S>*^^: wm WN W^r^m i»y\ T ^>-i'^^. "Y p ^^r: ;'^r^^^ - A ;=2SS>T5S .^J3>:;^ 5V5 :>a>3]> LIBRARY OF THK Theological Seminary PRINCETON, N.J. BX 9225 .C4 H26 1851 v. 4 Hanna, William, 1808-1882 Memoirs of the life and writings of Thomas v.-t-- ^'^ysss^ mm Z£fJ 1) ^7*^'' 5# /O' riauiiets D 188 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840. her existence, powers, and privileges directly from Christ, hav- ing the rule of her procedure in His Word, for the faithful following of which rule, and the preservation of her allegiance to her great Head, she must be free from all foreign control. She owed it to the peculiarity of her birth — she owed it to the circumstances of her earlier years, that she only, of all the Churches of the Reformation, was called upon to search thoroughly into the principles upon which a pure connection between the Church and the State can alone be established ; and among all the children of the Preformation this was her distinction and her glory, that, walking hand in hand with the secular authorities, she had kept herself, in principle at least, if not always in practice, pure and clean. It was no false alarm which visited the heart of Dr. Chalmers when at the Bar and from the Bench he heard the Church of Scotland pronounced to be a creature of the State, and the civil supremacy over her actings so unhesi- tatingly and unlimitedly affirmed. That alarm was height- ened when, for the discharge of a purely spiritual act, a Pres- bytery was summoned to the bar of the Civil Court and re- buked ; and it received a full confirmation when the preach- ing of the Word and the administering of sacraments was prohibited in a whole district of the land. At an early stage of the conflict the paramount importance of the question as to the Church's spiritual jurisdiction revealed itself to his eye. It was when exercised in defense of the privileges of the people, that this jurisdiction had been in the first in- stance assailed, and the two topics of Non-Intrusion and spiritual independence had come thus to be implicated to- gether. He was most anxious to distinguish and keep them separate, that its proper place and its own right rela- tive importance might be assigned to each. In principle he was opposed to all violent settlements, as hurtful to the efficacy of the Christian ministry, and prejudicial to the in- terests of true religion. In no circumstances, and under no force of compulsion would he ever have taken part or given ^T. 60. SPIRITUAL INDEPENDENCE. 189 any sanction to such an ordination as that of Mr. Edwards in the parish of Marnoch ; but he was fully aware, not- withstanding, that the ideas prevalent in Scotland as to the nature of the pastoral relationship, and as to the conditions under which the Church should establish it, were to some extent peculiar to his country, and that what might be ruin- ous to the interests of rehgion there, might not have the same effect elsewhere, and that the obligations, therefore, resting upon the Church of Scotland might not rest equally upon all other churches in all other circumstances. It was different with the other principle brought now into jeopardy. In his estimate it was a broad, a general, a universal truth, free from all accidents of place and time — a truth for all ages, and all countries, and all churches — that however placed to- ward, and however indebted to the civil power, the Church of Christ, while giving her services, should never part with her liberties — while receiving State support, should never submit to State control, save in the disposal of the State's emoluments. It was the depth of this conviction which, when Lord Aberdeen, in a letter dated January, 1840, re- ferred to the " contempt and disobedience of the law" of which the Church, as he imagined, had been guilty, led Dr. Chalmers, in reply, to say — " I am quite sensible that the principles of our controversy are grievously misunder- stood. The truth is, they have lain dormant for a century and a half, because they have never, during the whole of that period, been called forth by any disturbing force into exercise or manifestation ; and so, excepting by ecclesiastics, they have been well-nigh forgotten. They are not, how- ever, on that account less deeply seated in our own convic- tions, or less palpably, as we think, deponed to in the Word of God. They were once familiar even to the lay mind of almost the whole of Scotland, and we are sensible of a daily increasing number, now that public attention is turned to the question, who are beginning to perceive the sacredness of the principle that there are certain matters on which a Christian 190 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840. Church should be left untouched to its own power of inter- nal regulation. If there be one assertion which I feel ray- self warranted to make with greater confidence than another, it is, that we have not rebelled, and that we have kept re- ligiously within the limits of that ground on which the civil power ought to make no invasion. It is my profound feel- ing that the violence and illegality charged upon us are all chargeable upon the Court of Session, and that we have ac- quitted ourselves with the most exemplary moderation in the whole of this affair. In strict ecclesiastical propriety, the Strathbogie ministers, instead of being suspended, should have been deposed, and I fear will be deposed by next As- sembly in consequence of their disobedience, if not anticipated by a final settlement of the question." It was the same profound conviction which led him, in opening the debate on Lord Aberdeen's Bill in the General Assembly, to speak as follows : " Now, Sir, looking on this part of our case, keeping a steadfast eye on the question of our spiritual independence, and putting out of view for a moment the question of Non-In- trusion altogether, there are many, I trust very many, who think variously on the law of patronage and its modifications, and yet would harmonize and enter into one conjunct and firm phalanx for the vindication of our Church's outraged privileges ; and if ever there was a crisis in our history — ever a period of those manifold and sore controversies, among which from infancy our Church has been cradled, when courage and consistency have been more called for, it is the day on which we have now fallen — when the poison of false and hollow principle is undermining our strength from within, and thousands of our deadliest enemies from without are on the tiptoe of high expectancy for a coming overthrow. Sir, it is a leading principle of our Presbyterian constitution, that there is a distinct government in the Church, which the State of course must approve ere it confers upon us its own temporalities ; or, in other words, that we have as uncon- JET. 60. DEBATE ON LORD ABERDEEN'S BILL. 191 trolled a management of our own proper affairs as if we re- ceived not one farthing out of the national treasury ; that when in the act of becoming an Establishment, we, in the brief and emphatic deliverance of my friend Mr. Gray, ' gave them our services but not our liberties,' getting at their hands a maintenance for our clergy, and engaging in return for the Christian education of the people ; a conjunction, we think, fruitful of innumerable blessings both to the Church and to society, but in which the value given is many hundred-fold greater than the value received. Still, if the State be not satisfied with the bargain, they can at any time give us up. If, over and above our services in things spiritual, they must also have our submission in things spiritual, in these we have another Master, to whom, and to whom alone, we are re- sponsible ; and we utterly repudiate, as we should an accursed thing, the sacrilegious bribe that would tempt us from an allegiance to Him ; for that in these things He has the sole and undivided mastery, is a principle which lies at the very foundation of the Church of Scotland ; and on her giving up this, as by the loosening of a corner or a key-stone, the whole fabric will tumble into ruins. The establishment of this, as the principle of our Church, is the peculiar glory of Scot- land, the fruit of a hard-won victory, after the struggles and the persecutions of more than a hundred years. A principle which has cost us so much we are not now willing to let go ; and if the State will insist on our surrender of it, or the for- feiture of our endowments, we are willing to try the experi- ment, and to brave the same cost over again. It is a prin- ciple. Sir, that we have not forgotten, though it has been re- nounced by a few declarationists among ourselves, and though it has faded away from the recollections and the feelings of general society, like an old charter which might slumber in its repositories for generations, while its articles remain un- broken, but which the rude hand of violence will recall from its oblivion, and, quickening it anew into vigor and vitality, will bring back, as if by resurrection, on the face and to the 192 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840. observation of the world. It is even so with the grand, the fundamental principle of our Church — its own inherent lib- erty in things ecclesiastical — familiar as household words, Bishop Burnet tells us, even to the humblest of our peasantry, but which, suffered to lie quiet for a century and a half, be- cause let alone, had ceased at one time to be spoken of, and so fallen away from the memory, even from the understand- ings, of men. From 1688 to 1838 — from the time of the Revolution settlement to the time when the Court of Ses- sion gave forth its interdict against the Presbytery of Dunkeld in the case of Lethendy — no civil power ever attempted to interfere with the steps of our ecclesiastical procedure, or to meddle with our Establishment in aught but the temporalities which belong to her. It was the disturbance given then which has aroused the Church, and will at length arouse the nation, from its dormancy. It threw us back on the first elements of a question, which, from the days of our great- grandfathers, had been settled and set by. When conjured up again, it sounded like an antique paradox on many an ear ; but minds are gradually opening to the truth and sacred- ness of our great principle, and we doubt not that the very agitations of this controversial period have flashed it more vividly and convincingly on the understandings of men than heretofore. Our ark is now in the midst of conflicting bil- lows, but so that its flag is all the more unfurled by the storm which has raised them ; and the inscription there, now spread forth and expanded in the gale, is making the motto of our Establishment patent to all eyes, that ' the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Head of the Church of Scotland.' Sir, we have nailed this color to the mast, and will keep by it in all its fortunes, whether of tempest or of sunshine, through which the winds of heaven may carry it. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only Head of the Church of Scotland ; that is the watchword of the party with whom I act ; and is there none on the other side of the House to reiterate the cry? Yes, many, very many, perhaps all. And does not this ■tv iET. 60. POSITION OF THE MODERATES. 193 justify the distinction of treatment that we are now making between the two questions of spiritual independence and of the Veto Law ? And the only other distinction I would press in the opposite quarter, from which we have now heard a response so cheering, is that which obtains between a de- claratory and an effective proposition. You nobly join us in the declaratory ; will you join us in the effective ? I have the proud confidence that a goodly number of you will ; and furthermore, that you will assert by deeds as well as words, the great principle on which we stand. We may break into a thousand differences on the Veto Law ; of the sacred lib- erties of our Church there will be no surrender." There were strong grounds for this appeal to the Moderate party in the Church. Between them and their evangelical brethren there were many differences on questions of ecclesi- astical policy, but as yet there had been no difference as to the Church's spiritual independence. It might be difficult to convince politicians — doubly difficult to convince those who, born and educated in England, had imbibed the An- glican ideas as to the relationship between Church and State ; but could there be any difficulty in convincing Scottish cler- gymen, acquainted with the past struggles and victories of their Church, that resistance to the recent interferences of the Court of Session was constitutional and valid ? When the Lethendy interdict was issued it was condemned by an al- most unanimous Commission. When the last Strathbogie interdict was issued, the Presbytery of Edinburgh, without a dissentient voice, disapproved of it. The Moderates dis- liked the introduction of the popular element into the Church, conceiving that it served to vitiate its character. Leaving the majority, however, to fight their own battle of Non-In- trusion— a battle in which they could give no help — it would have been consistent with all their former principles and practice, it would have been a wise and generous policy for them to pursue, had they joined in the conflict for the pro- tection of the Church's spiritual liberties. With a minority VOL. IV. — I 194 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840. Banctioning the procedure of the Civil Courts, and with the hope held out that the majority would finally break down, the British Parliament might feel free to take its own course. But if the Church had presented an unbroken front of resist- ance, her liberties had been saved. Even after the Moderate party had come to think that the Civil Courts were in the right, and the Church was in the wrong, there was one weighty consideration by which their procedure might have been affected. Let the liberty now asserted as belonging by birthright to the Church be conceded to her, their position remained unchanged ; let it be refused, and the evangelical majority must either renounce their principles or withdraw from the Establishment. The Moderates would have de- served well of their Church and country if they had with- held their hand from helping to precipitate such a crisis. It had been a deed of highest patriotism, if, to avert it, they had sacrificed the immediate hope of regaining a lost ascendency. But they decided otherwise. The course which they had resolved to follow was suf- ficiently indicated when the case of the Strathbogie ministers came before the General Assembly of this year. The first step taken by the Assembly, in dealing with these clergy- men, was to appoint a Committee to hold a private confer- ence with them. This Committee, while reporting in the strongest terms as to the kindly and Christian spirit which their brethren had manifested in the course of this confer- ence, had yet the painful duty to announce that they would neither confess to past error, nor give assurance of future submission to the Church's judicatories. The Assembly, in consequence of this, resolved that the sentence of suspension should be continued ; that these clergymen should be cited to appear personally before the Commission in August ; that, if they continued contumacious, they should then be served with a libel, with a view to deposition ; but that the Com- mission should proceed no farther than to make the case ready for the decision of the next General Assembly. The iET. 60. THE MODERATE ASSOCIATION. 195 final sentence was deferred thus for a year, in the course of which it was hoped that some event might occur which would remove the necessity of passing it. In opposition to the motion which became the judgment of the Church, Dr. Cook, followed by all his party, moved, that as the Commis- sion had exceeded its powers, its sentence of suspension and all proceedings connected therewith, should be held null and void. When the competency of the Commission was affirm- ed, he then moved again, that as these clergymen had done nothing that was censurable, the sentence should be removed, and they be at once restored to the full exercise of their ministry. It was not, however, till their reasons of dissent from the final judgment of the Court were laid upon the table, that it was known how far the Moderate party were now prepared to go. These reasons not only affirmed that the conduct of the seven ministers, in taking their orders from the civil, rather than from the ecclesiastical court, was " con- formable to the clearest principles of reason, and the express injunctions of Scripture," but that, in the judgment of the dissentients, the sentence passed upon them was unconstitu- tional, illegal, and invahd." Let but one step more be taken ; let the dissentients act upon the opinion thus ex- pressed, by holding ministerial communion with these clergy- men, and the Church would have been forced to deal with them all as she had dealt with the seven. The bold measure of forcing this alternative at once upon the Church appears to have been contemplated. " If no steps are taken," said Lord Aberdeen, on the 16th of June, in moving the second reading of his Bill, " for the settlement of this question be- fore the month of August a great and lamentable schism will take place in the Church, for a large body of ministers will then announce their intention not to obey the orders of the Assembly." A few days after this information was given to the House of Lords, a private circular, signed by Dr. Cook and others, was sent among their friends, inviting them to form an association, based upon the reasons of dissent 196 iMEMOIRS OF DR. CHALiMERS. 1840. already alluded to, and requesting that a general meeting, for the purpose of maturing the plans of this association, should be held in Edinburgh on the morning of the 12th August, the very day on which the Commission was to meet. They were emboldened to take strong steps, by the strong support of that great party into whose hands it was now evident that the ruling power of the State was speedily to pass. More than three-fourths of the evangelical clergymen of the Establish- ment were at this time Conservatives — the Conservatism of many of them due to the unfriendly, or, as they thought, hostile policy of the Whigs in relation to the ecclesiastical establish- ments of the empire, and to the strong assurances which they were in every way encouraged to cherish, that from their po- litical opponents they would experience a steady and generous friendship. If Dr. Chalmers was not thrown into any close connection with the leaders of that party, his intercourse with them, such as it was, was fitted certainly to generate the hope that the evangelical interest, which he represented, would experience no hostile treatment at their hands. But, from the time that Lord Aberdeen's Bill was rejected, the political friendship of the Conservatives was withdrawn from his party in the Church. Lord Aberdeen, to whom the conduct of the Scotch Church question in Parliament was committed by his political associates, appears at first to have recoiled into irritation and antipathy. Even after the ver- dict of the General Assembly had been delivered, he carried the second reading of his Bill by a large majority in the House of Lords ; and when presenting a petition from the Strathbogie ministers, a few days afterward, he took occasion to tell the House, that "the fact was that the General As- sembly was governed by a few ambitious lawyers, and he had no doubt if the measure to which he alluded (his own Bill) were allowed to pass, that the great body of the clergy would acquiesce in its provisions" — that is, that they would act otherwise than they had voted. And when, on the 1 0th July, he finally withdrew his Bill, he was at pains to say, MT. 60. SPEECH OF SIR ROBERT PEEL. 197 that it was not because of the objections taken to it by the General Assembly, but because of the opposition of the Gov- ernment, that he had not pressed it further. He expressed, at the same time, in the strongest terms, his sympathy with the seven ministers of Strathbogie, whose case he stated at some length to the House — their conduct in obeying the Court of Session he highly applauded — and so severe was his censure of those who had violated the interdicts forbid- ding them to preach, that he went even the length of say- ing, that " there were some of the intruders that he should not object to see imprisoned." Sir Robert Peel, if not so severe, was scarcely less explicit. On the 27th July, on a vote for defraying the expense of building a new hall for the General Assembly, he took the opportunity of giving the first public expression of his judgment. It was calm and dig- nified, but authoritative and dictatorial. " He regretted that the Church of Scotland had placed itself in opposition to the State," and " had not felt the pre-eminent obligation of set- ting an example to all the subjects of Her Majesty in Scot- land of paying implicit deference to the law." He was ex- ceedingly sorry that the Bill introduced into the House of Lords was not to receive the sanction of the Legislature. If it had come to that House of Parliament it should have had his cordial support. He could conceive that bills might pass the House introducing more of the principle of popular elec- tion into the choice of ministers — he could conceive that to be possible ; but he was quite certain that no bill contain- ing terms more favorable to ecclesiastical authority would ever pass. The spiritual authority now claimed by the Church of Scotland he believed to be unjust and illegal, and he would not for the purpose of conciliation give his support to it. He wished to say nothing that could at all prejudice a conciliatory settlement of this question ; but the best evi- dence he could offer to the Church of Scotland of his regard arid respect was to take this opportunity of inculcating upon its authorities a giving up of their personal feelings and a strict 198 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840. obedience to the law. This counsel was repeated in various forms, and the echo of it was still ringing in his ears, when Dr. Chalmers joined his brethren at the August meeting of the Commission. The rumors of an insubordination about to break into some wide display had drawn together such a number both of members and auditors that they had to ad- journ from the Assembly Hall to the Tron Church, and to that crowded audience Dr. Chalmers addressed these words : '•We must stand out against this series of aggressions thus rising in magnitude one above the other, else the most sacred of the Church's territories, the very innermost recesses of her sanctuary, will lie open to invasion and be trodden under foot. I know the obloquy which will be heaped upon us ; I have heard the odious names which are given to this resistance, and am prepared for them. If not an impartial public, at least an impartial posterity will judge aright be- tween us and our adversaries, and tell whether it is we who have been the rebels, or they who have been the persecutors. And here I may say one word in reference to those who express the hope — and I observe that Sir Robert Peel is among the number — that we shall give up our personal feel- ings and submit. What these personal feelings are, he has not specified, whether irritation or a false sense of honor — the pride of men who have committed themselves and gone too far to retract without shame and degradation. Never was an appeal made so utterly wide of the object to sensibil- ities which have no existence, or if they have, it is in so slight a degree that they are overshadowed by principles of such depth and height, and length and breadth, as to en- gross and occupy the whole man. These principles, whether comprehended or not by our adversaries, are the only moving forces that tell or have told on the proceedings of the General Assembly. The free jurisdiction of the Church in things spiritual — the Headship of Christ — the authority of His Bible as the great statute book, not to be lorded over by any power on earth — a deference to our own standards in all JET. 60. REPLY TO SIR ROBERT PEEL. 199 that is ecclesiastical — and what is more, a submission un- excepted and entire to the civil law in all that is civil ; — these are our principles — these, and not personal feelings, are what you ask us to give up, by giving in to those adversaries who have put forth an unhallowed hand upon them. And is there no room for a similar appeal being made to them ? Have thet/ no personal feelings in this matter — no feeling of ignominy in the anticipation of defeat — no feeling of triumph in the anticipation of victory — no mortification of disap- pointed vanity should their own battle-cry, ' that what firm- ness has done before it will do again,'* be rolled back by a resolute and unyielding Church on the head of her haughty persecutors ?" This sentence, falling with overpowering effect upon the audience, had scarce been uttered, when a member of the Court abruptly and impetuously called Dr. Chalmers to order. What the rock is to the rolling billow which breaks on it, this interruption was to that swelling tide of popular emotion which, rising high above it, burst into a tumultuous expression of approbation. For a few minutes the voice of no speaker could be heard. With recovered breath and re- animated enthusiasm .Dr. Chalmers continued his appeal. " Is there no inward chagrin among Parliamentary friends who now mourn over their own abortive attempts at legisla- tion ; and, let me add, is there no sense of offended dignity among the functionaries of the law, should it be found that law — no impossible thing, surely — has for once in 150 years gone beyond its sphere ? Which of these two rival elements, we ask, in all conscience and equity, ought to give way ? whether the feelings of men who, free from all hazard, lose nothing, in whatever way the contest is terminated, or the principles of men who risk their all for these principles, and who though many of them now in the winter of life, will, rather than abandon them, brave the prospect of being driven from their comfortable homes, and cast with their * The phrase used by the Dean of Faculty in his pamphlet. 200 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 184C. helpless and houseless families on the wide world ? I ask, is it well for Sir Robert, from his elevated station and seat of silken security, to deal forth such a lesson to the Church and the people of Scotland ; and while he spares the patri- cian, the lordly feelings, of all in rank or in office who have leagued to bear us down, to make no allowance for the con- sciences of men who, though humble in condition yet high in sentiment, are, like their fathers before them, prepared to re- nounce all for the integrity of that Church which is at once the glory and the bulwark of our nation ?" CHAPTER XII. PUBLICATION OF DR. ALISON'S PAMPHLET ON THE AD- MINISTRATION OF THE POOR-LAWS IN SCOTLAND— DR. CHALMERS'S EFFORTS TO NEUTRALIZE THE EF- FECTS OF THIS PUBLICATION— DISCUSSION AT THE MEETING OF THE BRITISH SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION HELD AT GLASGOW, IN SEPTEMBER, 1840— PUBLICA- TION OF A VOLUME ON "THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM WITHOUT A POOR-RATE FOR THE RIGHT MANAGEMENT OF THE POOR"— CORRESPON- DENCE WITH MR. THOMAS CARLYLE AND PROFES- SOR DUNCAN— LECTURES TO THE MECHANICS OF GREENOCK ON THE LAWS AND PHENOMENA OF HEAT. Dr. Chalmers's attention was now for a time diverted from this harassing warfare of the Church to a subject which, at an earlier period, had engrossed his thoughts. That great change in the administration of the Scottish Poor-Laws which took place in 1844, sprung from the pub- lication, in 1840, of a pamphlet by Dr. Alison. It may be doubted whether any similar production was ever followed by like speedy, extensive, and permanent effects. It owed much of its power to the simple, manly, earnest, and devoted philanthropy of its author. By accurate and well-digested statistical details, he fixed in the public memory the fact that Glasgow and Edinburgh exhibited a higher rate of mortality that any of the great towns in England or on the Continent. The fearful ravages of fever and other epidemics he attributed to the squalor and poverty prevalent in those wretched abodes whose inmates were hurried in hundreds to a premature grave. The extreme destitution suffered in so many instances to exist, without any attempt to relieve it, was faithfully delineated, while, in a tone the most fitted to make it felt, the startling announcement was made, that the I* 202 MEiMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840. " higher ranks in Scotland do much less for the relief of poverty, and of sufferings resulting from it, than those of any other country in Europe which is really well regulated." As the only effective remedy for all the evils which he had so patiently investigated, and so impressively exposed, Dr. Alison proposed that assessments for the poor should he levied uniformly and universally over the country ; that the amount raised in this way should be increased from £l50,- 000 to about £800,000 annually; and that a portion of these funds should be applied to the relief of indigence arising from want of employment. A general and generous, though, in Dr. Chalmers's judgment, a hasty and thoughtless response, was given to Dr. Alison's appeal. A demand was made for an investigation, to be conducted by public author- ity, with a view to demonstrate the failure of the existing system, and the necessity for the proposed alterations. A vigorous association was formed for the purpose of carrying out these views, and in a few years they were embodied in an act of the Legislature. In 1834, the English Commis- sioners, upon whose Report the Poor-Law Amendment Bill was founded, had eulogized the " admirable practice" of the Scottish system, and had pointed to Scotland as " that part of the United Kingdom where the local management and maintenance of the poor has been best conducted :" in 1840, Scotchmen became enamored of the " admirable practice" which prevailed across the Border, and allowed themselves to be convinced that their country was that part of the United Kingdom in which the management of the poor was worst conducted. Dr. Chalmers had labored long and earnestly to give a directly opposite tendency to the current of public opinion, not without considerable success ; and it was not to be expected that he should witness such a sudden revulsion of the public sentiment without an attempt to check it. The meeting of the " British Association" at Glasgow, in September, 1840, afforded him an opportunity of bringing forward his own views and proposals, in opposition to those ^T.CO. LETTER TO THOMAS GARLYLi:. 203 of Dr. Alison. It was an open stage, on which they mi^ht fairly meet and subject their differences to amicable discussion ISO lack of public interest was manifested. When the day arrived on which the topic was to be discussed, the room in which the Statistical section of the Association ordinarily assembled was found too small, and an adjournment took place to an adjoining church. Nothing new, however, was added to what had already been brought before the public ■ and the discussion terminated without any effective check being put upon the Edinburgh movement. Unsatisfied with the result, Dr. Chalmers resolved to make a final effort to set forth the sufficiency of the parochial system without a poor-rate for the right management of the poor. This was done, in the first instance, in a series of occasional lectures, delivered to the students of Theology, during the session 1«40-41 ; and which soon after their delivery were embod- ied in a publication, forming the twenty-first volume of his works. Desirous to render this volume a complete and compendious exposition of the parochial system as the only effective remedy for pauperism, he brought together in the Appendix all those extracts from his former writings which bore most effectively on the subject. Dr. Chalmers sent a copy of this work to upwards of a hundred - public and parliamentary men," accompanying each copy with a letter from himself From the large bundle of these letters and their answers we select a single specimen. " BuR-VTiSLAXD, September 29th, 1841. ^ " My dear Sir — My immediate object in writing to you is to announce the liberty I have taken in sending you a copy of the work I have published the other day on Pauper- ism. I had read your « Chartism' with the greatest interest, and have endeavored, however feebly, to express my sense of its merits. My chief anxiety is for the insertion of a per- missive clause in the new Poor-Law Bill which might em- nower oarishes to commence the retracing process to the 204 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1640. better order of things without being fettered by the general provisions of the Bill. Could I obtain the concurrence of yourself and other literary and influential men of London in this view, it might go far in securing the object which I have had at heart, and for which I have now labored more than a quarter of a century. — I am, yours most truly, " To Thomas Cavlyle, Esq." " ThomAS ChaLMERS. "5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London, Oclober 11 th, 1841. " My deaPw Sir — The book you have honored me by send- ing, and the letter along with it, arrived here two days ago. Allow me to return many kind thanks for this attention. I am glad and proud to be remembered by one who is always memorable to me, and memorable to all the world, whether they have seen or have not seen him. " A wholesome, grateful air of hope, brotherly kindness, cheerful sagacity, salutes me from this book as I eagerly glance over it : to read it with care, as I purpose shortly to do, will bo no task for me, but a pleasure. One is sure beforehand of finding much, very much, that one must at once and zealously assent to ; and slower assent, doubt, examination, — nay, ul- timate dissent itself (turning only on the application and de- tails,) can but render a beautiful deeper basis of agreement more visible. It seems to me a great truth, this fundamental principle of yours, which I trace as the origin of all these hopes, endeavors, and convictions in regard to Pauperism, that human things can not stand on selfishness, mechanical utilities, economics, and law-courts ; that if there be not a rehgious element in the relations of men, such relations are miserable and doomed to ruin. A poor-law can be no lasting remedy ; the poor and the rich, when once the naked parts of their condition come into collision, can not long live together upon a poor-law I Solely as a sad transitionary palliative against still fiercer miseries and in^upportabilities can it pre- tend to recommend itself, till something better be vouchsafed us, with true healing under its wings I ^T. 60. LETTER FROM THOMAS CARLYLE. 205 " Alas ! the poor of this country seem to me, in these years, to be fast becoming the miserablest of all sorts of men. Black slaves in South Carolina, I do believe, deserve pity enough; but the Black is at least not stranded, cast ashore, from the stream of human interests, and left to perish there : he is con- nected with human interests, belongs to those above him, if only as a slave. Blacks too, I suppose, are cased in a benefi- cent wrappage of stupidity and insensibility : one pallid Paisley weaver, with the sight of his famishing children round him, with the memory of his decent independent father before him, has probably more wretchedness in his single heart than a hundred Blacks. Did you observe the late trial at Stockport, in Cheshire, of a human father and human mother, for poison- ing three of their children, to gain successively some £3. 8s. from a Burial Society for each of them I A barrister of my acquaintance, who goes that circuit, informs me positively that the official people durst not go farther into this business ; that this case was by no means a solitary one there ; that, on the whole, they thought it good to close up the matter swiftly again from the light of day, and investigate it no deeper. ' The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children !' Such a state of matters can not subsist under the firmament of Heaven : such a state of matters will remedy itself, as God lives — remedy itself, if not by mild means, then by fierce and fiercest I " That you, with your generous hopeful heart, believe there may still exist in our actual Churches enough of divine fire to awaken the supine rich and the degraded poor, and act victo- riously against such a mass of pressing and ever-accumulating evils — alas ! what worse could be said of this by the bitterest opponent of it, than that it is a noble hoping against hope, a noble strenuous determination to gather from the dry de- ciduous tree what the green alone could yield ? Surely, for those that have still such a faith, I will vote that they should have all possible room to try it in. With a Chalmers in every British parish, much might be possible ! But, alas I what as- 206 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840. surance is there that in any one British parish there will ever be another ? " But enough of this. Go as it may, your labors in this matter are not lost — no jot of them is lost. Nay, in one shape or another, as I believe, the thing that you advocate must verily realize itself in this earth — across what famines, poor- laws, convulsions, and embroiled strugglings, is not known to man. My prayer is, that a voice so humane, so true and wise, may long be heard in this debate, and attentively laid to heart on all sides. "With many kind wishes for you and yours, with lasting esteem and regard, I remain, my dear Sir, yours most sin- cerely, Thomas Carlyle." Neither, however, did the publication of Dr. Chalmers's volume avail to arrest the recent Scottish movement. Public sympathy had been fairly roused, and when once roused it is impatient of inaction. Two remedies were presented to it — the moral and the pecuniary. The one, slow in operation, and relying upon influences the efficacy of which men are not ready to appreciate ; the other offering an immediate, and, as it was affirmed, a satisfactory issue. The one was seized on which gave the quickest promise of success. With- out entering upon any estimate of their comparative merits, we may refer simply to the fact, that at this period (1840) there were 643 non-assessed, and 236 assessed parishes in Scot- land ; the non-assessed containing a population of 1 ,178,280, the assessed a population of 1,137,646 ; the annual expen- diture being, in the non-assessed, £48,769, 5s. 4d., in the assessed, £91,736, 16s. ; the number of paupers relative to the whole population being almost exactly the same in the two classes of parishes. Had the destitution of which Dr. Alison complained been due to the insufficient allowances afforded under the Scottish Poor-Law, the smaller the allow- ance the greater should have been the destitution. But ii. was precisely the reverse. Upon the same number of paupers MT. 60. LETTER TO MR. DUNCAN. 207 twice as much was expended in the assessed as in the non assessed parishes, and yet the destitution in the former was incalculably greater. It was, in fact, from the assessed parishes that almost all Dr. Alison's instances were drawn. Should not the fair conclusion from these facts be, that the size of the parish had more to do with the destitution than the amount of the assessment ? In two hundred assessed, there were as many people as in 600 unassessed ; and even that general average gave no correct idea of the overgrowth of population in the parishes where the deepest destitution was found. Had the Scottish ecclesiastical apparatus been but sufficiently extended, by opening up a thousand channels for the benevolence of the rich flowing in upon the necessities of the poor, it would have done as much at least as larger assessments have yet done, while rendering a service at the same time in the way of prevention which the rival system pretends not to furnish. Dr. Chalmers asked only £10,000 a year, and offered in return the gratuitous services of 200 clergymen and 1200 laymen to aid in the management of the poor. Had £50,000 been given he could have doubled the agency which the whole Establishment supplied. Every large and every over-populous parish could have been broken down into small districts, and putting aside all the higher blessings conveyed by the ministrations of the Gospel of peace to the rude and godless masses, there would have been less destitu- tion than now exists (for destitution to some extent, the des- titution springing from reckless extravagance and vice, will exist under any system) ; and yet Scotland pays now to sup- port her paupers upwards of £500,000 per annum. Professor Duncan of St. Andrews, to whom Dr. Chalmers had sent a copy of his volume on the Parochial Economy, suggested the objection that the system pursued in Glasgow had not been imitated elsewhere, and invited him to write a brief explanation on this point. With that playful freedom used always in addressing Mr. Duncan, Dr. Chalmers writes : 208 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840. " Edinburgh, October 27th, 1841. "My dear Sir — I am much disappointed with your letter. I write not in jest, but in sad and solemn earnest.* You grounded an objection to my system on the fact of its not being followed by others, which is to say, that after being satisfied with the scheme, when brought to the standard of reason and experience, as you profess in the present instance to have done, you will then refer to another standard — that is, the opinion of men blind and prejudiced ; or, in other words, after it has made full proof of its own absolute sound- ness, it must be rejected because it happens to be surrounded by a number of dunderheads. * * * * " Sabbath, December 12th, 1841. — The passage respecting Babel should not be without an humble and wholesome effect upon my spirit. I have been set en the erection of my Babel — on the establishment of at least two great objects, which, however right in themselves, become the mere idols of a fond and proud imagination, in as far as they are not prosecuted with a feeling of dependence upon God and a supreme desire after his glory. These two objects are the deliverance of our empire from pauperism and the establishment of an adequate m-achinery for the Christian and general instruction of our whole popu- lation. I am sure that in the advancement of these I have not taken God enough along with me, and trusted more to my own arguments and combinations among my fellows than to prayers. There has been no confounding of tongues to prevent a common understanding, so in- dispensable to that co-operation without which there can be no success, but without this miracle my views have been marvelously impeded by a diversity of opinions, as great as if it had been brought on by a diversity of language. The barriers in the way of access to other men's minds have been as obstinate and unyielding as if I had spoken to them in foreign speech ; and though I can not resign my convic- tions, I must now — and surely it is good to be so taught — I must now, under the experinjental sense of my own helplessness, acknowledge, with all humility, yet with hope in the efficacy of a blessing from on high still in reserve for the day of God's own appointed time, that except 'the Lord build the house the builders build in vain.' In thine own good time. Almighty Father, regenerate this earth, and gather its people into one happy harmonious family." — See Dr. Chalmers's HorcB SabbaticcB, vol. ii. pp. 17, 18. JET. 60. LECTURES AT GREENOCK. 