in Thy light we may clearly see light : for this purpose let our eye be single. Let our intention to please Thee in all things be honest. "With the childlike purpose of being altogether what Thou wouldst have us to be, may we place ourselves before Thy Bible, that we may draw our every lesson, and our every comfort out of it. 0 that Thy Spirit may preside over our daily reading of Thy word, and that the word of our blessed Saviour may dwell in us richly in all wisdom. " 0 save us from the deceitfulness of this world. Forbid 36 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. that any one of its pleasures should sway us aside from the path of entire devoteduess to Thee. Give us to be vigilant, and cautious, and fearful. May we think of Thine eye at all times upon us ; and may the thought make us to tremble at the slightest departure from that narrow way of sanctification which leads to the house of our Father who is in heaven. " We desire to honour the Son even as we honour the Father. We act in the presumption of our hearts when we think of placing ourselves before Thee in our own righteousness. Draw us to Christ. Make Him all our desire and all our salvation. Give remission of sins out of His blood. Give strength out of His fulness ; and crowned with all might may we not only be fellow- helpers to each other, but may the work of turning sons and daughters unto righteousness prosper in our hands. All we ask is for the sake of Thy Son and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen." By the end of Febi-uary Mr. Smith's illness had assumed a more alarming aspect — not yet confining him entirely to the house, but exciting the darkest apprehensions that consumption had begun its fatal work. Anxiety now fanned affection ; and not content with frequent visits, almost daily do such letters as the following pass from Charlotte Street to Stockwell : — "February 22d, 1816. — I am so heavy and unwell that I am not to study this forenoon ; but if I can get released from a round of visiting to-day, I mean to try an excursion on horseback, in which case I shall go to Shieldhall, and also pay a visit to my friend Mr. Hey^vood. I pui-pose, how- ever, returning before dinner, and hope, if you cannot come to me, to be in sufficient strength and spirits for enjoying your much loved society in your house in the evening. It is remarkable, that when all taste for other employment has abandoned me, I still find relief in the work of unbosoming /ET. 35. FREQUENT COREESPONDENCE. 87 myself to you. I can assure you tliat frequent and friendly conversation with you, ever rising to higher degrees of Chris- tian faith and purity and elevation, is a mighty ingredient with me of this world's happiness. May God turn this taste to such an account as that a happiness so mingled and so imperfect, and lying so open to inten'uption from the fearfulnesses of each of the parties in this dark scene of existence, may, after death has suspended it, reappear in a brighter and more enduring scene, and be fed with its immediate supplies from the throne of that God who will stand revealed to the pure in heart, and will disj)ense a blessedness which knows no alloy and shall experience no termination. I have not yet had heart either for my chapter or my prayer, but I trust that God will be present with me now that I am going to them. I shall pray for you I tiiist with a Christian tenderness.'' " February 23c?, 1816. — I mean to suspend our ordinary sub- ject, having room for no other theme than that which is sug- gested by the fulness of a heart that never in the whole period of our short but most interesting acquaintance felt so much tenderness associated at the same moment with so much tran- quillity. " My heart is greatly enlarged towards you, and there is not a more congenial exercise for it at this moment than to pour it out before my high and my heavenly Witness in the fervency of prayer, that He will cause you to abound more and more — that He will keep up and increase the supplies of that purifying influence by which you have hitherto been preserved from falling — that He will bless the common tenderness which fills each of our hearts and knits us together in a friendship far more endearing than any I ever before experienced — that He will Christianize the whole of this friendship, and direct it to the love of himself, and make it the instrument of a growing 38 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. knowledge of and attachment to His sacred word, and render us wise unto salvation, reducing us to the lowliness of little children, and making us to derive all our hopes of acceptance from the merits of His Son, and all our progress in sanctification from that kind and free Spirit which will never he refused to our humhle, earnest, and persevering prayers. " You have eased me and comforted me, and what I now ask is, that you will pray for me. I have great need, my dear Sir, of all that your intercessions can do for me. I desire to be more and more humbled into a sense of my own nothing- ness ; and sure I am that until I am so, God will disappoint all my vain expectations, and show me that it is only when He taketh unto himself His great power that many are turned from sin unto righteousness." " February 25th, 1816. — I fear from your non-appearance this day that in spite of your brother's favourable account of you, you may have felt yourself worse. May God speedily restore you to health, and may we both be spared to see much of His goodness, and to praise His holy name, and to sei^e His cause, and to war it in our respective spheres against every power of darkness, and to give much energy, derived by prayer from His Spirit, to the great work of turning many from the power of Satan unto God. " I pray that you may be more and more shut uj) into the faith of Christ, that you may know how much strength is given in the mere act of resting upon Him, and how the quietness of a conscious reconciliation with God is the fittest attitude for receiving power to become one of His children. Now this reconciliation is unto all and upon all who believe. The tidings of great joy do not have their right and their in- tended effect upon you if they do not make you joyful at the first moment of their import being understood. After being told ^T. 35. THE DAY OF MR. SMITH S MAJORITY. 39 that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin, and that this pri- vilege is given to all believers, what is it that you wait for ere you look upon yourself as a justified person in the sight of God ? Must you first qualify for the privilege by obedience, and then believe ? No ; believe, and take the comfort of tlie thing believed, immediately ; and believing all the testimony on the same principle that you believe any part of it, to the comfort of the promises add obedience to the precepts, and be assured that this obedience will go on with a vigour and animation after the comfort is established, which it could never reach out of Christ and away from Ilim. You will then serve God luithout fear, in righteousness and holiness all the days of your life. "What should have been devotion I have turned into a dissertation. I miss our Sabbath prayer this night ; and in lieu of it let me express it as the earnest topic of my supplica- tion, that the Holy Ghost may teach you and guide you unto all truth — that you may every day become wiser unto salva- tion— that peace and joy and progressive virtue and approving Heaven may accompany your every footstep in the path of this world — and that we, my dearest and best loved friend I have on earth, may walk side by side through the narrowness of that way which leads to the heavenly inheritance." " Stirling Road, Feb. 2C)th, 181G. — I must again be permitted to deviate from our ordinary topic ; and the occasion of my doing so is to me most deeply affecting — an occasion which, I trust, will take an effectual hold of your own heart, and be the mean of helping forward your progress to the realms of everlasting peace. '' I trust, and am sure, that on the day on which my dear Mr. Smith is reading this letter, his views are shooting far be- yond the objects which engross the desires of ordinaiy men on their attainment of majority ; that the world and its inter- 40 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. ests are not the only, and I liope not the chief or habitual topics of his contemplation ; that he is looking upon that day which many call a step in human life as a step in his eternal history ; and God grant that it may be a memorable epoch in that mighty line which commenced with the infancy of His being, and stretches forward without limit to that blissful futurity which is darkened by no sorrow, and knows no ter- mination. " Do, my dearest Sir, on this day give yourself anew and un- reservedly to God. Do bring to Him for forgiveness all the sins and infirmities and errors of the life that is past. Do approach His throne with the holy purpose of a firm devoted- ness to His will in all things. Do feel yourself a most worth- less and alienated creature up to the hour in which you are reading this ; and throw yourself on that grace which, shed upon you through Christ the Mediator, can alone enable you to take your firm and decisive march from this day as the start- ing-point of a new and heavenly career — as the entrance into the new life of the new creature. "Will you forgive me, my excellent and aspiring fellow- Christian, if I venture to state one point in which we both are deficient and have much before us. We are not yet sufiiciently humbled into the attitude of dependence on the Spirit of God. We do not yet bow with enough of veneration at the name of Christ for sanctification. There is still a very strong mixture of self-sufficiency and self-dependence in our attempts at the service of God. I speak my own intimate experience when I say that, as the result of all this presumption, I feel as if I had yet done nothing. I can talk and be impressed and hold sweet counsel with you ; but in the scene of trial I am humbled by my for- getfulness of God, by my want of delight in the doing of His commandments, by the barrenness of all my aifections, by my enslavement to the influences of earth and of time, bv mv love i:T. 36. THE SABBATH MORNING NOTE. 41 to the creature, by my darkness and hardness and insensibility as to the great matters of the city that hath foundations, of the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. " In these circumstances, let us flee for refuge to the hope set before us in the gospel. Let us keep closer by Christ than we have ever yet done. Let us live a life of faith on the Son of God. Let us crucify all our earthly affections, and by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, that we may live. " And oh that this ceaseless current of years and of seasons were teaching us wisdom — that we were numbering our days — that we were measuring our future by our past — that we were looking back on the twinkling rapidity of the months and tlie Aveeks which have already gone — and so improving the futurity that lies before us, that when death shall lay us in our graves, we may both, on the morning of the resurrection, emerge into a scene of bliss too rapturous for conception, and too magni- ficent for the attempts of the loftiest eloquence." March opened with brightening prospects of recovery, but closed amid greater darkness and uncertainty than ever. On Sabbath the 24th, Mr. Chalmers was to preach before the magistrates of the city. Excited groups of expectant auditors were already hurrying along the Trongate, hastening to secure their places in the church ; and it was within half-an-hour of the time when the bell was to summon the preacher into the crowded sanctuary, that he sat down and penned the follow- ing lines : — " I cannot resist the opportunity of Mrs. C, who goes to in- quire about you. May this be a precious Sabbath to you. If languid and weak, and unable to put forth much strength in the work of draAving near to Grod, may He put forth tlie strength of His resistless arm, and draw near unto you. May He benignantly reveal Himself to you as your gracious God VOL. II. I) 42 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. and reconciled Father in Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh ! may the consoling truths of the gospel be felt by you, and rejoiced in ; and may you know what it is to have great peace and great joy in believing on Him who poured out His soul unto the death for you. Let Christ be on the foreground of all your religious contemplations. Feel that you are safely shielded from the wrath of God in the better righteousness of Him who yielded for you a pure and spotless obedience ; and never, never let go your mild and pleasing and tender and confiding impressions of all that love which the kind and willing Saviour bears to you. You may have much pain and weakness : look on it all as coming from God. Feel yourself in His hand, my dearest friend, and this feeling will temper all your sufferings, and sweeten them all. I do God great injustice, for I feel that I do not rise to an adequate conception of His loving-kindness and tender mercy. 0 may this sweet assurance of God be more quietly and firmly established in your heart every day, and on this day may there be much of the comfort and tran- quillity of Heaven's best influences to make you tranquil and hajjpy. Expect me during the interval." The projected visit was paid during the interval ; the bril- liant discourse on the Restlessness of Human Ambition was delivered before a prodigious multitude in the afternoon ; but over all the excitement and fatigue the haunting anxiety still prevailed, and this evening billet was desjmtched : — " Sice, P.M. — Tell tnc by the servant verbally how you are. May the everlasting arms be round about and underneath you. May you have much peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. May you, throughout all the varieties of your condition, be enabled to display the triumphs of faith ; and however you are, may the blessed assurance of your reconciled God ever be present in your heart to strengthen and to sustain you. — My very dear Sir, yours, with much regard, Thomas Chalmers." yET. 36. COMPOSITION IN THE SICK-ROOM. 4[\ Not unfrequently Mr. Chalmers took liis manuscript over witli liim to Stockwell, and carried on tlie composition of his scmion in the sick-room. A friend who one day found liim so employed expressed his wonder that he could compose in such a situation. " All ! my dear Sir/' said Mr. Chalmers, casting a look of profound and inexpressible sympathy towards the sufferer, " there is much in mere juxtaposition with so inter- esting an object." The sacrament was now close at hand, and those evening hours which Mr. Chalmers had been accustomed to spend with his friend, now so weak and apparently dying, had to be de- voted to the examination of intending communicants ; but snatching intervals which few ministers either would or could so use, he sustained the intercourse. "March 26th. — I have seen seven people, and am now sit- ting in expectation of the eighth and last. I am never more cordially exercised than when I turn myself to the work of addressing you. Great is my friendship for you — rooted and firm is my regard for you ; and with whatever feelings you may receive these reiterated professions of my unalteral)le attachment, I feel a very great pleasure in pouring them forth out of the fulness of a heart that is most tenderly and sincerely devoted to you ; and I trust that with all the kindness you have ever shown me, you will also bear with me in my declara- tions of a love that I cannot disguise, and will never, never dismiss from my bosom. " I have had less fatigue this evening than last. The people on the whole not so interesting, though there be three that I think remarkably well of. Oh ! that the kingdom of God were at length to come, and His will to be done on earth as it is done in heaven ! — that an effectual barrier Avere at length raised against the sweeping tide of wickedness that has spread so widely over the face of society! — and that in looking around us, 44 MEMOIRS OF DE. CHALMERS. 1816. instead of being sickened and distressed at every turn by the report of grievous and' multiplied offences, the eye were re- freshed by tlie spectacle of virtuous parents and dutiful chil- dren and ingenuous youth, and earnest, aspiring, devoted Chris- tians among all ranks of society. Oh ! that God may manifest Himself more and more to your soul ! Do contemplate Him as God in CJuHst. Do glory in nothing but in the Cross of Him who died for you. Do be conversant with the realities of an eternal world ; and rest assured that you cannot be more happy in the prospect of heaven than those who are there now are happy in the prospect of having you to swell their numbers. Oh ! what benignity and love reign in that place of blessedness ! And how delightful to think, that by taking up with Christ, and cherishing through Him the hope of glory, and holding fast this confidence, and keeping it even unto the end, we shall not only sleep in Him, but be raised by Him to the triumphs of an unfading inheritance. May God, if it be Plis blessed will, prolong your stay amongst us — may He bless your affectionate friends with the continuance of your much loved society — may He spare you an example to a world that can ill spare any of the little flock who lie so thinly scattered among its wilds ; and, above all, may He minister to you in His good time an abundant entrance into His everlasting kingdom. — Yours, most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers." "Charlotte Street, March 27th, 1816. — I am left alone at the inten'al between my fourth and fifth person, and fondly recur to you. I have had one young man of good promise, and a father of a family, on whom I trust a good work of grace is decidedly going on. Oh ! how humble I should feel when I think of my own extreme deadness and want of spirituality ; and I am well assured that nothing but a leaning on Christ will ever carry me to repose or to any sufficiency of actual iET. 36. THE SAVIOUR S TENDERNESS. 45 attainment. Do, my dearest Sir, so lean. He lets Himself down to you for this very use and purpose. He likes you to rest upon Him the whole burden of your dependence. When sickness and languor come upon you. He knows your frame and pities you, and excuses your weakness ; but if even then a faint thought of the Saviour gives one gleam of comfort to your heart. He puts it down to the account of your faith, and He will minister strength to you, and bear you up under all the darknesses and difficulties of a trial which He himself hath experienced. " Be not afraid, only believe. Feel yourself encompassed by the everlasting arms of a God who has no pleasure in your death ; and oh ! look upon Him in the face of Jesus Christ, in the face of Him who came not to destroy men's lives but to save them, in the face of Him who lifts a call which He circulates through the world — Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth. Oh ' my dearest Sir, He is your friend, He is the friend of sinners, He speaks to us all from heaven, and looks at us Avith a tender- ness I cannot describe or imitate. He did not shed His blood in vain; and oh that its cleansing and its peace-speaking power were felt by you in all its preciousness. His pardon is free, His Spirit is free, His purchased immortality is free — all pre- parations for this immortality are His free gifts to those who believe. Do make yourself wholly over to Him, and you shall be wholly His. He will undertake your whole care and provide for the whole cure of that guilt and helplessness which you put into His hand. Be assured you are in your best attitude when you are thus rejoicing in Christ, making Him your refuge and your hiding-place, telling Him all you want and all you feel deficient in, giving Him to understand that you are counting on Him as your friend, and trusting that through His powerful mediation all will be forgiven, and all will be purified and made meet for the inheritance. 46 MEMOIRS OF DE. CHALMEES. 1816. " It is not necessary tliat tliis be pleaded witli a fatiguing energy. He knows what is in you. He knows what you need before you ask it. Your feeling of this need, though silent and unexpressed by language, is seen by Him ; and the direc- tion of your wishes to Him, as your all-sufficient helper, will not be lost on that kind Saviour who confounds none who put their trust in Him. " I feel the truest satisfaction in ministering any one thing that pleases you. I love to call on you ; I am happy in the act of writing you ; I am ever and anon thinking of you ; and my poor unworthy prayers rise occasionally to heaven in your behalf. But let us not trust in human friendships. Let our rejoicing be this, that the great Intercessor liveth, and that He is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God through Him." ''March 28th, 1S16. — I am just now between my second and third visitant, and have been much refreshed by the warm, ear- nest, and apparently resolved tone of the two I have examined. " I vras interrupted at this point, and have now got over them all. The third one most congenial with myself on some points; and I ti-ust that on this interesting occasion I have had con- verse with some whom I shall meet in the realms of peace and of perfect virtue. This, my dear Sir, is the only interest that is worth the striving after, and everything else has the most impressive mockery stamped upon it. I doubt not that you in your sick-chamber have had very near and powerful impres- sions of the littleness of all that is earthly, and the most fervent earthly wish I have is that you may long be spared to us, and come back to the world with all the freshness of those feelings and lessons you have gathered from the chastening hand of God, and be a burning light and an eminent example of all that is pure, and pious, and honourable in tlie midst of /ET. 3G. THE IDEA OF ETERNAL LIFE. 47 a perv^erse and crooked generation ; and as you have lieretofore been my attached friend, I pray God that you may be pre- served to me as my kind adviser, and my zealous fellow-worker in the great cause of turning others to righteousness, and the mild, judicious, tranquil composer of all my constitutional violence, the partner of my every thought, the sweetener of my every care, the companion of my familiar hours, and my fellow- worshipper in the closet when we offer to the throne of God our united asj)irations. " But, oh ! it is wise to shoot a-head of all earthly anticipa- tions— to pierce the dark barrier which separates time from eternity — to possess our whole hearts with the realities of an- other world, and instead of looking on the region beyond the grave as a wilderness or land of darkness, to look on it as peopled with all that can delight or interest a mind animated Avitli the best affections and directed to the best objects. " The idea of eternal life should ever suggest to us the idea of Him who alone has the Word and the gift of it. I purpose to make Christ Jesus the great burden of all my communica- tions. It is by our honouring Him that the Father is honoured. It is by looking to Him that we receive forgiveness and sancti- fication. It is for the excellency of the knowledge of Him that Paul counted all but loss. Without Him you can do nothing. And oh ! my dearest Sir, lean upon Him, and then it is impious and unbelieving and distrusting His promises and dishonour- ing His power, not to feel that you are safe. May God en- lighten you more and more. May He minister great comfort to you, and reveal to you more and more every day of the pre- ciousness of the Saviour." Although the Thursday on which the last of these notes was written was one of peculiarly severe suffering, Friday not only brought relief, but treacherously raised once more the 48 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. hope of friends. Upon report of the favourable change Mr. Chalmers writes on the evening of that day : — " Could we only lift the veil which hides from our eye of flesh the designs and the doings of the Almighty, Avhat a deep interest it would confer on everything that befalls us I The minutest turn in the movements of that vast machinery over which He presides takes place by His will and for His purpose. He had a some- thing to accomplish by all the pain of yesternight, and by all the relief which you now experience from it ; and one of the finest results that can happen from events is for us to look on events as His, and on duties as ours — to extract a sentiment of piety from every one step and occurrence in our history — and be it in the shape of resignation, or thankfulness, or virtuous resolve, or a higher tone of steady and determined abhorrence of all that is evil, it is our part ever to be plying the throne of God with such offerings. " Should He be pleased to bring you round again to our wonted opportunities of converse — to place us side by side on those walks where we heretofore have held sweet counsel to- gether— to surround us with the glories of that magnificent summer which He spreads in rich and varied colouring over His beauteous and innumerable landscapes — to give to each of us the vigorous inhalation of health, and restore my dearest friend to the duties and the enjoyments of society — should this turn out to be His event, oh ! hoAv weighty and how in- cumbent will be our duty to praise the name of the Lord for all His goodness to us — to magnify His cause, and do all that in us lies to spread His kingdom among men — to consecrate our whole lives to the honour of their great Prcsei'ver — and seeing that it is by receiving the Son that the Father is honoured, to attach ourselves more firmly than ever to our dear Redeemer, and make Him all our desire and all our sal- vation. Thomas Chalmers." ;et. 3G. " ALL MY SPRINGS ARE IN THEE. 49 For a few days Mr. Chalmers was now himself an invalid. On the 31st, the Sabbath which preceded his communion, he was unable to officiate. Whilst another was conducting for liim the public services of the sanctuary he thus consecrated part of the forenoon hour to the work of instruction and com- fort : — " I wish to fill this ere the interval when I expect your brother. My gratitude to God is very strong for the portion of health and of recovery He has been graciously pleased to deal out to you ; and I have to entreat that, on this solemn day of the remembrance of a risen Saviour, your eye may be often directed to that celestial sanctuary where He sits at His Father's right hand to advocate your cause — to plead His own merits for your forgiveness — to pour upon you out of His fulness — to give you abundantly those two precious privileges for the dis- pensation of which He was exalted a Prince and a Saviour, even repentance and the remission of sins ; and oh ! that tliis chastisement of a wise God had the effect of drawing you closer than ever to Him, in whom alone you have reconciliation and strength — to extinguish in your heart any remains that may have lodged in it of that independent natural religion which disowned Christ, and was blind to the excellency of the knowledge of Him — and to subordinate your every feeling and every opinion to the great Mediator, that you may feel all your security to be in the everlasting righteousness which He hath brought in, and all your fitness for right and acceptable obedience to be in that washing of regeneration and that renewing of the Holy Ghost which is shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. (Titus iii. 5.) There is a text which some of our older divines have turned to very sub- stantial account — (Psalm Ixxxvii. 7) — ' All my springs are in Thee.' It is applied by them to Christ ; and sure I am, that so applied, it incloses a sentiment which, if fixed in the heart and proceeded on in the 'tonduct, would cause to emanate from VOL. ir. • E 50 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. its powerful influence all the grace of a holy walk, all the joys of a heavenly contemplation. Give me a man actuated by such a sentiment as this, and there is not one cloud of despondency between him and God. He draws comfort out of the Avells of salvation. His hope is linked with that great work of redemp- tion of which Jesus Christ is the Author and the Finisher, and is as vigorous and clear as is his faith in the entireness and suf- ficiency of that work. But more than this, his obedience is as much superior to that of a mere natural aspirer after virtue, as the strength dealt out by Him to Avliom all power is com- mitted both in heaven and in earth is superior to the impotency of corrupt, feeble, fallen, and degenerate man. The believer has all his springs in Christ ; and hence a joy as full as the sufiiciency of the Saviour, and a Avalk as pure as the power of the Sanctifier. Do, my dear Sir, have this great and exalted Redeemer full in the eye of your mind. It is He in whom your life is. It is He through wdiom you stand on clear ground with the God whom you have offended. It is He through whom God will enter with you into peaceable conversation ; and be assured, my dearest friend, that in the act of doing honour to the Son, you please and propitiate the Father by whom He is glorified. * * * " I am now getting interrupted by interval callers, and must come to a close. * * * j -vyiH not say that I shall see you before Tuesday ; but let us ever feel resigned and thankful in the hands of a God who has His own purpose with us both, and whose counsel respecting each of us must stand amid the mul- titude of all our desires. My callers have left me, but my bell is ringing every half-minute with inquirers. Do, my dear Sir, pray for me. It is my earnest prayer that your soul may this day experience much of a Sabbath frame, and that you may know what it is to feel all the tranquil sweetness of Sabbath contemplations. Do not fatigue yourself God will answer MT. 36. THE KEY. MR. GREY. 51 3'our wish for the light of His counteiicance by revealing Him- self to you without any violent stirring up of yourself on your part to lay hold of Him. He will delight your heart with the pleasing and comfortable suggestions of His Spirit, and give you great peace and elevation and joy." The sacramental week brought its many ministerial visitors and its multiplied ministerial work, but it could not wholly stop this singular correspondence. At five o'clock on the Tues- day evening Mr. Chalmers wrote — " My time from one o'clock to this hour has been most completely filled up with callers and miscellaneous work ; but I trust I shall have some leisure now to fill a sheet for you. The most interesting call I have had is from Rev. Mr. Grey, w^ho is one of the mildest and most spiritual men I ever met with — a fine unction of Heaven running through all his conversation, and a most enviable tran- quillity of mind under all the annoyances of society — a point on which it were better for my frame of spirit that I could resemble him, though perhaps the violence of my antipathy to tlie senselessness of an oppressive conformity to fashion may be practically the mean of keeping me at a greater distance from the frivolities and the time consuming employments of this present generation. " I am better, but there is still a lingering of lumbago. I have got many recipes for it ; and the honest folks of Glas- gow have been pouring in such a multitude of specifics, that had I taken the one-half of them I should not have been able to crawl for six weeks. Among the rest my beadle, John, told me of a wright, an acquaintance of his, who had been greatly afflicted with the same complaint, and had a cure to propose. I desired him to call between one and two o'clock, when in he came, a fat, well-conditioned looking person, and proposed a blister round the whole amplitude of my back, where the dis^ 52 MEMOIES OF DK. CHALMERS. 1816. ease is situated. This I begged leave to decline ; and have since been entertained with the mention of others in the shape of pills, and external applications of hartshorn,- and plasters of mustard, and rubbings of turpentine, and triplicate coverings of flannel, and last, though not least, a process of ironing, with as great heat as was consistent with the feelings of the patient. I have reason, however, to be thankful that I am greatly better, and earnestly hope that I shall be able to see my dear friend in the course of to-morrow. I augured much good from the slight rains of yesternight and to-day ; but the wind still keeps in the east, and the penetrating cold is unfavourable for us both. I was a good deal damped by the report of your yesternight, and have not yet heard Dr. Cleghorn's account of you. Do, my dearest Sir, keep tranquil. I know your constitutional mildness ; but I trust you have within you a deeper foundation of peace. I have been reading since I saw you in the Colossians, and have had a more thorough possession of the essential importance of Christ as our foundation than I ever recollect before. Oh ! it is a wondrous statement, that ' in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.' Who would ever think, after this, of seeking after God by another road, or in another direction ? No man cometh aright unto the Father but by Him ; and in Him we have all that is to be found or sought for in God, for ' in Him dwelleth all the fulness of God.' Never separate, then, a looking unto Jesus — a faith in the sufficiency of His doings for a sinful world — a reposing sense of the power of His intercessions with that Being of whom He says, ' I and the Father are one' — an unshaken confidence in the honesty of this announcement, ' that whosoever cometh unto me shall in no wise be cast out,' — never separate any of them from that act by which you draw near unto God, and then will you draw near with full assurance of heart — then will God draw near unto you through the channel of His own appointed Mediator ^T. 36. CONSOLATIONS FOR SOLITUDE. 