209 " I have met with nothing that has made me so heartless and despairing since I read ' Alison on Population.' If he, a literary man, on the spot, with the thing before his eyes, and you, a literary man at a distance, with the thing set in true description before you, can still shut your eyes, not to the reasons but to the facts of the case — pray, where is my encouragement to writing any more about it, or for compos- ing that address which you, with such glaring incongruity, recommend to me ? I will write no more, and have had enough of vexation and annoyance in this weary struggle of a quarter of a centary to make me cease from men, and betake myself to some of those purer and higher regions of thought where the provocations of all further controversy with hasty and superficial thinkers will not reach me. I have no heart to speak and write the same things a thou- sand and one times. O that is wearisome, wearisome, weari- some I I am, my dear Sir, your dejected and disconsolate friend, " Thomas Chalmers." While at Glasgow during the meeting of the British Association in September, 1840, Dr. Chalmers had the privilege of being present and taking a prominent part at a dinner given by the friends of the Church to the Marquess of Breadalbane, the only Scottish Peer true from first to last, in sunshine and in storm, within and without the Establish- ment, to the principles of the Scottish Church. There was another engagement of old date which Dr. Chalmers took the opportunity of his stay in the west of Scotland to liquid- ate. The reader may remember, that when on his Church Extension tour in the autumn of 1838, he had visited Greenock. He was asked at that time by the president and managers of the Mechanics' Institute to deliver a lecture on education. He was so gratified by the request that he wrote the following reply : 210 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. J840 " GouRocK, September 8, 1838. " Dear Sir — It is with very great regret that I feel my- self compelled by circumstances to decline for the present the request by which you have honored me. You do me no more than justice when you count on the interest which 1 feel in every thing connected with the improvement and com- fort of our working-classes ; and had it not been for the weight and variety of engagements, which will occupy me, I fear, for many months to come, I should have instantly be- taken myself to the preparation, and that with a view to the delivery of such a lecture as you have done me the honor to propose. " I am the more gratified by your application for a public address on the subject of education, that I flatter myself you have made it in the knowledge, or at least with a pretty confident belief of my principles on this subject. The truth is, that I look upon no system of education as available for the wellbeing either of individuals or of society at large which is not based upon religion, and I deprecate the attempts which are now making to dissever the Christianity from the scholar- ship of our people ; so that while I rejoice in observing that the moral improvement of those who attend it is one great object of your Institution, I do so consistently with my firm persuasion that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most effi- cient and powerful of all moralizers. " On the other hand, let this principle be conceded to me, and let our primary or parish schools be protected and placed beyond the reach of the infidel or semi-infidel spirit of the times, and nothing would delight me more than the mul- tiplication and prosperity of well-conducted Mechanics' Insti- tutes all over the land. I have no sympathy whatever with those who would grudge our workmen and our common peo- ple the very highest scientific acquisitions which their taste, or their time, or their inclinations would lead them to realize ; for next to the salvation of their souls, I certainly say that the object of my fondest aspirations is the moral and intellec- MT. 60. LECTURES AT GREENOCK. 211 tual, and, as a sure consequence of this, the economical ad- vancement of the working-classes, the one object which of all others in the wide range of political speculation, is the one which should be dearest to the heart of every philanthro- pist and every true patriot. " Such being my views, you will understand the cordial interest I feel in the subject of your communication. I dare not undertake any additional extra work during the present, or even the whole of next summer ; but if beyond these pe- riods I am spared, and in circumstances for entering on such a walk of exertion, I hereby promise that I shall make a commencement with one, and should they allow me, I would, if able, like it better with two, three, or more lectures to the Mechanics of Greenock. " With my earnest prayers to the Giver of all blessings for the best and highest interests both of themselves and of their families, I entreat you to believe me, dear Sir, yours most respectfully and sincerely, Thomas Chalmers." The promise made in this letter was never forgotten, and on resolving to attend the British Association, he resolved at the same time to fulfill it. In preparation for this, after the bus- tle of the General Assembly of 1840 was over, and he had returned to Burntisland, he reverted to the studies of his youth, supplied himself with a small chemical apparatus, and to his own family and a few friends gave an evening series of familiar lectures on chemistry. Unsatisfied, however, with his own capabiUties to do full justice to the subject, he asked Dr. Anderson, Professor of Natural Philosophy in St. Andrews, to accompany him to Greenock. An unfortunate circumstance referred to in the following letter, had nearly disarranged all when on the eve of execution : — " Glasgow, 113 N. Montrose Street, Sept. 22, 1840. " Dear Sir — You are aware of the invitation given me two years ago by the Mechanics of Greenock, and of the 212 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840. promise made by myself that I should deliver in their hear- ing a lecture on education. " I have never lost sight of this engagement. I have cor- responded on the subject with your predecessor in office ; and my communications latterly have been more frequent as the time drew near for carrying the engagement into effect. It was at length settled that I should give my lecture on the evening of Monday the 28th, and that it should be followed up by a brief lectureship for some subsequent nights on the laws and phenomena of heat, as affording a specimen of one branch of education, at least — the education of science. For the better execution of this additional and extended part of the scheme, I have procured the invaluable assistance of my friend Dr. Anderson, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of St. Andrews, who is now in Glasgow, and has brought with him an apparatus, part of it obtained from En- gland, for the purpose of elucidating some of the most recent discoveries. In short, all M'as in a state of forwardness for the execution of our purposes, and we fixed on Saturday last for an interview with two of your own number, that we might arrange the details. " Meanwhile, on the Friday preceding — that is, on the 18th of this month, or four days ago — we were informed for the first time of another arrangement by a hand-bill from Greenock, which announces the opening of your Mechanics' Institution on Monday the 21st, under the auspices of the three following gentlemen, who are to address the meeting on subjects connected with the diffusion of knowledge and the improvement of mankind, viz., James Simpson, Esq., advo- cate, George Combe, Esq., and the Rev. Patrick Brewster; and all this previous only by a few days to my own lecture- ship, and which you have now been looking forward to for two years, on the subject of education. " I will not enter on the consideration here of the princi- ples of any of these gentlemen, though I have been told by others of a discrepancy so wide and palpable between their MT. 60. LECTURES AT GREENOCK. 213 views and my own, that the proposal of such an opening for your Institution, when looked to in all its circumstances, might be regarded by some in no other light than as a personal and practical insult to myself I will not entertain this feeling. Your own explanations of Saturday have led me to dismiss any idea of this kind from my thoughts. I will say further, that no provocation could ever have made me insensible to the obligation of my own promise. I feel it due to myself, provided the explanations I now give are previously acquies- ced in by the Mechanics, and laid before the public of your town, to do all I have undertaken to do ; and still more do I feel it due to the sacred cause of a Christian and Bible ed- ucation not to retire from the arena of its proposed advocacy, even though the most inveterate opponents of this cause, un- known to myself, and long subsequent to the task having been put into my hands, should have been invited to enter the field before me. " It has now become indispensable that I and the Mechan- ics, as well as the general community of Greenock, should understand each other. The object of my appearance among you will be to protest against any system which would disso- ciate religion from scholarship, and to offer in my prelimin- ary lecture the proofs and considerations on which I hold that, from the first dawnings of a conscience and understanding in children, they ought to be plied under the roof of their parents with the lessons of the Old and New Testament, and ought to be presented with the same lessons not only at church upon the Sundays, but in scriptural schools throughout the week. And though in the subsequent lectures to be given conjointly by Dr. Anderson and myself the time will be chiefly taken up with the demonstrations and experiments of natural science, this will not exclude my special oflEice, which shall be not only to point out the theology that might be educed from the glories of the Divine workmanship, but if possible to neutral- ize the mischief that flows from but a little learning, which, when unaccompanied with certain principles and considera- 214 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840. tions that I shall endeavor to urge upon my hearers, is in- deed a dangerous thing. I hold that this maxim of the poet admits of being disarmed, so as that even a little learning, instead of a dangerous, shall become a profitable thing, at once accordant with the modesty of true science, and with the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It shall be my as- siduous endeavor, if I come among you, to impress on the minds of those who shall honor me with their attendance the little proportion which all that is or can be known bears to all that in our present state must remain for ever unknown, so as if possible to convince you that with every footstep of growing knowledge there ought to be a growing humility — that best guarantee both for a sound philosophy and a sound faith. " May I beg that you will lay this communication before the members of your Committee previous to its appearance in the Greenock newspaper of Friday, after which, if no fresh obstacle be interposed, I shall find my way quite open to the place of delivery for my first lecture on the evening of Mon- day, when I hope to have a pacific and cordial meeting with you all. I have the honor to be, dear Sir, yours very truly, ** Thomas Chalmers. "Mr. Alex. Muir." A satisfactory explanation was offered, and Dr. Chalmers regarded the publication of his letter in one of the Greenock newspapers as sufficiently exonerating him from giving any sanction to the educational views held by his predecessors. Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Anderson lectured on alternate even- ings ; Dr. Chalmers's first lecture on the Education of Prin- ciple being delivered on Monday the 28th September; his second and third on the Laws and Phenomena of Heat on the Wednesday and Friday following. It was an occupation altogether to Dr. Chalmers's heart, and on his return to Ed- inburgh he wrote to the Pwev. Dr. Macfarlan, requesting him to supply some memorials of this visit. " It would complete," JET. 60. LIGHT AND DARKNESS. 215 he adds, " the record which I wish to preserve of a brief but very interesting passage of my journey through the world." He spent the Christmas hohdays of the following winter with the writer of these pages in the parish of Skirling in Peebles- shire. In the village schoolroom, to the inhabitants of a re- mote hamlet, and with the help of a much humbler apparatus, the lectures on heat were repeated ; nor have I ever seen him kindle into a truer enthusiasm than when, to that plain but intelligent audience, he illustrated the truth, that the wider man's knowledge becomes the deeper should be his humility ; for the more he knows the more he sees of what remains still unknown. Taking the board on which the village children learnt their lessons in arithmetic, he drew upon it a circle. " Let that circle," he said, " represent the extent or com- pass of a man's knowledge — the region of light which he has conquered and made his own out of the surrounding kingdom of darkness. Each point in this circumference represents a question about that which is beyond and without, to which the man finds that he can give no answer. Enlarge the circle, and you multiply the number of such points. The more, therefore, the man enlarges his circle of light, he sees but the more of the darkness that lies all around : the ivider the di- ameter of light, the larger the circumference of darkness'^ CHAPTER XIII. DR. CHALMERS'S REJECTION FROM THE CHAIR OF THE- OLOGY IN GLASGOW— NARRATIVE OF THE SETTLE- MENT AT MARNOCH— THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1841— THE DEPOSITION OF THE SEVEN SUSPENDED CLERGYMEN OF STRATHBOGIE— THE SERVING OF AN INDICTMENT ON THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY— DR. CANDLISH'S NOMINATION TO THE CHAIR OF BIBLICAL CRITICISM SUPERSEDED— PROPOSAL BY MR. SMITH OF GREENOCK— THE DUKE OF ARGYLL'S BILL— STATE- MENT TO THE GOVERNMENT BY THE MODERATE PARTY— MEETING OF THE COMMISSION IN AUGUST- FIRST PROSPECT OF THE DISRUPTION— FAILURE OF THE NEGOTIATIONS BY SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR. In August, 1840, the Chair of Theology in the University of Glasgow became vacant. Although Dr. Chalmers would not present himself as a candidate, it was understood that if elected he would accept this Chair. The choice lay with the Senatus, and it was imagined that they would seize eager- ly upon this opportunity of benefiting and adorning their Uni- versity. A rival, however, appeared upon the field ; a rival between whom and Dr. Chalmers, it was not pretended that any comparison as to literary or professional qualifications could be instituted. He had, however, this claim upon the sufirages of the electors — that while Dr. Chalmers had iden- tified himself with the evangelical movement, his opponent had been a consistent supporter of the Moderate party in the Church. As the day=* named for the election approached, a large share of public attention was fixed upon the result. The Times, and other leading London journals, warned the electors, in no measured terms, of the disgrace which they would incur, if, upon any such ground, the pre-eminent claims * 20th October, 1840. JET,m. THE GLASGOW ELECTION. 217 of Dr. Chalmers were set aside. Nevertheless, the electors rejected him ; the same University M'hich had refused the Chair of Logic to Edmund Burke, refusing that of Theology to Dr. Chalmers. There was one voter upon this occasion whose movements particularly attracted the public eye. Sir James Graham was at this time Lord Rector of the Uni- versity ; and in the eloquent eulogies of his inaugural ad- dress, to the illustrious names of Bacon, Newton, Locke, and Herschell, he had added that of Dr. Chalmers, as worthy of the high association. His office gave him a vote in the election, and he undertook a journey to Glasgow for the purpose of opposing Dr. Chalmers's appointment. Li ordinary circum- stances this had been less noticeable, as indeed there would have been little likelihood of its having occurred. As things stood, however, coupled with the recent appearances of Lord Aberdeen and Sir Robert Peel in the two Houses of Parlia- ment, it was a clear index of the extent to which the Mod- erate party in the Church might count upon Conservative support. Their knowledge of this may have encouraged the seven suspended ministers of Strathbogie to take their final step. Disregarding the citation of the General Assembly, and meet- ing each fresh judgment of the ecclesiastical tribunal by a nullifying edict obtained from the Civil Court, they had pro- ceeded to take Mr. Edwards upon trial, and had found him qualified. They hesitated, however, as to the act of ordina- tion. They had acted hitherto upon the decision of the Court that they were bound to disregard the dissent of the people, but as yet there had been no express order to ordain. Mr. Edwards supplied them with the authority under -which they expressed their willingness to act, by instituting an ac- tion, in which he craved the Court of Session to issue an or- der to that effect. The question of the competency of the Civil Court to interfere directly with spiritual acts, was here stript of all attendant or accessory considerations. It might review the proceedings of a Presbytery, and pass judgment VOL. IV.— K 218 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. upon their legality; it might declare, as it had done, that the rejection of a presentee, on the sole ground of the people's opposition, was contrary to statute. All this, however, might be done for no other purpose than to determine the destination of the benefice, and yet the Court might not have felt itself entitled to do what was now asked — give an authoritative direction to ordain. No doubt, however, was felt, no hesita- tion manifested by the majority of the Judges. Seven clergy- men, suspended by the Church — reponed by these Judges ; declared by the one authority to be incapable of performing any official act — recognized by the other authority as the one and only Presbytery of Strathbogie, were " decerned and ordained to receive and admit " Mr. Edwards as minister of Marnoch. This order having been received, these ministers proceeded with all due dispatch to execute it. The an- nouncement of their resolution to do so, fastened the public eye upon the scene of their operations. The populous parish of Marnoch forms part of Banffshire, lying in a secluded sit- uation along the banks of the Deveron. Its quiet and orderly inhabitants lived far from the great centres of political and religious agitation. Awake, however, to their own and their families' spiritual interests, they had taken the liveliest con- cern in those proceedings now about to be brought to so strange a close. Having done much and periled much for their protec- tion, the Church waited in intense anxiety to see how, in a po- sition so new and so peculiar, this people would comport them- selves. Thursday, the 21st January, 1841, was the day fixed for this extraordinary ordination. A heavy snow-gale had passed over the country, choking up the public roads, and covering the earth to the depth of two feet and upwards. Stormy, however, as Wednesday had been, and few more stormy days had been experienced for many years — deep as the snow lay on the face of the earth, and gathered as it was in large and almost impassable wreaths on every high-way and by-way in Banff and Aberdeenshire, early on Thursday morning little bands of men from all the neighboring parishes, /ET. 61. THE SETTLEMENT AT MARNOCH. 219 moving on in lines, the stoutest in advance breaking up a path for his companions who followed him, were seen wend- ing their way to the church of Marnoch. In two or three carriages drawn by four horses each, the clerical actors and their law-agents were conveyed to the same spot. A singu- lar assemblage was gathered there to greet their approach. Upon the trampled and slushy ground around the kirk, two thousand men were standing. The church doors were open- ed, and the church was instantly and densely filled — thick groups gathering about doors and windows, who could not obtain admittance. The lower part of the building was re- served for the parishioners, and the galleries for strangers. The court having been opened by prayer, the following dia- logue occurred. Mr. Murray, one of the elders of the parish. — " I wish to ask you by whose authority you have met here ?" The Rev. Mr. Thomson, of Keith, the Moderator of the Presbytery. — " By the authority of the National Church, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." Mr. Murray. — " Have you any proof to show that you came here by the authority of the National Church ?" Mr. Thomson. — " The meeting mpst be first constituted by the Clerk reading the minutes, and we shall then answer your question." All the necessary documents having been read, the Moder- ator remarked that they had one party at the bar, and asked if there were any other individuals who wished to appear as parties in the case. The question called up Mr. Murray, and the interrupted dialogue was resumed, the law-agents of the respective parties taking now a part in it. Mr. Murray. — " Came you here by the authority of the General Assembly ? I ask you that, before answering your question." Mr. Thomson. — " We will give any information to par- ties at the bar, but not to any other. Do you intend to sist yourself as a party at the bar ?" 220 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. Mr. Murray. — " No, Sir ; but at any rate I should first require to know by what authority you came here ?" Me.. Peterkin, of Edinburgh. — " It is utterly impossible that any person can be heard who does not appear as a party at the bar, and is entered on the minutes a party there." Mr. Duncan. — " As agent for the elders, heads of fam- ilies, and communicants of the parish of Marnoch, and par- ticularly for Mr. Murray, I put again the question, which has been as yet refused an answer. We can not appear as parlies at your bar, till we are convinced of your authority." Mr. Thomson. — " Although we do not admit the right of any party to question us on our authority for meeting here, yet I have no objection to say that we are here as the Pres- bytery of Strathbogie, a part of the National Church, as- sembled in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." Mr. Duncan. — •' Do you appear here by the authority of the General Assembly, or against its authority ?" Mr. Thomson. — " We are sent here as the Presbytery of Strathbogie, and under the protection of the law of the land." Mr. Duncan. — " Do you give me no reply to my ques- tion ?" Mr. Thomson. — " No, no." As the authority of the Presbytery was not recognized by the people, the only alternative left to Mr. Duncan was, as their agent, and in their name, to read two protests, the one signed by all the elders, and the other by four hundred and fifty communicants. In the first of these, the protesters, addressing themselves to the ministers, said, " It is with ex- treme pain and disappointment that your personal position as suspended ministers of the Church of Scotland precludes us from appearing before you to lodge objections against the set- tlement of Mr. Edwards, which have been prepared, and are ready to be substantiated before any competent Church Court. These objections we solemnly declare to be such, affecting as they do the qualifications, life, and doctrine of Mr. Edwards, as, in our opinion, to cause his deposition even JET. 61. THE SETTLEMENT AT MARNOCH. 221 if he were an ordained minister, and to preclude him from admission in his character of a Hcentiate claiming ordination as presentee to our parish. * * ^ We earnestly beg you to consider the above, and avoid the desecration of the ordinance of ordination ; but if you shall venture to disregard this re- presentation, we do solemnly, and as in the presence of the great Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ, repudiate and disown the pretended ordination of Mr. Edwards as minister of Marnoch. We deliberately declare, that if such proceedings could have any effect they must involve the most heinous guilt and fearful responsibility in reference to the dis- honor done to religion and the cruel injury to the spiritual interests of a united Christian consfregfation." " Having read the protest," we quote now the words of an eye-witness, " Mr. Duncan said, ' As agent for the elders, male heads of families, and communicants of Marnoch, I have now only to say, that they take no further part in these unconstitutional proceedings. They wait a better time and another court. They can have no further business here, and they will, I believe, all accompany me from the church, and leave you to force a minister on a parish against the people's will, but with scarcely one of the parishioners to witness the deed.' The people of Marnoch immediately arose from their seats in the body of the church : old men, with heads white as the snow that lay deep on their native hills, the middle-aged, and the young who were but rising into life. Gathering up their Bibles and Psalm-books, which in country churches often remain there for half a century, they left the church, once free to them and theirs, but now given up to the spoiler. They went out, many in tears and all in grief. No word of disrespect or reproach escaped their lips. They went away in the strong conviction that their cause was with the most Powerful, and that with Him rest- ed the redress of all their wrongs. Even those who sat in the pew — the only pew representing Intrusionisrn, were moved — they were awed. ' Will they all leave?' we heard 222 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. some of them whispering. Yes, they all left, never to re- turn."^ When they left the church, the people of Marnoch as- sembled in a snowy hollow, at the foot of the hill on which the church was built, and having listened to a short address from Mr. Duncan, in which he strongly urged that every thing should be done with order, unity, and peace, they separated, and, with a rare exercise of self-denial, retired to their different homes. The place left vacant by them in the church was immediately filled by a rush of strangers from without, and a disgraceful scene of riotous disorder ensued, which it required the presence of a magistrate to check. When peace had been restored the act of ordination was completed. It was an ordination altogether unparalleled in the history of the Church, performed by a Presbytery of sus- pended clergymen, on a Call by a single communicant, against the desire of the Patron, in face of the strenuous opposi- tion of a united Christian congregation, in opposition to the express injunction of the General Assembly, at the sole bid- ding, and under the sole authority, of the Court of Session. The conduct of the people, so decorous on the day of this ordination, was equally judicious and becoming afterward. To provide for the existing emergency they resolved to erect a place of worship for themselves in a village three miles from the parish church, and where, whatever might be the issue, a church would be required. Many meetings were held over Scotland to express sympathy with them in their painful position, and to aid them in the erection of this church. It was matter of sincere regret to Dr. Chalmers that his state of health prevented his being present at the meeting which was held for this purpose in Edinburgh. In his letter of apology to the chairman, and contemplating the * Extracted from the " Aberdeen Banner,"' and from the able pen of its editor, Mr. Troup, whose admirable account of the Marnoch In- trusion was circulated widely over the country, and made a very deep impression. MT. 61, MEETIiNG AT EDINBURGH. 223 necessary effect of this ordination at Marnoch, he could not refrain from saying, " May Heaven at length open the eyes of those infatuated men who are now doing so much to hasten on a crisis which they will be the first to deplore, and we most certainly shall do nothing to prevent, if at the expense of that adherence which we owe to our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, for whose supremacy in the Church we are willing to suffer all, casting the burden of our whole cares upon Him, and confident that out of these tribulations, He, in His own good time, will usher in the peace and the purity of better days." The same cause which detained Dr. Chalmers from this meeting prevented his coming forward publicly on behalf of the Church till the meeting of the General Assembly in May, 1841, and but for the Strath- bogie case he would not even have ventured to take any part in its proceedings. He restricted himself, however, to two appearances. The extreme difficulty which had been experienced in effecting any legal harmony between the claims of the patrons and the privileges of the people had gradually reconciled him to a public movement for the total abolition of lay patronage in the Church ; and in the debate, which took place on Tuesday the 25th May, he gave ex- pression to his somewhat altered sentiments on this subject. He retired from the Assembly as soon as he had spoken, reserving his strength for Thursday the 27th, the day on which the case of the suspended ministers was to come before the Court. These clergymen occupied that day in St. Andrew's church a position very different from that which they had occupied in the church of Marnoch. The churches were equally crowded, but below, in place of the inhabitants of a quiet rural parish, the whole area was oc- cupied by ministers and elders of the Church, while eager rov/s of students and citizens of the metropolis were seen piled up in the galleries, packing the space up to the very walls. Instead of calling others to their own bar, the suspended clergymen now stood at the bar of the General Assembly. 221 MEx\IOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841^ It was a most distressing office which the Assembly had to discharge, and a sense of the momentous issues which hung suspended upon the execution of it inspired an unwonted solemnity. Dr. Chalmers was well aware that the act about to be performed would meet with the laudest condemnation from mere secular politicians, from all who eould find no room in the commonwealth, no room even in the Church, for the supremacy of any other law than that which the civil tribunals of the country were instituted to interpret and enforce. He desired, therefore, not only to take his full share of the responsibility, but to place himself here in the front of the battle ; and solemn prayer having been offered up for guidance from on high, he moved that the Assembly should, in the first instance, find that these clergymen had committed offenses involving deposition. " We are told," he said, " by the friends of these gentlemen, that in all they have done they have been actuated by a sense of duty, or by the impulse of a conscience stirring within them, and which they found to be irresistible. We will not deny this, and we have no interest in denying it ; but I would ask, when we deposed Mr. Irving, the other year, for an alleged heresy, did we make our decision turn upon his conscience ? or did we take evidence on the consciences of Mr. Maclean and Mr. Dow, when we took his license from the one, and his paro- chial charge from the other ? or were we arrested by the conscience or the conscientiousness of that holy and excellent person, Mr. Campbell of Pl.ow, when we ejected him from his status as a minister of the Church of Scotland ? Sir, I know not what the inward principle of the ministers of Strathbogie may have been, nor will I attempt any conject- ure on this subject ; but I do know, that when forbidden by their ecclesiastical superiors to proceed any further with Mr. Edwards, they took him upon trials ; and when suspended from the functions of the sacred ministry by a Commission of the General Assembly, they continued to preach and to dispense the sacraments — that they called in the aid of the iET. 61. SPEECH LN THE ASSEMBLY. i>25 civil power to back them in the exclusion from their respect, ive parishes of clergymen appointed by the only competent Court to fulfill the office which they were no longer competent to discharge ; and lastly, as if to crown and consummate this whole disobedience — as if to place the top-stone on the Babel of their proud and rebellious defiance, I know that, to the scandal and astonishment of all Scotland, and with a daring which I believe themselves would have shrunk from at the outset of their headlong career, they put forth their un- licensed hands on the dread work of ordination ; and as if in solemn mockery of the Church's most venerable forms, asked of the unhappy man who knelt before them if he promised ' to submit himself humbly and willingly, in the spirit of meekness, unto the admonitions of the brethren of the Presbytery, and to be subject to them and all other Presbyteries and superior judicatories of this Church ;' and got back from him an affirmative response, along with the declaration that ' zeal for the honor of God, love to Jesus Christ, and desire of saving souls, were his great motives and chief inducements to enter into the functions of the holy ministry, and not worldly designs and interests. '=^ Sir, I repeat I am not able to go into the depth and the m.ysteries of men's consciences ; but this I am able to perceive, that if in heresy this plea were sustained, the Church would be left without a creed; and that if in contumacy this plea were sustained, the Church would be left without a govern- ment, both doctrine and discipline would be given to the winds, and our National Church were bereft of all her virtue to uphold the Christianity of the nation, when thus helpless and degraded, she was alike unable to correct the errors, however deadly, or to control the waywardness, however pernicious and perverse, of her own children. " The Church of Scotland can never give way, and will sooner give up her existence as a National Establishment, * From the questions put preparatory to ordination, the answers to which constitute the ordination vows. Q26 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. than give up her power as a self-acting and self-regulating body, to do what in her judgment is best for the honor of the Redeemer and the interest of His kingdom upon earth. We can see no other alternative. If these men do not hum- ble themselves, their deposition is inevitable. The Church of Scotland can not tolerate, and what is more, it could not survive the scandal of quietly putting up with a dehnquency so enormous as that into which these brethren have fallen. If the vindication of her outraged authority is indeed to be the precursor of her dissolution as a National Church — if, in the recent language of an offended nobleman within these walls — if this is to be the last knell of the Presbyterian establishment in Scotland, only let the Legislature say so : and then let it be seen whether or not the Church of our fathers be prepared to abjure her connection with the State, rather than, bereft of all her respect, and so of all her use- fulness, she will submit to be vilified into a thing of naught." Dr. Cook moved, in opposition, that all proceedings insti- tuted against these clergymen should be set aside as incom- petent, and that they should be declared to be in the same situation in all respects as if no such proceedings had ever taken place. The debate, which commenced early in the fore- noon, was, after a brief adjournment, resumed in the evening, and lasted for nearly twelve hours. At its close, Dr. Chal- mers's motion was carried by a majority of 97, in a house of 347 members. Immediately after the vote M'^as taken, one of the suspended clergymen, on the part of himself and his brethren, read a statement to the House, in which th'ey said — " We acknowledge that we owe all duty, and we are ready to yield all obedience to the Church in all things lawful ; but we can not consent to violate the rights of others, or to assist in violating the law, or to abandon the duty which we owe to the State, merely because a majority of office-bearers in the Church have arbitrarily resolved to require it. ^ * =^ We are here then to justify ourselves in the acts that are set forth in the libel." * * ^ Having read a lengthened jus- ^T. 61. DEPOSITION OF THE SEVEN MINISTERS. 227 tification of their conduct, they retired from the House. It was now long past midnight, and nothing remained but that the solemn act of deposition should be performed. The Rev. Dr. Macfarlan of Greenock rose and said — " In the absence of my respected friend Dr. Chalmers" — it was known that Dr. Chalmers had retired immediately after he had spoken in the forenoon, and it was not imagined that at so late an hour he would be in the House. He had returned, however, and was sitting at this time in a remote part of the Church, unnoticed by those who were around the Moderator's chair. At the mention of his name numerous intimations were made of his presence, and Dr. Macfarlan immediately gave way. Advancing to the table amid the profound silence of the vast assemblage. Dr. Chalmers said — " I am sorry to find, from, the resolute and unyielding appearance of the gentlemen at the bar, that there is now no alternative but to submit the following motion : That the General Assembly, in respect of each of the said offenses of which the said parties have respectively been found guilty as aforesaid, as each by it- self involving deposition, do depose the said Messrs. John Cruickshank, William Cowie, WiUiam Allardyce, William Masson, James Walker, James Thomson, and James Alex- ander Cruickshank, from the office of the holy ministry." The motion passed without a vote ; but before the sentence of deposition was pronounced. Dr. Cook read a protest, in which, for himself and for as many as would join with him, it was declared — " We regard it as binding upon every mem- ber of a Church as established by law to be subject to the civil power in all matters declared by the supreme civil authorities of the country to affect temporal rights, and that for con- science' sake ; and firmly convinced as we are that the said ministers have acted in conformity to this obligation, and that they have done nothing which is not sanctioned both by ec- clesiastical and civil law, we can not, without violating M'hat we owe to the Church and State, cease to regard these men as still ministers, just as if the proceedings against them had 228 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. never been instituted." Such a rush was made to sign this paper, that for a time the order of the House was broken, and its proceedings stopped. When quiet was restored, the Moderator, Dr. Gordon, called on the Rev. Dr. Brown of Glasgow to engage in prayer, after which he pronounced from the chair the solemn sentence of deposition. It was about three o'clock in the morning when the Assembly adjourned, the House remaining crowded to the last moment. On assembling the following day, it was felt that the decla- ration which had been laid ou the table the night before, and which so many of the Moderate party had exhibited such eagerness to sign, was such, that if carried out in action, an immediate and total breach between the two parties was in- evitable. Without pressing the matter as far as the character of the document appeared to demand, Mr. Dunlop moved that the Assembly should simply refuse to receive it. Dr. Cook intimated that he and his friends " had no desire to push the matter farther at present ; they had no desire to take steps at present to follow out their opinions, and therefore he would not oppose the motion of his learned friend, that the protest be not received." The impending danger thus seemed to be postponed. On the evening, however, of the following day a new alarm was sounded, and the House was thrown into a state of extreme excitement. While a debate on the elder- ship was quietly proceeding, the Moderator interrupted the speaker to inform the Assembly that he had just received an intimation that a messenger-at-arms was waiting at the door to serve upon the Assembly an interdict against their proceed- ing to carry the sentence of deposition into effect. For a few minutes the deep silence of amazement and uncertainty pre- vailed. It was suggested by Mr. Dunlop, that as her Majesty's Commissioner was not present, a deputation should proceed forthwith to his Grace to inform him of the circumstance. Till the result of this movement was known, the debate was recommenced. It had not been long resumed when the Com- missioner arrived, and having received formal intimation ^T. 61. REJECTION OF DR. CANDLISH. 229 through the Moderator of what had occurred, he said — " I am at all times happy to be present with you. It is my duty; and, in the exercise of that duty, I trust I shall not be found wanting, whether it be to uphold the rights of the Assembly or to support and maintain the prerogative of the Crown, from whatever quarter they maybe assailed." The messenger- at-arms had in the mean time left the interdict with the Assembly's officer at the door, and withdrawn. The docu- ment was laid upon the table, and the House adjourned. On Monday, a series of resolutions, carefully reciting all the cir- cumstances as they occurred, and declaring the attempt thus made to be a flagrant breach of the privileges of the National Church, were passed, and ordered to be transmitted to her Majesty the Queen in Council ; and without further notice of the interference, the business of the Assembly was resumed. The Parliamentary session of 1841 had opened on the 26th January, and on the 28th, in answer to a question by Lord Haddington, the Premier intimated that it was not the intention of the Government to bring in any measure for alter- ing the Law of Patronage in Scotland ; that in the meantime the authority of the existing law should be enforced, and effect- ual means taken for protecting those who were determined to obey it. Lord Melbourne did not specify what particular methods of enforcement or protection were to be employed. A somewhat singular illustration, however, of the equivocal conduct of the Government was ere long supplied. Having resolved to institute a new Chair of Bibhcal Criticism in the University of Edinburgh, they had selected the Rev. Dr. Candlish as an individual pre-eminently qualified to fill it. No sooner did their intention become known, than Lord Aber- deen brought the matter before the House of Lords, vehement- ly condemning such an appointment, on the ground that Dr. Candlish had recently broken an interdict of the Court of Ses- sion by preaching in Strathbogie. The Government yielded, and at the last moment the appointment was quashed. Lord Normanby remarking, " that, in consequence of many recom- 230 MEMOIRS UF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. mendations in his favor, Her Majesty's Government had been disposed to give Dr. Candlish the appointment, but the mo- ment they heard that he had placed himself in opposition to the law, they at once put an end to all further proceedings upon the subject." It was notorious that Dr. Candhsh had acted under the sanction of the Assembly, and had done nothing more than had been done by almost all the leading ministers of the Evangelical party. If he and they were guilty of such acts as disqualified them for being the objects of Gov- ernment patronage — if they had actually placed themselves in opposition to the law, some other and more stringent pro- cedure against them was imperatively demanded ; but so long as the constitutional question, whether their acts were acts ofrebellion or not, remained unsettled, and so long as the Gov- ernment itself declined legislatively to determine that ques- tion, it seemed unfair to single out an individual, and to in- flict upon him such a penalty. It gave the Church, however, distinctly to understand, that while neither of the two great political parties in the State were disposed to interfere for her extrication, they both agreed in regarding it as impera- tive upon her to give such obedience to the law, as the Court of Session was requiring at her hands. There was neither the candor to concede her claims, nor the boldness to repu- diate them. Had the law-officers of the Crown received instructions to proceed in ordinary course to vindicate the authority of the law ; had complaints against any or all of those clergymen who had preached in Strathbogie been lodg- ed in Court, and the common compulsitors of law — fine or imprisonment — been put into operation ; had the Church even authoritatively been told by the Government, that she must either retrace her steps, undo what she had done, and submit to all the adverse sentences of the Court of Session, or be visited with all the common penalties which an infrac- tion of law incurred, she would have known better what to do. As it was, hor position was so painful, that it occurred to some ministers in Greenock and its vicinity, that instead MT. Gl. PROPOSAL OF MR. SMITH. 