53 — then may jou enter into peaceful conference with the Law- giver whom you had offended — then may you cast off all sus- picion and all dismay in His holy presence — then may you go to Him with the affectionate confidence of a friend — and then will He, pouring out upon you the spirit of adoption, make you feel to your reconciled Father all the love and joy and trust of one of His children. " Charles has not been out to-day, and it grieves me that Mrs. Chalmers is too much occupied with sacramental prepara- tions to have it in her power to wait upon you. In this way you Mall have no personal intercourse with our house this day. Do bear up under the solitude of your present circumstances. Oh ! my dear Sir, know that God has a purpose and a plan in every one of your concernments. He knows what is best for you ; and how encouraging the declaration that all things work together for good to those who love Him. Pray that your heart, by nature dead and alienated and insensible, may be directed to the love of Him more and more. At every little turn of your history let your mind turn itself to God. In the multitude of the thoughts of that spirit which is ever thinking, let His consolations delight you. Know that you are in a Father's hand, a Father who will never leave you nor forsake you ; a Father who, for the sake of Christ, is willing to admit you into the number of His chosen ; a Father who has no pleasure in your death, but whose pleasure it is to rejoice over you that He may do you good, to sustain you under all the sickenings, and faintings, and languishings of your earthly disease, to re- cruit your spirit amid the visitations which afflict your body, to guide the every footstep, and watch over the every vicissitude of your pilgrimage below, and, be it longer or be it shorter, to have a final purpose of mercy concerning you, a purjjose which, though matured and established in the mind of the Deity, will not have its personal consummation upon the object till you awaken in 54 MEMOIES OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. the morning of the resurrection, and are satisfied \vith His like- ness, and are placed at His right hand, where there is fulness of joy, and in His presence where there are pleasures for evermore. " I have written very fast, and scarcely think I can be legible. If made to understand that I am, I may be as rapid as I like in all time coming. I look for your brother to offi- ciate as the bearer of this communication. My wishes and my prayers and my warmest affections are for you. Greatly have I been interested in you." Again, at eight o'clock on Thursday evening the coveted fellowship is resumed: — " I have never been alone to this moment from one o'clock, and must be ready with this for your servant whom I expect to call. * * * Mr. Hamilton* has at this point come in here to my study from Dr. Scott's sermon. He and my wife are talking Avhile I am writing, and I offer this as my apology for all the incoherency of my future train. Did you ask me what you could say to me within the shortest space of time which is of most importance for me to know, I would answer, Look to Jesus. Why, my dear Sir, this is the Gospel attitude, and it is an attitude in which He will not fail to meet you, and recognise you as His, and undertake your cause, and represent you to the Father as another guilty and dependent and weak creature, who has thrown himself upon the revealed Mediator, and in the powerful appeal He makes to His merits and His atonement, will He obtain for you at the hand of God acceptance and reconciliation and forgiveness, and all needful grace for the reforaiation of your heart, and the making j^ou wholly meet for the inheritance of the saints. " Now what I want you practically and in plain earnest to do is to look full upon this great agent between God and a guilty world — to throw yourself more dependingly upon Him * The Rev. Dr. Hamilton of Stratliblane. ^T.36. LETTERS FROM FIFESHIRE. 55 than you have ever yet done — to fill and possess your mind more entirely than ever with the completeness and the suffi- ciency of Christ — to do homage to Him as all in all — to bow at His name for holiness as well as for pardon — to draw from Him as your only fountain, and rest on Him as your only foun- dation. Oh ! what a rich, what a thoroughly furnished provi- sion does a man carry with him to eternity, who goes there thus hoping, thus trusting, thus believing, and, of course, thus obtaining all these promises of grace here and glory hereafter, which are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. " I have just received 's note, and observe with great satisfaction that you have had an easy afternoon." Shortly after this communion Mr. Chalmers sought relief and recruital in an excursion to Fifeshire. As Mr. Smith was now someAvhat better, that it might interest and amuse him, journal letters from which the following extracts are presented, were addressed to him. " Kirkaldy, April 1 ^th, 181 6. — I am not yet thoroughly rested, but am certainly getting on in vigour, though I believe it will require all the intended time of my excursion to recruit me com- pletely. I am much struck with the tranquillity of the streets here, but this is merely comparative. However, I do enjoy the opportunities and the quietness of the place. This has not been so successful a forenoon of composition as yesterday. This is a very capricious matter, depending not merely on the accidental mood of the mind, but on the accidental strain of obseiwation and sentiment on which I may happen to fall. Oh ! it is wise and pious to look up to God in all our works and in all our ways — to feel that a man receiveth nothing unless it be given him from heaven — to sink and absorb self in the glory and sufficiency of God, to be ever looking toward His sanctuary as the quarter out of which all help cometh and all light is made 56 MEMOIRS OF DE. CHALMEKS. 1816. to emanate in tlie soul of the believer. I trust I am feeling a greater desire towards Him ; and amid all my imperfections, and all my waywardness, and all those melancholy blanks of my existence over which there is spread the forgetfulness of God and alienation from God, it is my prayer that He may draw me nearer unto Himself, that He may make the light of His countenance more to shine upon me, that He may recall and rescue me from the banishment of nature, and give me, through grace, all the joys and all the exercises of a near, confiding, and affectionate fellowship. " I have been much disappointed again in the weather of this day. We had snow over night, and in the morning it was somewhat milder, but toAvards mid-day it got very cold, and for these four or five hours there has been an incessant fall of snow. I pray that this may at length mitigate the weather for you. I speak with an uncertainty about you which I feel to be painful." " April 19^/'. — I mean to leave the small fragments of the other side to the evening, and in the meantime I trust to bear you in my heart all the day long. Oh ! how delightful to think that this is the very thing which the great Intercessor does with all who love Him in sincerity. He knows our frame. He has a compassion for our infirmities. He is a merciful High-Priest, and touched with an earnest sensibility in behalf of us all. He bends in love and benignity over us. He is our advocate with God the Father ; and as His errand on earth was not to destroy men's lives but to save them, so His emplojTiient in heaven is to minister to His people all the helps and all the preparations which lead to life everlasting. " I have had on the whole a pleasant and a successful day, and am making distinct progress in strength. Oh ! it is bitterly cold ; and my dear friend hangs upon me wherever I go. I am greatly disappointed in not hearing of you," .^ET. 36. MK. FORTUNE S FAMILY. 57 " April 20th, 18] 6. — I feel the pain of unsated anxiety respecting yon. Tlic habit of your society, and the feeling of your friendship, have become part of my constitution ; and I shall ever look back on all the circumstances of the origin and progress of our acquaintance as among the most memorable and interesting events of my history. I trust that there is some- thing more than the mere romance of attachment in all this, that good has and that good will come out of it, that the intimacy begun on earth will be perfected in heaven, and that in that holy and happy place all the joys of friendship Avill be purified from the alloy of distressing apprehensions, and from the pain of offensive and deadening exposures, and be refined by the mixture of all that is sublime in contemplation and all that is tender and elevated in piety." "April 22d, 1816. — Let Mrs. Chalmers know that I was delighted to see the first man from Kilmany parish I had seen for nine months, that is, Mr. Anderson of Star — that old Mr. C of Rathillet is dying — that I walked from Kirkaldy to Duniface, about eight miles, on Saturday afternoon — that I there got a horse, which carried me forward to Pilmuir — that I have been enjoying myself on the verge of a most beautiful land- scape, and, what is still more exquisite, that in Mr. Fortune's family here I have revived an early friendship, and am de- lighted with all that heart and kindness, and aspiring piety, in the bosom of which I have been reposing — that I did not go to the church at Largo, but that I did what I am not sorry for having done, gave a service in the house to about twenty-five people ; and she will be much interested to know that Miss Robina Coutts, who is on a visit to her grandfather, was among my auditors. * * * " I did not carry with me here the book I brought from Glasgow, but trusted my reading to such as I could find when .58 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. I came, and tlie one I fell upon was the Englisli Prayer Book, ■\vitli which I was greatly refreshed and edified all yesterday. It will determine me, I think, when I get a church so cool that I can aiford to prolong the service a little, to have a great deal more reading of the Bible introduced into my public ministra- tions. The Prayers and — with the exception of two flaws, one in the Burial and the other in the Baptismal seiTice — all the other devout compositions are very admirable, and I do regard the whole composition as an interesting monument of the ijiety and sound intelligent Christianity of better days. " The weather was milder yesterday, and I never felt a more delicious calm than when I walked a little at the front of the house, and my e^^e rested on the beauteous perspective before me, and the whole amplitude of the Forth stretched majestically in front and on each side of me, and the intervening country which lay between the rising ground on which my hospitable lodging stands and the shore, spread itself around me in all the garniture of fields, and spires, and woods, and farms, and vil- lages, and the sun threw its unbounded splendours over the whole of this chai-ming panorama, and the quietness of the Sabbath lent an association of inexpressible delight to these scenes of my nativity and youthful remembrance. If there be so much beauty on the face of this dark and disordered world, how much may we look for in that earth and those heavens wherein dwelleth righteousness I" " Ajjril 24^th, 1816. — I have been hindered three-quarters of an hour, and must not be so improvident in future. My his- tory since the date of my last letter has been a very mono- tonous one, consisting of a few calls in my native toAvn, a good deal of society with my deaf and infirm parents at home, con- versation with an aunt and two sisters, and last, though not least, a pretty severe course of application to study, in virtue MT. 30. A SERMON OF IIERVEY. 59 of which I have this daj completed my third astronomical seniion. I have the prospect before me of lighter employ- ment for a fortnight to come, and feel as if I would be much the better of a little mental repose. " This day my young friend, Mr. Robert Edie, has come to me from Kilmany, and discharged on me all the news of that beloved neighbourhood. I told you in my last that I was not just so well. I am now greatly better, and tinist, through the kindness of my heavenly Protector, to be restored to your much loved society by Saturday-week. I wrote in a tone of impa- tience about not receiving any letter respecting you on Monday night. Let the people of Charlotte Street know that I got my brother's letter on Tuesday night. * * * " I have been reading a sermon of Hervey's this day, and I trust it has done me good. It has given me a more reposing frame of confidence in the all-sufficient Sa-viour ; it has ex- alted my every feeling of security in his better righteousness; and however great a mystery it may appear to an alienated world, I do feel, in point of fact, that the more I feel the faith / of forgiveness through the blood of Jesus the more do my t temper, and my principles, and my purposes, and my perform- ances, become animated by the Spirit of His mild and holy Gospel. Oh ! that I could hold, then, this confidence fast — that I were never to let it slip ; but, alas ! I am a poor imbecile wavering creature, and have great reason to be humbled at my many sins and my many shortcomings." "April2oth, 1816. — Twelve o'clock. — I take up my pen thus early that I may be enabled to execute my proposed quantity of correspondence in a more regular and complete manner than I have yet done. I have turned this into an entire letter- writing day. Mr. Robert Edie, who spends the whole of this day with me, and is now in the room beside me, gives me a 60 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. most tempting opportunity of writing to my various acquaint- ances in the nortli of Fife, and I do feel the advantage of a little repose from the severe exertions of the understanding. " The history of my doings is less diversified, and of course less describable, than at any former period of my excursion ; but I may at least tell you how much I have been satisfied Avith the full and statistical intelligence I have gotten about my dear old parish. Several of them are thriving in the Christian sense of the word, though all of them, from their agricultural con- nexion, are declining in the worldly sense of it. Alexander Paterson, whose letter to me you may recollect, is going on prospering, and, I trust, to prosper and to shine as a star for ever and ever, by his having turned many to righteousness. " I am much grieved to learn, by Mr. John's letter, that you are not stronger. It is our duty to cultivate resignation on this subject, so deeply interesting to all of us ; and as to your duty, He to whom the desire of your heart is — He in whom there is no condemnation — He who suffered all your pains, and has a fellow-feeling for all your infirmities — He who is abun- dantly able to succour and to direct, and to uphold you. He will rule your spirit, and carry all its affections upwards unto Himself — He will shed abroad by the Holy Ghost such a love for God, such a relish for the joys of the coming eternity, such a mild and forgiving Spirit towards everything that breathes, such a piety towards the Father of men, and such a benevo- lence for all His children, as to attune the whole of your inner man to a meetness for the inheritance of the saints. I have been greatly more directed of late to the power that is above me and without me. I liaA^e hitherto been too independent in my own strength, and had too much the feeling of a native competency within me to control my own will, and exert an absolute masteiy over my ow^n doings. I tmst I shall be beaten out of this — that, like Paul, I shall glory in nothing JET. 36. MR. SMITH S DEATH. 61 but mine infirmities — that I shall be brought to lie low at the feet of Christ, and have His power to rest upon me ; and oh ! with what unceasing progress towards perfection should we be enabled to advance did we cast all self-seeking and self-confi- dence away from us — did we lay the whole burden of our help- lessness on Him who is able to bear it — did we consent to be altogether guided by His strength, and be altogether accepted iu His pure and unspotted righteousness/' Mr. Chalmers returned to Glasgow on Saturday the 4th of May, and on the following Tuesday, after a blank of many clays, makes the following entry in his Journal : — " 3Iay 7th. — Have had a two Sabbaths' excursion to the country. The most interesting event was my visit to Pilmuir, where I preached, and the rising appearance of seriousness in that dear family. On my return Thomas Smith was dead. He died on Thursday the 2d of May at eleven o'clock at night, and was buried this day.