231 of waiting till interminable litigation from without, and a wider anarchy from within, rendered it impossible for her to carry on her government, she should go forward to the Legislature, and insist either that her spiritual independence should be recognized and secured, or that the connection be- tween her and the State should be dissolved. This proposal was communicated by the Rev. Mr. Smith of Greenock to a few of the leading friends of the Church in Edinburgh. It seemed more premature to others than it did to Dr. Chal- mers, who replied as follows : " Edinburgh, March 2ith, 1841. *' My dear Sir — I am quite in love with your proposition, insomuch that if sure of an instant majority in its favor, I would have it tabled instantly. My fear is that many of our truest friends, while they might admire the step as ulti- mately the very best for our Church, yet would view it still as a measure in reserve, or that the time for its being carried into effect had not just yet arrived. You must agree with myself in thinking, that, if because of the influence of such a feeling we were left in a minority should it be proposed now, it were better that we waited a little longer the pro- gress of events — the leadings and indications of Providence, ere we come to the final resolution which you and your friends now overture ; and which I most cordially feel with yourselves to be by far the most graceful and dignified method on our part of terminating the contest. " Meanwhile every efibrt should be made, not only to ascer- tain the sentiments of the clergy on this proposal, but to rec- ommend it, as being in fact the best acquittal which the Church could make of the part which belongs to her — so soon as circumstances shall at length announce the fit and suitable period for such a crisis. I fear it were still prema- ture to confer with Presbyteries on the subject ; and more especially as they would have greatly too little time for making up their minds previous to the election of their this 232 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. year's representatives ; but when the Assembly meets, one could better ascertain the dispositions and views of the breth- ren. Were a decided majority prepared for such a step, I should rejoice in the immediate adoption of it ; and, at all events, I hope a declaration will be so framed, as shall com- mit us to the very measure which you have suggested, by the next Assembly thereafter, should no redress by that time be had from the Legislature, for our now increasing and ag- gravated wrongs. " I shall be most happy to hear farther from you on this important matter. You point at a noble outgoing, which I hope, if matters come to the worst, we shall be enabled to realize. — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours most cordially, " Thomas Chalmers. " The Rev. James Smith." Another gleam of light was hovering on the dark horizon. A few days before this letter was written, the Duke of Argyll had given notice in the House of Lords of his intention to bring in a Bill for the settlement of the Scotch Church ques- tion. The Duke's measure was introduced on the 5th May. It differed from the Veto Law only by extending the right of dissent to all male communicants, instead of restricting it to the male heads of families, and by making specific provi- sion for the veto being set aside, whenever it could be proved to have sprung from factious motives or causeless prejudices. At its first reading, it met with strenuous opposition from Lords Aberdeen, Haddington, and Dunfermline. Its farther consideration was postponed till after the meeting of the Gen- eral Assembly. The discussion of its merits within that venerable Court was signalized by the remarkable effect of an appeal made by Dr. Candlish to the Moderate party. So sincere, so affectionate, so solemn, and so forcible was that appeal, that for a moment it seemed as if Dr. Cook and his iViends would withdraw their opposition to a measure, under which it was admitted that they could act without any vio- .«T. 61. APPEAL TO THE MODERATE PARTY. 233 lence done to conscience ; and had it gone up to Parliament with the seal upon it of an unopposed approval on the part of the Church, this might have gone far to recommend its adoption to the Legislature. The hope was but momentary. While reciprocating the brotherly spirit in which they had been addressed, the Moderate party could not see it to bo consistent with the duty which they owed to the Church and country to withhold their opposition. Nevertheless by a majority of more than two to one — the largest majority which had occurred in the course of these divisions, the House declared its approval of the measure. So marked an ex- pression of the Church's feeling must have had some weight at the second reading of the Bill. But before the time for that second reading arrived, Sir Robert Peel had obtained his majority on the vote of want of confidence in the min- istry. Parliament was immediately dissolved. The elec- tions sealed the fate of the Melbourne Administration, and on the 30th August, Sir Robert Peel was at the head of the strongest Government the country had known for years. Meanwhile in Scotland, untoward movements on the part of the Church's adversaries were hurrying things onward to the fatal catastrophe. A deputation from the minority in the General Assembly, which had opposed the depo- sition of the Strathbogie ministers, had gone to London early in June, and laid before the Government an elaborate statement on behalf of the deposed clergymen, and the mi- nority by whom they were supported. This statement was signed by Principal Macfarlan, Dr. Hill, Dr. Bryce, Mr. Grant of Leith, and Mr. Robertson of Ellon. It contained the following ominous declarations : " The minority and those that adhere to them, can not in conscience submit to this decision — [the act of deposition] — they can not, in conscience, whatever may be the consequences, fail to act in opposition to it." * ^ =^ '< If Government will only intimate its reso- lute purpose of upholding the present law, until the final findings of this law in regard to the cases which have actually 234 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. arisen shall have been ascertained and complied with, the temporary excitement that now prevails on the subject will soon in great measure pass away. It is, they are fully per- suaded, because sufficient care has not been taken to guard against the cherishing of delusive and unconstitutional ex- pectations, that matters have reached in Scotland the fear- ful crisis to which they have now attained." *=**«< If the responsible advisers of the Crown shall be prepared to in- struct their law-officers to maintain in the Civil Courts the cause of the ministers of Strathbogie, and of others who may be placed in similar circumstances, and to 'pros.ecute for breach of interdict, &c., those who may, in opposition to in- terdicts granted by the competent Courts, invade the rights of such parties, the minority of the last General Assembly, and the large body of office-bearers of the Church of Scotland, who hold views in common with that minority, icill have much reason to he satisfied'' * * ^ "If her Majesty's Government shall be of opinion that less stringent measures may be effectual for the accomplishment of the object in view, they are not only willing but most anxious that such measures should have in the first instance a fair trial." Worse than the open declaration that they would voluntarily act in opposition to a decision of their Church, and worse even than the expression of satisfaction at the prosecution and pun- ishment of the most eminent ministers of the Establishment, was the assurance given here to the Government, that no- thing but a slight exercise of coercion was needed to remove that temporary agitation which false hopes had stirred. The majority had solemnly declared that the law as now inter- preted was one which they could not conscientiously obey. The minority came forward to affirm that this was not so ; and that if force were but firmly applied the consciences of their brethren would give way. It was that incredulity as to the religious integrity of the evangelical ministers ; it was this false witnessing to Government by those who, being clergymen themselves, were supposed to be best able to take JET. Gl. STATEMENT BY THE MODERATE PARTY. 235 the true gauge and measure of the clerical conscience, which lay at the root of the Disruption. Before the meeting of the Commission on the 1 1 th August, one part of the London statement had been made good. Mr. Grant, Mr. Robertson, and others, had held ministerial com- munion with the deposed clergymen, and assisted them in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. This act of gratu- itous insubordination M^as reported to the Commission, which, prosecuting its clear but painful course of duty, instructed the Presbyteries to which the offending ministers belonged, to take such steps as were necessary for vindicating the authority of the Church, and proposed that a " solemn re- monstrance and warning" should be prepared and addressed to them. When the resolution to this effect was carried. Dr. Cook gave in reasons of dissent, the second of which was as follows : — " Because the resolution now sanctioned, puts an end to all hope of devising any measure by which the members of the Church might be united, and imposes upon us, and upon all who agree with us in the opinion which we have repeatedly expressed as to our present dis- tressing condition, to take such steps as may appear most effectual for ascertaining from competent authority, whether we who now dissent, and they who concur with us, or they who continue to set at naught the law of the land, and the decisions of the Civil Courts in what we esteem a matter of civil right, are to be held by the Legislature of the country as constituting the Established Church, and as entitled to the privileges and endowments conferred by Statute upon the ministers of that Church." Instead of the question coming before the Legislature as one between the Church and the Civil Courts, Dr. Cook desired to present it as one between two parties in the Church who could not longer remain united, one or other of which must be repudiated by the Legislature. If actually entertained in that form by the Administration of Sir Robert Peel, there could be no doubt of the decision being in favor of that party to which Dr. 236 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. Cook was attached. The prospect of so speedy a settlement demanded the most prompt and vigorous measures ; and a special meeting of the Commission was summoned to meet on the 25th August. Dr. Chalmers, who had not been at the previous meeting, resolved to be present upon this occasion, that he might sound the key-note of preparation for that event which he now believed to be almost, if not altogether inevitable. "As to the war of argument," he said, "that is now over ; seeing the time has come when the strife of words must give place to the strife of opposing deeds and op- posing purposes. In this, the ministers of the other side have set us the example. They have begun with deeds which we must disallow; and they now tell us that they mean to call on the Legislature for their declaration, which of the two parties is henceforth to be the Established Church of Scotland. It is but justice both to the public and to the Government, that they should know how it is that we stand affected by such an intimation. There has I fear been a strange incredulity all along, in regard to the strength of our principles, or at what hazard, and to what extent of sacrifice, we have resolved to maintain them. The necessity is now laid upon us, that we should make a distinct and articulate reply to this question, and my fondest prayer, even as for the salvation both of the country and of the Church, is for the response of an unshrinking and undimini.shed majority that the principles on which they have hitherto acted they are resolved to abide by, whatever be the hazard, and whatever be the sacrifice. ^ * * It is our solemn duty to do all we can for the averting of such a catastrophe (the breaking up of the Establishment), and heaven forbid that it should be hastened on by any indiscretion, still less by any disrespect, or any deed of violence on our part. =^ * ^ I will proceed no further, and for this single reason, lest the language of determ ination should be interpreted into the language of defiance. Most assuredly I have no desir^that the breach should be any further widened : and yet it is of the utmost importance JET. 61. SPEECH AT THE COMMISSION. 237 — of the utmost practical importance for the right settlement of this question — that the state of matters should be plainly understood, for nothing can exceed the misconception, cher- ished especially by the higher classes, both in this country and in London. Be it known unto all men then, that we have no wish for a disruption, but neither stand we in the overwhelming dread of it. We have no ambition, as has pleasantly been said of us, for martyrdoms of any sort, but neither will we shrink from the hour or the day of trial. In short, let it be distinctly known, both over the country at large, and more especially in the camp of our adversaries, that, whatever the misgivings might be in other quarters, among us there are no falterings, no fears. Should what has been termed the crisis arrive, we know of a clear, and an honorable, and withal a Christian outgoing ; confident in the smile of an approving heaven from above, and that confidence not abated when we look around on the goodly spectacle of our friends and fei low-Christians — the best and worthiest of Scotland's sons — in readiness to hail and to harbor the men who are willing to give up all for the sake of conscience and of Christian liberty. The God whom they serve will not leave them without help or without a home." To be prepared for the worst, the Commission appointed a large Committee, with instructions to bring " the principles and privileges of the Church, as well as the dangers that may threaten us, before the Government, the Legislature, and the country at large, by deputations, public statements, meetings, and such other means as may appear expedient." The first public meeting held in fulfillment of this resolution took place in the Church of St. Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, on the evening of the day on which the Commission met. That church exhibited on this occasion an extraordinary spectacle. Fourteen hundred ministers and elders were crowded to- gether in the lower part of the building, while from the double tiers of galleries as many spectators as could force their way into the edifice were gazing down upon the scene. 238 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. The Rev. Dr. Gordon occupied the chair, and a resolution to adhere at all hazards to the principles upon which the Church had taken her stand was unanimously adopted by the vast assemblage. The alternative of separation from the Establishment, to which so many ministers might speedily be forced, was steadily contemplated, and the first hint thrown out of that peculiar method of sustaining them in their new positions which Dr. Chalmers had already de- signed. He was the first to give up all hope of a satisfac- tory Parliamentary adjustment; he was the first also to busy himself both with the design and the execution of the practi- cal measures required by the approaching disruption. This meeting in Edinburgh was followed up by similar meetings all over the country, in which a spirit of equal energy and resolution was manifested. This general attitude of deter- mination and preparedness had its temporary efiect. The threatened appeal to the Legislature was not persisted in, and the Government made a friendly instead of a hostile movement toward the Church. Taking the earliest oppor- tunity of addressing the new Administration, Commissioners, appointed by the Church, had waited on Sir Pvobert Peel, and presented a Memorial* to the Government. Almost * Another and counter Memorial was presented to the Government by the Committee of the Moderate party, in which the following state- ments occur : — " To the principle of Non-Intrusion, holding that term to be synonymous with a right of arbitrary dissent or rejection by con- gregations or Presbyteries, the Memoriahsts entertain the strongest ob- jections, in whatever form or by whatever means it may be proposed to bring that principle into practical operation. * =^ * But, much as the Memoralists deprecate the adoption of this 'Non Intrusion' principle, in any form or to any efTect, they must add the expression of their humble but very decided opinion, that of all the modes yet proposed for giving effect to the principle, the most impolitic and the most mischievous is that which concedes to the Church the exercise of what is called liberum arbitrium — a discretionary and irresponsible power to deter- mine, not judicially, nor according to any ascertained rule, but arbitra- rily in every case, as to the amount and character of the popular feeling existing against a presentee, and the weight that is to be given to it. Such a measure appears to the Memorialists to be dangerous alike to ^T. 61. SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR'S PROPOSAL. 239 immediately thereafter a proposal was made by Sir George Sinclair to the Non-Intrusion Committee for effecting a final adjustment of the question, by adding a clause, which he had drawn up, to the Bill of Lord Aberdeen. Understanding that this clause recognized the right of the Church Courts to give effect to the objections of the people, if found to be insuperable, in every case in which they considered it to be their duty to do so, the Committee, while carefully guarding themselves against a positive approval of such a settlement, stated that it was one to which they could conscientiously submit. The negotiation originated by Sir George Sinclair had an official character bestowed upon it, when Mr. Bruce of Kennet, on the suggestion of Sir James Graham, formally submitted the following queries to the Committee: — "In the event of a proposal coming from Her Majesty's Government, based on the clause transmitted by Sir George Sinclair, and sent by the Dean of Faculty to Lord Aberdeen, will the Non- Intrusion Committee appointed by the Assembly (though they should prefer another mode) accept it as a final settle- ment of the Non-Intrusion question ?" Retaining their first idea of the meaning and effect of the clause, the Committee gave the same answer to Mr. Bruce which they had given to Sir George Sinclair. It was understood that unless the proposed settlement was carried through in the session of Parliament then sitting, both parties would be relieved from their obligations — the Government from any obligation to propose, the Committee from any obligation to accept. The shortness of that session precluded any Government action in civil and religious liberty. * * ^ The 'spiritual independence' which has been claimed on the pait of the Church is essentially inconsistent with the first principles of social order. * * * New cases were daily arising ; and no man could tell how soon it might become his own personal duty to choose between the obedience which he had vowed to law and con- stituted authority and submission to a new, fanciful, anomalous princi- ple, which the Church has chosen to dignify with the name of ' Spirit- ual Independence.^ " — See Memorial by the Constitutional Committee, pp. 5, 25, 40, 41, 240 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. the matter, and before the Parliament assembled again in November a correspondence between the Dean of Faculty and Dr. Candlish had disclosed a most serious disagreement as to the real significance of Sir George's clause. According to the Dean's interpretation, which mature reflection con- vinced the Committee was the true one, the Church Courts would have no liberty in any case to give effect to the dissent of the congregation, simply as such. Neither Lord Aberdeen nor the Dean of Faculty looked upon the clause as effecting any change in this respect upon the Bill as it stood originally. It was its denial of such liberty that led to its rejection in its earlier, and the same denial led to its rejection in its amended form. A lengthened explanation of the misunder- standing which had thus occurred was addressed by the Committee to Sir James Graham, "v^dio, in his reply, stated, " I have no hesitation in stating, that had it been explained at the time that the words suggested by Sir George Sinclair were intended to bear the construction placed upon them in your letter, the proposed measure would, on that ground, also have been considered equally inadmissible." Upon the negotiation which this letter closed we can not now look back without admiring the generous and devoted zeal of Sir George Sinclair, who gave his days and nights to bring it to a successful issue ; and whatever blindness the Committee may in the first instance have displayed (and it was a blind- ness in which they had good reason to believe that both the Dean himself and Lord Aberdeen participated),* it almost * " I remember Sir George Sinclair reporting to us Mr. Hope's ad- mission that the Bill, as amended, would enable Church Courts ' to enforce the Veto in any particular instance if they chose;' although I am inclined to believe, from what will afterward be stated, that this admission must have been made in a very limited and qualified accepta- tion of that phrase, or that Sir George had misapprehended Mr. Hope. It appears that Mr. Hope's representation was successful in persuading Lord Aberdeen to change his mind. His Lordship consented to the in- troduction of Sir George Sinclair's clause, of which he had previously said that it would ' make the appeal of the Veto Law illusory.'' " — Narra- tive relating to certain recent Negotiations, SfC, by Dr. Candlish, pp. 9, 10. JET, 6L LETTERS TO SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR. 241 atones for that error, that we can now point to it as a proof how anxious the Church was to obtain a settlement, and how willing she would have been to accede to any arrange- ment under which, in any form, the principle of Non-Intru- sion could have been preserved. Dr. Chalmers took no part in these negotiations which led to so unhappy an issue. The following extracts from letters addressed during this period to Sir George Sinclair, of M'hose unwearied and disinterested services he entertained the warmest admiration, will indicate not only how hopeless he was of any satisfactory result arising out of them, but how engaged his thoughts were with ulterior prospects already opening to his view. "Burntisland, August I6th, 1841 " Dear Sir George — What you propose is substantially an acquiescence in Lord Aberdeen's Bill. " Be assured that it was in perfect good faith I told his Lordship, more than twelve months ago, that we could not conscientiously minister in a Church placed under the fetters and provisions of such a legislation as he had prepared for us. Nothing has occurred since to alter this feeling, but every thing to strengthen and confirm it. Not the outrage at Marnoch — not the harassing interference of the Civil Courts, and not, most certainly, the hostile declarations of public and parhamentary men, backed thquS^h they now are by a majority, which seems to have given fresh confidence to our adversaries, and emboldened them to brandish over our heads the menace and terror of our approaching overthrow. This last experiment will be as fruitless as any of the former ones. On this question we are now unchanged, and I hope un- changeable. We stand on the ground of principle ; nor can I image a greater infatuation than the incredulity of those who will not believe that from that ground we shall never recede, whatever be the damages or the deprivations which they might purpose to lay upon us. "I can well understand that the Church of Scotland is VOL TV — L 242 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. dear to many whose views are opposite to our own in the present controversy. It might well be dear to them, as the only palladium of true Conservatism in the land, and the only antagonist force to the Chartism and the Socialism, and the lawless spirit of insubordination, against which, when once they have come to a head, all the Parliamentary ma- jorities, which now give so delusive a confidence to the upper classes of society, will prove but a feeble and unavailing de- fense in the hour of trial. The Church is dear to us for these reasons also, but infinitely dearer as an instrument of Christian good to the people, and still more as the instrument put into our hands with directions how to use it, by the great Author and Finisher of our faith. By these directions we mean to abide ; nor will we consent to be the ministers of a Church subject to any power on earth which shall in- termeddle with the functions of that distinct ecclesiastical government which is placed by Him who is the head of all authority and power, in the hands of distinct office-bearers. " I conclude with an earnest wish that your friends might have their eyes opened at length to the true wisdom of this question. I can see no other way of its pacific settlement than by passing the Duke of Argyll's Bill, and leaving us to deal with our own refractory ministers according to the usages which, since the last Revolution in this country, have never been invaded. Never, I will venture to say, was a fairer prospect of usefulness overcast than that which lay before the Church of Scotland at the time that the civil authorities so cruelly and unconstitutionally interfered with her. — I ever am, dear Sir George, yours most respectfully and truly, " Thomas Chalmers." "Burntisland, September 21th, 1841. " My dear Sir George — You know that I have retired from all further public or practical management of the ques- tion. The truth is, that I reserve myself for one emergency Should there be a disruption of the Church I shall feel it my ^T. 61. LETTERS TO SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR. 243 duty to help forward the operations of a great home mission, which I have no doubt could take full possession of the coun- try in a very few months. And looking to the Christian in- terests of Scotland, I believe that more good could be done by such an instrumentality than by an Established Church exposed to such interferences as those of the Court of Session for the last few years. It is not only of their intromissions with the appointment of ministers that I complain. Their decisions respecting the collections of the new churches and the quoad sacra parishes are both most intolerable fetters on the energies of a Church acting with a view to the spread of Christian education among all classes of the people. I do not give up my views on the mighty good of a religious Establishment, but it is a good more than neutralized should the Establishment be so hampered and restricted as many would wish it to be, who have really never studied the ques- tion of what the best method is for spreading abroad that education of principle which will prove the only counter- active not to irreligion only, but to vice and anarchy and socialism, and the whole tribe of those moral and political disorders which are now in busy fermentation all over the land. Heaven grant that the eyes of Sir Robert may be opened to see that there is a country as well as a House of Com- mons.— I am, dear Sir George, yours most gratefully, and with great regard, Thomas Chalmers. " Sir George Sinclair, Barouet." " Edinburgh, November 20th, 1841. " My dear Sir George — Suffer me to express my fears that you are deceived in supposing it to be the purpose of those who have adopted your formula, to give us an un- shackled libentm arbitrium. They lay a most important exception on the liberutn arhitrinin, nay, the very exception that runs the most counter of any to an oft-repeated and great constitutional principle of the Church of Scotland. 244 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. " You seem not aware that I am not a member of the Non-Intrusion Committee. It is indispensable to my pre- servation that I should retire from all public business ; nor do I mean to mix with it, unless in the event of a disruption, which, should an entire liberum arbitrium be denied to us, it is my firm conviction will and ought to take place. I have been studying a good deal the economy of our Non- Erastian Church when severed from the State and its en- dowments— an event which I would do much to avert — but which, if inevitable, we ought to be prepared for. I do not participate in your fears of an extinction even for our most remote parishes. And the noble resolution of the town min- isters, to share equally with their country brethren, from a common fund raised for the general behoof of the ejected ministers, has greatly brightened my anticipations of a great and glorious result, should the Government cast us off. There are thousands in the middle ranks who will let down their establishments rather than that our Church should go to wreck from the want of endowments ; and an extensive or- ganization for the small weekly offerings of our people, which I should feel it my duty to promote to the uttermost, will, I fondly hope, enable us not only to maintain the services of all our ejected ministers, but over and above to extend and multiply our exertions, so as to meet the necessities of all our families. — I have the honor to be, dear Sir George, yours most respectfully, Thomas Chalmers." " Edinbukgh, December Uh, 1841. ** My dear Sir George — * * * I conclude with noticing as briefly as possible your remarks on my consistency : 1. You speak of my former avowed preference for a National Establishment, reminding me of what you call my own theory. Now, in my London Lectures, in my Church Ex- tension Addresses, in all my controversies with the Volun- taries, in my numerous writings for twenty years back, the spiritual independence of the Church has been ever brought ^T. 61. LETTERS TO SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR. 245 prominently forward as an indispensable part of that theory, and I have uniformly stated, that the least violation of that independence in return for a State Endowment was enough to convert a Church Establishment into a moral nuisance. It is a little too much, that after the Conservatives had ac- cepted with thankfulness my defense of National Establish- ments, they should now propose to take away from me the benefit of their main vindication ; or think that an advocacy given to a National Church, solely for the sake of its relig- ious and moral benefits to the population, should still be con- tinued, after they shall have converted it from an engine of Christian usefulness into a mere congeries of offices, by which to uphold the influence of patrons and subserve the politics or the views of a worthless partisanship. " But (2.) you tell me of my views on the impotency of Voluntaryism. May I beg your perusal of my Third London Lecture on the Distinction between Voluntaryism ab intra and Voluntaryism ah extra. There is a perfect identity of principle between the latter and a National Establishment. I shall ever regret the necessity of a separation from the State. But if driven to it by principle, it is a sacrifice which must and ought to be made. I say so, not in the spirit of menace, or for the purpose of terrifying bull-headed Toryism out of any of its inveteracies, but simply to let you know, that I for one shall feel it my duty to draw both on the middle and lower ranks, indefinitely, in order to repair, and I confidently hope, to overpass, the mischief which I fear that our enemies, in the obstinacy of their miserable blindness, are preparing for our land. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir George, yours with great esteem and regard, "Thomas Chalmers." CHAPTER XIV. THE OUTER AND INNER HISTORY— PRIVATE JOURNALS OF 1840-41— HOR^ BIBLIC^E QUOTIDIAN.^— HOR^ BI- BLICiE SABBATIC^. The events in which Dr. Chalmers mingled, and which he helped so much to mould, were far from engrossing his thoughts. The part he took in them was in fact the product of those deeper convictions which rested upon the unseen and enduring objects of faith. Behind the outer history of his life there lay that inner spiritual history which made the other what it was. His correspondence, his speeches, his published writings, and his public acts, which furnish such ample ma- terials for unfolding the one history, are absolutely barren as to the other. We know of no other individual of the same force and breadth of Christian character, who, in all his con- verse, public and private, with his fellow-men, spoke so little of himself, or afforded such slender means of information as to his own spiritual condition and progress, and yet it would be difficult to name another of whose deeper religious expe- rience we have so full and so trustworthy a record. We owe this to the openness and perfect truthfulness of his private Journal. The strict reserve which he observed in his commu- nications with others he entirely laid aside when communing with his own heart, the fullness of the one disclosure more than atoning for the stintedness of the other. The very breaks and gaps, the compressed or the expanded condition of his pri- vate Journal, when studied in connection with his external occupations during different periods, are themselves instruct- ive. Judged of in this way, the year 1840 formed a marked epoch in his spiritual life, as exhibiting the commencement JET. 60. THE OUTER AND INNER HISTORY. 247 of that softening, refining, elevating process which, ripening to perfection, threw such a pure and mellow light of piety around his closing years — a light whose chastened lustre was perceived and felt even by those who saw not into the place of its birth. We date the beginning of this process from the close of Dr. Chalmers's correspondence with Lord Aberdeen, from the time when his hope failed him of any peaceful set- tlement of the Church conflict. Being constrained to face painful and unexpected emergencies, he threw himself for guidance and support upon the great principles of the Chris- tian faith. It was thus that the darker the prospect became, the singler became his eye — the greater the danger, the stronger his faith — the weaker his trust in men, the firmer his reliance upon God. We should not, perhaps, be pardoned by general readers, did we interrupt our narrative by exhib- iting in full the evidence of this striking fact ; but we would violate our own convictions did we not present a few ex- tracts from the Journals of 1840 and 1841. ''March 17th, 1840. — Entered the seventh decade of my life. I have looked long at this birth-day as a great moral and spiritual epoch. My God, enable me by prayer and per- formance to make it good. Quite sure that the acceptance of Christ, with a full reliance on Him and the confident ap- propriation of His righteousness, is the transition step to a life of happy and prosperous obedience. O my God, give me to hold this fast, and to realize by it a present salvation — the light and liberty and enlargement of one of thine own children. O that my heart were a fountain of gracious things, which might flow out with gracious influence on the hearts of my acquaintances, and more particularly of the members of my family. " March 28th. — Sadly exercised with adverse tidings from London anent the Church ; and all that is heavenly takes flight by giving way to other themes. " April 1st. — To-day there is the opening of a great hope in Church matters. I long for my own deliverance from 248 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840. the turmoils of public life. I feel somewhat the advantage which a sally of my own has given to a hostile multitude against me, and yet I am supported in a way that is mar- velous under every visitation. O do Thou, the very God of peace, sanctify me wholly, and enable me to cut off the right hand or pluck out the right eye. Deliver me from the woe of those by whom offenses come ; save me from the sin that doth most easily beset me, and, above all, from the guilt of hurting the souls of others. Keep my heart in the love of thyself, and enable me to keep it with all diligence. Enable me to bid away all thoughts of evil and vanity, and to keep myself holy in soul and spirit and body, which are the Lord's. — Amen, and amen. " A2Jril 2d. — An utter prostration of spirit from the speech of Lord Aberdeen. " April Sd. — Pwecovered my spirits, but not my spirit- uality. " April 4:th. — Came over to Burntisland. — O my God, let a quiet withdrawment from Edinburgh recall to this earthly soul its departed godliness. " April 13th. — Useless expenditure of thought and feeling in anticipations not afterward realized. Events are God's. Relieved by Lord Aberdeen taking an independent and irre- sponsible charge. " Ajwil 1 5th. — O for quiet I Great need of repose. Gleams, too, of right and religious feeling. Think of my creatureship, but not habitually, not closely enough. What a revolution would it be if I had just an adequate and practical sense of the God who made me ! The very sense of being made by another, how it should annihilate the sovereignty of self — how it should subordinate and keep in check the wayward- ness of one's own will. What hast thou, O man, that thou didst not receive ? ''April 16th. — A glorious day, and had great enjoyment on the coast with my children. O that I could associate God with all that is visible and created. Began a sermon MT. 60. JOURNAL. ■ 249 on Rom. x. 6—9. Should begin every new thing with prayer. '' Api'il 17th. — Growing distaste for the burdens of pubHc business. Pray for wisdom amid the manifold difficulties of my position. Visit me, O God, with light and love from thy sanctuary. " A2yril 18th. — More of study than usual ; but I am not making the strenuous and decided efforts to be spiritual which I wished and anticipated, and I neglect certain means of spirituality, such as the avoidance of certain thoughts that stir up affections opposite to the love of the Father. Might make a vast deal more, too, of my solitary walks ; and to remove a great practical barrier in the way of religious con- templation, let me assume my personal interest in the prom- ises of the Gospel, and hold fast my confidence therein. I feel sure that I would recur all the more hopefully, and therefore all the more fondly and frequently, to the great things of faith, if I but knew the things which are freely given to us of God. It is the imagination of an impractica- ble gulf betwixt us which keeps me at a distance from Him — a distance that would be overcome if I could but habitually and believingly look at the open highway of communication along which there is perfect liberty of access ibr the guiltiest of us all. Called at Rose-End Castle ; and how little is the sense of the immortality of others present with me when in converse with the partakers of my own imperishable nature. " Sunday, 19th.— Much weighted withpubHc difficulties. A great infusion of religious thought and feeling, too. u April 20th. — Began my first waking minutes with a confident hold on Christ as my Saviour. A day of great quietness. "April 21st. — Let the laying hold of Christ as my propitiation be the unvarying initial act of every morning. Very quiet all this day ; yet not in a particularly religious frame. I fancy a swimming in my head, and am certain 250 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840. that ray execution is greatly short of my conception and my aim in the composition of the sermon now on hand. This occasions a perpetual strain. Let me devolve this and all other things on God. Enable me to render the doctrine of free salvation clearly and impressively. But, O how true that the faith of others is given not through the wisdom of words, but by the power of God. " April 24.th. — Much exercised by the conflicting Church politics around me, and feel the earthliness of these engross- ments. O that I exercised myself more unto godliness, and could maintain a godly frame all the day long. ^' April 29th. — A general want of godliness, and a weight upon my spirit in the prospect of approaching controversies. I pray for light and direction from on high. Assembly pre- parations. " Airril oOth. — Occasional heaviness ; yet well upon the whole. A most enjoyable day, and delighted myself with two solitary rounds. Have the feelings and aspirations of piety, but must be more confident and cheerful in Christ — rejoice in the Lord alway. " 3Iaij 1st. — What a sad general want of realization as to the things of faith and eternity. Can luxuriate among the beauties of creation. O Creator of all, manifest thy glory to my dark and dormant faculties, possess me with a sense of thyself, forgive the waywardness of my thoughts and in- clinations, and give me to feel the controlling influence of thy presence and will all the day long. " Sunday, May 3d. — Delighted with ' TrefTry on the Sonship of Christ.' Luxuriate here in Sabbath quiet. O my God, purify, refine, and exalt me more and more. Hear imperfectly in church, and my attention wanders among the engrossing topics of the present time. I most earnestly pray for a wisdom and a spirit adapted to the exigencies of the present time. " 3Iay Ath. — Much weighted with Church matters, and the report from London of Lord Aberdeen's vacillations. mr. 60. JOURNAL. 251 " May 6th. — Sadly agitated about Church matters, and things looking very doubtful. But saddest of all is the distress and decay of religious feeling, and the want of a system of practical self-discipline. — O my God, enable me to wait upon thee without distraction ; and I pray for wisdom to clear my way through the difficulties by which I am en- compassed. My retrospects of the day that is past are ex- ceedingly dim ; and the work of self-examination therefore, in that proportion, unsatisfactory. Search me and try me, O God. " 3Iay 8th. — Carried by news from London, reports from Edinburgh, &c. Teach me the lesson, O Heavenly Father, to be still and know that thou art God. Things are thickening. " Sunday Jti?te 1th. — My eternity is at stake, and the great adversary is plying me with a fresh and formidable temptation. Another approaching controversy, too, which may require all wisdom. O for holiness and charity. Take pity on me, O God, a miserable offender. " June &th. — Sadly engrossed with the Dean of Faculty's charge against me.^ There are, besides, fiery darts from the adversary. My God, uphold me I *' Ji^ne 16th. — A dreary interval, throughout which the influences of God's Word have been choked and overborne by the thorns of care and controversy. Let me now resume the moral and spiritual culture which has been so woefully interrupted. " Sunday, June 21st. — Have not yet recovered the shock of Lord Aberdeen's foul attack on me in the House of Lords. May I live henceforth in the perpetual sunshine of God's reconciled countenance. May I experience the sanctifying power of such a habit. Save me, save me, O God, from the untoward imaginations which disquiet and inflame me, warring against my soul, and engrossing my thoughts, to the utter exclusion of the things which make for holiness and peace. «« Ju?ie 24:th. — O my God, direct me now to thyself. * See ante. p. 173. 252 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840. Transfer my thoughts to the things that are above. Give me wisdom among the trials and difficulties which surround me. Hide me under the covert of thy wings, and let the menaces which overhang the country and the Church pass away from them both. " Sunday, July 5ih. — A letter yesternight from Dr. Gordon, inclosing one from Lord Aberdeen, which will re- quire a strenuous exercise both of wisdom and charity. "* My God, guide and govern all my movements. It is high time now to be seeking the pearl of great price, and for this let there be an intent looking unto Jesus — a strong and simple faith in Him — the love that cleaves to Him — the friendship for Him that will do whatsoever He commandeth. I pray for the fruits of the Spirit — for the mortification of the flesh, and altogether for the establishment of my under- standing in the doctrine of salvation, and of my feet in the way of new obedience. Give me, O Lord, to be spiritually- minded, and then shall I have hfe and peace. May I know what it is to exercise myself unto godliness. Is it not wrong to countenance by the slightest semblance of an approxima- tion the Sabbath liberties that are taken in this neighbor- hood ? May I hope from this time forward to have materials for a more full and regular spiritual history than I have kept hitherto. " Ju7ie 6tJt,. — Began the day with a distinct act of confi- dence ; but should renew it through the day, and see, on the constant repetition and habit of it, whether a blessing will not follow, so as that Christ may see in me of the travail of His soul. " July 1th. — Began again with an act of confidence ; but why not a perennial confidence in the Saviour ? And every human creature I meet with supplies an object and occasion for the second law. Give me, O Lord, as fruits of thy Spirit, love and long-suffering. " July Sth I have recurred more frequently to the act- =* See ante, p. 175. MT. 60. JOURNAL. 253 ings of faith in Christ, and I can have no doubt of this being the habit that is to bring me right. Let me realize Him as a person who knows my thoughts, and from whom I may ask for all that is needful to a life of godliness. O give me to experience the blessed effect of thus abiding in Him. Give me tokens for good. Make me sensible of real answers to actual requests, as the evidences of an interchange between myself on earth and my Saviour in Heaven. " July 9th. — Going on leisurely, I think feebly, with, I hope, my last controversial pamphlet on the Church question. Have much to learn, and desire to grow in the practical and experimental knowledge of Christ. " July IQth. — O my God, elevate and inspire me. Give me to feel the operation of the first law in my heart, raising my affections to thyself, and of the second law, diffusing the regards of kindness on all around me. What a selfish and ungodly creature I naturally am. Refine and exalt my aims and my purposes, O God, and let me realize the experience of a practical Christianity. •' July 11th. — Why at any time the heaviness of ennui? Should God be a weariness or a wilderness to His own crea- tures ? ''July loth. — Luxuriated over the beauties of the land- scape. " July 15th. — Hurt by a report in the ' Witness' of Lord Aberdeen's saying in the House, that after having brought the Church into jeopardy, I had left them to find their way out of it as they could. Recovered from this. Desire to roll over all upon God. " Sunday 26th. — Give me, O Lord, the power of ap- plication to spiritual subjects. Give me a firm and tangible hold of spiritual things. Let me know what it is to realize experimental religion. O may it be my daily task, my hourly exercise, my perennial enjoyment. " Sunday, August oOth. — My engrossments now are with Pauperism and the British Association. I have had miser- 254 • MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1840. ably little experience of prayer being the aliment of the di- vine life, but I think that now and previously I have expe- rienced its efficacy in shielding me from temptation. Thou knowest, O God, how frail I am. O give me the eirtyvcjdOLq as well as the yvC)GL<; — that knowledge of the Father and the Son which amounts to fellowship with both. ''October 19th. — A dreary interval ; British Association ; Greenock lectureship. My God, strengthen, stablish, settle me. Let me resume my journal. '' ISiOvemher 9th. — Yesterday being Sabbath, I employed in part, as usual, in the perusal of difficult theology, when I was visited by a sense of the injunction — ' Thou shalt not do any work.' On that day let me rest, and let it be a day not of study, but of sentiment and of sentiment allied with re- pose, such as resting in God, having peace and joy in believ- ing, waiting on God, rejoicing in hope, patient under injuries or in any sort of tribulation. — O grant that by a right use of the weekly Sabbath my old age may be mellowed into the Sabbath of my life ; and let me experience that in the quiet- ness and confidence of the seventh day there is a recruiting of strength for the duties and the exercises of the other six. " Sunday, Novemhcr 15th. — My Sabbatical meditations to-day have achieved for me an exemption from evil thoughts. I desire to watch as well as pray. Assist me, O God, in the work of holding communion with thyself. Save me from my besetting sins. Set me on a real work of preparation. I feel the advantage of a holy rest — the good and wisdom of the Sabbath hour. I pray for the faith of immortality. Felt to-day the advantage of a simple faith in the simple statements of God's Word. " Sunday, 22d. — Suffered myself to be annoyed by the perversities to which I am exposed on the subject of Pauper- ism. Let me rise to the more serene and elevated panorama of religion. — O my God, let me be clothed with humility and experience the consequent grace which thou hast promised to bestow. ^T. 60. JOURNAL. 255 "Sunday, January 10th, 1841. — Give me a constant sense of danger, and along with this of entire diffidence in myself, and so of perpetual dependence on Thee. Lead me to the Rock that is higher than T. I would renounce the devil, the world, and the flesh ; and to make this good, I would live a life of faith in thine own Son. O may His power rest upon me ; and agreeably to what I heard this day, may I look on all my sins as proceeding from myself, while naught but the grace which dispenses all good and perfect gifts Com- eth down from the sanctuary that is above. Let me not say, then, that I am tempted of God, when the enticement is felt of my own hurtful and foolish lusts. Let me make escape from this by fleeing from myself, and fleeing for refuge not merely to the hope, but to the strength and life which are laid up for me with Christ in God. I pray for the crucifixion of the flesh — for the mortification of the body through the spirit — for the death of the old man — for the peace and grace of a spiritual resurrection. O for the spirit of glory and of God, that with the new-born energies of the divine, I might be ena- bled to trample those vile affections of my own worthless na- ture into dust. " Sunday, lltli. — Have practiced total abstinence since the beginning of the year. My God, may I experience the life of thee in my soul. " January 2Qth. — O my God, give me the language and lofty spirit of him who reahzes eternity, and has enthroned thyself in his heart. "January 26th. — The Church question drawing to a crisis; and I desire to cast all on God, with sirnple faith in his message of reconciliation. — Give wisdom and grace, O Heavenly Father, and cause good to come out of these thick- ening events to our beloved land. " Su7iday, '31st. — Sir George Sinclair called; and the strong probability is, that I may yet be implicated more than I like with the Church question, " Sunday, February 1th. — Annoyed with the utter in- 256 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 181]. ertness and want of agency for the Marnoch subscrip- tion. " February 9th. — Gloomy accounts from London, and I pray God to strengthen and uphold the mind of our Church. " Su7ida7j, 14:th. — On Thursday met Mr. Wood, and suggested a clerical prayer meeting on the affairs of the Church. " Sunday, March lAth. — The affairs of the Church thickening ; and I sadly exercised by the urgencies that I should again mingle in the fray, to the hazard of my health and serious injury of my literary undertakings. I pray for the Church, O God. Make clear the path of duty. " Sunday, May 16th. — Was heavy when I awoke this morning ; but did experience relief and elevation by the ef- fort of a simple faith. Have adopted a new system of Sun- day readings, confining myself to a prayerful reading of Scripture. Last Sunday began with John i., and to-day John ii. Have had two pleasant, and, let me hope, two spiritual Sabbaths, to some degree, in consequence. Was much delighted by my ordinary Bible passage this morning in 1 Sam. ii. — Hannah's prayer, ' For by strength shall no man prevail.' Still very deficient in my attention as a hear- er at Church, though to-day better than usual. Feel now that to be spiritually-minded is life and peace — at least, of this very certain, that I shall have no peace without it ; and let me hope that this experience will shut me more up to a life of religion. Find that sermons from the pulpit or chap- ters in the Bible which would fail to interest me were I only bestowing a cursory attention upon them, become interesting when I make an effort to realize the objects of which they treat. Familiarize me, O God, more and more with the things of faith and eternity. " May 17th. — Can not but remark how T gravitate to ungodliness. Why are my thoughts, when alone and not studying, so little occupied with God ? And O that in com- pany I could appear more for His glory. Assist me to do JET. 61. JOURNAL. 257 this in my family, and let me watch my opportunities for doing Christian good. O that I could realize this blessed sequence — ' I have believed, therefore have I spoken.' Let me carry about with me a distinct confidence in forgiveness through the blood of Christ ; and with earnest desire of showing forth His praise and learning His doctrine, let me try how this confidence will work in me. The fruits of righteousness so produced will arise from the sense of my own nothingness, and have Christ alone as their origin. ''May I9th. — Let me guard my spirit from the impa- tience of petty annoyances ; and ever remember, in the lan- guage of the Port Royal Memoirs, that religion consists not in the doing of extraordinary things, but in the doing of com- mon things extraordinarily well. " May 20th. — A day of peace ; but a wide interval must be filled up ere I can record a day of positive religion. Why do I not go forth both as a forgiven and vested creature — forgiven all my trespasses, vested with the righteousness of Christ? It is only by living up to our privileges that we can live up to the full measure of Christian perfection. There is one temptation that I pray for grace to overcome. I am most sensitively alive to the disgust of certain pecu- liarities in the manners of the people for whom I have no taste, and with whom I feel no congenial sympathy. My God, I would press forward to the triumph of charity in such a case as this. Enable me to honor all men, to bear them all the regard which I owe to immortals, to please not my- self, but to take up my cross, and make a daily and hourly sacrifice of all my antipathies for their sake. O for the long- suffering of the gospel and the endurance of all things. Sol- emnized by the thought that this is the first day of the Assembly, and pray for God's special guidance and favor to the Church of Scotland. And I furthermore pray for direc- tion and the spirit of wisdom to myself, O God. " Sunday, 23d. — Had my Sabbath Bible exercise, and mean to persevere in it. The chapter of the day was John 253 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. iii. My chief thought was on the efficacy of faith as apart from conception, and faith too in the naked word, either with or without a lively manifestation of the archetype : our safety and spiritual health hanging- on the first; our sensible com- fort mainly depending, I should imagine, on the second. Let me here record my prayer to God for sustenance and succor and guidance through the fatigues and difficulties of the coming week (General Assembly); and O that He would lead me back to this retreat in safety, and enable me to write of His gracious answer to the voice of my supplications. Hide me in thy pavilion, O God, from the strife of tongues. Give me the preparation of the heart and answer of the mouth. Cause my way to please thee, that enemies might be at peace. And, O defend the Church, and bring her out of all her perils into a haven of security and quietness. Let me be without carefulness, rolling the whole burden of my anxieties upon God. " Sunday, 30 th. — On Monday crossed to Edinburgh. Spoke in the Assembly on Patronage on Tuesday; away from the Assembly all Wednesday. Spoke in the Assembly, and moved the deposition of the Strathbogie ministers. Mrs. Chalmers came over, and found me at my siesta in the Royal Hotel. She went off to Castlebank after tea, and I returned to bed, where I was raised about twelve for the vote, but was shut out. Present, however, at the deposition, and dis- quieted by a protest of the Moderates, which was, however, withdrawn next day. Have had abundant evidences of my native carnality and frailty during last week. My God, if it be thy blessed will, let me spend the remainder of my days in quiet study and retirement, with every aim terminating in thee and thy glory, and so in the furtherance, as thou mayest enable me, of the Christian good of all within my sphere, and more especially in the efTectual preparation of myself and my family for heaven. I have to record God's gracious answer to the prayer of last Sabbath. He has mercifully granted me another Ebenezer ; and at the same ^T. 61. JOURNAL. 259 time convinced me, through the medium of my consciousness and of its experimental findings, that I am no longer fit for the fatigues and turmoils of public life. Yet I would com- mit this thought of my heart, and for its establishment, to God, trusting in Him, and leaning not to my own under- standing. And O if it be His blessed will, may I spend my remaining days in the retirement which I love ; and let it be a retirement of peace and piety, and withal of profit to the souls of men. " May 31st. — Rode to Colinswell. There learned of the interdict on the Assembly, indicating a new stage of the Church's troubles. ''June 1st. — Comforted by the Assembly's resolutions on the interdict. " Simday, June Uh. — This a strenuous Sabbath of Bible reading, mixed with prayer — a day of faith rather than man- ifestation, that is to say, of resolute confidence in the tangi- bilities, which is surely better than to walk in sparks of our own kindling. Let me keep by God's Word and by the doing of His Divine will. The chapter of this day was John v., which I read in connection with a very great amount of parallel Scripture. The leading sentiment is the security of being in the hands of Christ, viewed as supreme in judgment and power, yet the Saviour. The first chapter of Acts, in my ordinary reading, suggested some pregnant thoughts. The Apostles were told that they should not depart from Jeru- salem till they were endowed with power from on high ; and neither should we depart from the Bible, but give earnest heed thereto till the day dawn and the day-star arise in our hearts. " /w^e 1th. — Arrested by a sense of my ungodliness while riding. Prayed for living water, that I might thirst no more ; and certainly realized a sense of my obligation to do nothing and enjoy nothing apart from Christ, which adhered to me, and made me feel how, by an influence ah extra, such enlargements and enhancements of spiritual manifest- 260 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. ation might come upon me as I have never yet experienced. Let me pray and watch for the Holy Ghost : and mean- while, in the absence of vivid conception, let me maintain a resolute belief in God's Word, and yield myself to the felt obligation of every plain and practical duty. (John xiv. 21.) " June 12th. — Had a luminous visitation at the shore. Why do I not walk at all times in the light and liberty of the Gospel ? — I pray, O God, for a fruitful Sabbath on the morrow ; a quiet, and let me hope a profitable Sabbath. The chapter was the sixth of John ; and the most powerful of its topics was the atonement, set forth in terms of the flesh and blood of Christ, the bread that came down from heaven. The transition from death to life, on the appropri- ation of the sacrifice, is the great turning point of a sinner's salvation. My God, bring me thereto, and let the great Propitiation of the Cross be the very food and aliment of my soul. ''June ISth. — Fatal information from Mr. Dunlop anent Sir Robert Peel. The Church prospect dark; but let us hope in God. ''June 19th. — Had gleams of the Gospel freeness ; sure that on no other footing I can prosper or be right. My family in feeble health, and the prospects of the Church very dark. Bear me up, O God, under the weight of every visitation. Be Thyself my portion. To attain the maximum of a right physical state I would perhaps require to be a shade more temperate. I mean by its maximum right state that in which the physical gives the least impediment to the spiritual ; and is most consistent with, if not subservient to, the duties and exercises and enjoyments of the life of faith. "June 21st. — Very quiet day. Surely I might live in greater spirituality did I cherish always the sense of God as a reconciling and reconciled Father. Let me have faith and feeling up to the offered privileges of the Gospel, God has been pleased to make this a day of peace, and rather of bright anticipation in regard to the Church, even though its con- .ET. 61. JOURNAL. 261 nection with the State should be dissolved. But recurring to the topic of a large confidence and belief in the promises of the Gospel, let me act on the injunction, Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it ! ''June 23d. — I have got into an embarrassment here, as the prudence of my building a house will be affected by the uncertainty of the Church prospect. We are taught to make our requests unto God in every thing. Help and guide me, 0 Lord, in this matter also. "June 29th. — Have begun my fourth volume on the Ro- mans.— O my God, enable me to take my own lesson and lay hold of the righteousness of Christ as my righteousness. " Sunday, July Ath. — A pleasurable day. My chapter was John ix. ; but it was my ordinary reading, in Romans i., that furnished the leading thought of this Sabbath — ' Christ the power and wisdom of God unto salvation.' Never am 1 in a better frame than when dwelling in simple faith on Christ's offered righteousness, and making it the object of my acceptation. — O Lord, I pray for more and more of the clearness and enlargement of this view ; and grant me the Spirit of adoption. O that I could attain the experience of Him who says, 'I have beheved, therefore have I spoken.' Let my light in particular shine before my family. "July 5th. — In peace ; but I should like to be more as- sured of its being a religious peace — peace in believing, the peace of those who love God's law. "July 8th. — A growing taste for the simplicity of the faith and conviction of its efficacy. "July 9th. — My first chemical lecture at Craigholm. My God, may the joy of Thee be my strength. A glorious day ; but oh that there were more of faith and heaven in my soul. "July 10th. — Mrs. C. tells me of a complaint under which poor J. labors that might well make me serious. Am I not too light-hearted and too luxurious, and altogether too self-indulgent ? Certain it is that in and of myself I am altogether vile and worthless, and would need, in dependence 262 xMExMOlRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. on grace alone, to have more of watchfulness unto prayer, more of self-denial, and a far more tender sense of the evil of ungodliness, than habitually and practically belong to me. — My God, give me wisdom and principle, and the life of faith, in reference to our visitors from England. ''July nth. — Felt the importance of the first verses m John X., as evincing, 1. That ministers might be appointed for congregations ab extra; but, 2. That there is such a sym- pathy between a minister called and quahfied by the Spirit, and all real Christians, as to afford a criterion by which the rightness of the appointment might be tested. Other parts of this chapter very precious. — Give me, O Lord, with all freedom to go out and in, and find pasture for my soul. " July 1 oth. — A most unsavory letter from , of which I could only relieve myself by replying to it. Feel a most degrading subjection to circumstances. O for that love of God which nothing can disquiet or offend. ''July I'ith. — Wrote Lord Galloway. Medically better, and morally in less discomfort, but have to complain of my extreme sensibility to the opinions of men. Why do I not look upon God ? Make me what Thou would'st have me. Let me be still, and know that Thou art God. "July 1 5th. — Mean to build at Morningside ; but let me not forget the end of the world and the coming of Christ — the catastrophe that comes as a thief in the night. Among the other mercies of this day I have to record a most agree- able letter from Dr. Gordon. "July 17th. — Find it essential to a religious frame that there should be more of devotional thinking and prayer. The Church crisis looks nearer. "July ISth. — At home all day; seeking after a simple faith. The more simple and child-like the better. Gleams of comfort under its occasional visitations. Heavenly Father ! establish me therein more and more ; so shall my bands be loosed, and I will serve Thee henceforth in the spirit of adoption. ^T. 61. JOURNAL. 263 " July 23d. — Have great need of the life of faith. I have sad infirmities of temper. My God, help me to overcome all the obstructions vi^hich lie in the way of my perfect observ- ance of the second law. How miserably deficient in the grace of endurance. Help me, O God I " July 29th. — Not satisfied with my composition on the Pv-omans, and fear that I strain too much after effect. Guide and invigorate me, O Lord, in the prosecution of this work; but keep me, above all, steadfast in the faith of Christ, and let it dwell habitually within me. "August 1st, Stmday. — My chapter was John xiii., and I certainly had great satisfaction in my Sabbath exercise thereupon. What a blessed and high achievement to realize the charity of the Gospel as described in 1 Cor. xiii., which was in my ordinary reading to-day. O God, let this be my distinct aim, that so the same mind may be in me that was in Christ Jesus. "August 5th. — Much, very much, to change ere I am as I ought to be in the element of religion. "August 1th. — The Church matters seem fast hastening to a crisis, and a disruption seems inevitable. I pray for counsel and fortitude, and all the proper virtues of such an emergency, from on high. "August 8th, — My chapter to-day John xiv. I find it easier, and surely it is safer, to take up my topics of medi- tation from the Bible, rather than to fetch them up by a gratuitous effort, or wait for them in reveries of my own. My God I bless and establish every good impression which the successive topics of that passage made upon me at the time. Let me but delight in thy law, O God, and count it my great business to be occupied therewith, and then nothing shall offend me. " August \2th. — Heard to-day of the Commission. Guide and fortify, O Lord, thy Church in the approaching crisis. "August 13th. — The times are hastening to a crisis. We must all be preparing for great changes. My God, give 264 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. grace and guidance for the emergency that now hangs over us. ^'August 15th. — The chapter of this day was John xv. — very precious. O let me abide in Christ, and in Him have nourishment and strength. Quicken me, O Lord, and let me so keep Thy words as to have the love of the Father and the Son. The Church question begins to engross me. " August 16th. — My Saviour, why art Thou so little in my thoughts ? Revive and regenerate me, O God I Brief preparation for the Commission. "August 19th. — How humbled I ought to feel at my exceeding distance from the test of loving God, that great is my peace, and that nothing shall offend me. ''August 27th. — Opened the Commission in the High Church, but adjourned to St. Luke's with Dr. Makellar. Went off to Cramond with Mr. M., where we met for prayer, and dined and spent the night. A number of the brethren — Dr. Gordon, Messrs. Cunningham, Candlish, Bu- chanan, and Home. " SejJtemher 5th. — Had nearer approach to God in Christ than usual, but have still much to aspire after. Much delighted with the first chapter of Colossians. The peculiar Sabbath chapter was John xviii. — O my God, let the mind of Mrs. C. be established, strengthened, and settled in the faith. May the eternity which is so fast approaching be full in our eye ; and let us walk together as heirs of the grace of life. " September 9th. — Strike off these fetters of false ortho- doxy which stand in the way of my new obedience ; and while I retain entire dependence on Christ's righteousness and grace, let me, at the same time, have the comfort of knowing that my labor, my own personal labor, is not in vain in the Lord. " Sei^tcmher lAth. — Let me keep by the work of self-dis- cipline amid all defects and discouragements. " September 21th. — Began this day my Institutes of JET. 61. HOR.E BIB LICE QUOTIDIAN .€. 265 Theoloo^y. I pray for God's blessing upon the work, and that faith and His glory may be the single aim of my heart. I have great comfort in quiet and leisurely and thorough study, " October 1st. — My last lecture on chemistry. Some failures and breakages, but altogether a splendid and satis- factory conclusion. " October 2d. — Let me do all I can for others ; but re- member that whatever I do beyond the point of doing it cheerfully is not an acceptable sacrifice to God. " October od. — Began my regular Biblical devotions this day — I trust with good to my soul. The result so far has been a feehng of comfort and satisfaction. Prosper this enter- prise, Almighty Father ; and bless it to my eternal welfare." The Biblical compositions referred to in the last extracts, commenced at this period, were continued by Dr. Chalmers with unbroken regularity till the day of his decease. Go where he might, however he might be employed, each week- day had its few verses read, thought over, written upon, giving what he denominated his " Horas Bibhcse Quoti- diansB ;"* each Sabbath-day had its two chapters, one in the Old, the other in the New Testament, with the two trains of meditative devotion recorded to which they respectively gave birth — forming what he denominated his '' Horse Bib- lical Sabbaticae."! In preparing the "Horse Quotidianse," he had beside him for use and reference the Concordance, Kitto's Pictorial Bible, Poole's Synopsis, Henry's Commentary, and Robinson's Researches in Palestine. These constituted what he called his " Biblical Library." " There," said he to a friend, pointing to the volumes as they lay upon the table of his library, " there are the books I use — all that is biblical is there. I have to do with nothing besides in my biblical study." It would have defeated his primary object had he used the many other helps which were at hand, had he been * See Posthumous Works^ vols, i., ii., iii. t Ibid., vols, iv., v. VOL. IV. M 266 MEMOIRS OF DK. CHALMERS. 1841, led away by their employment into any lengthened critical, historical, or doctrinal investigations. These daily writings were not intended to be vehicles of learned research. They were not intended to constitute an elaborate exposition. He had no intention of drawing up for the use of others a regular commentary on the Holy Scriptures. He used the pen for his own private benefit alone. His great desire was to take off from the sacred page as quick, fresh, vivid, and complete an impression as he could, and in using his pen to aid in this, his object was far more to secure a faithful transcript of that impression than either to examine or describe the mould that made it. His own description of the " Horec Biblicse Quoti- dianse" was, that they consisted of his first and readiest thoughts, clothed in the first and readiest words which oc- curred to him. They are not the less valuable on this account. " We want," says Lord Bacon, " short, sound, and judicious notes upon Scripture, v/ithout running into commonplaces, pursuing controversies, or reducing those notes to artificial method, but leaving them quite loose and native. For, certainly, as those wines which flow from the first treading of the grape are sweeter and better than those forced out by the press, which gives them the roughness of the husk and the stone, so are those doctrines best and sweetest which flow from a gentle crush of the Scriptures, and are not wrung into controversies and commonplaces."* The wise hand was needed as well as the gentle crush, and in the " Horse Quotidiana3," the fruit of both, we have the want complained of by Bacon supplied. The "Horse Sabbaticse" differ both in form and substance from the '• Horse Quotidianfe." Written amid the quiet of the day of rest, they rise to a high region, and they breathe a holier air. Contemplative and devotional throughout, they pass generally into direct addresses to the Deity. Such references are continually occurring to passing incidents, that they might fitly be described, if the expression were allow- * See Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Neivspaper, Nov. 27. 1847. JET. 61. HOR^ BIBLIC^ SABBATICiE. 267 able, as the Sabbath diary of the last six years of Dr. Chalmers's life. His impressions as to the events are given here in a manner so free and unrestrained as to impart to them a peculiar interest. But the chief value of the " Sab- baticae," and that which makes us rank them as among the most precious of all Dr. Chalmers's writings, lies in the spirit of rational and scriptural, yet lofty and ethereal devotion which they breathe. The innermost movements of his spirit are here spread out to us as he himself spread them out before that eye which seeth in secret : we see him as he bowed in simple, sincere, profound humility when alone in the presence of God — we hear him as, in tones often so low and deep, yet often also so heavenly and sublime, he poured his confessions and desires and aspirations into the ear of the Holy One. CHAPTER XV. PATRONAGE ABOLISHED BY THE REVOLUTION SET- TLEMENT—THE ACT OF SECURITY AND TREATY OF UNION— PATRONAGE RESTORED BY THE ACT OF QUEEN ANNE— DR. CHALMERS TAKES PART IN THE ANTI- PATRONAGE MOVExMENT — VINDICATION OF THE STEP IN HIS LETTER TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL —NARRATIVE OF THE SETTLEMENT AT CULSAL- MOND— THE INTERDICTS OF THE COURT OF SESSION —CONDUCT OF THE GOVERNMENT— THE NEW PARTY IN THE CHURCH— DR. CHALMERS'S LETTER TO THE REV. MR. BRUCE— THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1842 —MOTION FOR THE ABOLITION OF PATRONAGE— THE CLAIM OF RIGHTS. By the Revolution Settlement in 1699, the Royal su- premacy in spiritual affairs and lay patronage in the Church of Scotland were abolished. When, a few years afterward, a motion for the union of the two kingdoms was brought for- ward, the people and Parliament of Scotland were so alive to the perils to which their Church would be exposed under the predominating influence of Anglican institutions, and so de- termined that " the worship, discipline, and government of their Church should be eflectually and unalterably secured," that not only did they forbid their Commissioners to treat "of or concerning any alteration" in their Church, but they passed an Act, entitled "The Act of Security," by which they did " for ever confirm the 5th x'^ct of the 1st Parliament of King William and Queen Mary, entituled ' Act Ratifying the Con- fession of Faith and Settling Presbyterian Church Govern- ment,' and the whole other Acts of Parliament relating thereto;" and did "establish and confirm the said Protestant and Presbyterian Church government to continue without any alteration to the people of this land in all succeeding genera- ^T. 61. THE REVOLUTION SETTLEMENT. 269 tioiis." It was also especially enacted, that this Act " should be held and observed in all time coming as a fundamental and essential condition of any treaty or union to be concluded betwixt the two kingdoms, without any alteration thereof, or derogation thereto, in any sort for ever." This Act was ac- cepted and ratified by the English Parliament, and embodied entire in the Treaty of Union. Iti violation of these mani- fold and most sacred securities, when Bolingbroke was plotting the overthrow of the other Protestant institutions of the em- pire, and was secretly preparing the way for the return of the Stuarts to the throne, he introduced an Act for the restoration of Patronage in Scotland, and hurried it with indecent haste through Parliament. The Church had barely time to let her voice of remonstrance against such a flagrant breach of the Treaty of Union, be heard in the House of Lords. It was heard, however, only to be disregarded ; and by the 10th of Queen Anne, passed on the 2 2d May, 1711, Patronage was once more established. So strong was the general conviction of the impolicy and unrighteousness of this act, that for many years it was not acted on in Scotland, the patrons not claim- ing the right which it bestowed, or the Church, without challenge, disallowing it. It came gradually, however, into operation, and at last, under the reign of Moderatism, was universally acted upon. The course of events once more di- rected to it the attention of the Church. It obviously lay at the root of all the evils by which the Church was visited ; and the failure of recent negotiations led an increasing num- ber to demand its abolition as the best and surest method of deliverance. At an important meeting of the Presbytery of Edinburgh, held on the 26th January, 1842, the Rev. Dr. Gordon moved a series of resolutions, affirming " the pro- priety of seeking the abolition of the Law of Patronage, as, especially in the construction now attempted to be put upon it, involving a violation of the constitution of the Church and kingdom secured at the Pwevolution, and unalterably ratified by the Act of Security and Treaty of Union." 270 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. In seconding this motion Dr. Chalmers said — " When the Church and the patrons harmonize, and are alike bent on the Christian good of the people, the matter proceeds rightly and prosperously. The times have been when they harmonized for evil, and the people were sacrificed ; but the times are now when the Church is on the side of the people, and very many of the Patrons are against them. I see nothing that can extricate the difficulty but that the people be called in and restored to the place which they held in the first ages of the Christian Church, and in the best and most flourishing periods of the Church of Scotland. If the two can be made to stand together — if Patronage and the rights of the popular conscience can in any way be amalgamated — the object of the motion -were fulfilled, without the last resort, which, on the failure of all previous expedients, is thus opened up to us. But I confess I have my doubts, nay more, I have my fears — nay more, after the weary experience of so many years, I begin to despair of a reconciliation between these jarring ele- ments, which, after all our attempts to conjoin them, like water and oil, are found to be immiscible. There is one com- fort in the midst of all these discomfitures, that if one or other of these adverse elements is to be sacrificed, I feel no perplexity on the question which of the two ought to give way. Be- tween absolute and unmitigated Patronage on the one hand, and popular election on the other, I do not hesitate a moment to say which is the likelier constitution of the two for a laborious, a faithful, and a well appointed mini.stry in the Church of Scotland. With a Church prepared on the one hand to fix and to regulate and to raise indefinitely, if she so choose, the learning and the quahfications of the eligible — and on the other, by her high demands both for character and knowledge at the admission of communicants to the table of the Lord, to raise indefinitely the character of her electors, I confess that, with the blessing of God, I should look, under the working of a system like this, for the triumphant progress of a so renewed and regenerated Church among the people JET. 61. ABOLITION OF PATRONAGE. 271 of these lands. And should the interloper, Patronage, com© in. betwixt, and ask for her function and her place of occu- pancy in the midst of us — should this corrupter, in other days, of the purity of our Church, this disturber, and never mora than now, of the peace of our Israel, lift her unabashed vis- age, and, with all her sins upon her forehead, tell us of her claims, and ask how she is to be disposed of, let her be made to know that we have no demand whatever for her services, and that the power which refuses to be regulated ought forth- with to be destroyed. " I conclude with expressing it as my earnest prayer that these controversies might soon pass away ; and still more that, however terminated, the Church may be found from first to last to have acquitted herself with perfect honor, and so as to come forth with unimpaired moral weight in the eyes of the country. Circumstances have brought her into contact and busy converse with the politicians of this world. It is her part to maintain the most perfect simplicity and godly sincerity in all her transactions with them ; and I sit down wdth the most perfect confidence that if her ways please God He will make even her deadliest enemies to be at peace with her." At the opening of the Non-Intrusion controversy Dr. Chal- mers had not only kept himself aloof from the Anti-patronage movement, but had strenuously resisted it, as throwing an obstacle between the Church and the politicians in the pend- ing negotiations. The part now taken by him and others in fostering a movement which they had previously condemn- ed, marks a new stage in the progress of the controversy, and receives its justification from the altered position of affairs. It lay open, however, to grave charges, which were unscrupu- lously adduced. It was represented as stamping dishonesty on all the previous procedure of the Church, as if she had been cherishing a design which she had carefully concealed. She now, it was alleged, dropped the mask, and revealed the democratic spirit by which her whole conduct had been ani- 272 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1841. mated. Nor were enemies the only parties who condemned this movement. By some of the best friends of the Church it was regarded as a needless shifting of her ground, unjustifi- able in itself and unworthy of the Church's dignity. Among many remonstrances against its impolicy, there was one which, coming from the Duke of Argyll, who had already proved his attachment to the Church, and was waiting only for the iii- vorable moment for pressing his measure on the Legislature, was entitled to the weightiest regard. Dr. Chalmers replied to it as follows : " Edinburgh, February 9th, 1842. " My Lord Duke — I understand that the enemies of our cause represent the motion carried the other day in the Pres- bytery of Edinburgh as an onward movement on the part of the majority in the Church, which they had all along con- templated, but kept secret till now, thereby laying themselves open to the charge of a double and disingenuous policy, as if, while negotiating for a small, they were all the while intent on a larger measure, which they meant, when a fitting oppor- tunity came round, to speed onward by one step after another in a career of indefinite and unknown changes. •* I will not speak of those negotiations wherewith I myself have not had personally to do, though I believe them capable of entire vindication. But your Grace will permit me to say, that in all my correspondence, and on every occasion when I have taken part in the deliberations of the Church Courts, I have studied the most perfect simplicity and openness in all my avowals, and have never shrunk from the most frank and explicit and unreserved declaration of my views. " Two years ago, when I corresponded with Lord Aber- deen, my immediate object was to obtain the liberu??i arbi- trium ; but I never ceased to express my desire for a much larger concession than this to the wishes of the people, and assured him on various occasions that the more nearly he ap- proached to a popular constitution, the more surely would he ^T. 61. LETTER TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL. 273 provide both for the prosperity of the Church and the peace of the country. " But on this very principle I infinitely preferred your Grace's Bill to the measure I attempted to press on Lord Aberdeen ; and surely was quite at liberty to become its advo- cate when that measure was denied to me. I accordingly (lid advocate it most strenuously at the last General Assembly, not as absolutely the best, but as the best that we had any likelihood of getting-. My opinion as to the optimum maxi- mw7i, however, remained unchanged, and, having nothing to disguise, I proclaimed it openly, which was, that the best con- stitution for a Church I deemed to be that where the minis- ters were paid by the State and chosen by the people. " This brings me down to the present time. The libenun arhitrium was refused to us by Lord Aberdeen, and we took to your Grace's Bill. The liberum arhitrium has been again refused to us by Sir James Graham, and your Grace has rep- resented the carrying of your Bill as all but hopeless. What then remains for us to do ? We now feel as if it were a vain endeavor to enlist the understanding of the English Parlia- ment on the side of any of our ecclesiastical peculiarities. It was perhaps wrong to expect that they should judge aright on the merits of a Presbyterian Church law ; but we may have a better chance of finding access to the Parliamentary mind of England if we speak to them of the merits and char- acter of one of their own acts, and appeal to their sense of justice on the flagrant iniquity done to Scotland, when by a breach of the Articles of Union, that Act of Queen Anne was passed which has brought evils on our Church, that, after the failure of our repeated trials, we may well conclude, should your Grace not succeed in carrying your Bill, to be wholly irremediable. Nothing more natural, nothing more justifiable, than that after these defeats and disappointments we should try to get rid of an act which is the real source of all our difficulties, so as to be thrown back on the state we held between 1690 and 1711, one of the most flourishing 274 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. periods in the history of our Church. Aiul it is not we who spontaneously, and of our own wantonness, are making changes from one proposal to another : we are compelled to it by those on the other side who reject our first proposals, and force us to take refuge in succeeding ones. It is by a confusion of ideas that people say of us, Nothing will content them : if they get one reform, they M'ill be after another presently. Truly all our apparent changes proceed from this, that, instead of getting any thing, we are refused every thing; and we have been shut up to our present position, not by any wayward fluctuations of our own, but by the unyielding ob- stinacy of those who are opposed to us. " It may very naturally be asked, Why, if you thought it better to have a large than a small measure, why did you seek the small, and not lift at once your demand for the large, and which you profess to regard, too, as intrinsically prefer- able to the other. We have perhaps done wrong in this ; but we wanted to obtain redress in the most practicable and pacific way, and with the least possible amount of change or innovation. We were willing to be put into a state that "was at all tolerable in the most cautious, and, if I may so term it, in the most conservative way possible ; and all we have got in return is the misinterpretation of our proceedings, as if with the insatiable spirit of anarchs and revolutionists we had entered on a desperate course of transitions from one stage to another, till we had precipitated the Church into some gulf, the nature of which I do not well understand, but which I have no doubt is sufficiently frightful in the scared imaginations of our adversaries. " It is exceedingly to be regretted, that, in this heated warfare of party, so much injustice should be going ; but I have all confidence in your Grace's calm and enlightened patriotism, and am sure that you will bear with me, if, in the few remaining lines, I attempt to lay before you what I hold for any practical object is most material to be known. " 1st, The Church may acquiesce in, she never will ap- .^T. 62. LETTER TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL. 275 prove of a mere liberum arbitrium ; and it will have little or no effect in laying an arrest on the Anti-patronage move- ment. " 2d, The Church, in my opinion, would accept of your Grace's Bill, and that not as a step to ulterior changes, but for the purpose of M'orking it honestly and faithfully, with the view to an efficient ministration of the Gospel in Scot- land. Many of us, and myself in particular, do not think that it comes up to the beau ideal of a best possible consti- tution for the appointment of clergymen. But we shall be content to M^ait for this being realized by a gradual and pacific march of improvement, and have no sympathy with those who talk of installments, and would keep the Church and the country in a state of incessant turmoil and agitation. " But, 3rZ, and most important of all, The Church, I fondly hope and pray, will never consent to be cast down by any power on earth beneath the liberum arbitrium. If the right of the patron, on the one hand, is to carry it over the judg- ment of the ecclesiastical courts that it is not for the Chris- tian good of the families in a parish that his presentee, un- acceptable to them, shall be admitted their minister ; the Church, on the other hand, never will submit to the man- date of any court under the sun calling on them to ordain and admit that man. On this head I trust that our major- ity will present an unbroken phalanx of resistance to the vio- lence that would offer such an invasion upon our liberties ; and should the further violence be perpetrated of driving us, because of this, from our own rightful patrimony, we shall in hundreds, I trust, quit the endowments of a Church thus Erastianized, and, under God, cast the support of our righteous cause on the people of Scotland. Thomas Chalmers. " To His Grace The Duke of Argyll." Meanwhile, in the race of ecclesiastical insubordination the Presbytery of Strathbogie had found a vigorous rival in in its next neighbor, the Presbytery of Garioch. The Rev, 276 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. Mr. Middleton, who had acted for some years as assistant to the minister of Culsalmond, obtained at last a presentation to that parish. The Presbytery of Garioch met on the 28th October, 1841, to moderate in the Call. A majority of the communicants on the roll dissented from the appointment. According to the recent regulations of the Church, the Presbytery was not bound to give immediate effect to that dissent by rejecting the presentee, but was required only to stay procedure, and report to the next General Assembly. The Presbytery resolved, however, to proceed immediately to the ordination. A minority of the Court appealed to the superior judicatories, but this appeal was set aside. The people then came forward with special objections to the presentee, but the Presbytery refused to consider them. The parishioners and the minority in the Presbytery protested separately against this resolution, and appealed to the Synod. There is a standing order of the Church that no Presbytery shall ordain in face of an appeal. Trampling upon tliis order, and setting all the common forms of procedure at de- fiance, the Presbytery resolved to meet again at Culsalmond on the 11th November, for the purpose of completing the settlement. It was another bleak, wintry, snowy day, such as that which occurred about a year before in the neighbor- ing parish of Marnoch, and another such crowd assembled. But the same wise counsels did not prevail, nor was the same spirit manifested by the people. The rapid and imperious movement of the Presbytery had created the feeling that they were stealing a march upon the people, and trying to do the deed before legal check of any kind could be imposed. K/ashly and most unwisely the people took the check into their own hands. When the doors were opened, a motley crowd, principally composed of strangers from a distance, rushed in, and took such complete possession of the building, that it was with extreme difficulty, and by the help only of the officers of justice, that the Presbytery could find their way into the Church. It was to no purpose that they found JET. 6-2. SETTLEMENT AT CULS ALMOND. 