* I have been thrown into successive floods of tenderness. On Sabbath evening I visited his corpse. — 0 God, may this afilicting event detach me from time, and carry my thoughts onward to eternity." On receiving a ring with Mr. Smith's hair, Mr. Chalmers viTOte — " I received with much interest the very touching memorial you have sent me of one with whom I have held sweet counsel on earth, and to whose society in heaven I look fonvard with such a confidence as, I trust, the gospel warrants, and for which the influences of the gospel can alone prepare me." The ring thus sent, after being laid aside for many years, was resumed and worn for a month by Dr. Chal- mers during the year which preceded his own death. * For the prayer delivered at his funeral, see Appendix B. MKMOIES OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. CHAPTER III. THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF DIVINITY CONFERRED — RENEWED AGIIATION ON THE SUBJECT OF PLURALITIES— SERMON BEFORE THE SOCIETY OF THE SONS OP THE CLERGY IN EDINBURGH— DE- BATE IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1816 ON UNION OF OFFICES- ANECDOTE OF DR. M'CRIE— REMARK OF LORD JEFFREY AFTER HEARING DR. CHALMERS'S SPEECH-SERMON BEFORE THE LORD HIGH COMMISSIONER. The Directors of the London Missionary Society had re- quested Mr. Chahners to preach one of the anniversary sennons on Lehalf of tliat institution in May 1815. As his compli- ance would have removed him for a fortnight from Kihnany, and that at a time when his official connexion with the parish was so near its close, this invitation was respectfully declined. It was renewed, however, in the spring of 1816, and relying upon an acceptance, his brother James had written to Mrs. Morton, announcing the expected visit to the Metropolis. " You are mistaken," was the reply of his better informed correspon- dent, " as to Thomas being in London this spring. He expects to be a member of the Assembly, and therefore cannot accept of the invitation to preach in London. You will require to change your address in writing to him, and direct no longer to the ' Reverend Mr.,' but to the ' Reverend Doctor Chalmers.' Helen writes me that he was quite astonished, as he had no expectation of it, till one of the Professors called and told him that he had been created Doctor by the unanimous voice of the University, wliich she says is vciy uncommon, as parties ^T. 3fK HISTORY OF THE PLURALITY QUESTION. 63 run high there." The degree of Doctor of Divinity was con- ferred on Mr. Chalmers by the Senate of the University of Glas- gow on Wednesday the 21st Febi-uary, 1816. His election soon afterwards by the Presbytery of Glasgow as one of its represen- tatives for the ensuing General Assembly might not perhaps have hindered his going to London, had it not been for an impending discussion in which he particularly desired to take a part. The General Assembly of 1814 had prohibited the hold- ing of a countiy living in conjunction with a professor's chair. The prohibition was ostensibly grounded on such an union of offices being a violation of that fundamental law of the Scottish Establishment which binds eveiy minister to reside within his parish. It took the form, therefore, of a declaratory act, by which the Assembly put a definite construction upon the old law of residence, and applied it to a particular case. The friends of pluralities, defeated in the Assembly of 1815 in the attempt which they made to rescind, by a direct vote, the reso- lutions of the preceding year, had entered upon a new and more hopeful agitation by endeavouring to convince the Church that instead of being merely declaratory, the enactment of 1814 was in reality a piece of altogether new legislation, and that as such it came fairly within the limits of the Act 1697, commonly denominated the Barrier Act, which provides that no new law of permanent obligation shall be made with- out consulting and obtaining the consent of a majority of Presbyteries. So successful was this agitation, that no fewer than thirty overtures were transmitted to the approaching General Assembly, praying, that because of their not hav- ing been sent down to Presbyteries in terms of the Barrier Act, the resolutions of 1814 should be held and declared to be of no force or authority within the Church. While thus the Church was urged to take a decisive step in retreat. Dr. Chalmers's zeal upon this question had been so greatly quick- 64 MEMOIRS OF DK. CHALMERS. 1816. ened by his experience of tlic onerous duties and responsi- bilities of a city charge, that he longed for the opportunity to urge the Church to take a step in advance, and to abolish not one alone, but all species of pluralities. The General Assembly met in Edinburgh on Friday the l7th May, 1816. On the forenoon of that day Dr. Chalmers preached in St Andrew's Church, before the Society of the Sons of the Clergy, the same sermon which he had delivered before a similar institution in Glasgow. " Probably no congregation since the days of Massillon," such was the testimony of an auditor, " ever had their attention more completely fixed, their understandings more enlightened, their passions more agi- tated, and their hearts more improved. When at the conclu- sion of his discourse. Dr. Chalmers drew the picture of a clergyman's family leaving the place of their nativity and long residence, we observed many an eye suffused with tears." * The debate on the question of pluralities was fixed to be on Wed- nesday the 22d- From so early an hour as eight o'clock in the morning that part of the Assembly Hall allotted to stran- gers had been occupied, and when the hour approached for the commencement of the discussion, the crowd had become so great, that it was found necessar}' to clear the lower gal- leries in order to furnish accommodation to ministers of the Church not members of the Assembly. In one of these galleries the distinguished biographer of Knox, who, as is well known, was not a member of the Established Church, happened at the time to be sitting. Although advised by many around him to re- main. Dr. M'Crie quietly and good-naturedly rose and went out with the others. This fact having been stated to the Assembly, it was at once and unanimously resolved to invite him to return and take his seat along with the members in the body of the house. An ofiicer was instantly despatched in quest of him, * Extracted from the Edinburgh Correspondent, MT. 36. THE DEBATE OP 1816. 65 and on his return, he was welcomed with feelings of cordiality and respect equally honourable to those who cherished them and to him who was their object. The debate commenced at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, and did not close till half an hour before midnight. " I got up," says an interested spectator, " to the window opposite the throne, and stood a complete round of the clock, from 11, a.m., till 11, p.m." The argument was conducted by both parties with great spirit and ability ; nor did one unpleasant personality or one unseemly word dis- turb the lively interest felt by the crowded audience through- out the whole of this twelve hours' debate. Dr. Chalmers rose to address the House immediately after Lord Succoth. Having stated the grounds of his belief that the act of 1814 had done nothing more than put a simple and obvious intei-pretation on the old law of residence, and having illustrated at once the ad- vantages which had thus been gained, and the perils that would be encountered should they be relinquished — " I would not," he continued,* "again, upon this subject, plunge the Church into the fathomless obscuiities of law, or commit the fruit of the battles she has already won to the ocean of a thousand uncertainties. 0 Moderator, let us have a care not to bedim the conscience and the honesty and the vigorous but plain understanding of our brethren, by running into the dark unknown of legal perj^lex- ities and legal arguments. Here is an object that has been practically gained. Here is an abuse that has been practically done away. Here is a something which recommends itself to the common sense of every man as an obvious improvement in the practice of our Church, and as a no less obvious test of her pure and disinterested principles. I would not. Moderator, I would not let ourselves down from this high vantage ground on which the hardly contested victories of former times have so honourably placed us. I should feel the most fearful insecurity * For the earlier part of this Speech, see Appendix C. VOL. II. F 66 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 181G. were this question, so clear when brought to the light of common principle and common honesty, and so dark when shrouded in the mysticism of technicals and forms — I should feel my ever}' apprehension awakened were this question to be again encountered, with the risk of floundering its uncertain way through amongst the palaverments of law, and the labyrinth of its inextricable reasonings, and the darkness of its bewilder- ing phraseology. I would make no such experiment. I would keep a firm hand upon what I had gotten ; and I trust that a third attempt and a third victory over it will give to the law of residence its fixed and conclusive establishment. " But though there were no risk whatever of losing what we have already acquired ; though the proposed law on the subject were to find its triumphant way through amongst all our pres- byteries ; though it were welcomed through every step of its progress over the face of our establishment ; though it was made sure to me at this moment as by the light of prophecy, that it was to find an unimpeded circulation through the land, and the unanimous Assembly of a future year were to set its conclusive seal on this expression of the public sentiments of the Church against the pluralities in question, — yet I recur to my former objection, and aver that such a measure as this carries along with it a sanction little short of an express pro- nouncement in favour of another set of pluralities no less frequent than the former, and far more hurtful to the moral and religious interests of a larger population ; — I allude to the population of the toAvns where the universities are situated. To enact against the union of professorships with country- charges, and not to enact against the union of these profes- sorships with town charges, is to leave half the work of re- formation unaccomplished. It is true that you raise a barrier against the violation of residence, but this can be as efiectually done by an intei-pretation of the existing laws on the subject of ^T. 36. THE SPEECH. 67 residence. This is already done if you leave tlie deed of 1814 unrescinded ; and to substitute in tlie place of that deed such, a partial enactment as the one that is now specified, while it presents us with no better security for the residence of the clergy in country parishes, it gives in the university towns a strongly implied license to all the mischief of non-residence. Separate the residence of a clergyman from the duties of a clergyman, and you only present me with the unsubstantial mocker}^ of a name. You may immure the man within the geographical limits of his vineyard, but if you suffer him to be otherwise employed than in the work of it you have positively done nothing. If he know not his people, if he go not round among his people, if he be not the personal acquaintance of his people, then, with all this bodily juxtaposition which re- sidence secures, he is morally and substantially a non-resident amongst them. This is wofully the case in cities, where the min- ister may live out all his existence in the field that is assigned to him, and multiply his daily rounds through the peopled intricacies which abound in it, and listen to as many calls of duty as time and strength and the other elements of exertion make him able for, and ply his conscientious labours amongst the tenements of the sick and the destitute and the dying, and after many years spent in making his way through the throng of that countless and ever-shifting multitude by whom he is sur- rounded, be as little known to the vast majority of his people as if — separated from them by the whole diameter of the earth — he took his station at the antipodes. Give a professorship to such a man and you widen still farther this lamentable distance." Our manuscript copy of this speech breaks off here at the very topic on which the speaker proceeded to lavish the whole power and wealth of his oratory ; and we must be content to be informed that " the Reverend Doctor then contended, that if it was necessary to prevent a countiy minister from holding «58 MEMOIES OF DR. CHALMERS. ISlfi. a professorsliip on account of his having enough to do in dis- charging the duties of his office without it, a fortiori was it pro- per to prevent such union in the case of a town minister. This topic was illustrated by the speaker in a torrent of eloquence which seemed to astonish the house, and which has, in the opi- nion of the best critics and judges, perhaps never been exceeded. He contended that there was no other way of preventing the danger arising to the good order of society from the hostile attacks of an illiterate rabble, who were seen in such crowds at certain hours to issue from their workshops and manufactories, than by the kindly and unwearied attentions of their pastor among them. This would reclaim them when the gibbet with all its terrors would have no effect. Who could view without alarm that neglected population who scowled upon you as you passed with an outlandish stare, who had never spoken to a clergyman in their life, and who were perfectly amazed when he began to put a few plain questions to them in the way of bis official duty ? There could be no more fitting object than these people for the attention of all who wished well both to religion and to the civil Government. Give not, therefore, a town clergyman any thing else to do beyond his clerical duties. They will be enough — more than enough in most cases. He wished that a petition should be presented to an enlightened and paternal Government, (who, he had no doubt, would listen to it when once they knew the fact, which at present they did not,) to employ some other persons than clergymen to give certificates for the receiving of prize-money and of money granted to soldiers' wives, and numberless things of this sort, which harassed a clergyman, and cut up his time intolerably, which totally secularized him, and converted him from a dispen- ser of the bread of life into a mere dispenser of human benefits."* * Extracted from a pamphlet entitled " Proceedings in the General Assembly on the 22d May 181G, on the Overtures for the Repeal of the Enactment of Assem- ^T. 36. SERMON BEFORE THE LORD HIGH COMMISSIONER. G9 " I know not what it is/' said the greatest critic* of our age, after hearing Dr. Chalmers upon this occasion, " but there is something altogether remarkable about that man. It reminds me more of what one reads of as the effect of the eloquence of Demosthenes than any thing I ever heard." When the debate had closed, and the vote was taken, it carried in favour of con- sulting the Presbyteries, by a majority of 118 to 94 It was found, however, in the General Assembly of the following year, that upon being consulted a majority of Presbyteries had decided against that species of pluralities then in question, which, accordingly, was permanently abolished in the Church. At his Grace's particular desire Dr. Chalmers had been appointed to preach before the Lord High Commissioner on the Sabbath which immediately succeeded this extraordinary display of eloquence and zeal in the Assembly. At so early an hour as nine o'clock in the morning a crowd began to gather in front of the High Church, which long ere the doors were opened was manifestly greater than any church could contain, so that when entrance at length was given, in one tremendous rush, hazardous to all and hurtful to many, pews and passages were densely filled. It was with the greatest difficulty that the Com- missioner, the Judges, and the Magistrates reached their allotted seats. Dr. Chalmers's text on this occasion was — (Ps. viii. 3, 4) — " Wlien I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained ; what is man that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" Having strained every imagination to the utmost, by carrying his audience up to and abroad over those vast fields of space, teeming with unnumbered worlds, which science had brought within the circle of her discove- bly 1814, anent Union of Offices : to which is added, An Account of Dr. ChalmersV Sermon preached before the Lord High Commissioner at His Grace's paxticular request." Glasgow, 1816. Pp. 24. * The late Lord Jeffrey. '/O MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. ries, — " What/' asked the preacher, " is this world that we inhabit, in the immensity above and around it, and what are they who occupy it ? We give you but a feeble image of our comparative insignificance when we say that the glories of an extended forest would suiFer no more from the fall of a single leaf than the glories of this extended universe would suffer though the globe we tread upon and all that it inherits should dissolve." The infidel objection, grounded upon the unlikeli- hood that upon a theatre so narrow and for a race so insignifi- cant such high and distinguishing attentions should be lavished as those which Christianity describes, was then stated in its full strength. Argument after argument in refutation of it was advanced. " The attention of the auditory," we are informed, " was so upon the stretch, that when the preacher made a pause at the conclusion of an argument, a sort of sigh, as if for breath, was perceptible through the house."