277 an entrance ; for no sooner was the attempt made to com- mence the proper business of the Court than loud discordant clamors, rising from all quarters, drowned their voices, and effectually prevented all further progress. They waited for an hour or more — again and again making the effort to pro- ceed, but making it in vain. They retired at last to the manse, and there, in a private room, and within locked doors, this unhappy ordination was consummated. The parish- ioners complained to the Commission of the arbitrary and irregular conduct of the Presbytery, and that Court, which met on the 17th November, cited the parties complained of to appear before the ensuing General Assembly, and in the mean time, until the protests and appeals which had been made were judicially disposed of, prohibited Mr. Middleton from officiating in the parish of Culsalmond, and instructed the minority of the Presbytery of Garioch to provide for the administration of sacred ordinances in that parish. The sentence of the Commission was purely and exclusively spiritual : it touched no civil right — it carried with it no civil consequence. It had grounds to rest on disconnected with any question about the legality of the Veto Law. Mr. Middleton, however, and the majority of the Presbytery, applied to the Court of Session to suspend it, and to prohibit its intimation and execution. Lord Ivory, to whom, as Lord Ordinary, their petition was in the first instance directed, refused to grant its prayer, on the grounds " that there was no question now before the Court as to the legality of the Veto Law ; that the civil rights, whether of the patron or presentee, would stand perfectly unscathed, notwithstanding all that had yet been done by the Commission ; and that the only question here was, shall this Court interfere with the proceedings of a proper Church Court, when that Court acting within its own province, is dealing with a proper ec- clesiastial cause, and this, too, while that cause is still actually depending before them ?" The case went before the First Division of the Court, and the majority of the 278 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. Judges reversed the decision of the Lord Ordinary. On the 1 0th March, 1 842, the Suspension and Interdict were granted as craved. In delivering his opinion, the Lord President declared that it was quite sufficient to bring this matter within the jurisdiction of the Court — " that a gross stigma had been fixed on Mr. Middleton's sacred character as a minister of the gospel," by his being forbidden for a time to officiate ; and that the majority of the Presbytery had been " degraded from their status and functions as established ministers, and their general usefulness and respectability afiected" by their being overlooked, and the minority ap- pointed to supply all the ministerial services which the parish of Culsalmond required. At the beginning of this con- troversy, it was alleged in defense of the Court of Session, that it had interfered only when such civil rights as are properly the subjects of civil action were immediately in- volved. As broader and deeper invasions of the Church's territory were made, the defense was widened by its being affirmed that the Civil Court w^as warranted to interfere in all cases where civil rights w^ere directly or indirectly af- fected. But now the Court of Session, speaking through its President, had given it broadly to be understood, that if any one conceived that by the sentence of an ecclesiastical court, any injury had been done to his reputation, or respectability, or usefulness, that was in itself enough to justify the Court in reviewing, and if it saw reason, in reversing the sentence of which he complained. No act of discipline could the Church perform ; no spiritual censure or sentence of con- demnation could she pronounce, which, upon this ground, did not lie open to revisal or reversal by the Court of Session. By assuming this prerogative, that Court constituted itself as the court of last appeal in all such cases ; and the Church lay stripped of any supreme or exclusive jurisdiction. A broad and patent way to the Court of Session had been opened, and where Presbyteries had gone before them, individual ministers could find no difficulty of approach. ^T. 62. CONDUCT OF THE GOVERNMENT. 279 The minister of Stranraer had been accused of various acts of fraud, and his Presbytery were proceeding- in his trial, when he applied to the Civil Court " to suspend the whole proceedings of the Presbytery ;"' and " iurther to prohibit, interdict, and discharge the said Presbytery from taking cognizance of the pretended libel." The minister of Cam- busnethan had been found guilty of four separate acts of theft, and the Presbytery were about to depose him, when he raised an action of reduction in the Court of Session, and obtained an interdict against their proceeding. Mr. Clark, the presentee to Lethendy, who was living in the manse of which he had taken possession, was accused of repeated acts of drunkenness, and the Presbytery of Dunkeld had entered upon the investigation of these charges, with a view to deprive him of his license. But he too had recourse to the great Protector, and an interdict against the Presbytery had been issued. While actions and interdicts were multiplying — each new encumbrance thrown before the Church making it more dif- ficult for her to proceed — the Government refused to interiere. At the commencement of the parliamentary session of 1842, Sir Robert Peel informed the House that he had no legislative measure in contemplation. Two months afterward, the Home Secretary, Sir James Graham, repeated the announcement, adding to it the declaration that the Government was resolved " to stand by the law of the land, as laid down by the civil tribunals of the country." The member for Argyleshire, Mr. Campbell of Monzie, moved the appointment of a select com- mittee of inquiry ; but his motion was negatived by a large majority, the Government lending all its weight to oppose his motion. Early in May, the determination to do nothing, but to leave the Church to continue the conflict as she best could, appeared suddenly to have been relinquished. This was due to a most untoward event which now occurred, an event fraught with incalculable evil. When the negotiations springing out of Sir George Sinclair's proposal terminated, there was a deep 280 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. and very general conviction, that all hope of any adjustment, based upon Lord Aberdeen's measure, was worse than nu- gatory. There were one or two members, however, of the Non-Intrusion Committee who thought otherwise, and by whom an active clerical canvass was commenced, with the view of forming a new party, drawn from the evangelical ranks. Dr. Simpson of Kirknewton, and Dr. Leishman of Govan, were the leaders of this disastrous movement. At the meeting of the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, which took place in April, the latter of these two clergymen declared, that already, within the bounds of that synod, there were forty prepared to accept of that settlement which the Committee had repudiated. This party had not confined their operations to Scotland; if they had, their movement had been com- paratively harmless. They had opened private negotiations with men in power, the bitter fruits of which immediately appeared. Mr. Campbell of Monzie had undertaken to intro- duce the Duke of Argj'le's Bill into the House of Commons, and the 4th May was the day fixed for its second reading. At the last hour — no time for consultation given — the hon- orable member was informed that the Government had it in contemplation to introduce a measure themselves, which they believed would be satisfactory ; and he was requested to with- draw his Bill. He consented to do so, cherishing the natural belief, that with the knowledge so abundantly possessed by the Government of what alone would satisfy, its measure would at least be one in which the Church could acquiesce. But when Sir James Graham informed the House that it was in consequence of recent communications from Scotland that the Government had been induced to interfere, and still more, when he presented to the House a general outline of the measure, it was apparent that nothing beyond Lord Aber- deen's Bill, with the added clause, was contemplated ; and that the hope of success entertained by the Government origin- ated in the belief that the evangelical party was at last break- ing up, and that so many would join *' the forty" as to make JET 62. LETTER TO MR. BRUCE. 281 it both safe and desirable for Government to interfere. So soon as this appeared, Mr. Maule, Mr. Rntherfnrd, Mr. Patrick M. Stewart, and other tried parliamentary friends of the cause, resisted the proposal of postponement, and urged most stren- uously that the debate should go on. They pressed the matter to a division, and M'ere left in a minority of 43 to 131. The General Assembly was now at hand, and Government waited to note its proceedings, as an index for guiding its own course. It was destined to be the last Assembly of the United Church of Scotland. Beset and beleaguered on every side, the evangelical majority held fast its ground, and showed still an unbroken front. But the difficulties which it had to encounter had now greatly increased — the legal entanglements had become at once more numerous and more embarrassing — the open anarchy which had broken out was rapidly spreading — and now, last of all, and worst of all, there were dark ru- mors of internal disunion and defection. In the judgment of tlie wisest and best of its leaders, the period had arrived for a final declaration of principles and purpose, to be followed by some decisive course of action. The approaching meeting of the General i^ssembly would supply the fit occasion for making this Declaration ; but for some weeks previously, it was matter of grave and anxious consultation in what form it should be couched, and to what special objects it should be directed. Dr. Chalmers, who was not in Edinburgh at this time, embodied his own views in the following letter to the Bev. Mr. Bruce: " April lOth, 1842. " My dear Sir — In the present state of our Church con- troversy, the first and nearest concern is the integrity of our jurisdiction. " After the treatment we have received both from Gov- ernment and Parliament, as well as the Court below, the time seems now to be fully come when we should put forth a Claim of Rights, with a statement of what we hold to be our duty, along with our determination to adhere to it. :82 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. " I hold it a great advantage, that in the preparation of such a document, we can set ourselves forth in the light of a suffering and aggrieved party — not as claimants, but as complainers ; that is, not as seeking for ourselves any new powers, but as protesting against an invasion made upon our old liberties, and which have been ours in undisturbed pos- session for many generations. One great benefit of such an attitude is, that whereas to meet the allegation of seeking power for ourselves, we felt compelled to say, in reply and vindication, that it was but the power of giving effect to the dissents of the people — we do not need thus to mix up one question with another, but may confine ourselves simply to a demand for justice against the aggressions of the Civil Courts on the part which belongs to the Church, and to the Church exclusively, in the collation of the ministerial office. " I have all along been impressed with the deadly mischief that has arisen from the complication of our question — be- tween the Church's power to regulate in this matter, and the propriety of our specific regulation. In every conference or negotiation with our civil rulers, I would keep exclusively by the former of these topics ; and unless forced upon us by them, would keep out the other, as an irrelevancy, that was not only unnecessary but uncalled for ; but more than this, because it operated as a hurtful distraction, and served to obscure and mystify a question which, if looked to with singleness of eye, might by this time have been so hghted up, as to have made its whole subject-matter tran.sparent to all. When we asked the Parliament to establish and endow Presbyterianism, we did not ask them to become Presbyterians. When we ask them to protect our spiritual independence from the invasion of the courts below, so as that we shall be suffered to give effect to our own principle of Non-Intrusion, I would ask no recognition of this principle from them, or that they should become Non-Intrusionists. " I should therefore rejoice, if, in preparing a Claim of Rights, it could be so managed, that Non-Intrusion were ^T. 62. LETTER TO MR. BRUCE. 283 not once mentioned in it. There might be a necessity for adverting to it in the historical part of the Memorial, but there is both a high principle and a high policy in its not being named — save in the general as a principle held by us to be essential to the Presbytery, and which the Church, there- fore, is resolved never to abandon. " To satisfy you that this is no crotchet, let me state the grounds on which my view rests, in what appears to me the following grave and substantial considerations : " 1st. To set the Parliamentary mind a-going on two points instead of one, is to foreclose all hope of its ever attaining a clear view of our question. One idea at a time is enough for any corporate body to discuss or to decide upon ; and the agitation of two in that assembly of several hundreds, will give rise to a labyrinth of confusion that must turn out to be quite inextricable. Lord Lome's pamphlet owes all its clear- ness and power to his having kept by the single topic of the Church's rightful jurisdiction ; and what is the alone subject of his letter to the Peers, should be the alone subject of our manifesto, both to Peers and Commoners. " 2d. It is the proper topic addressed to the proper quar- ter. It is not for Parliament to take up the ecclesiastical merits of the principle of Non-Intrusion ; nor would I ask from them any opinion on a question which is ours, not theirs. It is an internal question wherewith we alone have to do. The other is a boundary question — the only proper one be- tween the two parties — the line of demarkation between the civil and the ecclesiastical. I would not ask their approval to ordain a certain amount of education in Hebrew ; but should an inferior court resist this our ordination, I would ask their protection from the molestation thus given to us. As little would I ask their approval ere I ordained a certain amount of acceptableness as essential to the pastoral relation. But I ask protection from the Court that steps beyond its own domain, and has made invasion upon ours, for the pur- 284 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. pose of compelling us to form the pastoral relation on other terms than we ourselves have determined. " 3d. I feel it a sort of injustice to the cause of our spirit- ual independence — or which is tantamount to this, to the sacred cause of the headship of Christ, to be condescending on the specific question of Non-Intrusion — when so high a matter is at issue as the great generic and comprehensive privilege which is inherit with every true church, of deciding this and all other purely ecclesiastical questions for them- selves. To speak of the enactment, when the thing in jeop- ardy is the enacting power, is bringing this power into greater jeopardy still. It is almost like the submission of the enact- ment to the tribunal of civil authority. On this ground I would never ask from the legislature a recognition of the principle of Non-Intrusion. It is a far greater thing which is at stake — the right of giving effect to this and every other principle of a purely spiritual nature which seemeth to us a sound one. We do not ask the bestowal of even this right at their hands. We only ask their recognition of it as a right which both originally and constitutionally belongs to us : or rather we stand before them as an aggrieved party (which, as I have already said, were an immense advantage), and ask their protection from an invasion on that sacred pre- rogative, which both in the nature of things and by law be- longs to us. This is our high ground, and we should keep by it. " 4th. There is still another ground on which I should like our struggle M'ith the civil power to be for the genus rather than for the species. It is not merely that if the one were secured the other would follow ; but that the one, as being altogether of a more catholic and comprehensive char- acter, commands for itself a larger sympathy and respect, not in England only, but throughout the whole of reformed Christendom. It is that great Erastian controversy, in which all states and all churches have a common interest. The other question has more, certainly, of a local character. JET. 62. LETTER TO MR. BRUCE. 285 It is a Scottish peculiarity, which not even our near friends and neighbors, the Methodists of England, can altogether go along with; and I do confess that I have often felt when Non-Intrusion was spoken of out of Scotland, that it was the inopportune presentation of such a topic as gave a certain cast of provincial littleness to a cause which might be so stated as to create a responsive and deep-felt interest in every land where national establishments of Christianity were known. " 5th. I have not exhausted these considerations, and could state other and distinct ones ; but in addition to these, which might be called the proprieties of the case in itself, let me give my own impression of what may be termed the policy of the question — though I by no means hinge our determin- ation as to the right method of treating it on a matter so un- certain as the likelihoods of success. But I do feel it to be a grievous deviation from all sound tact and management, to be unnecessarily arousing the antipathies of the English Par- liament, by dunning into their ears our ecclesiastical topic of Non-Intrusion, when we have other such congenial and in- telligible topics on which to address them, as co-ordinate jurisdiction. Articles of Union, the faith of national treaties, the contents and enactments of their own statute-book, the relations and other generalities which pertain to the connec- tion between Church and State. What makes me all the less able to comprehend this constant and inveterate tendency to the specific rather than to the general question, and that both in and out of season, is, that after all the general is our vital question, and the particular constitution of our Patron- age is not so. It seems to me a further aggravation of this impolicy — as serving to make the breach between the Church and the State all the more hopeless — that our vital is not their vital question ; and therefore did we but confine our- selves to the former, we may carry it our own way — where- as, if we insist on the latter, which is not our vital question, but may be theirs, it might lead to a misunderstanding quite 286 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. irreparable. There are many, I believe, in the Senate-house who would sooner see the Establishment destroyed than give a vote, which in their own name should expressly recognize the principle of Non-Intrusion ; and who yet, rather than venture on the sacrifice of a great national institute, would consent that the power of the patron, and of the civil courts, should cease from the moment that the presentee should be handed over to the Church Courts. Let us keep, therefore, on the right track of negotiation ; and we may not only all the more effectually secure the attention of the Legislature to our cause, but may get infinitely better terms by it. In any protest, or remonstrance, or claim of rights, that we in- tend for the ears of the Legislature, let us address them as statesmen, by speaking of the constitutional standing and rela- tions between the two bodies ; and not as theologians or eccle- siastics by speaking of Non-Intrusion. " But it may be said, is not this casting Non-Intrusion overboard ? No, it is only providing each topic with its right theatre, and so taking the best method for bringing each to a right issue. England, and more especially its Parliament, is the arena on which the battle for the Church's jurisdic- tion is to be fought. Scotland, and more especially its General Assembly, is the arena on which to plead and carry the cause of Non-Intrusion. But indeed it is most true that in one sense I am ready to cast Non-Intrusion overboard ; and that to make room for it in its best form, which is the abolition of Patronage. Still it is in Scotland where this cause has, in the first instance, to be launched and set afloat ; and that both in the General Assembly, where the ancient protest against it ought to be renewed, and throughout the country at large, whence petitions might be made to ascend from one end of the land to the other. It is not until backed by these that the question should come within the walls of Parlia- ment. When the General Assembly, the supreme govern- ing power of the Church, makes appearance there, it should be in defense of her own invaded privileges — her own violated .'ET. 62. LETTER TO MR. BRUCE. 287 jurisdiction. When the abolition of Patronage is the ques- tion, then let the whole Church make appearance — the gov- ernors with their protest, but that in conjunction with the governed, that is, the people with their complaints and re- monstrances from every part of the Scottish territory. " I am sickened to despair with the argument that we must foist in Non-Intrusion upon every occasion, and before Avhat- ever party, lest we should lose our hold of the people of Scot- land. Have we no access to the people but via London ? They are at our own door ; and might not we in daily and immediate converse with them, make it as clear as day that it is for their cause the church is now periling all which belongs to her in the world ? Withm the limits of our own territory, let us take our full swing of Non-Intrusion and Anti-patron- age, and above all, let the people be made to see, that, in defense of their Christian liberties, the ministers are putting to hazard if not their lives at least their livelihoods. They may perhaps not see this effectually, till these livelihoods shall have been actually wrested from us. This may be or not. But certain it is, that between a resolved clergy and a confiding, attached people, we have the materials for a body of strength, which with the blessing of God will turn out to be irresistible. And therefore it is that I am so desirous of an engagement, entered into by as many hundreds as will have vigor of principle, and, let me add, the truly wise as well as magnanimous policy of putting down their names to it — that, rather than give up the final jurisdiction of the Church in things ecclesiastical, they are willing, if the hand of power shall ofler to inflict such a violence, to be stripped of all the rights and advantages which belong to them as the ministers of a National and Established Church. " It is thus that we might fix ourselves on our best vant- age ground for a bold and righteous administration of our present affairs ; more especially, in the exercise of discipline against all offenders, all delicacy and hesitation of every sort ought to be given to the winds. Nothing will serve but an 288 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. inn. open, courageous, and rectilineal policy. Whatever be the persons, or whatever the Presbyteries who have defied the authority of the Supreme Court, they should, if not imme- diately deposed, be immediately proceeded against in the way that if they will not return to obedience must infallibly issue in the wholesale deposition of them all. On this matter there must be no shrinkings, nor do I know aught of more imperi- ous obligation, both in respect of wisdom and principle, than that the Church, in dealing with the refractory and the Erastian members of her own body, should proceed against them with a firm and unfaltering hand. I know they are boasting of their numbers, and triumphantly ask if we can depose sixty. What a noble reply should we be prepared to make, if we can say yes, or you must drive off six hundred. Let the Government take their choice. Let all who have a patriotic regard for the country's peace and welfare, set the alternative before them. Let every man who values the blessings of an efficient Church decide the question for him- self— Whether it were better that so many tens or twenties of our disorderly members shall have an arrest laid upon them, and that by an appliance of the right censures and penalties, even to expulsion from the Establishment if called for ; or, that as many hundreds shall be ejected from their present holdings, and, thrust beyond the pale of the Estabhsh- ment, shall, on the fields of Non-conformity to which they are driven, join themselves with all that is good and wholesome among the Dissenters, and, on the strength of their numerous congregations and followers among an approving people, take possession of the land ? Heaven grant, Jlrst, that the clear and full exhibition of this as the inevitable result of their in- fatuation, be made before the enemies of our Church ; and, second, that seeing the infatuation of their ruinous policy they may be led to abandon it. — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours most cordially, Thomas Chalmers." This letter w^as circulated among the leading friends of JET. 62, LETTER FROM DR. GORDON. 289 the Church in Edinburgh, and in returning it to Mr. Bruce, Dr. Gordon wrote as follows : " 42 St. Cuthbert Street, Thursday Evening. «' My dear Sir — I have read with great delight the letter which 1 now return, and since reading it I have hurriedly run over the proof of our Claim and Declaration. I am sure Dr. Chalmers will be delighted with the latter. It is purely a jurisdiction claim. If 500 would sign it we are safe — I mean humanly speaking. God may be pleased to save us by a smaller number, lest we should boast and say, ' By my hand I have done it.' " If I might venture a remark on the Doctor's letter, I would say, that his sharp language on the prominence given to the Non-Intrusion principle, is more applicable to the Gov- ernment than to the Church. The only ground on which the former ever condescended to look at our case, was the no* tion that they could despoil us of our jurisdiction by seemiiig to give us large powers on that one point ; and I fear they will continue to attempt ensnaring us in the same miserable and pettifogging way. They will meet our higher and larger claim with the old cry, the Su])reme Court has interpreted against you all the statutes on which you found. This, therefore, must be the meaning of the statutes, and conse- quently the real terms of the connection between Church and State for the last 130 years, and we see no reason to alter these terms. I am convinced that this is the point to which they will bring us. Well ; be it so. Let us follow the course so plainly and powerfully laid out for us by our ven- erable and beloved father. If it come to this, I tru.st that his setting sun will exhibit him to Christendom in a brighter blaze than in ail his other works — leading his brethren in one of the noblest testimonies that have ever been borne to the glorious headship of our adorable Redeemer. — Ever, my dear Sir, most affectionately yours, Robert Gordon. " The Rev. John Bruce." VOL. IV. — N 290 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. The framing of that most important document, in which the Church was to embody a final statement of her princi- ples and her claims, her wrongs and her resolution, was en- trusted to Mr. Dunlop, who, in transmitting a proof of it to Dr. Chalmers, says : " Edinburgh, May Uk, 1842. " My dear Sm — I now send you a proof of our proposed manifesto, which I have endeavored to draw up as much as possible in accordance with the views set forth in your letter to Mr. Bruce. " I agree with you in the propriety of putting the great question as to our jurisdiction in the forefront of the battle — or, indeed, making it the battle ; although my experience leads me to an opposite conclusion from you, as to the resist- ance to be given it. So far as I have been able to judge of the sentiments and feelings of statesmen, I think their hos- tility to the Church's independence is far more intense and inveterate than their hostility to the people having a voice, and most of them would willingly barter the latter for the former — i.e., acknowledge it if tve would give up the other. This at my last interview I was satisfied was the predom- inant feeling on the part of Sir Robert Peel, who, you will remember, in alluding to Lord Aberdeen's Bill, on a discus- sion upon the Assembly Hall grant, said that we might get more power to the peoiole, but we would never again get so much to the Church. Still, though my views as to this are directly opposed to yours, they lead me to the same conclu- sion. I would put this matter the more forward, because I am convinced that about it the real fight will be ; and make that part of our fortifications the stronger, because there the most violent attacks will be made. — Believe me to be yours very faithfully, A. DuNLor. " Rev. Dr. Chalmers." The General Assembly was summoned to convene on JET. 62. THE GENERAL ASSExMBLY OF 1842. 291 Thursday the 19th May,* and on the forenoon of that day the Marquess of Bute, as Lord High Commissioner, held his first levee in the Throne Room of the Palace of Holyrood, in which his Grace had taken up his residence. Never before did so numerous or so brilliant a circle gather round Her Majesty's representative. The levee over, a long array of splendid carriages, flanked by cavalry on either side, wheeled out of the Palace Court. The ring of martial music filled the ear, and the flash of glittering sabres struck the eye of the assembled multitude, as the gorgeous cavalcade swept * '■ Our Assembly begins to sit to-morrow fortnight. The appoint- ment of the Marquess of Bute to be our Commissioner is variously in- terpreted. That the object of this arrangement is a special one, there can be no doub|, as in usual times the office is conferred on a poor nobleman, whereas Lord Bute is possessed of great influence and great wealth; and withal had earned the gratitude of our Church by his munificence in the cause of Church Extension. Some are apprehensive that the object is to conciliate so many as might convert the minority into a majority on the side of Lord Aberdeen's Bill, with some plausi- ble modification. Let me hope, on the other hand, that our majority will remain firm and unbroken ; and should such be the result of their experiment, let me further hope that the Government will be wise enough to conclude that ours is a position from which we are not to be driven, and that they will desist from their attempts to force or to carry it. " The Conservatives have used us very ill ; but I have reason to be- lieve are now somewhat staggered at the resolute and unbending front of the majority in the Church. They flattered themselves that we wouM give in rather than lose our endowments ; and they find it a more dif- ficult problem than they had first counted on, now that they are opening to the conviction of such a disruption, in the event of their persevering in their present policy, as will lead to the separation from the National Church of so many hundreds of her best clergy, as could, on the strength of their respectability and influence, carry the great bulk of the popu- lation along with them, and resolving themselves into a Home Mission, would take possession of the land. " We are now beginning to organize the country into defensive asso- ciations ; if necessary to relinquish our present incomes, which of course w-ould be left in possession of a Church then Erastianized, we may from their contributions obtain such support as might be raised for the Non-Erastian Church of Scotland." — Letter from Dr. Chalmers to J. Lennox, Esq., of New York, dated 4th May, 1842. 292 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. round the base of the Caltoii-Hill on its way to the ancient church of St. Giles. After sermon by Dr. Gordon, the As- sembly adjourned to St. Andrew's Church. The Court having been constituted, proceeded to make up the roll of members. From the Presbytery of Strathbogie there was a double re- turn, the deposed ministers having elected and deputed their own representatives to the Assembly. When it was moved by Mr. Dunlop that their return should be altogether disre- garded, the motion was warmly opposed by Dr. Cook, who strenuously asserted that the Assembly should not hold these seven ministers as having been deposed. Dr. Chalmers scarcely ever took part in the minor business of the Assem- bly, but this startling proposition excited him for once to do so. " Moderator," he said, " this is the first time in my life that I ever heard it asserted, that the dissent of a minority superseded the sentence of a court passed by an overwhelming majority. The proposition is in substance, that those deposed by the General Assembly of 1841, shall, nevertheless, be allowed to sit as members in the General Assembly of 1842. Why, Sir, the proposition is so very -monstrous, and so fully comes in conflict — so palpably and immediately comes in con- flict— with a first principle, that I can not hold it to be a case for argument at all. But that such a proposition should be made, that such a proposition should ever be thought of, is a very instructive fact. It discovers to what a fearful ex- tent of anarchy and disorder the enemy within — whether by the instigation and encouragement of the enemy without, I can not say — are resolved to plunge the Church of Scotland; how they are resolved to strip her of the last vestige of that authority which belongs to every distinct body, governed by distinct office-bearers. Never.. Sir, would T say, has the char- acter of the outrage inflicted upon the Church come out in such bold relief as at the present moment, when we have just met under the countenance of Her Majesty ; when we have been ushered to our places with the form and circumstance of a great national Institute ; and when we are now holding our ^T. G2. SPEECH IiN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY '293 deliberations in the presence and hearing of Royalty, repre- sented by one of the most respected of our noblemen. We are now congregated in this our first meeting of the present Assembly, by the authority and appointment of the last meet- ing of the last General Assembly. And, Sir, in these cir- cumstances, what is the first thing we are called upon to do? Why, to pluck from our archives the most solemn deed of that most solemn convocation, and to trample it down under our feet as a thing of insignificance or a thing of naught. It is under the authority of last General Assembly that we now hold our places, and are now met as a deliberative body ; and I must say that if there is any thing more than another which could unsettle all men's notions of order and authority, it would be the success of the present proposition. It would truly be an egregious travesty, it would make a farce of the proceedings of our General Assembly, a complete laughing- stock of our Church, were there left her no authority to en- force obedience from her own sons. It would present a strange contrast between the impotence of our doings, and the pa- geantry of our forms — between the absolute nothingness of the Assembly, and the mighty notes of preparation — the im- posing cavalcade which accompanied us — the pealing of the clarionets with which we were conducted into the House on the present occasion. I must say, there is not a heart that beats with more gratification, or feels more elevation, than my own, at the countenance given to our venerable Church at present by the high and honorable of the land ; but ours will be the fault, if, untrue to ourselves, if untrue to our priv- ileges, we shall allow our Church to become a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal — a hissing and an astonishment to all passers-by." Mr. Dunlop's motion was carried by a majority which gave an earnest, good and sure, of the resolute spirit by which all the actings of this Assembly were characterized. On the first day of its meeting, the representatives from the only re- cognized Presbytery of Strathbogie, informed the House that 294 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. interdicts from the Court of Session had been served upon them, prohibiting them from taking their seats as members of the Assembly. The Supreme Court vindicated her au- thority against this violation of her privileges, by entering the names of the interdicted members on the roll, and identifying herself with their act in sitting and voting as members of the Assembly, in such a way that the blow aimed at them was made to fall upon the Church collectively. The other inter- dicts of the Civil Court, by which the discipline of the Church was interfered with, were treated with the same silent and dignified disregard. The ministers of Carnbusnethan and Stranraer were deposed from the sacred office. Mr. Clark was deprived of his license. The settlement of Mr. Middle- ton as minister of Culsalmond was rescinded, and those min- insters who held communion with the deposed clergymen of Strathbogie, were suspended from the exercise of their judi- cial functions as members of Church Courts, till the March Commission of the following year. While the Assembly ac- quitted itself in this determined manner of its severer duties, it had other and more gracious offices to discharge. A most encouraging report was given in by Mr. Dunlop, of the pro- gress made during the past year in all the varied fields of Christian and philanthropic enterprise. The recent strife and contention, it might have been imagined would have quenched or absorbed the Church's Christian zeal. But it was sig- nally the reverse. The gross revenue of the Church's schemes for ten months in 1841, exceeded by £8000 that for the whole of the preceding year ; and looking back to the time when the evangelical interest became predominant, not only had three additional schemes of Christian usefulness been added to the two then existing, but the whole sum raised for religious purposes in 1842, was six times greater than that raised in 1834, each intervening year witnessing a growing increase. Coupling this general result with manifold local indications; with the greater prevalence of prayer meeting* over the counjry ; with the remarkable awakenings at Kil- ^.T. G2. THE CLAIM OF RIGHTS. 295 syth, Blairgowrie, and Dundee, we become convinced that these years of turbulence and strife had drawn, or driven, the Church nearer to the heavenly fountain of light and strength — had deepened her faith — had purified and intensified her devotion. The two great discussions of the Assembly, and the only ones in which Dr. Chalmers took a part, were those relative to Patronage, and to the Church's Claim of Right. Un Monday the 23d May, Dr. Cunningham moved a resolu- tion to the efiect that, as both in itself a grievance, and as the main cause of the difficulties in which the Church had been involved, Patronage ought to be abolished. This motion, which was supported by Dr. Chalmers, was carried by a ma- jority of 216 to 147. For more than half a century after the restoration of Patronage by the Act 1712, the General Assembly had annually renewed her protest against this grievance, and had given it as an instruction to the Com- mission to take all suitable opportunities for efTecting its removal ; and now once more, after the lapse of another half century, and on the last opportunity given for doing so, the ancient testimony against the yoke of Patronage was re- newed. On Tuesday the 24th, Dr. Chalmers moved the adoption of the " Claim of Rights." This remarkable document is inserted in the Appendix to this volume, *= as being the clear- est and most consecutive, the most condensed and most com- prehensive statement of the great principles which the Church asserted — of the Scriptural, constitutional, and legal grounds on which these principles rested — of the violence done to them by the Civil Court — of the wrongs which the Church had consequently sustained, and the claim for protection which she put forth. It closed with the solemn declaration that, subject to such civil coercion as was now attempted, the Church would not and could not carry on its government ; and that at the hazard of losing all the secular benefits con- ferred by the State, and all the public benefits of an eslah- * See Appendix, C. 29G MBxMOlRS OF DK. CHALMERS. U4-2. lishment, it would resist that coercion, and maintain to the last the inalienable liberties of a Church of Christ. In mov- ing its adoption, Dr. Chalmers said : " Moderator, I am glad that the putting forth of a Claim of Pvights should be moved for in the General Assembly. I liked the proposal from the time I first heard of it, and more than ever are we now shut up to the necessity of such a measure. The Court of Session persists in, nay, is fast multiplying her encroachments. But the crowning necessity for a full and general representation of our case before the country at large, is, that we have been refused a hearing by Parliament. The dispiDsition in high places, is to leave the Church altogether in the hands of the Court of Session, to proceed against her ad libitum, or to any extent that may seem unto them good, and this is called leaving the law to take its course. They would abandon one Court to the entire mercy and discretion of another ; and this they term being satisfied with the law as it stands. The question whether each Court might not have its own proper and certain limits prescribed by the Constitution, or whether these limits might not possibly, yea, have not actually been transgressed — this is a question which they have not looked at, and will not listen to. Thus given up, thus abandoned, it seems our last expedient to make the solemn appeal which we now meditate to the intelligence, and the conscience, and the good faith of all men ; or, rather than our last expedient, Moderator, it is our second last : for, to the very last we shall keep hold of those privileges which essentially belong to every Christian Church, and not resign them to the Erastian- ism which is now making head .igainst us. To the very last, we shall assert a Government in the Church distinct from that of the civil magistrate, and placed in the hands of dis- tinct office-bearers, and shall continue to administer that government accordingly. To the very last shall we with- stand the powers of this world, should they offer to intromit with, or attempt to overbear us in those things sacred and spiritual, which belong exclusively to the kingdom that is JET. 62. THE CLAIM OF RIGHTS. 