* " Thirdly," said Dr. Chalmers, renewing, after one such pause, his theme, " it was the telescope that, by piercing the obscurity which lies between us and distant worlds, put infidelity in possession of the argument against which we are now contending. But about the time of its invention another instrument was formed which laid open a scene no less wonderful, and rewarded the inquisitive spirit of man with a discovery which serves to neu- tralize the whole of this argument. This was the microscope. The one led me to see a system in every star ; the other leads me to see a world in every atom. The one taught me that this mighty globe, with the whole burden of its people and of its countries, is but a grain of sand on the high field of immensity ; the other teaches me that every grain of sand may harbour within it the tribes and the families of a busy population. The one told me of the insignificance of the world I tread upon ; the other redeems it from all its insignificance, for it tells me * From pamphlet already quoted. ^T. 36. EXTEACT FEOM SERMON. 71 that in the leaves of every forest, and in the flowers of ever}' garden, and in the waters of every rivulet, there are worlds teeming with life, and numberless as are the glories of the firmament. The one has suggested to me, that beyond and above all that is visible to man, there may lie fields of creation which sweep immeasurably along, and cany the impress of the Almighty's hand to the remotest scenes of the universe ; the other suggests to me, that within and beneath all that minute- ness which the aided eye of man has been able to explore, there may lie a region of invisibles ; and that, could we draw aside the mysterious curtain which shrouds it from our senses we might there see a theatre of as many wonders as astronomy has unfolded, a universe within the compass of a point so small as to elude all the powers of the microscope, but where the wonder-working God finds room for the exercise of all his attri- butes, where He can raise another mechanism of worlds, and fill and animate them all with the evidences of His fflorv. * * * They, therefore, who think that God will not put forth such a power and such a goodness and such a condescension in behalf of this world, as are ascribed to him in the New Testa- ment, because he has so many other worlds to attend to, think of him as a man. They confine their view to the informations of the telescope, and forget altogether the informations of the other instrument. They only find room in their minds for His one attribute of a large and general superintendence, and keep out of their remembrance the equally impressive proofs we have for His other attribute of a minute and multiplied attention to all that diversity of operations, where it is He that worketh all in all. And when I think, that as one of the instruments of philosophy has heightened our eveiy impression of the first of these attributes, so another instrument has no less heightened our impression of the second of them — then I can no longer resist the conclusion, that it would be a transgression of sound argu- 72 MEMOIRS OF DE. CHALAIERS. 18ia ment, as well as a daring of impietv, to draw a limit around the doings of this unsearchable God ; and, should a professed revela- tion from heaven tell me of an act of condescension, in behalf of some separate world, so wonderful that angels desired to look into it, and the eternal Son had to move from His seat of glory to carry it into accomplishment, all I ask is the evidence of such a revelation ; for, let it tell me as much as it may of God letting Himself down for the benefit of one single province of His dominions, this is no more than what I see lying scat- tered in numberless examples before me, and running through the whole line of my recollections, and meeting me in every walk of observation to which I can betake myself ; and, now that the microscope has unveiled the wonders of another region, I see strewed around me, with a profusion which baffles my every attempt to comprehend it, the evidence that there is no one portion of the universe of God too minute for His notice, nor too humble for the visitations of His care." " At the end of this passage," one present upon the occa- sion* has told us, " there ran through the congregation a sup- pressed but perfectly audible murmur of applause — an occur- rence unprecedented in the course of the delivery of a sermon, but irresistible, in order to relieve our highly excited feelings." The discourse closed with the following manly and noble utterance from this great Christian advocate : — " Anxious as we are to put everything that bears upon the Christian argu- ment into all its lights, and fearless as we feel for the result of a most thorough sifting of it, and thinking, as we do think it, the foulest scorn that any pigmy philosopher of the day should mince his ambiguous scepticism to a set of giddy and ignorant admirers, or that a half-learned and superficial public should associate with the Christian priesthood the blindness and the bigotry of a sinking cause — with these feelings we are not dis- * John Marshall, Ksq., Advocate. ^T. 36. PROPER ATTITUDE OF CHRISTIANITY. 73 posed to shun a single question that may he started on the subject of the Christian evidences. There is not one of its parts or hearings which needs the shelter of a disguise thrown over it. Let the priests of another faith plv their pmdcntial expedients, and look so wise and so waiy in the execution of them. But Christianity stands in a higher and a firmer atti- tude. The defensive annour of a shrinking or timid policy does not suit her. Hers is the naked majesty of truth ; and A^th all the grandeur of age, but with none of its infirmities, has she come down to us, and gathered new strength from the battles she has won in the many controversies of many genera- tions. With such a religion as this there is nothing to hide. All should be above boards. And the broadest light of day should be made fully and freely to circulate throughout all her secrecies. But secrets she has none. To her belong the frankness and the simplicity of conscious greatness ; and whether she has to contend with the pnde of philosophy, or stand in fronted opposition to the prejudices of the multitude, she does it upon her own strength, and spurns all the props and all the auxiliaries of superstition away from her." VOL. II. MEMOIES OF DR. CHALMEKS. 1816. CHAPTER lY. EXCURSION IN FIFESHIRE—VISIT TO MR. BROWN AT INVERKEITHINQ —WALK BY THE SEA-BEACH AT ELIE— COMPLAINTS OF THE GLAS- GOW WEAVERS— SOCIETY AT ANSTRUTHER— A TWO HUNDRED YEAR ANCESTOR— KILM.ANY RE- VISITED. Fatigued witli j^ast labour, but witli all the fresii feeling of tbe scbool-boy on the first day of his summer holidays, Dr. Chalmers left Glasgow on Monday the 1 5th of July, for a six weeks' visit to Fifeshire. Selecting the route which would carry him most conveniently from house to house of old acquaint- ance, eschewing all public conveyances, travelling on foot on horseback or in friendly carriage, with luggage sometimes in advance and sometimes in the rear, his progress was, on the whole, but slow, though very crowded and busy-like does each succeeding day appear, as seen in the pages of that faithfully minute chronicle kept on Mrs. Chalmers's behalf Between Glasgow and Kirkaldy an entire week was consumed — one happy evening having been spent with the venerable Mr. Brown of Inverkeithing, who put into his hands a veiy com- plimentaiy review of his sermon on Peace,* which had recently appeared in the Christian Repository, an Edinburgh periodical. * The sermon entitled " Thouglits on Universal Peace" was preached in the Tron Church on Thursday the 18th January, 181*), the day of national thanksgiving. It was first published by John Smith and Son, in a separate form, on the 8th February, 1816, 1000 copies of it selling in four days. A second edition was published on the 5th April. A third edition was issued by Chalmers and Collins some years previous to its embodiment in the 25 volume series, where it will be found in vol. xi. p. 57. iET. 36. AN ANSTRUTHER SABBATH. 76 The second week saw him wending along with still slower pace from Kirkaldj to Anstrutlier, Avalking whenever it was pos- sible close bj the sea-shore, detained, though not unwillingly, one entire " dark scowly" rainy day at Pilmuir, but getting on the day following a " quiet, grey, sober, but steady evening," during which he "skirted it most pleasantly along the de- lightful beach" at Elie. He reached Anstruther on Friday evening, and was plunged at once into the bosom of that sore conflict of significations and cross-purposes, his own descrip- tion of which has already been presented to the reader. When he had retired to his own room that night, he spread out his folio page of journal-letter, and thus wrote : — " Friday evening, half-past ten o'clock. — I took a turn in the garden before supper. I am in a most pleasurable state of physical sensation, and I tinist that God will give me His enabling grace, that I may conduct myself with that temper, patience, and attention which become me. I have sat two hours with my parents this evening, and I tnist have acquitted myself to their satisfaction, having answered their every question, and felt a real pleasure in meeting their observations and helping forward the crack with observations of my own." His father's sight had now so entirely failed that he was led to church on Sunday. This office, on the following Sabbath, Dr. Chalmers personally undertook ; and as he guided the tottering steps of one who, true to the faith he so long had cherished, still loved to go up to the house of God and to worship in the sanctuary, days bygone arose upon his memoiy, and he recalled the time when an Anstruther Sabbath had been to him an object of aversion and disgust. His feeling was now changed. " I know nothing," he now writes, " that brings back the olden time more forcibly than an Anstruther Sabbath. Oh ! that I could improve it more, and enter with greater life and devotion into its peculiar ex- ercises." He staid the following week with his parents ; and 76 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. many a pleasant walk with one or more " old Ansti-utlier crony'' had he to the Billowness. One morning he breakfasted with Mr. Henderson, an ancient borough ally of his father, and who, through their grandmother, Barbara Anderson, was in some indistinct and remote way connected with his family. " Mr. Henderson was most cordial. He has presented me with what appears to give my father high gratification, a massive gold ring, with a large pebble, and big enough for a seal, having a coat of aims over the initials J. A., which I am informed is John Alexander, , my great-great-great-grandfather, or a two hundred year ancestor. N.B. — It was customaiy for the peojile of other days to wear rings on their thumbs. It is the only way in wliicli I can wear the one I have gotten, for it would nearly let in any two of my fingers." On the evening of the same day a family tea-party assembled at his aunt's. " The party," he writes, " consisted of Dr. and Mrs. Goodsir, Mrs. Ross, aunt of the latter, and ]\Irs. Carstairs. Tlie Doctor and I were the eooky-handers. In came the papers, and I behoved to read them to my father in the midst of an uninterested company. I have stolen away for a moment for the purpose of closing this letter, and left the Doctor to read till my return." The forenoon of that day, whose morning and evening were devoted to these quiet convivialities, had been partly spent in letter ■vvi'iting. In the reading-room of Kirkald}" he had found two Numbers of the Glasgow Chronicle for the preceding week, and was " grieved to see so much inflammatory matter about the weavers." He now unburdened his mind upon this topic in the following letter to his friend Mr. R. Tennent of Glasgow ; — '' Anstruther, July 31st, 1816. — I long to have your news. There is no pressure here among the lower orders. The country is quiet, and in abundance ; and the population lists tell us that they bear to towns the projjortion of two to one. But in toAvns all is clamour and noise and broad manifestation. Out of a MT. 36. PROPORTION OF HOME TRADE TO FOREIGX. 77 single case a world of alarm and exaggeration is constructed, and a fraction is magnified into a whole. I am convinced, that while the equable distribution of comfort is a little out of order at present, there is a full average of comforts amongst the labouring classes of the country at large ; and even in those places where there is a deficiency, it is greatly oveiTated. At Kirkaldy, the other day, the export weavers came in a body to the magistrates, and prayed for public relief The town was portioned into districts. A weaver and manufacturer went over each of them for the pui-jDose of investigation ; and mark how the reality fell short of the fama. Only one loom out of twenty was out of employment, and this because some young women who wrought at looms were out at summer work, and all the rest were getting about as much as the price of a peck of oatmeal in the day. I do not deny the pressure that is in Glasgow, but my every impression is that it is more bawled and bustled and belaboured about, both in print and in conver- sation, than it ought to be. " N.B. — The foreign trade is below par at present ; but all my inquiries are favourable to the fact that the coasting trade is fully up to par. Now mark, that even in the most pros- perous times the shoAvy foreign trade is to the substantial and indestructible home trade as twelve to twenty-eight." From Anstruther Dr. Chalmers proceeded to Kilmany. " The first parish hamlet," he says, " I landed at was at the back of Mountquhannie, where I turned out the population, and went through a great deal of speering and hand-shaking. I did the same among all the houses immediately around Mount- quhannie. One of my female scholars wept aloud, and I was much moved myself I then went down to the mansion-house. Mr. Gillespie was at Cupar, but arrived in about half an hour. I walked with him in the garden before dinner. "We were 78 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. altogether most cordial. Major Horsburgli came to meet with me after dinner. He was veiy tender and friendly. I left them about eight o'clock. Mr. Lawson walked to Rathillet with me. I met with several people here, and had a turn out of popu- lation from several of the houses. I called on Mr. Lees, and walked along the road with him till we fell in Avith Mr. Cook, who came out to meet with me, and with whom I proceeded to the manse. We passed the new inn, got over the crazy bridge, fell in ere we reached the gate with Messrs. Robert Edie and George Aitken, who were kindly invited to sup with me. I remarked that the large gate laboured under its wonted diffi- culty of being opened, and this circumstance, though minute, brought back the olden time with a gush of tenderness. Sup- ped, showed the guests to the door as usual, but felt a coldness and a melancholy at the diiference ; presided at family worship ; was conducted to the best bedroom, where I indulged for some time in lively recollections which carried a mournfulness along with them, and at length, by a sound and lengthened repose, repaired the whole sleeplessness of the preceding night." After two hours' severe composition in the drawing-room. Dr. Chalmers sallied out next forenoon, and completed a walking survey of the village. The long roll of their names, with little descrip- tive touches as to the diverse modes of the interviews, is here inserted, and the day closes by his saying, " I was happy to see W. S., who had returned to Dairsie the day before, and came back to meet me. He feels a little humbled at being my satellite, and to complete the joke, he calls me the comet that has appeared in their hemisphere, and I call him a little boun- cing cracker at my tail. We had a pleasant evening at the manse, and staid up till nearly one o'clock. I complete this day's narrative by saying, that I should have mentioned in that of yesterday how young D. G. is turned remarkably stout, talking and walking, with a head as curly as ever I saw on a JET. 30. SABBATH MORNING AT KILMANY. 