297 not of this world ; and at the expense of every suffering, and of every trial, are we resolved to stand or fall with these in- herent— or, as our rulers would find them, would they but examine their own Statute-book — these constitutional liber- ties of the Church of Scotland. * * =^ " We are not dealing in threats, but in remonstrances. AVe are not making an experiment on English courage ; that we know would be in vain. We are making an appeal to English justice; and that we hope will not be in vain. We are letting the capital of the empire know a case of gross, and grievous, and multiplied oppression, which is now going on in one of the provinces — an oppression which, if not remedied, ^v'ill have the effect of trampHng down the Church of Scot- land into utter insignificance; will despoil her of all moral weight, or better greatly than this, though itself a great and sore calamity, will dissever her from the State altogether, and that, too, at a time when her services are most needed to re- claim a sadly degenerated community, and let me add, were never more promising, or, at any former period of our history, more likely to be effectual for the moral regeneration of our land. It has been asked, why not quit the Establishment, or why continue to eat the bread of the State while unfaith- ful to her service, or refusing obedience to the authority, from which alone ours as a National Church derives all the tem- poralities which belong to her ? There is some little mis- take here, nay, a twofold mistake ; for, in the first place, to dispute the mandate of a Court that is co-ordinate with our- selves, when they have exceeded their own territory, and made invasion upon ours — that we should not call disobedi- ence to the State. Nor are we willing to receive our doom as an Establishment at the hand of any inferior judge or magis- trate, seeing that by the understanding of our adversaries themselves, it is upon the supreme magistrate that we hold both for the origin of our National Church, and for her con- tinuance. But secondly, though we therefore wait the de- cision of the State, ere we quit our connection with it, that 298 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. ~i842. decision will not be given against us, but by an act of the greatest national injustice. Sir, we are not eating the bread of the State. When the State took us into connection with itself, which it did at the time of the Union, it found us eat- ing our own bread, and they solemnly pledged themselves to the guarantees or the conditions on which we should be per- mitted to eat their bread in all time coming. Since at the hands of the Court of Session we may be said to be now suffering one half of a very great iniquity, we are not going to homologate this iniquity by doing the other halfof it our- selves, by a voluntary resignation of the temporalities which we have done nothing rightfully to forfeit, although there be enough of strength in the civil power to force them out of our hands. If the Government be satisfied with the conduct of their own servants, let them consummate the deed which themselves approve of, and let the act of our deprivation ap- pear in its true character, not as the spontaneous doing of so many simpletons among ourselves, but as a great national act of injustice, a flagrant breach of all national honor and good faith." Dr. Chalmers's motion was carried by a majority of 241 to 110. The Lord High Commissioner was requested to transmit the document upon which this approving seal of the Church had been set, to Her Majesty, as the head of the State. — Her principles thus faithfully declared, her final purpose thus solemnly announced — the Church committed her ways to God, and waited the evolutions of His will. CHAPTER XVI. SUMMER RESIDENCE AT ROSSTREVOR— THE PREMIER'S DETERMINATION TO DO NOTHING THE SECOND AUCHTERARDER DECISION— THE CONVOCATION. The months of July and August, 1842, were spent by Dr. Chalmers in the north of Ireland. He was accompanied upon this occasion by his family, and fixed his head-quarters at Rosstrevor, a lovely village lying a few miles from Newry. The exquisite scenery of the Bay of Carlingford was new to him, and he felt its charm with a fresh and peculiar relish. He had not been prepared to find here so refined and Christian a society, and he responded ail the more readily and gratefully to the many kind attentions which were lavished on him. His leisure hours were devoted to the completion of his Lectures on the Epistle to the Romans ; but the " manifold calls, and invitations, and urgencies, wherewith he was continually beset," left him but little time for study. " I make my escape from this," he writes to Mrs. Morton,* '< in a few days, leaving my family for a week or two. Whatever the lionizers may imagine, there is great discomfort often brought upon the lion, who has no- thing for it but just to run off, in the hope that both his lioness and her cubs may be permitted the enjoyment of some comparative repose. And yet the kindness of the people here is truly of a most genuine and heartfelt description. "What inspires me with this conviction is that there is so much of real Christianity among them. Lady Lifford, a very excellent and devoted person, comes here occasionally for sum- mer quarters. She is not here at present; but she has been * In letter dated Rosstrevor, July 30, 1842. 300 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. a leaven for good in the neighborhoof], and the sa\^or of her example seems to have told on the vicinity. I have riot met with a greater number of families within the same compass in any mere country place, more ready to entertain, and lliat with obviously congenial feeling, the best and highi'st of all topics." Writing again to one of his daugh- ters, alter his return to Edinburgh, he says: — "All hearts here warm at the recollection of Rosstrevor, both place and peoply ; and it was only the other day that Mrs. Chalmers came ibrth spontaneously with the utterance of our having had indeed a very happy summer, in which sentiment we- all most feelingly concurred. The truth is, I must confess that it forms the sunniest recollection of my life."*" There was but one shadow that rested on it — the pursuing anxiety as to the state and prospects of the Church. Sitting on a quiet summer evening in his lodgings at Rosstrevor, and ruminating on a proposal which had been made to him, that the Church of Scotland should ask to be heard at the bar of the House of Commons, and that he should undertake the statement and defense of her claims, we find him writing thus : — " Prepare me, O God, for the whole of Thy blessed will. If a period of darkness and disaster is indeed before me, may I know how to acquit myself in the midst of Thy coming visitation. If our Church is indeed to fall as an Establishment, let her not be forsaken by the ligVit of Thy countenance ; and may the fruit of all her troubles be right- eousness and peace. Thou knowest, O God, if in the further evolutions of the history of our Church, we shall be called before councils and governors of this world. And oh, my God, if ever called to examination and exposure before rulers and spectators, may I not give way to anxieties, against which our Saviour hath both warned and encouraged us, when He bids us not be careful what we should say, for that the Holy Spirit will teach us how to speak as we ought. Let me cherish more confidence than I have hitherto done in ^ Letter to Miss Chalmers, dated Edinburgh, September J 2, 184?, JET. 62. DETERMINATION OF GOVERNMENT. 301 the promise of the Holy Spirit, for the ready and right sug- gestion of what ought to be said in the hour of controversy or examination."* On the 11th June, when Mr. Campbell of Monzie M'as prepared to move the second reading of his Bill, an unfore- seen and insuperable obstacle was thrown in his way. It was discovered that as many livings in the Scotch Church were in the gift of Her Majesty, no Bill which proposed to make any alteration in the existing law of Patronage could be introduced without the express consent of the Crown. Mr. Maule urged the Premier to exercise the privilege, which it was understood that he possessed, of setting this obstruction aside, but he refused, and the Bill had accord- ingly to be withdrawn. A few tlays afterward, Sir Robert Peel informed the House " that after a full consideration of the subject. Her Majesty's Government had abandoned all hope of settling the question in a satisfactory manner, or of effecting any good by introducing a measure relative to it." The General Assembly had stood firm — the evangelical majorities were as large as ever — the hope held out by Dr. Leishman and " the forty" had failed — and as they could not count upon the Church's acquiesence, the measure which a few months before had been announced as likely to be so satisfactory, was finally abandoned. Without interference on the part of Government, the conflict with the Civil Courts must take its own course — a course which ere long resulted in a most disastrous issue. Lord Kinnoul and Mr. Young had raised a second action against the Presbytery of Auch- terarder, to recover damages, laid at £16,000, by way of compensation for the injury sustained by patron and presentee in consequence of Mr. Young's rejection. The Court of Session found this action relevant, and on the 9th August, 1842, the House of Lords, sitting as a Court of Appeal, confirmed this judgment, and declared that damages were recoverable by the pursuers. The former decision of the * See Hora Sabbatica, vol. i. pp. 70, 73, 74. 302 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. Supreme Civil Court in the Auchterarder case had gone no further than to declare that in setting the presentee aside on the ground of the popular dissent, the Presbytery had acted illegally. Believing that the only legitimate effect of this decision vi'ould be to bring into operation the remedy specially provided by Statute for such a case, namely the withholding the fruits of the benefice, the Church had relinquished all claim to them. By this second decision, however, of the House of Lords, it was distinctly declared that the obligation to " receive and admit," which still lay upon the Presbytery, was a civil oh\\ga.tion, the violation of which was to be re- garded and punished as a civil ofiense, as a crime committed against the common law of the country. The four Enghsh Judges, Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Cottenham, Lord Brougham, and Lord Campbell, were quite unanimous. It is true that in the opinions which they delivered, not one of them ever alluded to one of the Statutes referred to by the Church of Scotland as ratifying her exclusive spiritual jurisdiction, and shielding it from invasion. They regarded the case as ex- hibiting no peculiarity, presenting no difficulty, and finding its perfect parallel in that of any common civil corporation violating one of the statutes upon which it was founded. In such an instance, if any individual could plead that by the act of the corporation, his patrimonial interests had been injured, an action for damages was a fair and legal mode of obtaining redress. It was the same, in the judgment of these noble Lords, with the Church of Scotland. By putting the Church in such a category, and by subjecting her to such legal treatment, her title to any peculiar exclusive spiritual authority and jurisdiction was ignored, was absolutely and entirely repudiated. It had been clear enough from the whole current of their recent judgments, that the Court of Session conceived itself to be entitled to review, and If it saw reason, to reverse any proceedings of the ecclesiastical Courts, by which a civil injury of any kind had been inflicted. Now, however, and for the first time, the determination of ^T. 62. THE SECOND AUCHTERARDER DECISION. 303 the Supreme Civil Court was given forth, that the judgments of the Court of Session imposed on the Church an obligation to obedience, which she could not disregard without subject- ing herself to civil pains and penalties. This amounted not simply to a change, but to the entire overthrow and reversal of the constitution of the Scottish Estabhshment, so far as that constitution had guaranteed to the Church a sphere of action within which no secular power could control or coerce. The first Auchterarder decision put a new interpretation on the Law of Patronage, from the injurious results of which the Church might have been protected by a change effected by the Legislature in that single law. This second decision gave a new interpretation of the nature and conditions of that relationship in which the Church stood to the Civil Courts, and through them to the State itself, whose organs these Courts were. These conditions were such that the Church could not fulfill them consistently with her principles. A mere Non-Intrusion measure would no longer meet the difficulties of her position. Yet in that position, without some relief it seemed impossible for her any longer to remain. The tidings of that decision which brought the conflict to its crisis reached Dr. Chalmers while still in Ireland, and writing to his son-in-law, Mr. Mackenzie, a few days after he had heard of it, he says : "Belfast, August 22d, 1842. " My dear Sir — I have been thinking much in a gen- eral way of what the Church of Scotland should now do. I have no idea of an inUant resignation, and should exceed- ingly regret if, under any feeling of this sort, we should be exposed to a piecemeal falling away of our friends from the Church, one by one. We must not go out in driblets, but in a compact and entire body ; and one step clearly, in my view of it, remains to be done ere this great conjunct movement should take place. " To go out now, would be receiving our doom as an Es- 304 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. tablishment from the Civil Court, or at the bidding of a mere fellow and co-ordinate with ourselves — for the House of Lords, in its judicial capacity, is nothing more. When we do go out, it must be at the bidding of that party in vir- tue of whose ordination it was that we became an Establish- ment, or from whose hands we receive our endowments ; or rather, under whose protection it is that our right as a Church to these endowments is secured from all violation. In other w^ords, we should not quit the Establishment till we have obtained from Parliament a deliverance, whether by an ad- verse proposition, or a refusal to entertain our cause. " It is thus that I apprehend the final step should not be taken till next Session of Parliament ; but meanwhile, a manifesto, setting forth both our principles and our determ- ination, should be put forth as soon as may be, and sub- scribed by all our friends in the Church, both as an exoner- ation of their consciences, and as an intimation to all con- cerned of what that really is which we mean to stand or fall by. " There are subordinate matters of detail, respecting which I would need to be in Scotland ere I could make up my mind. The size of my new house will be of one service. We shall all nestle there together till some openings cast up for us under the new system. Let not Eliza be dismayed ; but let us cast our confidence and care on that God who car- eth for us. — I am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, " Thomas Chalmers. "The Rev. John Mackenzie." While repudiating the idea of immediate and individual resignation. Dr. Chalmers contemplated the speedy with- drawal of the evangelical clergymen from the Establishment as inevitable, and waited only his return to Edinburgh to unite with others in taking instant measures to meet this emergency. As unity of counsel and action were so desira- ble, some special opportunity required to be created for bring- JET. 62. LETTER TO MR. MACKENZIE. 305 ing together all who held the principles for which the Church had been contending, in such circumstances that after a free and full, unrestrained and confidential consultation, they might resolve upon the steps which it became them immediately to take. Dr. Chalmers returned to Edinburgh in the begin- ning of September, and on the 19th of that month, he wrote again to Mr Mackenzie — " Edinburgh, September I9th, 1842. " My dear Sir — I think the present state of things emi- nently fitted to spiritualize our clergymen, by causing them to sit loose to all earthly dependence. I think I can perceive this effect on some of the brethren ; and am informed that it tells sensibly on the pulpit ministrations of many. May He who can bring good out of evil, in His own good, however mysterious way, convert our present troubles into the means of a signal revival of Christianity in the towns and parishes of Scotland. " Mr. Hanna suggested to me a general convocation of all the right-minded clergy on the subject ; a suggestion which I am pushing among the brethren here, and with greater acceptance than I at first anticipated. I wish it to come in the shape at first of a requisition from some twelve or twenty of the most venerable of the senior clergy in all parts of Scot- land, so as to divest it altogether of the aspect of Edinburgh leadership, and give it the appearance, as well as the reality, of a great, and general, and withal spontaneous remonstrance, from the collective mind and conscience of the Church, against the Erastian invasion made by the recent decision of the House of Peers on the rights and liberties of the Church of Scotland. " Tell Eliza to keep her mind staid upon God. If there is a break-up, in time I mean to call my house ' The Re- fuge.'— I am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, " Thomas Chalmers. " Rev. John Mackenzie." 306 Mi:MOfLlS OF DR. CHALMERS. 131-2. Agreeably to the intention expressed in this letter, Dr- Chalmers addressed a private letter to a number of the mo^i. aged and influential ministers of the Church, inviting them to append their names to the general circular by which the Convocation was to be convened. " It is thought by many," said he, in this private communication, " that the critical and extraordinary position in which the Church is placed by the late decision of the House of Lords in the case of Auch- terarder, should be met by extraordinary means ; and of these the best and the likeliest were a General Convocation in Edinburgh, before the next meeting of Parliament, of all the ministers in the Church who are friendly to the great prin- ciples for which she is contending. " It is true that in the General Assembly, and other eccle- siastical courts, we may be said to have regular and con- stituted channels for the expression and conveyance of our views. But our increasing majorities, and the slight influ- ence of these on a Government who have been hitherto ad- verse to our claims, or stood aloof from the consideration of them, give abundant evidence that these ordinary methods have been tried and found inefiectual. The truth is, that every effort has been made to foster the delusion in the minds of our rulers, that the late proceedings of the Assembly are due to the factitious influence of a few leaders, which, when once broken up, will leave the Church in a condition to be moulded into a willing conformity with the reigning and Erastian policy of the times. There is nothing more fitted to dissipate this imagination than a spontaneous and free ex- pression, the result of a conference, held for days together, by clergymen as.sembled in a great and general body from all parts of Scotland ; and giving forth such a solemn and deliberate representation of their sentiments and views, as might convince all men that the determination to stand or fall with the spiritual independence of our Church is both so strong and so general as not to be overcome but by a violent oppression of conscience, which, if attempted on the part of JET. 62. THE CONVOCATION. 307 the civil authorities, will lead to the degradation and event- ual overthrow of the best and greatest of our national in- stitutes." The response to this communication was that of a cordial and almost unanimous consent ; and by a general circular signed by thirty-two of the most venerable clergymen, the whole body of the evangelical ministers all over Scotland were invited to meet in Convocation at Edinburgh on the 1 7th November. In prospect of a meeting with whose pro- ceedings such momentous issues were bound up, a proposal for united prayer was drawn up by the Rev. Mr. M'Cheyne of Dundee, and disseminated widely over the country. The petitions which Dr. Chalmers individually addressed to the Throne of Grace tell us with what profound anxiety he looked forward to this great occasion. — " Do Thou guide, O Lord, the deliberations and measures of that Convocation of ministers now on the eve of assembling ; and save me, in particular, from all that is rash and unwarrantable, when engaged with the counsels and propositions that come before it. Let me not, O God, be an instrument in any way of disappointing or misleading my brethren. Let me not, in this crisis of our Church's history, urge a sacrifice upon others which I would not most cheerfully share with them. I pray for a right and discerning spirit in this matter, O God. Let me struggle against my own diffidence of my own extempo- raneous powers. Appear, O God, in the midst of us for the protection of Thy Church, and the vindication of Thine own glory." * The Convocation was opened in St. George's Church on the forenoon of Thursday, the 1 7th November, by devotional services conducted by the Rev. Dr. Macdonald of Ferintosh, and a discourse by Dr. Chalmers. The text for this sermon was most felicitously chosen : " Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness." " The great lesson of this text," said # Horm SabbaticcB, vol. i. pp. 92, 93 ; vol. ii. pp. 87, 89. 308 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. Dr. Chalmers, in opening his discourse, " is the connec- tion which obtains between integrity of purpose and clear- ness of discernment, insomuch that a duteous conformity to what is right, is generally followed up by a ready and lumin- ous discernment of what is true. It tells us that if we have but grace to do as we ought, we shall be made to see as we ought ; or, in other words, that if right morally, we are in the highway of becoming right intellectually." After an illustration of this general truth, he closed by this special and appropriate application of it to the circumstances under which his brethren were then assembled : " And now, my venerable fathers and brethren of the Established Church of Scotland, I will not speak of it as a certainty that if you persevere in the high w^alk of upright- ness on which you have entered, the secularities of that Es- tablishment will be w^rested from your hands. It would not be venturing far, however, to speak of it as a probability and a hazard, and surely at the very least, not to speak of it as a possibility were downright affectation. In this, its lowest and least appalling form, you have been in the habit of re- garding it for years, and even when a crisis was obviously drawing nearer, and the symptoms of some great and ap- proaching overthrow looked more menacing than before, let the majorities of our Church attest w^hether they have been the calculations of w^orldly prudence or the high behests of principle which had the ascendant over you. And still I rejoice to believe that whatever be the shades or diversities of sentiments upon lesser questions, the tie of that great and common principle which hitherto has bound us together re- mains unbroken — that I speak in the hearing of men firmly resolved as ever to lose all and to suffer all rather than surren- der the birthright of those prerogatives which we inherit from our fathers, or compromise the sacred liberty wherewith Christ has made us free — of men W'hose paramount question is, what is duty ? that best stepping-stone to the solution of the other question, what is wisdom ? For it is when in this spirit of ^T. 62. THE CONVOCATION. 309 uprightness, this blessed frame of simplicity and godly sin- cerity, that light is made to arise, and wisdom is justified of her children, " This is not the place for attempting any specific delinea- tion of the path which wisdom prescribes in our present event- ful circumstances; nor will 1 utter one word that might in- tlicate my opinion or even my leanings on the question of what, specifically and practically, the Church at present ought to do. But surely this is the place for urging both on my- self and others the moral preparation which all experience demonstrates to have an enlightening efiect upon the under- standing, and all Scripture affirms to be of sovereign efficacy m bringing down the spirit of wisdom from above. This has been the object of your prayers, and it is the identical object, however feeble in execution, of our preaching. The great lesson of our text is, that if we purpose aright we shall ^be made to see aright, and that the integrity of our will shall be followed up by light in the understanding. God will not abandon to darkness those who cast their care and their confidence upon Himself, and who can say with the Apostle, He is my helper, and I will not fear what man can do unto me. The man who can lift this honest and unfal- tering prayer — ' Search me, O God, and know my heart ; try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting ;' the man who can say this fearlessly has nothing else to fear. God will establish the just ; for it is said, the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. Commit, then, thy works to the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. It is He who, by the light of His Holy Spirit, makes good the connection between singleness of purpose and wisdom of con- duct, and thus I understand the text, that He maketh wise the simple and giveth understanding to the simple. Ye men of God, who make the Bible the directory of your hearts and consciences, you will not long be left in uncertainty. He 310 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. will make your way clear and open before you. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noon-day." The Convocation assembled for business at seven o'clock in the evening in a small chapel* in an obscure part of the old town. About 450 ministers were present — a larger number than had ever met in council in Scotland, many of them from the remotest parts of the country. Dr. Chalmers was invited to take the chair. In doing so, he briefly stated that the Convocation was met not for debate, but for deliberation. Its great object was to ascertain the mind and purpose of the Church in the present perilous emergency, and he noticed this at the outset to encourage all to come forward with their sentiments. To secure this object, the public were carefully excluded from this and all the other after conferences. The proposal that two eminent lawyers, elders of the Church, whose advice, it was imagined, might occasionally be serv- iceable, should be admitted, was met with an immediate and general negative. It was arranged that the ordinary formalities of debate should be dispensed with — that the discussion of each topic should be conducted, as much as possible, in a colloquial form — that after the more aged and eminent ministers had stated their opinions, the members should be invited. Synod by Synod, to express their views ; and that no conclusion should be come to, no practical meas- ure resolved upon, till as full an expression and interchange of opinion as possible had been elicited. It was arranged, also, that three times, at least, each day, the Convocation should engage in devotional exercises, accompanied by read- ing of the Scriptures and praise, and that through all the or- dmary business prayer should be interspersed. After some preliminary consultation, the attention of the Convocation was concentrated upon the two following topics : 1st. The exact bearing and eflect of the late decisions of the Civil Courts, and especially of the recent Auchterarder judgment, involv- * Roxburgh Church. ^T. 62. THE COiNVOOATION. 311 ing a consideration of what would be required in order to effect any right adjustment of the questions now at issue between the Church and ihe civil authorities ; 2d. The duty and prospects of the Church in the event of no adequate remedy being provided. The Convocation was occupied with the first of these topics on Friday and Saturday. Considerable diversity of opinion was at first expressed, and strong appre- hensions were entertained, that no common ground for united action could be discovered. Some members of the Convocation, acting under the impression that none but the best remedy for the e.xisting evil should be presented or entertained, were for putting the abolition of patronage on the foreground of any application which should be made to the Government or the Legislature. Gradually, however, it became apparent that to press this would be to frustrate the very object of the Convocation. " I have long felt," said Dr. Chalmers, when speaking on the forenoon of Saturday, " that our proper business is to express not what we hold to be most desirable, but what we hold to be indispensable. We are not to go to Parliament in the attitude of petitioners ; for then we might break up into innumerable shades of diversity of opinion. Let us rather ascertain and enunciate the one principle upon which we can all unite — let us fix the point beneath which it is impossible for the Church to act ; and let us put it so that we shall be able to say to our rulers — ' Your destruction of the Establishment shall arise not from our asking any thing which we have not by right already, but from your refusal to continue to us that which by right we already have.' Do those who would have us petition against Patronage hold what they seek to be so essential that the refusal of it would oblige them to go out of the Church ? If they do, then I say, that what I seek is such, that in the event of its refusal, I should hold it a disgrace to remain in. Will they, then, enfeeble the efibrt of our representation by declin- ing to co-operate with us ? or would these men actually re- main in the Establishment if our proposition be not granted? 312 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. Perhaps ihey might ; for there is a great difference between extremeness of principle and strength of principle. But which is best? — that we fix a point and surrender all for it, though it be not the highest we could wish ; or that we plant our demand at the highest point, but do not make all depend on its being refused. The Church is a vessel upon the billows, on the very point of being submerged : is it time to speak of what will most improve the trim of the vessel, and not rather of what will keep us afloat and bring us to a safe haven ? We would adjourn the consideration of the first question alto- gether till we are safely in the harbor." In the course of the discussion, a series of resolutions was drawn up by Dr. Candlish, in which, after reciting and char- acterizing some of the late decisions, it was declared — "That as the principle involved in these decisions, and particularly in the recent Auchterarder judgment, is that of the supremacy of the Civil Courts over those of the Established Church in the exercise of their spiritual functions, so the members of the Convocation declare that no measure can in conscience be submitted to which does not effectually protect the Church against the exercise of such jurisdiction of the Civil Courts in time to come, and, in particular, fully prevent all future encroachments of the nature specified in the preceding reso- lutions." There was a right restriction here of the decision to the one indispensable element, without which no measure of relief could be accepted. Dr. Patrick Macfarlan, Dr. Cun- ningham, Dr. Candlish, and Dr. Chalmers all concurred in recommending that this restriction should be carefully observ- ed; and such was the happy effect of two days' full and un- fettered interchange of thought, that when at last the roll of members was called over in order to ascertain how many acquiesced in Dr. Candlish's resolutions, it was found that there were only seven who refused to concur.* "This morn- ing," says Mr. Bonar, writing on the afternoon of Saturday, * This series of resolutions, passed on Saturday the 19th November, was concurred in by 427 ministers. jET, 62, THE CONVOCATION, 313 *' Dr. Chalmers's coming in and delivering his address, which he did with great fervor and kindliness, tended more, perhaps, than any thing, to determine the result. His speech seemed to produce such an effect that from that moment the other motions which had been brought forward were obviously sunk or sinking out of sight, so that their movers at last withdrew them. The harmony was indeed wonderful, after all that we had feared. ' The Kind's heart is in the hand of the Lord.' " ^" A good and sure groundwork having been laid, the Con- vocation proceeded to consider what would be their duty in the event of no adequate measure of relief being granted. One obvious alternative was, that the evangelical clergymen should withdraw from a Church w^hose government they could not conscientiously conduct without violating the State- imposed conditions on which they held their livings. For more than a year Dr. Chalmers had been contemplating this alternative as the one which they should ultimately be driv- en to adopt, and had been maturing a plan for providing such a support for all the outgoing ministers, that, carrying their principles, their Confession of Faith, and their ecclesiastical organization entire and unviolated along with them, with no loss but the loss of their temporalities, and with whatever gain of influence their tried fidelity might win for them, they might abide in honor and usefulness, seen and recognized as the true Church of their fathers. He asked and received permission from the Convocation to lay this plan, with all its details, before the Convocation at its meeting on the even- ing of Monday the 21st. The lengthened and most import- ant address which he delivered on this occasion is now printed for the first time, and will be found in the Appendix to this volume.! It contains no bare unfinished outline, as from the time and circumstances in which it was presented any * Notes of the Proceedings of the Convocation, taken at the time in short-hand, each day, by the Rev. Andrew A. Bonar of Collace. t See Appendix, D. VOL, IV, — O 314 iMEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842 one might have been prepared to anticipate, but a complete and detailed account of that system of financial operation, which was adopted afterward without a single alteration in any of its provisions, and carried out with such pre-eminent success by the Free Church. We search in vain for a par- allel to this in the history of any other Christian or corpo- rate society; for v.'here can another instance be produced in which, so long before the crisis occurred for which it was in- cumbent to provide, a scheme of operations so comprehensive and complicated was laid down, not one of whose arrange- ments it was afterward found necessary to set aside? It presents us with a very signal illustration of the foresight, the fertility of device, and the practical sagacity by which Dr. Chalmers's intellect was distinguished. But however judicious that scheme now looks, when viewed in the hght of its accomplishment, it remains to be told that not ten out of the four hundred ministers to whom it originally was broached had much, if any, faith in its success, nor was there one, perhaps, whose decision upon the great question of duty then before them it served in any appreciable degree to sway. It was listened to with general incredulity, and the prospects held out by it were regarded as the visionary anticipations of a too sanguine imagination. Putting such a future as it depicted out of its thoughts, the Convocation returned to a discussion which hinged mainly upon the point whether, standing upon her constitutional rights, the Church should continue the conflict, though the supreme power in the State should refuse to interfere ; or whether, if redress were refused, she should not retire from a conflict which she could not prosecute without loss of character and injury to the general interests of religion. Here, as before the differences of opin- ion, brought fully out in the freedom of confidential inter- course, revealed the substantial agreement which prevailed. A second series of resolutions had been proposed by Dr. Mac- farlan, concluding with the solemn declaration that as it was the duty, so, " in dependence on the grace of God, it v/as iET. 62. THE CONVOCATION. 315 the determination of the brethren now assembled, if no meas- ure such as they have declared to be indispensable be grant- ed, to tender the resignation of their civil advantages, which they can no longer hold in consistency with the free and full exercise of their spiritual functions, and to cast themselves on such provision as God in His providence may afford ; main- taining still uncompromised the principle of a right scriptural connection between the Church and the State, and solemnly entering their protest against the judgments of which they complain, as in their decided opinion altogether contrary to what has ever hitherto been understood to be the law and constitution of this country." On Tuesday night, after pray- er by Dr. M'Donald, the roll was called, and 270 voted that these resolutions should be adopted.^ It was felt by all to be a vote not lightly to be given, and for a day or two many held back their names. On Wednesday forenoon Dr. Chalmers asked how many names were now appended to the resolutions of the preced- ing evening. When told that already there were above 300, he broke forth with the exclamation — " Then we are more than Gideon's army — a most hopeful omen." As he pro- ceeded to picture forth all the oppositions which this little army might encounter — all the victories it might win. the inward fire kindled into a perfect ecstasy of excitement. He stepped forth into the centre of the group, his whole frame quivering with emotion, and looking round upon that band of faithful men, upon whose constancy in the hour of trial he felt now that he could count, he exclaimed — " For throw- ing up our livings — for casting ourselves with such unequal odds into so great a conflict, men may call us enthusiasts ; but enthusiasm is a noble virtue, rarely to be found in calm and unruffled times of prosperity : it flourishes in adversity — it kindles in the hour of danger. Persecution but serves to quicken the energy of its purposes. It swells in proud in- * This second series of Resolutions was finally concurred in by 333 ministers. 316 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1842. tegrity, and, great in the purity of its cause, it can scatter defiance amid a host of enemies." It was the spirit of chival- ry baptized with the fire from Heaven. The two sets of resolutions which had been adopted having been embodied in a Memorial addressed to Sir Robert Peel and the other members of Her Majesty's Government, the Convocation broke up on Thursday the 24th November. Its sittings lasted for six days — days never to pass from the memory of those privileged to be present ; for when shall they be able to forget the solemn, subdued, and anxious feel- ing which at first prevailed — the fears which once and again arose that discord and disunion might ensue — the manner, often so strange and impressive, in which these fears were dissipated — the grace and wisdom given to those who chiefly guided the deliberations — the brotherly and confiding tone which, broken a little at the beginning, deepened at the close into one of pure and perfect harmony — the noble sentiments of heroic faith and devotedness, sometimes so simply, some- times so eloquently expressed — the spirit of prayer which, breathing from the lips of Mr. M'Cheyne or Dr. M'Donald, conveyed a profounder sense of the Divine presence than we ever felt before or since in the most hallowed of our Christian assembhes. CHAPTER XVII. LETTER TO MR. LENNOX— FINAL ANSWER OF THE GOVERNMENT— LETTER FROM SIR JAMES GRAHAM —THE DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT— THE CLAIM OF RIGHTS REJECTED BY THE LEGISLATURE— THE DIS- RUPTION. Writing to Mr. Lennox of New York, on the 31st De- cember, 1842, Dr. Chalmers says — "You may perhaps have, by this time, heard of the proceedings of our Convocation in November last. Between four and five hundred of our best ministers have subscribed a Memorial to Government, by which they commit themselves to the rehnquishment of the Church's temporalities, if they are not permitted to hold them but on the condition of being subjected to the Civil Courts in things spiritual, on the footing of the decision by the House of Lords in the case of Auchterarder. And, if the Parliament grant us no redress, I have no doubt that the decision of our Convocation in November will be the decision of our General Assembly in May. It lies therefore with our statesmen whether there shall not be an utter dis- ruption of our Church in a few months. None of us are at all sanguine of a favorable measure at their hands, and we are therefore laying our account with the connection being dissolved early in summer. The eyes of the country are opening to this fact as to a coming certainty, and I feel great confidence that, with the blessing of God, we shall be able to resolve ourselves into a great Home Mission, and take possession of the land. I do hope that henceforth our friends the Voluntaries will think more generously of us than they have done heretofore. Not that we renounce the principle of a National EstabUshment of Christianity, for we think it 318 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843. quite possible to harmonize this with the principle of spiritual independence. It will be the fault of our rulers if the two are not harmonized ; and I do hope we shall get a little more credit at the hands of our adversaries when they find us giving up all the endowments of a National Church so soon as it is determined that we shall not be permitted to hold them but at the expense of our Christian liberties. Should this take place, it will be of first rate importance that we, the ejected ministers, and they, the evangelical dissenters, should act with a common and cordial understanding together, as there is now a most formidable enemy, rising every day into greater strength, in the Puseyism of England, and which threatens to bring back upon our fair island the intolerance and all the superstitions of Pvome." Having done what she could to clear away all ambiguity from her principles and position, the Church waited the final answer of the Government, which was conveyed in a letter from Sir James Graham, dated Whitehall, January, 4, 1843. The Church felt that she had good reason to complain of this communication. When her integrity as one of the most valuable institutions of the country, and the status and live- lihood of so many of her clergymen and their families were at stake, she had reason to expect that in rejecting a claim upon which so much was periled, that claim would be correctly stated, and that the pleas urged in support of it would be fairly and broadly met. The Government was not ignorant that the abolition of patronage had never been put by the Church on the same footing with the protection of her spiritual jurisdiction. The very last document put into their hands — the Memorial from the Convocation — had told them what the one vital point was upon which the Church hinged her continued alliance with the vState. Over- looking this Memorial altogether, and taking advantage of the fact that the General Assembly of 1842 had transmitted two addresses to the Crown — the one praying for the aboli- tion of patronage, and the other that her spiritual inde- .m\ G3. LETTER FROM SIR JAMES GRAHAM. 319 pendence should be secured, Sir James mixed the two to- gether, giving one answer to both, to the inevitable and injurious confounding of topics which the Church had been at so much pains to keep distinct. It gave him no incon- siderable advantage to deal conjunctly with the two demands, and it helped to win a larger amount of popular concurrence with their refusal ; but the Church had the impression that such a piece of dexterous policy was scarcely suited either to her sacred character or the anxious circumstances in which so many of her ministers were placed. She felt still more aggrieved by the gross mis-statement of her Claim of Rights of which Sir James was guilty when he represented her as demanding that all her " proceedings, whether legislative or judicial, should be beyond the cognizance of the courts of law," — that these courts "should have no power to determ- ine whether matters brought before them were within the scope of their authority, if in the opinion of the Church these matters involved any spiritual consideration," — and that "neither sentences of courts nor decrees of the House of Lords should be effectual if they interfered with the rights and privileges of the Church, of which interference and of which spiritual considerations the Church itself was to be the ex- clusive judge." This was to identify the Claim of Rights with the arrogant pretensions of the Church of Rome, and that in face of the notorious fact, that her peculiar connection with the State had from the beginning been described and vindicated by the Scottish Establishment as lying midway between the two extremes — the extreme of Popery, which asserts the entire supremacy of the Church over the State, and claims for the former a total exemption from all species of civil control ; and the extreme of Erastianism, which asserts the entire supremacy of the State over the Church, and denies to the latter any peculiar sphere of action free from the reach of secular authority and control. The pain- ful feeling excited by this misrepresentation was aggravated when it was noticed that instead of dealing with the statutory 320 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 184?, and constitutional pleas advanced by the Church in support of her claims, these were summarily disposed of by the general allegation that to yield to them would " lead directly ta despotic power;" the adverse judgment of the Government being based not upon a consideration of what rights the Church already possessed, but of what rights they conceived it safe for her to enjoy. In vindication of the course followed by the Civil Courts, Sir James Graham traced all those encroachments which had been complained of to a previous aggression made by the Church on the vested rights of patrons. More than one in- stance has been already given in which the Court of Session assumed and attempted to exercise authority over the Church when no civil right was directly or indirectly affected. Had any doubt, however, upon this point remained, it must have been removed by a judgment of that Court delivered a few days after Sir James's letter reached Edinburgh. It has been already mentioned that one effect of the reforming measures adopted by the evangelical majority, was the return into the bosom of the Church of a body of dissenters bearing the name of the Associate Synod. The clergymen of this Synod were admitted as members of the respective Presby- teries within whose bounds their charges were situated, and these Presbyteries were proceeding to attach a territorial district to their churches. The Presbytery of Irvine had in this way received the Pwev. Mr. Clelland, minister at Stew- arton, into their court, and were engaged in allocating to him a special district for the purpose of pastoral superin- tendence and spiritual discipline, when an interdict was served upon them prohibiting them from receiving Mr. Clel- land as a member of Presbytery, and from establishing an additional pastoral charge in the parish. The Church for a hundred years and more had been admitting additional min- isters into her courts, and creating new parishes quoad spirit- ualici, and the validity of her acts had been recognized by decisions of the Civil Court. Her title was now for the first ^T. 63. THE STEWARTON CASE. 321 time challenged, upon the ground that, as a State-created institution, she could have no authority and exercise no priv- ilege which had not been expressly granted to her by statute. This case was so novel and important that it was brought before all the judges of the Court of Session. Their decision, delivered on the 20th January, 1843, was to the effect, that the Church had acted illegally in receiving such ministers as Mr. Clelland, and in placing any part of an original parish under their spiritual care. This judgment was one of wide compass, applying as it did not only to the members of the Associate Synod, but to all the unendowed clergymen re- cently admitted into the Church. Its effect, if submitted to, would have been to extinguish about two hundred pastoral charges, and to annihilate as many kirk-sessions, by whose vigorous agency a considerable inroad had been already made upon the ignorance and irreligion of many of the most overgrown parishes. It is one of the simplest and most harmless privileges which any society can enjoy, that of adding to the number of its office-bearers, and of originating methods by which their labors on behalf of the great objects of the institution may be most effectively prosecuted. This privilege was now denied to the Scottish Establishment. Taken in conjunction with a previous decision ©f the Court of Session, that all the Sabbath collections at the doors of the churches belonged to the heritors for the behoof of the poor, this judgment of that Court overturned the whole work of Church Extension as an attempt to break down the unmanageable masses which had accumulated in so many parishes, and threw them back upon the exclusive pastoral superintendence of a single clergyman. In other circum- stances, the Church might have attempted, by appeal to the House of Lords, to obtain a reversal of a sentence so fatal to her progress, so pregnant with injury to the highest interests of the country. As it was, she received it as a last token of the hopelessness of any recognition of her spiritual inde- jieudence by the Court of Session, and she engrossed it as 322 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843. the last specimen of the injustice which had been done her in that petition which, at a meeting of Commission held on the 31st January, it was resolved should be presented to the British Legislature. In the letter of the Home Secretary a direct and emphatic negative had been put upon her claims by the executive Government. If the voice of the Legisla- ture re-echoed and confirmed that negative, she had declared that this would be regarded as a conclusive determination by the supreme power in the State that she held her temporal- ities on the condition of implicit submission to the decisions of the Civil Courts. As that condition was one which she could not conscientiously fulfill, she had announced it to be her purpose to relinquish the pecuniary advantages conferred by the State, and on the broad ground of British toleration throw herself upon the support of the country. Mr. Fox Maule brought the important petition under the notice of the House of Commons on 7th March — founding upon it a motion that the House should resolve itself into a committee to take into consideration the grievances of which the Church of Scotland complained. Mr. Maule, Mr. Campbell of Monzie, Sir George Grey, Mr. Butherfurd, and Mr. P. M. Stewart stated the case for the Church so temperately, so judiciously, and so comprehensively, as left the Church no- thing either to desire or to regret. Sir James Graham reit- erated the sentiments embodied in his letter, and closed his speech by saying, that the sooner the House extinguished the expectation of the Church the better, " because he was satis- fied that any such expectation never could be realized in any country in which law, or equity, or order, or common sense prevailed." Lord John Russell, with many expressions of regret at a calamity which he feared was impending, could not withhold his consent from the opinions as to the Church's jurisdiction laid down by Sir James Graham. " My right honorable friend," said his Lordship, "the member for Leith, has said that the Church did not claim supreme power save over what was spiritual, and that she allowed of the civil JET. 63. THE DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. 303 authority in other matters, but I can not conceive the con- nection between Church and State carried on under such conditions." Sir Robert Peel took a broader view than any ot the preceding speakers of the nature of the Church's demands, and of the results which would flow from conceding them. The right honorable gentleman opposite says that these Courts— the Civil and Ecclesiastical— have a co-ordi- nate jurisdiction. Now, I think that it has been very clearly shown, that would amount to something very like a separa- tion of Church and State. It is in fact impossible that the two Courts can co-exist. Why, take the case of the Roman Catholic religion or the Dissenters. The latter are no doubt, quite entitled, as a Voluntary Church, to decide with reference to their own aflkirs ; but if a Church chooses to participate in the advantages appertaining to an Establish- ment, that Church, whether it be the Church of England the Church of Rome, or the Church of Scotland, that Church must conform itself to the law. It would be an anomaly- it would be an absurdity, that a Church should possess the privilege, and enjoy the advantages of connection with the State, and, nevertheless, claim exemption from the obligations which wherever there is an authority must of necessity exist ; and this House and the country never could lay it down that if a dispute should arise in respect of the statute law of the land, such dispute should be referred to a tribunal not subject to an appeal to the House of Lords. * * # I con- sider that a great principle is involved in this matter If peace could be secured— if the rights of the subject could be rnaintamed consistently with the demands of the Church then indeed, such is my opinion of the pressing evils of this protracted disputation, that I should almost be induced to make any concession in order to obtain tranquillity. But my belief is that such claims, were you to concede them, would be unlimited in their extent. They could not be limited to the Church of Scotland. A principle, then, is involved, and if the principle be conceded by the House of Commons, why, 324 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843. the House of Commons must be prepared to carry it out. * * * My belief is, that there is abroad, both in this country, in Scotland, and in other countries, after a long series of religious contentions and neglect of the duties of religion, a spirit founded upon just views in connection with the subject. But I hope, that in effecting this object, an attempt will not be made to establish a spiritual or ecclesias- tical supremacy above the other tribunals of the countiy, and that in conjunction with increased attention to the duties of religion the laws of the country will be maintained. If the House of Commons is prepared to depart from those prin- ciples on which the Reformation was founded, and which principles are essential to the maintenance of the civil and religious liberties of the country, nothing but evil would result, the greatest evil of which would be the establishment of religious domination, which would alike endanger the religion of the country and the civil rights of man." The debate, which was conducted throughout in a temper and spirit befitting the importance of the subject, closed after the second evening's discussion, when seventy-six voted for Mr. Maule's motion and two hundred and forty-one against it. But while so large a majority of the whole House re- jected the motion, the Scotch members, in the proportion of more than two to one, voted in its favor. The voice of Scotland, as expressed by her representatives, was overborne. A purely Scottish question, which touched to the quick the constitution of the Scottish Kirk, was decided by members of the Anglican Church, and upon principles applicable alike to all religious establishments. The idea of two co-ordinate authorities — the secular and the spiritual — '' did appear" to Sir James Graham " unjust and unreasonable."* Lord John Russell could not conceive of its practical realization. Sir Robert Peel declared it to be anomalous, absurd, impossible. But it did not occur to any of these eminent politicians that the very kind of union which they repudiated had at a very * See ante, p. 30. JET. 63. THE DEBATE IN PARLIAMENT. 325 early period been described by the Scottish Church, and that in terms almost identical with those employed in the Claim of Rights, as the only kind of union with the State into which the Church felt itself at liberty to enter — had been sanctioned by Scottish Parliaments, and had peacefully and prosperously been carried on for more than two hundred years. Even if the abstract and theoretical ground upon which this species of connection between Church and State was disallowed, had been valid, the Scottish Establishment might reasonably enough have complained that the question was not restricted, as it ought to have been, to an inquiry, historical and stat- utory, into her original and actual constitution. That consti- tution should not have been violated even although its leading pecuharity — its refusal of the civil supremacy in spiritual affairs — was discordant with Anglican ideas. Jt seemed hard that a principle so dear to Scotland, and to which, through so many periods of persecution, that country had remained so faithful, should be sacrificed to a general theory formed by English politicians as to what the alliance between the Church and State ought to be. But the sense of injustice was quickened into wonder as the Church listened to the broad and sweeping terms in which that principle was characterized. The two great Tory leaders concurred in denouncing it as one, the concession of which would be dangerous alike to the civil and religious liberties of the country. It seemed strange to a Church which had done so much for freedom to have its most distinctive feature thus characterized. It had not appeared in such a light to the men to whom Scotland owed its deliverance from the grinding yoke of Popish bond- age, nor to those by whom the tyranny of the Stuarts was so heroically resisted, and who upheld the cause of civil and religious liberty in these lands, when no others were bold enough to take the field. Nor was it very easy to make out, when the matter was looked at in its abstract shape, what danger to civil liberty could arise from giving to a Church, when brought into connection with the State, the same free- 326 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843. (lorn which every Church out of that connection enjoyed — how a liberty which it was admitted could be safely exercised without the pale of the Establishment, at once became so pernicious if exercised within that pale. The State might not choose to bestow its gifts without exacting an equivalent. It might not be willing to enter into alliance with any Church which would not barter away a part, at least, of its spiritu- al liberties in return for the temporal advantages bestowed. Statesmen, in dread of that religious fervor so apt to appear to them under the odious aspect of fanaticism, might regard it as a needful and salutary arrangement, that the religious com- munity, raised by favor of the State to the position of greatest eminence and influence, should constantly, and as to all its proceedings, be kept under State control. But the wisest and best friends of religious establishments could not but regard it as a fatal injury inflicted on that cause, when it was so broadly and authoritatively affirmed, that no union between Church and State could legally exist, or safely be endured, save that which implied implicit subjection on the one side, and authoritative control on the other. The decision of the Legislature, however, was so far satis- factory that it was free from all ambiguity. It put a dis- tinct and conclusive negative upon the claims of the Church. It closed the perplexing negotiations of five fruitless years — turning away from which the Church set herself to a busy preparation for the new condition which awaited her. The clergymen who had signed the resolutions of the Convocation lost no time in explaining to their congregations the import- ant step which had been taken, and in inviting their adher- ence. Acting under the direction of a Committee appointed by the Convocation, the ablest of their number were deputed to itinerate over the country, holding meetings in every par- ish to which they could find access, announcing to the peo- ple their principles and final purposes, and obtaining a large and hopeful amount of popular concurrence. All this, how- ever, did not satisfy Dr. Chalmers, whose grand device for JET. 63. PRELIMINARY PREPARATIONS. 327 meeting the coming crisis was the organization of local asso- ciations, upon the plan and for the purposes indicated in his address to the Convocation. Unable to persuade others to unite with him, he instituted of his own accord, immediately after the Convocation broke up, an association of this kind in the parish of Morningside, where he resided. Districts were laid down, collectors were appointed, donations for erecting the churches, and termly subscriptions for the support of the ministers of the Free Church were obtained, six months be- fore that Church had a substantive existence in the country. The letter from Sir James Graham opened the eyes of many to the necessity of more instant and practical measures of preparation, and at last the Committee, appointed by the Convocation, united itself with another Committee, instituted at an influential meeting of the eldership, held at Edinburgh, on the 1st February. This most effective body, organized under the title of the Provisional Committee, held its first meeting on the following day, and to its labors the Free Church mainly owes that state of orderly preparation and absence of all division and confusion by which the days of the Disruption were so signally characterized. The Provisional Committee divided itself into three sections, the Financial, the Architectural, and the Statistical. Dr. Chalmers took his position at the head of the first of these sections. The task for which he had been so long reserving himself was now put into his hands ; and with an energy scarcely par- alleled in the busiest periods of his past history he set him- self to its execution. A circular, inviting subscriptions and donations, was instantly drawn up by him, and sent in thou- sands over Scotland, bearing the mottoes — " Surely T will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed : I will not give sleep to mine eyes, nor slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob." — " The God of heaven He will prosper us ; therefore we his servants will arise and build." The acts which followed were in good correspondence with 328 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843. these mottoes. As preliminary to those local and detailed operations, to which he attached such primary importance, Dr. Chalmers addressed a large and influential meeting, held at Edinburgh, on the evening of the 16th February. "This meeting," he said, " is not for argument, but for action. I think that the reasoners upon this question have done their work. The time for argument is now over, and the time for action has come on. We have entered upon a new era, the era of deeds, which has followed the era of speeches, and arguments, and memorials, and manifestos. * * ^ Some people are extremely fond of deliberative meetings. They have a greater taste and are more qualified for the field of deliberation than the field of action, in which former field they act as penmen, as spokesmen, as framers and movers of resolutions, and have withal a marvelous faculty of thread- ing their way through a cumbrous and elaborate mechanism of committees and sub-committees, so interwoven with each other that the whole becomes a very complicated affair. And then they go on consulting and deliberating, and treading upon each other, and no one going forward : and all the while there are thousands of hearts burning with desire to support the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland if they only knew what they had to, do. That method of saying much and doing little is not suited to the exigencies of this period. About ten days ago we began what might have been begun and broken loose upon ten weeks ago, and the result has been a meeting — a meeting of names, at least, if not of persons. Yes, and there have been resolutions too, and with all my antipathy to resolutions, the resolutions I hold in my hand are vastly to my taste. They are resolutions carried into effect without either a seconder, or a meeting, or any vote at all upon the subject. The first resolution is by a lady, and her resolution is, that she shall transmit for the support of the Free Presbyterian Church the sum of one thousand pounds sterling. The next resolution is by a per- son who calls himself a Dissenter, and his resolution is to give JET. 63. THE ERA OF DEEDS. 329 £500. * * * This brief circular was only sent forth a few days ago, and the amount of subscription, though we have yfit merely broken ground, is £ 1 8,550. It has come in upon us like a set rain at the rate of £1000 a day." Having warned his audience against the delusive influence of these large subscriptions, all of which would be absorbed at once in the work of erecting their Church, Dr. Chalmers proceeded to point out the paramount importance of those smaller, more numerous, but periodically sustained contributions, on which the support of a Christian ministry was to depend. Having described the apparatus by help of which he hoped not only to see a maintenance provided for all the outgoing clergy- men, but the blessings of Christian instruction extendefl over the land — " When we come to that," he said, '' and I think it may be soon, I should feel myself in my old element — as at my old work of Church Extension in Scotland. For Church Extension I knocked at the door of a Whig minis- istry, and they refused to endow. I then knocked at the door of a Tory ministry : they perhaps would have endowed, but they offered to enslave. I now therefore turn aside from both, and knock at the door of the general population. * =^ * To make Ireland what he wanted it to be, O'Connell gave forth his watchword — ' Agitate, agitate, agitate ;' and the consequence was, that Ireland for a few years was lord of the ascendant. To make England what he wanted it to be, and to shake the empire loose from the power of that agitation, Sir Robert Peel gave forth another watchword — ' Register, register, register ;' and the consequence is, that Toryism, with all its high church inveteracy, and all its old antipathies to evangelical religion, is now seated in absolute supremacy over the land. Scotland seeks no ascendency, and she neither hopes for, nor is ambitious of power. She seeks the Chris- tian freedom of her Church and the Christian good of her people, and to make out this, let her watchword be — ' Or- ganize, organize, organize.' We know that without prayer no human effort, no human wisdom can be of any avail ; 330 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843. and we confess our main dependence to be on the prayers of the Christian people of the land. But we also know that prayer does not supersede either effort or wisdom. There- fore I repeat — ' Organize, organize, organize ;' and without the objects of the demagogue on the one hand, or of the statesman on the other, let us not cease our endeavors till, by the blessing of God, the country in which we live becomes a sacred land of light and liberty — a portion of that greatest and best of empires — the empire of truth and righteousness." Having addressed a meeting in Glasgow held for a like ob- ject. Dr. Chalmers devoted himself to the forming and foster- ing into vigorous operation of Local Associations all over the country. Every hour he could spare from the duties of the Theological Class was now consecrated to this work — every day he was to be found presiding at the meeting of Com- mittee, and directing and stimulating his willing fellow- }aborers. The fruits of all this toil shall presently be laid before the reader. Meanwhile let us preserve one interesting notice of its progress. Writing to Mr. Lennox, on the 19th April, 1843, Dr. Chalmers says : " Our crisis is rapidly approach- ing. We are making every effort for the erection and sus- tentation of a Free Church, in the event of our disruption from the State, which will take place we expect in four weeks. I am glad to say, that the great bulk and body of the common people, with a goodly proportion of the middle classes, are upon our side, though it bodes ill for the country that the higher classes are almost universally against us. Notwith- standing this, however, we are forming associations for weekly payments in rapid progression all over the country, and I am glad to say, that by this day's post they amount to four hun- dred and five. We expect that by the meeting of our General Assembly, the country will be half organized, and are looking for a great additional impulse from the Disruption, when it actually takes place. I am hopeful that ere the summer is ended, we may number about a thousand associations, or as iET. 63. PUBLIC liNCREDULITY. 331 many as there are parishes in Scotlajid, so that unless there be an attempt to crush us by persecution, I have no fear of our getting on. But the Lord reigneth, and He alone knoweth the end from the beginning. Let us look to His providence and grace, without which there can be no security from with- out, nor vital prosperity within. *- Thomas Chalmers." The faith in one another, and the fervid activity in prospect of the Disruption, displayed by Dr. Chalmers and his asso- ciates, found a singular contrast in the apathy of the Govern- ment, and the infatuated incredulity of the public generally. When the difficulties in which the Moderate party should be placed, on the event of so many of their brethren being forced out of the Church, had been alluded to in the Presby- tery of Edinburgh : " It has been tauntingly asked," said the Rev. Dr. Grant, " how, even if we were successful, we could carry on the Church ? I should like to know, before answer- ing the question, how many of our opponents are to leave us? Dr. Grant was more excusable in speaking so, as the Con- vocation had not then met, nor had he the resolution of that memorable assembly before him. But we find the Rev. Dr. Gumming of London, after the Convocation, and with the full knowledge that the honor and good faith of more than four hundred Scottish clergymen were solemnly pledged to retire from the Establishment, publicly affirming — " If Gov- ernment is firm, I venture, from pretty accurate information, to assert that less than one hundred will cover the whole secession. * =^ * The few manses and pulpits likely to be va- cated, will be filled up with good and holy ministers. * *^ ^ The missionary schemes of the Church will not be over- thrown ; they will prosper more than they do now, by being released from party domination, and incessant quarrels and squabblings. * * # But I am not satisfied that any ivill secede.""^ When a Presbyterian clergyman, himself a Scotch- * " Present State of the Church of Scotland." London, 1843 ; pp. 10-16. 332 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843. man, and claiming to be so well informed, made such public announcements as these, we are the less surprised at the in- credulity of public and political men. It is now generally believed, that the testimony of some such informants as Dr. Gumming had satisfied the Government that it would be only a few of the leaders, who had committed themselves too deeply to draw back, who would secede ; and that rest- ing in this conviction, the Government suffered matters to proceed, and did nothing to avert the catastrophe. In Scot- land itself, with the busy notes of preparation ringing in their ears, there were multitudes, comprising almost the entire mass of the aristocracy, who could not to the very last be persuaded that more than twenty or thirty at the utmost would throw up their livings. It became a favorite subject of betting at their clubs; but even among those most friendly, few would peril any thing upon the hazard, that even so many as half of those who had pledged their word would keep it. And the capital, with all its means and opportunities of observation, was as incredulous as the country. " Mark my words," wrote one of the best informed and most sagacious citizens of Edinburgh, a day or two before the Disruption, "Mark my words — not forty of them will go out." The day of trial at last arrived. For some days previously, an unprecedented influx of strangers into Edinburgh fore- shadowed the approach of some exciting event. Thursday, the 1 8th May, the day named for the meeting of the General Assembly, rose upon the city with a dull and heavy dawn. So early in the morning as between four and five o'clock, the doors of the Ghurch in which the Assembly was to convene* opened to admit those who hastened to take up the most favorable positions, in which they were content to remain for nine weary hours. As the day wore on, it became evident that the ordinary business of the city had to a great extent been suspended, yet the crowds that gathered in the streets * St. Andrew's Church, which had on this, as on a former occasion, been fitted up as the Assembly-Hall. .^T. 63. THE DAY OF THE DISRUPTION. 333 wore no gay or holiday appearance. As groups of acquaint- ances met and commingled, their conversation was obviously of a grave and earnest cast. Toward mid-day, the throne- room at Holyrood, in which the Marquis of Bute, as Lord High Commissioner, held his first levee, was filled with a numerous assemblage of noblemen, clergymen, military and naval officers, the city magistrates, and country gentlemen from all quarters of Scotland. A portrait of King William III. hung upon the wall of the room, opposite to the spot on which Her Majesty's Representative was standing. The throng of the levee was at its height, when, loosened somehow from its holdings, this portrait fell heavily upon the floor ; and, as it fell, a voice was heard exclaiming, " There goes the Revolution Settlement." When the levee closed, the customary procession formed itself In his state-carriage, accompanied by a splendid cortege, and escorted by a troop of cavalry, the Commissioner proceeded to the High Church. The service was conducted by the Rev. Dr. Welsh, the Mod- erator of the preceding Assembly, whose discourse was made all the more impressive by the frequent allusions to the event by which it was so instantly to be followed. Elsewhere, within the Assembly-Hall, as hour after hour passed by, the strained feeling of the multitude, by whom every inch of sitting and standing ground had for so long a time been occupied, was beginning occasionally to relax. At last, however, the rapid entrance of a large body of ministers into the space railed ofi' below for members, told that the service at St. Giles was over. Every symptom of languor at once gave way, and expectation was at its utmost stretch. Dr. Welsh, the Moderator, entered and took the chair. Soon afterward. His Grace the Lord High Commissioner was announced, and the whole assemblage rose and received him standing. Solemn prayer was then offered up. The members having resumed their seats, Dr. Welsh rose. By the eager pressure forward — the hush I hush I that burst from so many lips — the anxiety to hear threatened to defeat itself The disturbance lasted but a moment. " Fathers 334 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843. and brethren," said Dr. Welsh, and now every syllable fell upon the ear amid the breathless stillness which prevailed, " according to the usual form of procedure, this is the time for making up the roll. But, in consequence of certain proceedings affecting our rights and privileges, proceedings' which have been sanctioned by Her Majesty's Government, and by the Legislature of the country; and more especially, in respect that there has been an infringement on the liberties of our Constitution, so that we could not now constitute this Court without a violation of the terms of the union between Church and State in this land, as now authoritatively declared, I must protest against our proceeding further. The reasons that have led me to come to this conclusion, are fully set forth in the document which I hold in my hand, and which, with per- mission of the House, I will now proceed to read." In this document, after the wrongs of the Church had been succinctly recited, the parties who signed it proceed at its close to say — " We protest, that in the circumstances in which we are placed, it is and shall be lawful for us, and such other Com- missioners chosen to the Assembly appointed to have been this day holden as may concur with us, to withdraw to a sep- arate place of meeting, for the purpose of taking steps, along with all who adhere to us, maintaining with us the Confes- sion of Faith and Standards of the Church of Scotland, for separating in an orderly way from the Establishment, and thereupon adopting such measures as may be competent to us, in humble dependence on God's grace, and the aid of the Holy Spirit for the advancement of his glory, the extension of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour, and the adminis- tration of the affairs of Christ's house, according to his holy word : and we now withdraw accordingly, humbly and sol- emnly acknowledging the hand of the Lord in the things which have come upon us because of our manifold sins, and the sins of the Church and nation ; but, at the same time, with assured conviction, that we are not responsible for any consequences that may follow from this our enforced sep- ^T. 63. THE DISRUPTION. 335 aration from an Establishment which we loved and prized, through interference with conscience, the dishonor done to Christ's crown, and the rejection of His sole and supreme au- thority as King in his Church." Having finished the reading of this Protest, Dr. Welsh laid it upon the table, turned and bowed respectfully to the Commissioner, left the chair, and proceeded along the aisle to the door of the Church. Dr. Chalmers had been standing immediately on his left. He looked vacant and abstracted while the Protest was being read ; but Dr. Welsh's movement awakened him from the reverie. Seizing eagerly upon his hat, he hurried after him with all the air of one impatient to be gone. Mr. Campbell of Monzie, Dr. Gordon, Dr. Macdonald, Dr. Macfarlan, fol- lowed him. The effect upon the audience was overwhelming. At first a cheer burst from the galleries, but it was almost instantly and spontaneously restrained. It was felt by all to be an expression of feeling unsuited to the occasion ; it was checked in many cases by an emotion too deep for any other utterance than the fall of sad and silent tears. The whole audience was now standing gazing in stillness upon the scene. Man after man, row after row, moved on along the aisle, till the benches on the left lately so crowded showed scarce an occupant. More than 400 ministers, and a still larger number of elders, had withdrawn. A vast multitude of people stood congregated in George's Street, crowding in upon the church-doors. When the deed was done within, the intimation of it passed like lightning through the mass without, and when the forms of their most venerated clergymen were seen emerging from the Church, a loud and irrepressible cheer burst from their lips, and echoed through the now half empty Assembly Hall. There was no design on the part of the clergymen to form into a procession, but they were forced to it by the narrowness of the lane opened for their egress through the heart of the crowd. Falling into line, and walking three abreast, they formed into a column which extended for a quarter of a mile and more. 336 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843 As they moved along to the new Hall prepared for their re- ception, very different feelings prevailed among the number- less spectators who lined the streets, and thronged' each win- dow and door, and balcony, on either side. Some gazed in stupid wonder ; the majority looked on in silent admiration. A few were seen to smile, as if in mockery : while here and there, .as the child or wife of some outgoing minister caught sight of a husband's or a father's form accomplishing an act which was to leave his family homeless and unprovided, warm tear-drops formed, which, as if half ashamed of them, the hand of faith was in haste to wipe away. There were Judges of the Court of Session there, who had placed them- selves where they could be unseen observers of what took place, who must have felt perplexed, it may be saddened, when they saw realized before their eyes the fruits of their deci- sions. Elsewhere in the city. Lord Jeffrey was sitting read- ing in his quiet room, when one burst in upon him saying, "Well, what do you think of it"? — more than four hundred of them are actually out." The book was flung aside, and springingto his feet, Lord Jeffrey exclaimed, " I'm proud of my country ; there's not another country upon earth where such a deed could have been done." The large hall at Canonmills prepared for the new As- sembly, and fitted up so as to receive 3000 auditors, had been filled in the part allotted to the public from an early hour in the morning. When the procession from St. Andrew's Church arrived, and the space marked off for ministers and elders was fully occupied. Dr. Welsh opened the proceedings with prayer, after which he rose and said : (w^e quote now from a con- temporary account) — " Reverend fathers and brethren, I pre- sume our first duty in the circumstances in which we are placed unquestionably is to constitute ourselves by the choice of a Moderator ; and I feel assured that the eyes of every individual in this Assembly — the eyes of the whole Church and country — the eyes of all Christendom are directed to one individual, whom to name is to pronounce his panegyric. MT. 63. THE DISRUPTION. 337 In the exhausted state in which ray duties have left me, it is scarce in my power to say more, but indeed I feel that more would be superfluous. The extent of his labors in connection with our present position would justly entitle Dr. Chalmers — (the mention of Dr. Chalmers's name here, was received with extraordinary enthusiasm, the whole of the vast audience rising, cheering for some minutes with the ut- most enthusiasm, and the house presenting a perfect forest of hats and handkerchiefs) — would justly entitle that great man to hold the first place in this our meeting. But surely it is a good omen, or I should say a token for good from the Great Disposer of all events, and the alone Head of the Church that I can propose, to hold this office, an individual who, by the efforts of his genius and his virtues, is destined to hold so conspicuous a place in the eyes of all posterity. But this I feel is taking but a low view of the subject. His genius has been devoted to the service of his Heavenly Master, and his is the high honor promised to those, who, having labor- ed successfully in their Master's cause, and turned many to righteousness, are to ' shine as the stars for ever and ever.' " In taking the chair, Dr. Chalmers proposed that the proceed- ings should be commenced by another act of prayer and praise. The psalm selected to be sung commenced with the verse — " 0 send thy light forth and thy truth ; Let them be guides to me, And bring me to thine holy hill, Ev'n where thy dwellings be." As the vast multitude stood up to sing these words, and as the swell of 3000 voices rose up in melody to heaven, a sud- den burst of sunlight filled the building, and there were some who thought of Dr. Chalmers's text, but six months before — '« Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness." The Assembly being constituted proceeded to business ; and on the following Tuesday the act of the Disruption day was formally and legally completed by the subscription of the VOL- IV — ^P 338 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843. " Act of Separation and Deed of Demission," by which 470 ministers did "separate from and abandon the present sub- sisting ecclesiastical Establishment in Scotland, and renounce all rights and emoluments pertaining to them in virtue there- of." A revenue of more than one hundred thousand pounds a year was thus voluntarily relinquished for the keeping of a good conscience and on behalf of the liberties of the Church. Five years had passed since the first decision on the x^uchtorar- der case and the fruit of the conflict which then commenced was this rending in twain of the Scottish Establishment. When that conflict began there were none on any side who contemplated the possibility of such an issue, and perhaps none who, had it been pre-announced to them, would not willingly have labored to prevent it. It was an event not only beyond all human foresight, but done without human concert, in great measure against human will. Step by step the Church was involuntarily led on from the lower and less essential to the larger and vital question upon which her very existence as an Establishment came finally to be staked. Guided by a M^ay that she knew not, her path was hedged up on the right hand and on the left till no opening but one seemed left for preserving her principles and keeping her honor pure and clean. It lightened amazingly the sacrifice which so many of her ministers were called at last to make, that not a shadow of uncertainty hung over the closing act, and that amid all the bitterness of regret felt by them in separating from an Establishment which they had so loved and venerated, there mingled no feeling of hesitation as to the propriety of their final step. It was an act forced on them by the moral necessities of their position, from the weighty responsibihties of which they felt as if providentially relieved. Those statesmen who constrained them to this alternative might with more show of reason have denied the spiritual independence which they craved to a Church which shuts out the laity from all part and influence in her affairs, and holds high notions of the priestly office and the spiritual JET. C3. THE DISRUPTION. 339 powers which accompany it ; but can they be forgiven for denying this liberty, and that on the ground of an alarm about clerical domination, to a Church which opened every court to an equal, in some instances to a predominating lay influence, and which utterly repudiated the whole doctrine of priestly authority and power ? Can the British Govern- ment be forgiven for breaking up the venerable fabric of the Scotch Church upon a plea so groundless, and for putting so mournful a close to that career of Christian usefulness upon which that Church had so vigorously and so hopefully embarked ? That an Estabhshment manned principally by such devoted ministers as were now driven beyond its pale, and guided in its advancing movements by such men as Dr. Chalmers and his associates, would have proved an instrument of greater power for penetrating and evangelizing the masses than any which we now see existing, we can not doubt ; and as the picture of what might have been rises before our eye — the picture of the Church of Scotland, aided by the coun- tenance and liberality of the aristocracy — strong in the grow- ing attachment of the great bulk of the middle classes — numbering among her adherents more than two-thirds of the whole population of the land — advancing year by year in numbers and in strength — reclaiming larger and larger por- tions of the waste places of the wilderness, and turning them into the garden of the Lord — we sigh in heart-felt sorrow over an event which has put the fulfillment of such a prospect forever out of sight. We can not doubt that for a calamity so great, Divine Providence has some compensating benefits in store, which as yet we do not see ; and with a hopeful faith we look for it, that in some great and beneficent issue, as unlike to any which our sagacity or foresight can now foreshadow as was the Disruption of 1843 to the anticipa- tions of 1834, when the future shall have unfolded and illus- trated them, the purposes of that wise and gracious Provi- dence which watches over the Church of Christ will receive their ample vindication. CHAPTER XVIII. CHE TWO GENERAL ASSEMBLIES— PROGRESS OF THE FREE CHURCH— CHARACTERISTICS OF ITS FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY— LABORS AND SUFFERINGS OF THE SUMMER OF 1843— DR. CHALMERS'S SUSTENTA- TION TOUR. The Church was rent asunder, and, for the first time in Scottish History two General Assemblies convened together at Edinburgh. What had divided them ? It was no dif- ference as to any of the peculiar doctrines of Christianity ; for the Creed and Confession of both were identical. It was no difference as to Church order or government ; for the form of worship and methods of rule and discipline were in each instance the same. Nor did the division spring from any peculiarity of Presbyterianism ; for had the Established Church of Scotland been Episcopalian or Independent, the same kind of separation might have taken place. The Dis- ruption sprang solely and directly from the terms and con- ditions of connection imposed by the State upon the Church. The State demanded an unlimited submission to certain sen- tences of the Civil Courts, upon the broad and general ground that such submission formed an essential element in the bond of union between it and the Church. The evangelical cler- gymen looked upon this demand as repugnant to the whole spirit, and contrary to the very letter of the ancient consti- tution of their Church — as one with which it would be both unlawful and inexpedient to comply ; and conscientiously un- able to render the required submission, they withdrew from the Establishment. But what they could not do — what they rather chose to resign their livings than be guilty of — was done without scruple or difficulty by those whom they left MT. 63. THE TWO GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. 