79 water-dog", and the liair so grown tliat Ids face looks like lialf- a-crown with a prodigious system of head-dress all round it." " After breakfast on Thursday I went to convoy "W. S. to- wards Dairsie, ascended to the top of a romantic height at Airdit along with him, and then took leave ; called on Mr. Anster, who was just mounting his horse with Mr. Heriot of Ramornie. I walked back with them up the hill to Logic, and had there about an hour of severe composition. Reached the manse of Leuchars after eight o'clock." Friday night was spent under the hospitable roof of Mr. Lawson, Pitlethie, and Saturday night with the Balfours at East Kinneir, a family to whom he was peculiarly attached, as one of the few in his own parish which rejoiced aright over the change that had taken place in the character of his ministrations. " I started," he proceeds, " on Sunday morning about eight o'clock, after a sound sleep, walked in the garden to the south of the house, and enjoyed the quietness of the Sabbath morn. But my whole sensations in this place are mixed up with a painful and melancholy tenderness. I have made a great sacrifice of per- sonal comfort by going to Glasgow, and all that I read about the poor and the riots, and the calling upon ministers to exert themselves, adds to the repulsion I feel towards that city. Even Mr. Tennent's observations about the impatience of my hearers, and that I must preach more than I told him I was to do, give me the feeling that I have a hydra-headed monster to deal with. This is all very wrong perhaps, and I should strengthen myself in God. I breakfasted at Kinneir, and con- ducted family worship. I walked with James to Kilmany. The road was lined with crowds of people. Had several hand- shakings on my way to the manse. Mr. Melvil had proclaimed ' no sermon ' in his own parish, and he and Mrs. Melvil came down to hear me. I had an unpleasant feeling about the crowd, though the groups coming down the short-cut of the 80 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. Cupar road gave me a lively and interesting recollection of the olden time. Messrs. Melvil and Cook insisted on my preach- ing at the window of my farewell Sabbath, and I was prevailed on. This was unfortunate, for the day was windy, and a great number of the people without did not hear me,* and the effect on myself was veiy fatiguing, and I have really gotten a most nervous repugnancy to crowds. They are too much for me, and should I preach any more in the countiy after this jaunt, I shall take care not to make my appearance till Saturday night or Sunday morning. It was not a preaching to my good old peoj)le. Many of them were jostled out, and instead of them I had an immense and most oppressive multitude. Mr. Cook and Mr. Melvil could not make their way to their own seat in the afternoon, and had to return to the manse, losing that way half the day. I went over to Mr. Edie's after tea, and had a pri- vate half hour of very pleasant conversation with Robert and * The wind interfered with the preacher's reading, as well as the people's hear- ing. He had much difficulty with his manuscript ; and I believe that it was upon this occasion that one portion of it escaped from his hands altogether — the people making great efforts to recover it, and the preacher assuring them that it was of no consequence, as nobody could make any use of it but himself. It had been writ- ten, in fact, in short-hand. His power of reading so fluently from this kind of manu- script has often sui-prised even the most expert stenographers ; but from all kinds of manuscript his mode of reading was unique — so entirely peculiar as to prevent his example being turned into an argument or precedent upon the general question as to how sermons should be delivered. He was himself greatly amused by the manner in which this peculiarity of his had once been described. ^Vfter dinner one da3% at his friend Mr. Bruce's, the conversation happened to turn on the pre- valent intense dislike of our common people to the reading of sermons, or what they call the pnper. One of the company remarked, that if ministers who read would but do it with more spirit, the popular prejudice would ei-e long disappear, adding, that she knew of a country wife who, in spite of her great general abhor- rence of the " paper," was much attached to the preaching of a " paper minis- ter," and who, on this strange inconsistency being remarked upon, replied in her own defence — "Ay, very true; but then he has a pith wi' his paper." " That re- minds me," said Dr. Chalmers, " of an old anecdote of myself. A friend of mine expressing his surprise to a country woman in Fife, that she who so hated read- ing should yet be so fond of Mr. Chalmers, she replied, with a serious shake of the head, — ' Nae doubt ; but it's J'ell readiu' than.' " .ET. 3C. STARBANK AND THE " SENTIMENTAL KNOWE." 81 Alexander Paterson in a room uj) stairs. * * * Monday. — Started at eight o'clock ; was much interested in the view of the road before the Avindow. I had two hours of severe composition after breakfast. At one sallied out : went down the Moutray, and recollected how often I had taken Anne down the bank and entertained her with the ducks of Sandy Robertson I saw sailing in the burn. Dined in Mr. Cook's with a large party. There is a sideboard opposite to the fireplace in the dining- room, and the table is set from the south window to the oppo- site wall, Mr. Cook sitting at the window as the head. I looked out incessantly to the brae and upon Michael Matthew's ploughs running in their wonted style. Robie Dewar (the car- rier) came from Cupar with a letter to me. I had a sentimen- tal interview with him at the kitchen portico. He told me that he had no phrases, but that there was much in his heart." Escorted at different times by one or more of his old parishion- ers, and making many a visit by the way, late on the Monday evening he was welcomed to Starbank by his wife's relatives, Mr. and Mrs. Simson. His earliest visits on the following morning were to those spots made dear to him by the most peculiar recollections. In the midst of scenes so familiar to Mrs. Chalmers, his narrative now becomes, if possible, more minute than ever, and he tells how the shrubbery, in absence of the tending hand, had become a tangled wil- derness— how Alexander Dun, however, still wrought the gar- den, and kept it in veiy good order — how half the straw- berries on the bank had been renewed and yielded nothing, and the other half in their old state were not peculiarly pro- ductive— how, striving to get into the upper park, he had found all the gaps so closed that he had difficulty in penetrating into it — how he had tried to find out the place where once they had sat together, but could find no vestige of the seat which they had occupied, — and how he had taken up his station for some time upon the elevation which, because of some tender remembrance, 82 MEMOIRS OF DE. CHALMERS. 1816. he denominates " tlie sentimental knowe." On Tuesday night he supped with Mr. Simson's neighbour, Mr. Lawson. " I left him about ten o'clock, and was conveyed to Starbank. The clear- ness and beauty of the moonlight resting on a scene so lovely and so dear to me made it a most agreeable walk. On entering Starbank, I found that Mr. S. had gone to bed. Mrs. S. re- ceived me in the dining-room, where they keep a good fire, and where I amuse myself tracing the figures on the marble jambs. The fox-tails are still in great preservation. After family wor- ship I retired to bed about eleven." Next day saw another gathering of old friends at L . " I got to Starbank before nine. Cracked about an hour. Proposed to stay and read a little in the dining-room after they moved up stairs ; but this I should not have done, as Mrs, S.'s anxiety about fire made her sit up till she heard me moving, and then she came down and saw that everything was safe. We met on the stair, and after many apologies, and offers of service, and explanations, and civil sayings, which we scarcely knew how to give over, we at length fairly got quit of one another." Thursday was claimed by Balmeadowside. The family were all at home. " I spent half an hour in the drawing-room, Avhicli is just the same as before, with its window transj)arencies, and mantelj)iece gimcracks, and boarding-school performances. We had music from the three Miss N.'s and Miss R. I was much delighted with it ; and we had three reels. After R. went away we had family wor- ship, and I am now writing you from our wonted bedroom." Saturday evening afforded him his last look of the village of Kilmany. He had dined at the manse. " Mrs. Cook most kind and civil. After tea took a tender adieu of them all. As I went through the burn on my horse saw the wives of the ' long row' at their doors looking towards me. Passed the manse gate with the weight of feeling upon me that it was my home no more. The evening was beautiful, and sweetly did the declin- ing sun shine upon all the groups of hamlet objects that were .ET. 36. REVIEW OP DR. JONES S SERMONS. 83 before me. The manse in a glow of luxuriance. I took many a look, till it sunk beneatli tlie summit of tlie road." A fortnight more of such delightful cordialities at Cupar, Dundee, and elsewhere, brought him once more to Glasgow, the thought of Avliose multiplied responsibilities had ever and anon arisen upon him by the way, and forced from him such expres- sions as the following : — •' I will not disguise from you that there is much in and about Glasgow which inspires my distaste for it. I should like to get attached to it, but I have not yet succeeded in this, and I fear, I fear, I shall at length be glad to take refuge in the country from the many untoward and discouraging circumstances which surround my present situation. * * * I feel an increasing interest as the time draws near for returning to Glasgow. I trust I may in time like it. Do away all secu- lar business, and all blame for my avoiding it, and I think I should like it." These dark thoughts of the future were however but the few and flitting shadows thrown upon a period of almost unbroken sunshine — a period, too, as productive as it was pleasant ; for throughout the whole of these six weeks, scarcely a single day was suflered to elapse in which an hour or two was not redeemed from its busiest periods, and consecrated to com- position. Between Glasgow and Kirkaldy the full preparations for a Sabbath's services were completed. At Kirkaldy, on the Saturday, " Dr. Jones's Sermons," with a copy of a letter from Mr. Josiah Conder, then editor of the Eclectic, accepting his ofier to review the volume, were put into his hands ; and though he " never preached with greater fatigue or discomfort" than on the succeeding Sabbath, the Monday's Journal has the following entry: — " I yoked to the review of 'Jones ;' have read three of his sermons, and thrown off a tolerable modicum of obsei-vations on semions in general. I trust I shall be able to finish my re\^ew of him this week." He carried the volume in his pocket, reading it often as he walked, and snatching the readiest hours in the houses of his acquaintances to carry 84 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. forward his review. " I have this forenoon," is his entry on Wednesday at Pihnuir, " thrown off a full modicum of addi- tional review of ' Jones's Sermons.' I have also written to Dr. Ireland, and offered him a sight of the manuscript on its way to London, lest the friends should be resting too high an expecta- tion on my account of the volume." — " After breakfast/' such is the note of progress at Elie, " I retired to my bedroom, where I read ' Jones.' His sermons at Glasgow and Kilniany are in the volume, but they look sadly reduced and enfeebled in print. Anstruther, Saturday, half-past one, — I have now finished the review of ' Dr. Jones's Sermons.'* I am heartily tired of this kind of work, and should like hencefonvard to decline it altogether." Tired, however, as he felt on the Saturday of the work of reviewing, another work was taken up on the Monday, and one, we should have thought, as little likely to be undertaken amidst such a life of varied and perpetual motion as he now was living. " I began," he says, " my fourth astronomical ser- mon to-day." And in a small pocket-book, with borrowed pen and ink, in strange apartments, where he was liable eveiy moment to interruption, that sermon was taken up and carried on to completion. At the manse of Balmerino, disappointed in not finding Mr. Thomson at home, and having a couple of hours to spare — at the manse of Kilmany, in the drawing-room, with all the excitement before him of meeting for the first time, after a year's absence, many of his former friends and parishioners — at the manse of Logie, into which he turned at random by the way and found a vacant hour — paragraph after paragraph Avas 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. I believe that literaiy history presents few parallel instances of such power of immediate and entire concentration of thought, under such ready command of the will, exercised at such * See Eclectic Retieic, vol. vi. p. 238; and IFoaLv, vol. xii. p. 824. ^T. 36. TIMES AND MODES OF COMPOSITION. 85 broken intervals, aniicl such unpropitioiis circumstances, and yet yielding a product in which not a single trace either of rupture in argument or variation in style appears. Those in- genious critics, who, on the first appearance of the " Astrono- mical Sermons" in jJrint, spoke of the midnight oil which must have been consumed, and the vast elaboration which must have been bestowed — how much would they have been surprised had they but known the times and modes and places in which one at least of these discourses had been prepared ! But higher even than the literary interest which attaches to the record of this visit to Fifeshire, are those brief notices given to us of the spiritual condition of the writer. " I am not attempting," he in one place says, " any more at present than a sheet of severe composition in the week ; and as I had nearly completed this, I resolved to abandon myself to the stream of events throughout this day (Saturday), and upon the whole, I hope that the uncomplying severity of system is now giving way with me under a milder and more attractive prin- ciple of forbearance with others. I speak, however, with great humility, and am sure that nothing but Divine grace will up- hold me in that which is good and acceptable unto the Lord. I trust, amid all my imperfections, that I may be getting on in earnest, humble, and spiritual Christianity. I feel, however, my barrenness, my forgetfulness of God, my miserable distance from the temper and elevation of the New Testament, my proneness to self and its wilful and headlong gratifications, and, above all, a kind of delusive orthodox satisfaction with the mere confession of all this, without a vigorous putting forth of any one revealed expedient for getting the better of it." Again, in reference to a family of Avliose hospitalities he had been partaking, he says — " There has a great tide of pros- perity set in upon this family, and they are kind, upright, amiable people. But I am strongly impressed with the fact, that with these many things we may lack one thing, — and that 86 MEMOIKS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1816. one thing may be tlie love of God. I feel tlie vanity of time ; I feel the insignificance of present things. These meetings and partings speak loudly to the folly of trusting in any worldly enjoyments. I fear that I have not improved sufficiently my opportunities on this journey, and all conversation lias been suffered to ran into the light, the secular, and the trifling. I exj)atiated upon this with by herself, but did not make a better of it at , where there was much kind-heartedness, and much cordiality, and much playful remark, but not one distant reference to the main subject of interest and regard to an immortal creature. I have to request of my dear G., that she stir herself up to lay hold of God. Do act faith on the great tmtlis of the Christian revelation. Do ciy mightily to God for pardon in the name and for the sake of Christ ; and relying on the povv^er of His blood and of His Spirit, commit yourself to Him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator." * * * " I have much to learn in the Avay of observing all the kind- nesses and all the facilities of social intercourse ; and I cannot withhold it, as a testimony to the power and imjiortance of gospel faith, that the more I feel of peace with God, the more largely and the more freely I take in of those promises which are yea and amen in Christ Jesus, the more I have my eye open to the sufficiency of His atonement and the subduing efficacy of His Spirit — in a word, the more I am exercised with all that is direct and peculiar in piety, the more do I feel my heart attuned to the cordialities and the patience and the faci- lities of benevolence and good-will. Oh ! that I was making more steady and decided progress than I have ever yet done — that all the asperities of temper were softening within me — that I was becoming better as the member of a company and the member of a family, and growing every day in confonnity to the image of my all-pure and all-perfect Saviour ! " MT. 36. FIEST ASTRONOMICAL DISCOURSE. 87 CHAPTER Y. FIRST DELRHERY OF THE ASTRONOMICAL DISCOURSES— SCENE IN THE TRONGATE— PUBLICATION OF THESE DISCOURSES—THEFR EXTRA- ORDINARY POPULARITY— TESTIMONIES OF HAZLITT AND CANNING —FOSTER'S REVIEW— VISIT TO LOxNDON— LETTER FROM JAMES MONTGOMERY, ESQ., OF SHEFFIELD—SERMONS IN THE METROPOLIS —LONDON POPULARITY— ANECDOTES OF MR. CANNING, MR. WIL- BERFORCE, &c THE JOURNEY HOME— LETTER TO HIS SISTER- LETTER FROM ROBERT HALL. At the time of Dr. Chalmers's settlement in Glasgow it was the custom that the clergymen of the city should preach in rotation on Thursday in the Tron Church, a duty wdiich, as their number was then but eight, returned to each within an in- ten^al of two months. On Thursday the 23d of November 1815, this week-day seiwice devolved on Dr. Chalmers. The entire novelty of the discourse delivered upon this occasion, and the promise held out by the preacher that a series of similar dis- courses was to follow, excited the liveliest interest, not in his own congregation alone, but throughout the whole community. He had presented to his hearers a sketch of the recent dis- coveries of astronomy — distinct in outline, and drawn with all the ease of one who was himself a master in the science, yet gorgeously magnificent in many of its details, displaying amid " the brilliant glow of a blazing eloquence,"* the sublime poetiy of the heavens. In his subsequent discourses Dr. Chalmers proposed to discuss the argument or rather preju- * Foster. 88 MEMOIES OF DR. CHALMEES. 1817. dice against the Christian Revelation which grounds itself on the vastness and variety of those unnumbered worlds which lie scattered over the immeasurable fields of space. This dis- cussion occupied all the Thursday services allotted to him during the year 1816. The spectacle which presented itself in the Trongate ui:)on the day of the delivery of each new astronomical discourse, was a most singular one. Long ere the bell began to toll, a stream of people might be seen pouring through the passage which led into the Tron Church. Across the street, and immediately opposite to this passage, was tlie old reading-room, where all the Glasgow merchants met. So soon, however, as the gathering quickening stream upon the opposite side of the street gave the accustomed warning out flowed the occupants of the coffee-room ; the pages of the Herald or the Courier were for a while forsaken, and during two of the best business hours of the day the old reading- room wore a strange aspect of desolation. The busiest mer- chants of the city were wont indeed upon those memorable days to leave their desks, and kind masters allowed their clerks and apprentices to follow their examj)le. Out of the very heart of the great tumult an hour or two stood redeemed for the highest exercises of the spirit ; and the low traffic of earth forgotten, heaven and its high economy and its human sym- pathies and eternal interests, engrossed the mind at least and the fancy of congregated thousands. In January 1817, this series of discourses was announced as ready for publication. It had generally been a matter of so much commercial risk to issue a volume of sermons from the press, that recourse had been often had in such cases to publication by subscription. Dr. Chalmers's pub- lisher, Mr. Smith, had hinted that perhaps this method ought in this instance also to be tried. " It is far more agree- able to my feelings," Dr. Chalmers wrote to him a few days ^T. ae. PUBLICATION OF ASTRONOMICAL DISCOURSES. 89 before tlie day of publication, " that the book should be intro- duced to the general market, and sell on the public estimation of it, than that the neighbourhood here should be plied in all the shops with subscription papers, and as much as possible wrung out of their partialities for the author." Neither author nor publisher had at this time the least idea of the extra- ordinary success which was awaiting their forthcoming vo- lume. It was published on the 28th of January 1817. In ten weeks 6000 copies had been disposed of, the demand showing no symj)toni of decline. Nine editions were called for within a year, and nearly 20,000 copies were in circu- lation. Never previously, nor ever since, has any volume of sermons met with such immediate and general accept- ance. The " Tales of my Landlord" had a month's start in the date of publication, and even with such a competitor it ran an almost equal race. Not a few curious observers were struck with the novel competition, and watched with lively curiosity how the great Scottish preacher and the great Scot- tish novelist kept for a whole year so nearly abreast of one another. It was, besides, the first volume of Semions which fairly broke the lines which had separated too long the literary from the religious public. Its secondary merits won audience for it in quarters where evangelical Christianity was nauseated and despised. It disarmed even the keen hostility of Hazlitt, and kept him for a whole forenoon spell-bound beneath its power. " These sermons," he says, " ran like wild-fire through the country, were the darlings of watering-places, were laid in the windows of inns, and were to be met with in all places of public resort. * * * We remember finding the volume in the orchard of the inn at Burford Bridge, near Boxhill, and passing a whole and veiy delightful morning in reading it without quitting the shade of an apple tree." The attractive volume stole an hour or two from the occupations of the greatest statesman and orator VOL. ir. H so SlEMOmS OF DR. CHALMEHS. 1817. of the day. " Canning/' says Sir James Mackintosh, " told me that he was entirely converted to admiration of Chalmers ; so is Bobus, whose conversion is thought the greatest proof of vic- toiy. Canning says there are most magnificent passages in his ' Astronomical Sermons.' "* Four years before this time, through the pages of the " Edinburgh Christian Instructor," Dr. Chalmers had said, " Men of tasteful and cultivated literature are repelled from theology at the veiy outset by the unseemly garb in which she is presented to them. If there be room for the display of eloquence in urgent and pathetic exhortation, in masterly dis- cussion, in elevating greatness of conception, does not theology embrace all these, and will not the language that is clearly and approiJiiately expressive of them possess many of the constitu- ents and varieties of good writing ? If theology, then, can com- mand such an advantage, on what principle should it be kept back fi'om her? * * * In the subject itself there is a grandeur which it were vain to look for in the ordinary themes of elo- quence or poetiy. Let writers arise, then, to do it justice. Let them be all things to all men, that they may gain some ; and if a single proselyte can be thereby draAvn from the ranks of litera- ture, let all the embellishments of genius and fancy be thrown around the subject. One man has already done much. Others are rising around him, and with the advantage of a higher sub- ject, they will in time rival the unchristian moralists of the day, and ovemiatch them." lie was one of the first to answer to his own call, to fulfil his own prediction. No single writer of our age has done so much to present the truths of Christianity in new fonns, and to invest them with all the attractions of a fascinating eloquence ; nor could a single volume be named which has done more than this very volume of " Astronomical * 3Iemoirs of the Life of the Right Hon. Sir James Mackintosh, vol. ii. p. 343. The person known among his particular friends by the name of " Bobus" was Robert Smith, who had held the office of Advocate-General in Bengal, and who is not to be confounded with his namesake, the brother of the Rev. Sydney Smith. JET. 36. FOSTER S llEVIEW. 91 Discourses" to soften and subdue those prejudices wliicli the in- fidelity of natural science engenders. In his critique of these Discourses, presented in two articles in the Eclectic Review, Foster blamed their author " for drao-- ging into notice a stale and impotent objection against the truth of the Christian religion, and giving a wide spread by his dis- courses to an argument which, so far as we can find, is almost unlcno^vn."* Had Dr. Chalmers's sole aim been to furnish a distinct and original contribution to the deistical controversy — had his terminating object been the logical overthrow of an al- leged argument of the infidel philosophy, his volume might not have stood the test to which the profound but severe intellect of Foster subjected it ; but although the argument, or let us rather say the impression, which it was the main object of Dr. Chalmers to set aside and subdue, had never found a place in the pages of the controversialist, it had been felt by many an intellectual and imaginative spirit, elevated to sublime conceptions of the Divinity by the boundless magnificence of the material universe, but over which the chill of an unac- knowledged perhaps but most disturbing doubt had crept when told of the incarnation and death of God's eternal Son, in a world so narrow in its limits, and for a race so obscure as ours. It was Dr. Chalmers's chief merit in these Discourses, that after unfolding the wonders of the stariy heavens, so as to make our puny globe shrink into shaded insignificance, and after such representations of the universe and its great Grover- nor in relation to our race, as showed how thoroughly he could understand at least, if not sympathize with, the Yerj prejudice which it was to be his effort to remove, he proceeded so to illustrate and exalt the condescension and kindness of the Deity, and so to picture forth the magnitude of those interests which human salvation involved, and so to glorify that act of * For notices of other reviews of the "Astronomical Discourses," see Appendix D. 92 MEMOIKS OF DE. CHALMERS. 1817. incalculable grace to which, for the eifecting of this salvation, he has been pleased to stoop, as to throw around the character and doings of the God of the New Testament, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, a splendour far higher than even that which the sovereignty of the heavens confers. In doing so, another if not a higher service was rendered to the Christian cause than any which the mere force of triumphant reasoning could achieve. In many parts of Foster's review of these sermons Dr Chalmers himself acquiesced. A year or two before his death, a friend, in whose house he was sj)ending the day, found him deej^ly engaged with a volume, and giving, as he read, by significant movements of his head, visible tokens of approba- tion. He told at once, on rising from the book, that it was Foster's review of his " Astronomical Discourses" that he had been reading, which he had not looked at for many years, but in much of which he entirely and cordially concurred. He had quite the feeling towards these Discourses that they were a juvenile production, with too rich an exuberance of phraseo- logy, to which the pruning-knife might beneficially have been applied. Even among his Sermons he did not think that they stood first, his " Commercial Sermons" being always regarded by him as in every resj)ect superior to them. In this, however, as in so many other instances, the judgments of the author and his readers have been at variance ; for not only do these " As- tronomical Discourses" continue to be favourites with the pub- lic, but to this day they command a larger sale than any other portion of Dr. Chalmers's writings. It was amidst the full burst of that apj^lause which his volume of sermons had elicited that Dr. Chalmers appeared for the first time in a London pulpit. Mrs. Chalmers and he, accompanied by Mr. Smith his publisher, left Glasgow for Lon- don on the morning of Monday the l-ith April 1817. Their -ET. 37. JOURNEY TO BIRMINGHAM. 93 progress was slow and circuitous. Crossing from Cumberland to Yorkshire, visiting the scenery of Rokeby, and pausing to inspect the Moravian establishment of Fulneck, they did not reach Birmingham till the evening of Friday the 2Sd. From this place Mr. Smith wrote to his friends in Glasgow : — " Our utmost expectations of a delightful journey have been more than realized. It is impossible to conceive how all should have so contributed to our gratification. I am sure that there has not been a desire ungratified in the heart of any one of us. At the outset it was determined that the Doctor should chronicle character, and that I should narrate occurrences and describe scenery. We have already many most interesting memoranda— the Fulneckers, Montgomery at Sheffield, Mr. Hall at Leicester, and many other worthy persons, are to emblazon our sketches. I have gleaned some curious historical anecdotes for my de- partment. Carlisle, Harrowgate, Wakefield, Ripon, Leeds, Ful- neck, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, &c., also figure in it. We have been very merry and very wise, and I am sure three travellers were never happier than we have been."' — I have not been able to recover the chronicle here referred to, both parts of which were retained by Mr. Smith.* Mr. Montgomery has been kind enough to furnish the following interesting details of his first inteiTiew with Dr. Chalmers : — " The Mount, Sheffield, January 23, 1850. " Rev. and Dear Sir, — The circumstance which I once men- tioned at Glasgow concerning the late Rev. Dr, Chalmers, was simply this : — On a dark evening, about the end of Ajjril, (I have forgotten the year,) two strangers called at my house in Sheffield, where I then resided, one of whom introduced him- * I have been extremely indebted to A. Macduif, Esq., of Bonliard, the represen- tative of Mr. Smith, who has not only furnished the materials of the second chap- ter in this volume, but has made every effort, though in vain, to recover the journal above alluded to. 94 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1817. self as Mr. Smith, bookseller of Glasgow, and his companion as the Rev. Dr. Chalmers, of the same city, who, being on a journey to London, where he was engaged to preach the annual sermon for the Missionary Society, desired to have a short in- terview with me. Of course I was glad to have the opportu- nity of becoming personally acquainted with so great and good a man, and we soon were earnestly engaged in conversation on subjects endeared to us both ; for, though at first I found it difficult to take in and decipher his peculiar utterance, yet the thoughts that spoke themselves through the seemingly uncouth words came so quick and thick upon me from his lips, that I could not help understanding them ; till, being myself roused into unwonted volubility of speech, I responded as promptly as they were made to his numerous and searching inquiries concerning the United Brethren, (commonly called Moravians,) among whom I was born, but especially respecting their scrip- tural method of evangelizing and civilizing barbarian tribes of the rudest classes of heathen. In the outset he told me that he had come directly from Fulneck, near Leeds, one of our prin- cipal establishments in England, and where there is an academy open for the education of children of parents of all Christian denominations, in which I had been myself a pupil about ten years in the last century. At the time of which I am writing, and for several years in connexion, there were many scholars from the North, as well as Irish and English boarders, there. My visitor said that he had invited all the Scotch lads to meet him at the inn there, and ' how many, think you, there were of them ?' he asked me. ' Indeed, I cannot tell,' I replied. He answered, ' there were saxtain or savantain ;' — (I cannot pre- tend to spell the numbers as he pronounced them to my unprac- tised ear ;) — and I was so taken by surprise, that I exclaimed abruptly, ' It is enough to corrupt the English language in the seminary !' In that moment I felt I had uttered an imperti- JE7, 37. LETTER FllOM JAMES MONTGOMERY, ESQ. 95 nence, tlioug-li without the slightest consciousness of such an ap- plication to my hearer ; and, as instantly recovering my presence of mind, I added, ' When I was at Fulneck school I was the only Scotch lad there.' Whether this slip was noticed, or passed off as mere waste of breath in the heat of conversation, I know not ; but on we went together in another vein on a theme which deeply interested my illustrious visitor, and to the dis- cussion of which I was principally indebted for the honour of this sudden and hasty call upon me, as he was to set off for town early the next morning. 'An angel visit, short and bright,'* it was to me, and I do not remember that I ever spent half an hour of more animated and delightful intercommunion with a kindred spirit in my life. As I have noticed already, our dis- course turned principally on the subject of the Moravian Mis- sions in pagan lands, and the lamentable inability of our few and small congregations in Christendom to raise among them- selves the pecuniary expenses of maintaining their numerous and comparatively large establishments in Greenland, Labra- dor, North and South America, the West Indies, and South Africa, but that, providentially, they received liberal help from the friends of the gospel of other evangelical denomina- tions ; hereupon Dr. Chalmers said — evidently not from sud- den impulse, but a cherished purpose in his heart — ' I mean to raise five hundred joounds for the Brethren's Missions this year!' * Five hundred pounds for our poor missions !' I cried ; ' I never * " I have borrowed this phrase neither from Blair nor Campbell, but from ' John Norris ' of the seventeenth century : — ' How fading are the joys we dote upon ! Like apparitions seen and gone ; But those which soonest take their flight, Are the most exquisite and strong; Like angels' visits, short and bright. Mortality 's too weak to bear them long.' Can we doubt that these lines were actually inspired by such a visit in the pre- seace of the heavenly visitant ? Such poetry is not of tlie earth, eai'thy." 96 MEMOIES OF DR. CHALMERS. 1817. heard of such a thing before !' He rejoined, ' I will do it.' But while I heartily thanked him, and implicitly believed in the integrity of his intention, I could only hope that he might be able to fulfil it, and within myself I said, ' I will watch you, Doctor.' I did so, and traced him through sermons, subscrip- tions, collections, and donations, till these had realized, to the best of my recollection, a sum nearer to six than live hundred pounds. Now, considering in how many comprehensive con- cerns he was at that veiy time putting forth all his strength — originating promoting and accomplishing economical, local, patriotic, and Christian plans for the wellbeing of populous communities — in comparison with which this effort in aid of the brethren Was like the putting forth of his little finger only — yet, I confess, that ' small thing,' not to be despised, gave me a most magnificent idea of the intellectual, moral, and sanctified power for good with which the human being who stood before me was endowed from on high. And surely, if ever ten talents were committed by Him who is Lord of all in His kingdom of heaven on earth. Dr. Chalmers was so invested ; and judging by the labours which he did in his day, and the works which re- main, as well as have followed him to his account, we may fer- vently believe that the treasure lent to him was doubled by his faithful occupation of the same, and that his 'joy of the Lord,' which was his ' strength' in life, is now his portion for ever. I must conclude here, or I shall lose another post, and have to beg pardon for not earlier communicating the small intelligence which you required ; but cold weather in the 78th winter of my age is paralyzing and disheartening when called upon to do anything in the right time. — 1 am, however, truly and respect- fully, your friend and sei'vant, J. Montgomery." " P.S. — Several years later, being in London when Dr. C. was there, I had the happiness to meet him repeatedly at Homerton, ^T. 37. LETTER TO MISS SMITH. 97 and was eveiy time more and more pleased with liini, as indeed a good and faithful servant of his Lord." At Warwick the travelling party hroke wp, Mr. Smith pro- ceeding to Paris, Dr. and Mrs. Chalmers going to Gloucester- shire to spend a fortnight with Mr. and Mrs. Morton. From his sister's residence Dr. Chalmers addressed the following- letter to Miss Smith : — " PuDHiLL, MiNcniNG Hampton, Gloccestersuire, Mai/ 2d, 1817. " My Dear Miss Smith, — We reached this a week ago, and propose spending another week here ere we set out for London. We are in full expectation of meeting your brother upon our aiTival, and of journeying homewards with him by the circuitous route of Portsmouth, Bristol, Wales, and the Lakes. * * * " I expect to see the great Foster this evening, author of the profound and eloquent ' Essays' which you may have heard of. We were much delighted with Mr. Hall at Leicester, and have indeed the whole of our journey scattered over with very pleasant remembrances. " Our tendency to forget God is on no occasion more visible than in travelling. We had the Bible in the chaise-pocket, which I think a good habit on a journey ; and yet how often have I looked at the variety and richness of the scene around me in total insensibility to the consideration that it was God Avho spread it all before me, and filled it with its beauties. There is a helpless enslavement on the part of man to the things of sense and of time-, and nothing will rescue him but a habit of leaning upon Christ, a drawing out of His fulness, a constant commitment of ourselves to Him as the Lord our strength, who alone can perfect it in our Aveakness, and make His grace sufficient for us. " May He draw you more and more towards Him, and may VOL. II. I 98 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1817. you grow every day in a more perfect resemblance to all those virtues wliicli adorned His character. " With best compliments to Mr. Smith, in which Mrs. Chalmers joins, believe me, my dear Madam, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers." The three travellers met again in London on the evening of Tuesday the 13th May. On the following day Dr. Chalmers preached, in Surrey Chapel, the anniversary sermon for the London Missionary Society. Although the service did not commence till eleven o'clock, " at seven in the morning the chapel was crowded to excess, and many thousands went off for want of room." The two front seats in the gallery were reseiTod for ministers and students of theology to the number of between two and three hundred. An occupant* of one of these seats informs us, that " on the tennination of the Church service, and after an extempore prayer by Dr. KoUock from America, Dr. Chalmers entered the pulpit in his usual simjile and unpretending manner, and sat down, w^hile all eyes were fixed upon him. He rose and gave out his text from 1 Cor. xiv. 22-25. The singularity of the text and the origin- ality of the exordium awakened a breathless attention, which was increased by the northcni accent of the preacher, and the apparent weakness or unmanageableness of his voice. The late Dr. Styles of Brighton, and Dr. Heniy Burder of London, who were sitting directly before me, looked at each other with anxiety and regret, as if doomed to disappointment ; but he had not proceeded many minutes till his voice gradually expanded in strength and compass, reaching eveiy part of the house, and commanding universal attention. At the close of many of his long and well-turned periods there was a sensible * The Rev. Mr. Lothian of the Independent Church, St. Andre'ws, at that time a student in one of the Dissenting Colleges of the metropolis. JF.T. 37. MISSIONARY SERMON IN SURREY CHAPEL. 99 rustling tliroughout the audience, as if stopping to take breath. Towards the middle of the discourse the preacher became quite exhausted by the violence of his action, and sat down while two verses of a hymn were singing, accompanied as usual hj the organ. He then rose and recommenced his sennon, which oc- cupied about an hour and a half in the deliveiy. Old Rowland Hill stood the whole time at the foot of the pulpit, gazing on the preacher with great earnestness, and whenever any senti- ment was uttered which met his approval, signifying his assent by a gentle nod of the head, and an expressive smile." On re- turning from this exciting scene, Mr. Smith sat down to infonn his friends in Glasgow of the result : — " I write under the ner- vousness 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 be- fore the Missionary Society. All my expectations were over- whelmed in the triumph of it. Nothing from the Tron pulpit ever exceeded it, nor did he ever more arrest and wondci-work his auditors. I had a full view of the whole place. The cany- ing forward of minds never was so visible to me : a constant assent of the head from the whole people accompanied all his paragraphs, and the breathlessness of expectation permitted not the beating of a heart to agitate the stillness." On Tuesday the 20th, Mr. Smith snatched again a few minutes for his friends in the North : — " Since I wrote last we have been in great bustle. On Thursday evening we were introduced at the meeting of the Royal Society, where we saw all the most dis- tinguished philosophers of the nation. On Friday evening we were in the House of Peers during the debate on the Catholic Question. The House was veiy numerously attended. On Saturday Dr. Chalmers and I, with Dr. Mason of New York, went to Cambridge — Mrs. Chalmers remaining at Walworth with Dr. Chalmers's brother's family. Our Cambridge expedi- 100 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHAI^MERS. 1817. tion passed over most hapjDilj. All honour was showered on the Doctor. In eveiy particular w^e were highly gratified. The agitation here on account of Dr. Chalmers is quite unprece- dented. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Sidmouth, Lord Melville, and others, have desired to be introduced to him. At present he is off to the Chancellor, and we have just had a message from the Lord Mayor, telling us of his intention to call here to-day." On Wednesday the 21st, Dr. Chalmers attended the anniver- saiy dinner of the London Correspondent Board of the Society in Scotland for propagating Christian knowledge in the High- lands and Islands of Scotland. In reply to a toast given by the Hev. Henry Wliite, Rector of All Hallows, London, in which his own name Avas coupled with that of the Church of Scotland, Dr. Chalmers, after eulogizing the Scottish system of education, which he described as his countiy's " cheap de- fence," referred with admiration and delight to the symptoms then shewing themselves of approximation between the Churches of England and Scotland. He closed by proposing as a toast, " The Rev. Sir Robert Pratt and the Church of England." On Thursday the 22d, Dr. Chalmers preached again in Surrey Chapel on behalf of the Scottish Hospital for the relief of aged and destitute natives of Scotland, who never having acquired a settlement in England, had no claim for parochial aid. In announcing this discourse in the newspapers, the Committee of the Hospital had thought it desirable to make the following intimation : — " Divine Service begins at eleven o'clock, but the Committee having issued tickets to a part of the Church, for the better securing of accommodation to the friends of the charity, it is requested that those holding tickets may be at the chapel at the oiDoning of the doors, at half-past nine o'clock, to prevent disappointment." The semion preached ^T. 37. SERMON FOR THE HIBERNIAN SOCIETY. 101 for this Hospital was the same which Dr. Chalmers had delivered before the Society of the Sons of the Clergy in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The growing evils of the Poor-laws, as then ad- ministered in England, were attracting much of the attention of public men ; and while they were only planning methods for mitigating these evils, it must have surprised a London audience not a little to hear from the pulpit a bold and un- compromising attack on the principle and expediency of all forms of legalized charity. Upon the Saturday which followed the deliveiy of this discourse, Mr. Smith writes — " The Doctor has come off with great eclat. Sir James Mackintosh, Lord Elgin, and all the literati, were at the Church on Thursday last. To-morrow will be a day of much expectation." On the forenoon of Sabbath the 25th, Dr. Chalmers preached in the Scotch Church, London Wall, for the benefit of the Hibernian Society. " The desire," says the Rev. Dr. Manuel, who at that time was minister of this church, " felt b}^ all classes, but particularly by the higher classes of society, to hear him upon this occasion, was extreme, exceeding almost all pre- cedent.* Among his auditors were a number of the most dis- tinguished clergy of the Church of England, several Peers, many members of Parliament, the Lord Mayor of the city, and literary characters of all classes and denominations. An- ticipating the pressure, a large chapel in the neighbourhood * Amid all this excitement, wliich of course would be greatest among Dr. Chalmers's own countrymen, there was at least one Scotchman in London who continued quite unmoved. His own brother James never once went to hear him preach. lie could not escape, however, hearing much about him, for the stir created had penetrated even into his daily haunt, the Jerusalem Coffee-house. "Well," said one of his merchant friends to him one day, wholly ignorant of his relationship, " have you heard this wonderful counti-yman and namesake of yours ?" " Yes," said James, somewhat drily, " I have heard him." " And what did you think of him ? " " Very little indeed," was the reply. " Dear me ! " said the astonished inquirer ; " ichen did you hear him ?" " About half an hour after he was born." 102 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1817. was engaged to receive the overflow. Not only the Scotch Church, but this chapel also was crammed to suffocation, hun- dreds seeking admission, but going away without getting into either place of worship. * * * At the close of the semion the Lord Mayor went up into the pulpit, and importuned Dr. Chalmers to preach on behalf of some city object, which he was obliged to decline." " All the world," writes Mr. Wilber- force in his Diaiy, " wild about Dr. Chalmers. He seems truly pious, simple, and unassuming. Sunday, 2oth. — Oif early with Canning, Huskisson, and Lord Binning, to the Scotch Church, London Wall, to hear Dr. Chalmers. Vast crowds. Bobus Smith, Lords Elgin, Harrowby, &c. I was surprised to see how greatly Canning was affected ; at times he was quite melted into tears." The passage which most affected him was at the close of the discourse.* He is reported to have said, that although at first he felt uneasy in consequence of Dr. Chalmers's manner and accent, yet that he had never been so arrested by any oratory. " The tartan," so runs the speech attributed to him, " beats us all." On the afternoon of the same Sabbath Dr. Chalmers preached for the Rev. Dr. Nicol, minister of the Scotch Church, Swallow Street. The crowd here had nearly lost its object by the very vehemence of its pursuit. On approaching the church Dr. Chalmers and a friend found so dense a mass within and before the building as to give no hope of effecting an entrance by the mere force of ordinaiy pressure. Lifting his cane and gently tapi^ing the heads of those who were in advance. Dr. Chalmers's friend exclaimed, " Make way there — make way for Dr. Chal- mers." Heads indeed were turned at the summons, and looks were given, but with not a few significant tokens of incredulity, * " Mr. Canning was present at the sermon preached for the Hibernian Society. The beautiful passage on the Irish character affected him to tears. 1 saw it my- self."— Letter /rum the Countess Doicagcr El