34 behind. The Assembly of the Establishment at once de- cided that the seven clergymen of Stralhbogie were in full possession of all the privileges of their order, and without any reversal by the Ecclesiastioal Court of the sentence which had been so solemnly pronounced, those whom the Assembly of 1841 had deposed, the Assembly of 1843 treated as if no judgment against them had overpassed. The Veto Law — the proceedings of previous Assemblies relative to the settle- ments at Murnoch, Culsalmond, and Lethendy — the Acts of 1833, 1834, and 1839, by which the ministers of the Asso- ciate Synod and of the Parliamentary and Extension Churches had been admitted, were all subjected to the same simple and summary treatment. It was not thought necessary to go through the form of repealing or rescinding them ; but ipso facto, and because simply of the edict of the Civil Courts, they were counted as null and void, and ordered to be erased from the records. Mr. Clark had his license restored to him, and the settlements of Mr. Edwards at Marnoch and of Mr. Middleton at Culsalmond, were recognized and confirmed. In acts like these, so hurtful to the Church's honor, and so prejudicial to the spiritual interests of the people, the evan- gelical clergymen could take no part; and having struggled in vain within the Establishment to be released from the obligation to perform them — an obligation unrighteously, as they conceived, and unconstitutionally imposed — they retired, to prosecute under all the disadvantages of a disestablished state, the labors of a Christian Church. Their position, as they assembled for the first time in the plain but spacious building prepared in haste for their recep- tion, was Avithout a parallel. Four hundred and seventy clergymen left without incomes for themselves, or homes for their families, or churches for their flocks — meeting in a con- dition of complete ecclesiastical organization, undertaking all the duties of a most arduous ministry at home, as well as the support of extensive operations abroad — and doing this as quietly and resolutely as if no shock or dislocation had 342 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843. occurred — no difficulties or uncertainties lay before them. The feeling which at first and most strongly prevailed in that singular assembly, was one of intense relief and satisfaction. So confidently and vividly was this feeling anticipated by Dr. Chalmers, that, in penning beforehand his introductory address, he inserted the following sentences : " Pv-everend fathers and brethren, it is well that you should have been strengthened by your Master in Heaven to make the surrender you have done, of every thing that is dear to nature ; casting aside all your earthly dependence rather than offend conscience, or incur the guilt of sinful compliance by thwarting your own sense of duty, and running counter to the Bible, our Great Church Directory and Statute Book. It is well that you have made, for the present, a clean escape from this condemnation — and that in the issue of the contest between a sacrifice of principle and a sacrifice of your worldly possessions, you have resolved upon the latter ; and while to the eye of sense you are without a provision and a home, embarked upon a wide ocean of uncertainty, save that great and generous certainty which is apprehended by the eye of faith — that God reigneth, and that He will not forsake the families of the faithful. We read in the Scriptures, and I believe it will be often found true in the history and experi- ence of God's people, that there is a certain light, and joy- fulness, and elevation of spirit, consequent upon a moral achievement such as this. There is a certain felt triumph, like that of victory after a conflict, attending upon a prac- tical vindication which conscience has made of her own supremacy, when she has been plied by many and strong temptations to degrade or to dethrone her. Apart from Chris- tianity altogether, there has been realized a joy fulness of heart, a proud swelling of conscious integrity, when a con- quest has been effected by the higher over the inferior powers of our nature ; and so among Christians too there is a legiti- mate glorying, as when the disciples of old gloried in the midst of their tribulations, and when the spirit of glory and /ET. 63. DR. CHALMERS'S INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 343 of God rested on them, they were made partakers of the Divine nature, and escaped the corruption that is in the world ; or as when the Apostle Paul rejoiced in the testi- mony of his conscience.* But let us not forget in the midst of this rejoicing the deep humility that pervaded their songs of exultation ; the trembling which these holy men mixed with their mirth — trembling arising from a sense of their own weakness ; and then courage inspired by the thought of that aid and strength which was to be obtained out of His fullness, who formed all their boasting and all their defense. Never in the history of our Church were such feelings and such acknowledgments more called for than now; and in the transition we are making, it becomes us to reflect on such sentiments as these : * not T, but the grace of God in me ;' and ' let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.'" In closing the address from which these sentences are extracted, and after referring to the danger, not unlikely to arise under the new condition of things upon which the Free Church was acting, of exchanging one kind of subjection or dependence for another, Dr. Chalmers added : " To be more plain, let me be more particular. The Vol- untaries mistake us, if they conceive us to be Voluntaries. We hold by the duty of Government to give of their resources and their means for the maintenance of a gospel ministry in the land ; and we pray that their eyes may be opened, so that they may learn how to acquit themselves as the pro- tectors of the Church, and not as its corrupters or its tyrants. * " You would have been struck with the contrast presented by our outgoing clergy, between their anxious and wo-begone aspect before they had taken their de'cision, and their perfect relief and light-heart- ed ness after it. Never was there a happier Assembly, with a happier collection of faces, than in our Free Cliurch — with consciences dis- burdened, and casting themselves without care, and with all the con- fidence of children, on the providence of that God who never forsakes the families of the faithful." — Letter from Dr. Chalmers to his Sister, Mrs. Morton, dated 16th Jnne, 1843. 344 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843. We pray that the sin of Uzziah, into which they have fallen, may be forgiven them, and that those days of light and blessedness may speedily arrive, when ' kings shall be the nursing-fathers, and queens the nursing mothers' of our Zion. In a word, we hold that every part and every function of a commonwealth should be leavened with Christianity, and that every functionary, from the highest to the lowest, should, in their respective spheres, do all that in them lies to coun- tenance and uphold it. That is to say, though we quit the Establishment, we go out on the Establishment principle; we quit a vitiated Establishment, but would rejoice in re- turning to a pure one. To express it otherwise — we are the advocates for a national recognition and national support of religion — and we are not Voluntaries. " Again, if we thus openly proclaim our differences with men who, under the guise of principle — and of this principle we question not the honesty — refuse in the affairs of the Church to have any participation with the Government, still more resolutely do we disclaim all fellowship with men who, under the guise of direct and declared opposition, lift a menacing front against ' the powers that be ;' or, disdaining government, and impatient of restraint, manifest a spirit of contention and defiance. ^ ^ * Ji on the flag of your truly free and constitutional Church you are willing to inscribe that you are no Voluntaries, then still more there will be an utter absence of sympathy on your part with the demagogue and agitator of the day — so that in golden characters may be seen and read of all men this other inscription, that you are no anarchists." His duties as Moderator interfered with Dr. Chalmers's taking any large share In the public business of the Assembly. As Convener, however, of the Financial Committee, he gave in the report relative to the Sustentation Fund. Had no such central fund for upholding the ministries of all the out- going clergymen in their former spheres of labor been devised, had each minister been thrown upon the support of such of ^T. 63. THE SUSTENTATION FUND. 345 his parishoners as adhered to him, in more than two hundred instances that support had been so utterly insufficient that their positions must have been abandoned, and the Free Church narrowed by more than a third part in her original dimensions. It was, moreover, the existence oi" such a fund which alone enabled the Free Church to make and keep her promise of supplying with Christian ordinances all who should adhere to her communion : and looking to the large increase in her ministry and membership w4iich consequently occurred, we may confidently affirm that for more than one half of her existing numerical strength the Free Church stands indebted to that single device of Dr. Chalmers. His report as to the progress made in its establishment was in the highest degree encouraging. Six hundred and eighty- seven associations had been organized. Two hundred and thirty-nine of them were in full operation, and had already transmitted to the general treasury upward of ,£17,000. The average yielded by each of these associations was £73 per annum — a sum much lower than what might confidently be calculated on when the impulse of the Disruption began to operate ; but, even as it then stood, if the same rate of liberality were extended over all the existing associations, and sustained throughout the year, there was the promise of an annual revenue of £74,080. " Had the goodly result," said Dr. Chalmers, in giving in this Report, " which 1 have to-day presented to you, been a few months ago spoken of as either possible or probable, the anticipation would have been regarded, as in fact my expressed conviction at that time generally was regarded, as a vision of Utopia. We know not what the feelings of such are when, instead of presenting the matter to the eyes of their understanding, we now place it before the eye of their senses. Sure we are, it was far easier practically to do the thing, than to convince the people that thing was practicable. The difficulty lay not in the doing the of the work when begun, but wholly in getting it begun — not in the execution of the process after its commencement, but 346 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843 in overcoming the incredulity which stood as a barrier in the way of its commencement. * =^ * I doubt not, there are a good many here who heard me predict such a result as that which I have to-day laid before you ; and I trust you will forgive me for stating, though I am not a professor of phys- iognomy, that when I chanced to lift my eyes oft' the paper to the countenances of those who were before me, I observed in them a good-natured leer of incredulity, mixed up, no doubt, with a benignant complacency, which they cast on the statements and high-colored representations of a very sanguine Utopian. In order to overcome this incredulity in ray own little sphere, and in a parish where eight-ninths of the aristocracy of the soil are against us, I did begin a little Association — I mean the parish of Morningside. But we remained for six whole weeks in a state of single blessedntBSs — we had not a single companion, but stood as a spectacle to be gazed at with a sort of gaping wonder, till we actually felt our situation painful, felt as if we stood on a pillory ; but now that we have been followed by no less than 687 Associations, our singularity, we begin to fee], sits rather gracefully upon us. At the hazard of being regarded as a Utopian this second time, and at this new stage of our advance, I will make as confident an avowal now as I made then, that if we only make a proper use of the summer that is before us, in stirring up, I do not say the people of Scotland, but that portion of them who are the friends of our Protest- ing Church — if we do what we might, and what we ought, we will not only be able to repair the whole Disruption, but will get landed in the great and glorious work of Church Extension. For you will recollect, that though the applica- tion of the first portion of the funds goes toward, I will not say the support of the ejected ministers, but toward the upholding of the continuance of their services ; yet after that is secured, and after the maximum has been attained, the over and above sums contributed will go, not to the augment- ation of ministerial income, but to the augmentation of min- ^T. b:j. THE BUILDING FUND. 347 isterial services — not to the increase of the salaries of the ministers, but to the increase of their numbers ; and we shall not stop short, I trust, in our great and glorious enterprise, till, in the language you have already heard ' the light of the gospel be carried to every cottage-door within the limits of the Scottish territory.' This will open a boundless field for the liberality of our Christian brethren — a bright and beautiful ulterior, to which every eye should be directed, that each may have in full view the great and glorious achievement of a Church commensurate with the land in which we dwell, and every heart be elevated by the magnifi- cent aim to cover with the requisite number of churches, and, with God's blessing on the means, Christianly to educate, and, in return for our performance and prayers, to Christian- ize the whole of Scotland." The report relative to the Building Fund, also given in by Dr. Chalmers, was not less encouraging. In one week, by means of the local associations, £16,578 had been collected in smaller sums, which, added to the more munificent dona- tions made during the few months preceding the Disruption, presented no less a sum than £104,776 already available for the erection of churches. And the day of the Disruption sprang a new mine of charity in the hearts of thousands. Their ministers having led the way, and given to the world a clear and convincing testimony to the reality and power of religious principle, in the pecuniary sacrifices which they made, many a noble-hearted layman was in haste to follow and to rival their example. First among those Christians and generous men who have furnished a new standard of in- dividual liberality, stood Mr. William Campbell of Glasgow, whose benefactions to the Church of Scotland during the progress of her extensions had already amounted to about £15,000, began a new career of a still wider liberality, by a donation of £2000 to the Building Fund of the Free Church. The Marchioness of Breadalbane, Mr. Ewing of Levenside, Mr. Nisbet of London, and Mr. Brown Douglas 348 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843. of Edinburgh, were mentioned also by Dr. Chalnners as the donors of sums equally miniifieent ; and we regret only that the delicacy of a genuine humility forbids our naming one, the overflowings of whose altogether princely generosity cross- ed the Atlantic, and of which Dr. Chalmers felt himself to be honored in being chosen as the channel. These were the offerings of the rich, but greater and more precious in the eyes of Him who still sits over against the Church's Treasury, were the offerings — approaching far more to the character of pecuniary sacrifices — made at this time by thousands in the humblest walks of life. " The liberalities," said Dr. Chalmers, " which have been poured forth on our great en- terprise even by the humblest of our artisans and laborers, and the grateful responses which these have called back again the words of kindness and of encouragement which have been sent from all places of the land to bear us up on the field of conflict, and our thankful sense of the friendship which prompted them — the amalgamating power of a com- mon object and a common feeling, to cement and knit to- gether the hearts of men — the very emulation to love and to good works which has given birth to so many associations, each striving to outrun the other in their generous contribu- tions for the support of what is deemed by all to be a noble cause — even the working of these associations, in which the rich and the poor are often made to change places, the former visiting the houses of the latter, and receiving the offerings of Christian benevolence at their hands — the mul- tiplied occasions of intercourse thus opened up between those parties in the commonwealth which before stood at the greatest distance, and were wont to look with the indiffer- ence, if not the coldness, of aliens to each other — these are so many sweetening and exalting influences, which servo to foster the sympathy of a felt brotherhood among thousands and tens of thousands of our countrymen, and will mightily tend, we are persuaded, to elevate and humanize the society of Scotland." ^T. 63. GENEKAL ASSEMBLY OF THE FREE CHURCH. 349 Two things especially characterized the first General As- sembly of the Free Church — the marvelous popular enthu- siasm which it kindled without, and the equally marvelous and unbroken harmony which prevailed within. The sittings were continued from Thursday the 1 8th till Tuesday the 30th May, and yet from the beginning to the close of each daily sitting, the Hall at Canonmills saw a compact crowd of 3000 auditors listening with intense attention to every part of the proceedings, and breaking out, whenever the oc- casion permitted, or at all encouraged it, into extraordinary demonstrations of sympathy and approval. During the two Sabbaths which intervened, religious service was conducted in the Hall of the Assembly. It is to give no conception of the scenes which there occurred to say, that the mass of human beings, forced by the outward pressure into the build- ing, was so compact that, unable to penetrate, the preacher had to be carried over their heads. Such multitudes assem- bled that five separate congregations were formed without the walls, and though the rain began to fall, remained hanging upon the lips of the speakers. During the course of the Assembly many plans had to be matured and resolu- tions taken, which, had matters been thrown loosely in a crude and undigested form before the House, might have created difference or discord. It was with a clear foresight of this danger that Dr. Chalmers was so urgent in carrying the work of preparation beforehand to the utmost possible extent. There was no measure submitted to the Assembly which had not been the subject of frequent and anxious deliberations with one or other of the committees in Edin- burgh ; and, even after the Assembly met, no measure of any importance was brought forward for public discussion or approval till after much private consultation regarding it, In these private conferences every one who had any counsel to tender was invited to bring it forward, and each seemed ready to yield his own judgment to the collective wisdom of his associates. A reigning spirit of brotherly love and of 350 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. lfJ4S. mutual confidence guided all their deliberations, and such a rare and unbroken harmony of judgment was effected that not once had a vote to be taken, nor with any one of this Assembly's decisions was dissatisfaction afterward expressed. The excitements of debate were exchanged for the excite- ments of an ardent, hopeful zeal — quick to devise and ready to execute. No sound of strife was heard, no shadow of jealousy appeared — all were of one heart and of one mind, stimulating and strengthening each other for the great work to which they stood committed. That work was sufficiently arduous. First, the pains of separation from old homes, and old churches, and old friends, had to be suffered, and then the toils of an overburdened ministry had to be undergone, and the front of a most de- termined opposition to be faced. They knew nothing of the Disruption as a time of trial and of sacrifice who knew it only in our great towns, where amid much to do and to suffer there was much also to animate and encourage. It was in the country manse — it was in the sequestered rural parish that the burden of this sore calamity was most severely felt. " Just conceive," said Dr. Chalmers, in the Assembly, entering most feelingly into their coming trials, " these clergymen returning to their homes, finding their houses in process of being dismantled and their parishioners saddened by the prospect of an approaching separation. We stay here in our hilarity in the presence of each other, but these gentlemen go to what were once their welcome and comfortable homes, and what is the spectacle that meets them on their return ? I can not venture on the description. Going, they and their families, they know not whither — re- signing all. those places to which they are attached by so many fond and intense local affections — their garden-walks where they freely enjoyed the hours of their relaxation the peaceful study where the man of learning enjoyed many a raptured hour of converse with his books, or which the man of piety converted into a sanctuary, and held intercourse ^T. 63. THE LEAVING OF THE MANSE. 351 there with his God — all these to be resigned and given up." One venerable minister had to send his wife and children away to a distance of seventy rniles — not a house or hut nearer being open for their accommodation — and he had himself to take a room in the only inn which the district supplied. Another was asked by his widowed daughter to share a cottage, within his parish, in which she lived, but the noble proprietor interfered. She was warned that if she harbored her own parent in her house she would forfeit her right to her dwelling, as it was not desired that any house on this estate should be a "lodging-place for dissenters." A third, driven from one of the loveliest homes, compelled to study in a wretched garret, and to sleep often with nothing between him and the open heavens but the cold slate, covered with hoar-frost — his very breath frozen upon the bed clothes sunk into the grave. From the manse of Tongue the patriarchal clergyman and his son, who was his assistant and successor, separating themselves from their families, retired to a very humble abode. The exposure and privation were too much for them ; they both caught fever, and both died. «' T shall never forget, to my dying day," said Dr. Guthrie,* " the scene which I witnessed at the manse of Tongue, or rather I forget myself — in a mean, at least humble cottage to which that father and son had retired — parting with their family rather than part with their flock. I was never so unmanned by any sight I ever saw — if I may call it bemg unmanned, for T am not ashamed of being afiected by such a sight. I shall not venture to describe what I saw, 1 shall only say, in the words of Scripture, ' they were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided.' I rise to bear my humble testimony to the worth of these men — I should rather say, the worth of these martyrs for those great principles for which we abandoned our earthly all. They lay on their dying beds in peace. * In a speech before the General Assembly at Inverness in August, 1845. 352 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843. Never shall I forget the sight of that venerable old man — a man who would have adorned any Church — who would have adorned any society — never shall I forget seeing him in his mean cottage — nature exhausted — buried in the sleep which he had not tasted during the livelong night, his ven- erable locks streaming over the chair where he was sitting asleep. I went up to him and intended to awake him, but I thought it cruelty to do so. I passed by him again and ajrain in the room, and still he slept on ; and after seeing his son lying, in an adjoining closet, on a fever bed — a son that had never closed his eyes all the night long either, for his father's groans were like daggers to his heart, I left the house ; and the last words I heard that son say on the earth were, ' Mr. Guthrie, this is hard enough ; but I thank God I don't lie here a renegade. My father's conscience and mine are at peace.' Yes, they are both at peace now. They have both gone to the place where ' the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary arc at rest.'" Such are single leaves of a record, which, if ever the history of the first plantation of the Free Church be fully written, will be a book of many and strangely-colored pages. But toil came as v/ell as trouble. To meet the wants of the adhering population upward of 600 congregations had to be regularly supplied with all the means of grace, and as many churches had to be erected. Never in the history of the Christian Church were so many sermons delivered, so many prayer meetings held, so many addresses delivered, by the same number of clergymen, within the same period of time, as by the outgoing ministers during the twelve months which elapsed from the day of the Disruption till the Gene- ral Assembly of 1844 ; and never over the same surface of country, or within so short a time, were so many churches built. In towns the kindness of their dissenting brethren afforded many facilities for ministers meeting with their people on the Sabbath days. In the country it was differ- ent. Here and there the hand of tyranny was stretched out, ^T. 63. THE SUMMER OF 1843. 353 and from the church and church-yard — from the bare hill- side and from the public highways, on all of which they sought to assemble and to worship God — ministers and people, were driven, till they took their station within high- water mark on the lone sea-beach, their feet upon the damp and tangled sea- weed — the roll of those breakers whose spray the breeze drove over them keeping time to their solemn psalmody. It was a summer in which there was scarcely a rainy or inclement Sabbath, and very generally in the rural districts, even where no opposition of any kind was encoun- tered, there was preaching in the open air. When this was impracticable or inexpedient, strange shifts and expedients were frequently employed. At Morningside, Dr. Chalmers opened his own dwelling-house, and converted it into a church ; and perhaps he never occupied a more picturesque position than when, planted midway up the staircase, he preached to a disjointed congregation scattered into different rooms, all of whom could hear, but not half of whom could see the clergyman. In addition to the increased amount of purely pastoral labor which devolved upon them, the leading ministers of the Free Church had large draughts made upon their time and strength for public services. The lively in- terest which the Disruption had created in other countries, suggested the idea of dispatching numerous deputations to explain the principles and to plead the cause of the Free Church. Familiar as the Presbyterians of Ulster were with the great principles involved in the controversy, and looking with the strong attachment of children to the parent Church in Scotland, they needed less either to be informed or to be stimulated, and, as became them, they were the foremost, both by word and deed, in expressions of attachment. In England, the deputations from the North were received every where with extraordinary demonstrations of affection and good-will. Public meetings were held in the metropolis and most of the principal towns. In Manchester, thirty-five pulpits were opened upon one Sunday, that sermons might 354 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843. be preached and collections taken. In Birmingham fifteen pulpits were placed, in like manner, upon the same Sab- bath, at the disposal of the friends of the Free Church. London was not so well organized, but it exhibited a no less generous spirit. Over all wide England, fervent and sub- stantial expressions of desire were given to aid the men M'ho, after making so great a personal sacrifice, were attempting the task of building up a national institute in a year. The event which had occurred in Scotland had power also to stir profoundly and extensively the sympathies of the American churches, and a deputation, headed by Dr. Cunningham, crossed the Atlantic. In one or other of these pubhc serv- ices Dr. Chalmers was again and again solicited to engage. It was pressed upon him in particular and in the strongest terms, that he should deliver a few lectures in London, ex- planatory of the principles involved in the Disruption ; but he steadily resisted all the urgency by which he was beset He had the profoundest conviction that all which Ireland, England, or America would or could do for her, was utterly insignificant as compared with what Scotland could and ought to do for herself.* Those bursts of generous feeling, which it was so pleasant to witness or excite, would in a year or two subside, and the contributions begotten by them would die away in like manner. To meet all the tempo- rary necessities of her position, it was proper and needful that * •^Edinburgh. Nov. 6, 1843. — My dear Sir — Your suggestions are admirable, and will be handed to the proper quarters. Yet, how- ever valuable our labors in England, a tenfold greater good would ac- crue to the Free Church were each man but to cultivate his own dis- trict, and make the most of it. Do tell Mr. Mackinlay that I would have more value for a vigorous and well-conducted system in his local- ity, and for the imitation of it in the other localities of our own land, than for all that either England or Ireland can do in our favor. I was delighted with m}' visit to you, nor have I spent more congenial or ha}>pier hours for a long time, than within the limits of j'our domain, and the Necroplis together. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours most cordially, Thomas Chalmers. "Hueh Tennant, Esq." JF.T. G3. THE SUSTENTATION TOUR. 355 the Free Church should avail herself of them to the utter- most. They served, besides, a higher and more enduring object — that of binding together the churches in the bonds of a brotherly unity, and upon that ground especially were they to be cherished. But ere very long the Church w^ould be thrown back upon her own internal resources — the foreign springs would fail, and it would be upon the home fountain that all would finally depend. It was to the striking out of that fountain, to the rendering it as deep and productive as possible, that Dr. Chalmers's whole and undivided strength was given. When told with rapture of this and that other donation from this and that other remote district of England or America, he playfully would say, " The eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth." In August and September he made a Sustentation tour, taking in Perth, Dunkeld, Aber- deen, Arbroath, Dundee, and St. Andrews. What he sought for in each place he visited was, a meeting with ten, or twenty, or thirty of those who would undertake the actual work of making the regular rounds through the families of their districts, that he might impress them with the magni- tude of their office, and animate them to punctuality and zeal in the discharge of its duties. In one or two instances he had large audiences to address. At Aberdeen 1400 office- bearers of the Church assembled to receive his counsels. But he eschewed the larger assembly, and courted the small and confidential conference.* * " I assure you," said he to the General Assembly convened in Glasgow, " that if I can get twenty gentlemen persuaded to do what 1 recommend, I should consider it an ample reward for all the fatigue endured by the Assembly. The truth is, I have infinitely greater taste for meetings which are followed by common sense practical workings, than I have for meetings which are not so followed up. I can not ex- press the futility of these general meetings, which are tenfold less use- ful to the community, and tenfold more exhausting to the strength, than those private confidential meetings which are attended by none but those who are willing to give their time and their substance to the labor. I can not express the distaste I feel for the meetings which are not so followed up. I care nothing for the bold oratory, for the 35fi MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMKRS. 1843. There were three visits in the course of this tour wliich he especially relished — the three days spent with Captain Bur- nett of Monboddo, the week with Mr. Thomson of Banchory, and the day at the manse of Carnoustie. In his Journal letters, under the date of Monday, the 4th September, he says — " Captain and Mrs. Burnett had the great kindness to accompany me on my departure as far as Stonehaven, on my way to Banchory. I took leave with much feeling of the whole family, children and all. I have been treated with the greatest cordiality, and I owe nothing to the Cap- tain but the utmost gratitude and respect. What a differ- ence it would make in Scotland, if we had one such as he within every ten miles of each other." On Sabbath, the 10th of September, it was arranged that Dr. Chalmers should preach at Banchory, a short distance from Aberdeen. The Free Church congregation was then worshiping in a tent, which was enlarged for the occasion, so that it might accom- modate from 1600 to 2000 persons. Two hours before the time for the commencement of the service, a message was sent to Mr. Thomson that the tent was already crowded. On going to see the state of matters, he found it not only crammed to suffocation, but as many assembled round it as would have filled it two or three times over, while crowds were hastening to the spot along the various roads, on foot and in vehicles of every description. It was obvious that there was no re- bursts of enthusiasm, for the electric flashes of the speeches, foilowed by the thnnder-claps of a[)plause from the thousands of assembled hearers, for the flights of eloquence in the orators, and the peals of admiration from the auditors — for all this, if its energy is to be ex- pended like the winter torrent, will leave few men the readier to put forth their hand to the required work. All this may be very splendid ; but it is nothing, or worse than nothing, reminding us of the oratorio, where the sacred music has awakened a thrilling ecstasy in the minds of multitudes who have none of the habits or characteristics of piety ; or of the theatrical acclamations with which virtuous speeches or sen- timents are hailed b}' hundreds who have no patience for its toil, no relish for its homely services. I want not the excitement of emotion, but the sturdiness and endurance of good woiking principles."' .1-:?. 63. THR SKR.MON AT BANCHORY. 357 source but to ask Dr. Chalmers to preach in the oi)cu air. lie had retired to the hbrary, and requested to be left alone for an hour, but it was absolutely necessary to intrude upon him. " I went to him," says Mr. Thomson, " and said to him, ' We find that the tent will not nearly hold all the people who have assembled ; would you dislike preaching: in the open air V He looked up, and with the most perfect simplicity, exclaimed, ' What has brought all the people here V " He at once agreed, however, to the request ; and various places being proposed and shewn to him, he prompt-* ly selected the principal door-way of the house, where a tem- porary pulpit of tables, covered with a large green cloth, was immediately erected. The situation was favorable ; a level lawn of some extent stretching out before him, bound- ed on each side by a sloping bank covered with shrubbery and wood. The narrative of the preaching must be given in Dr. Chalmers's own words : — " I had expressed my preference for a rural Sabbath. But little thought I, that, notwithstanding the day and the hour, and even the rain of this day, there were to assemble six or seven thousand, some say ten thousand people. And so the pulpit had to be carried half-a-mile from the Free Church tent to the front-door of Banchory House, where I could preach under cover, with a lobby full of grandees behind me, and such a multitude before me, as presented what the Opium-Eater calls an ocean of human faces. The people occupied all the gravel before the house, and all the grassy lawn, wet as it was, to the trees, whose foliage gave back the sound, so that the echo came back upon our ears, and prolonged each line so as to compel a pause from the precen- tor in a way that was somewhat ludicrous. Nevertheless, I was completely heard ; and having Mr. Archibald, a pro- bationer, to conduct all but the sermon, I got over the whole with marvelously little fatigue. The open air in front, and freedom from all heat and stifling, made it far easier for me than if I had been in the tent." 358 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843. Dr. Chalmers's text upon this occasion was his favorite one from Isaiah xxvii. 4, 5, " The breathless interest," says Mr. Thomson, " with which the people listened was very striking, and the blessed fruits of that discourse will all be known only at the great day." It was the domestic quiet and Christian converse of the manse of Carnoustie which endeared it to him. Speaking to Mrs. Dymock of the pleasure of Christian friendship, he said — " But we are wayward ; where we love much we .often love wrong. We must take care of fixing our hearts on earth. Yet we have a warrant in the Bible for loving much : — ' Love one another with a pure heart fervently.' It may be fervently, if it be first with a pure heart. ^ ^ =^ You do not know how much I need your prayers. This is one of the pleasures of Christian affection. Christians may and should think most of one another, in their holiest and happiest moments. Pwemember me in your holiest moments — your moments of prayer. "*" Some time afterward, he said, " Pwemember you have promised to pray for me," add- ing, " every time you pray, for I am a poor wretched sin- ner." Upon another occasion he said, "I hope you find no difficulty in appropriating Christ. If I were to come as an accredited agent to you from the upper sanctuary, with a letter of invitation to you, with your name and address on it, you would not doubt your warrant to accept it. Wei], here is the Bible, your invitation to come to Christ. It does not bear your name and address, but it says ' Whosoever ' — that takes you in ; it says ' all' — that takes you in ; it says * if any' — that takes you in. What can be surer or freer than that ? I have been reading some treatises on the appropri- ation of Christ, and I like them, especially Ebenezer Erskine on the Assurance of Faith. "t Having been engaged in this * From Notes taken at the time by Mrs. Dymock. t " I enjoyed also my readings of the little book which I have as my companion at present, a collection of little works on the assurance of faith. Its doctrine is very precious — the warrant for appropriation in ^T. 63. PIOUS CONVERSATIOiNS. 359 way for some time, he said — " This is the kind of conversa- tion I like." It was not often that he indulged in it. He had too great humbleness of mind — too great natural secret- iveness, and too great recoil from some of the too frequent characteristics of religious conversation, often to embark in it. But when it came, simply and unaffectedly, the keenness of his rehsh for it shewed the depth and the tenderness of his piety. Engrossed though he was with the public and outward business of the Church, such conversations as those of Carnoustie Manse indicated how naturally and how fondly his spirits reverted to and reposed upon the most spiritual truths of Christianity. " I regret exceedingly," he wrote to Mrs. Chalmers in the course of this tour, " that this bustling, various, engrossing work should so encroach on the higher occupations of good reading and good thinking; I do hope to make my escape from it ; and yet I can not but feel that the message or good news of salvation. J feel confident that nothing else will do, but that this will ; that Christ's offer to me in particular, if only trusted, will be realized ; and more especially that his offer of strength, if so trusted, will avail for the mastery over every temptation, and for the achievement of all holy and acceptable obedience." — From Letter to Mrs. Chalmers, dated Monboddo, September 2d, 1843. The volume referred to in this extract became a great favorite of Dr. Chalmers, and was frequently and earnestly recommended to his students. It is entitled — " Saving Faith as laid down in the Word of God : being a series of works by the following authors : — John An- derson, D.D., United States : Rev. Ebenezer Erskine of Stirling ; and Rev. William Cudworth of Norwich." Edinburgh, John Johnstone, 1843. In reference to one of those treatises, Dr. Chalmers wrote as follows to Mr. Lennox : — " I have been reading with great interest lately the work of an American divine, whose name I had never before heard of — Dr. Anderson. I believe that the little treatise to which I refer was published about fifty years back ; and I have since seen and perused another work of his, entitled ' Precious Truth,' in reply to Mr. Bellamy, the well-known American theologian. The title of the treat- ise is, ' The Scripture Doctrine of the Appropriation which is in the Nature of Saving Faith.' I hold it to be a first-rate composition, and well-fitted to dispel the obscuration which your Bellamy, and even Jon- athan Edwards himself, do sometimes (I apprehend) cast on the free- nes<5 of the Gospel." 360 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1843. I have a call to ray present doings. My heart is drawn toward the sacrificing ministers. I do hope that a system of adequate provision will be set up, and kept up not only for supporting but extending the Free Church. Meanwhile, let us cast more of our care and confidence upon God. To him I would commit all our interests, both for time and for eternity."* * From letter, dated Monboddo, August 30th, 1843. CHAPTER XIX. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1844— FRUITS OF THE YEAR'S LABORS— HISTORY OF THE SUSTENTATION FUND— PROPOSED MODIFICATION— ITS REJECTION BY THE FREE CHURCH. Dr. Chalmers returned from his Sustentation tour in the North to attend a meeting of the General Assembly held at Glasgow in October, which he opened by a sermon on the " Outward business of the House of God," from the text, Nehemiah, xi. 16. The object of this meeting was, to re- vive in the west of Scotland that impulse which the presence of the outgoing ministers had created in Edinburgh. Interim reports of the various operations of the Church were read, all bright with promise, but covering too brief a period to give accurate augury of the future. Reanimated by their intercourse, the ministers returned to prosecute their labors amid greater outward difficulties, but with undiminished ar- dor, during the succeeding winter. The results, as announced at the meeting of the General Assembly in May, 1844, were in the highest degree encouraging. Without exception, all the Missionaries in foreign stations had declared their adhesion to the Free Church. This testi- mony was doubly valuable, as coming from men who had been quiet spectators of the conflict, the purity and devotedness of whose character was above all suspicion, and who must have had many fears as to the probabilities of an infant Church, struggling for life at home, being able to continue their services abroad. Their fears were disappointed ; for, notwithstanding all that she otherwise had to do, the Free Church, in the first year of her existence, raised no less than £32,000 for her various schemes of Christian philanthropy — a sum greater VOL. IV.— Q 362 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1844 by £12,000 than had been raised by the whole Church in the year 1842. It had been looked upon as a marvel, that in the course of seven years previous to the Disruption, two hundred churches should have been built, in connection with a Church the whole number of whose ministers numbered about a thousand. But that marvel was lost in this — that by a Church, whose ministers numbered at the commencement only 470, nearly 500 churches were built in a single year. And yet the work of church-building was far from finished ; for, contrary to all anticipations, the people had forsaken the Establishment in a much higher ratio, as to numbers, than the ministers ; and it would have required more than 700 churches to accommo- date the congregations who were ready to attach themselves to the Free Church. To meet the spiritual wants of more than 200 unprovided congregations, the Church had only 130 licentiates at command, some of whom, it might be pre- sumed, were unlikely to be elected as ministers. Of these, so many as 114 were ordained in the course of a year, which saw the original Church of the Disruption, making an addition of about one-fourth to the number of her ministers. Setting aside the generous aid rendered by strangers, up ward of £300,000 had been contributed by a community, which at this period could not embrace so much as one-third of the population of Scotland. That particular branch of the general revenue which was devoted to the maintenance and extension of the ministry appeared also to be in a prosperous condition. Adopting the suggestions embodied in a pamphlet by Dr. Chalmers, printed and privately circulated in 1843,* two sources of ministerial income had been opened. The produce of all the local associations constituted a general fund, out of which each minister received an equal dividend ; while from the collections at the church doors, each congrega- * For some extracts from this pamphlet, entitled " Considerations on the Economics and Platform of the Free Church of Scotland," see Appendix, E. JET. 64. THE SUSTENTATION FUND. 363 tion was permitted and encouraged to supplement the salary of its clergyman. With the Central Sustentation Fund, estab- lished by the Free Church, the name of Dr. Chalmers is im- perishably connected. It stands and will long abide as the best monument of his genius in ecclesiastical finance. Com- pared with the system under which each separate congrega- tion sustains its own ministry, it presented many and peculiar recommendations. By drawing from the abundance of the rich a fixed supply for the necessities of the poor, it preserved a Christian ministry in many districts where otherwise it must have expired. By binding the strong and the weak together, it created a new species of unity in the Church, and breath- ed throughout it a fresh and healthful spirit of brotherhood. By erecting orderly channels through which the overflowing liberality of the wealthier congregations was spread equally within the whole area of the Church, it established a security against the fitful and capricious distributions of individual benevolence. By inviting every member of the Church to unite, not simply in supporting that clergyman whose serv- ices he personally enjoyed, but in sustaining and extending a gospel ministry throughout the land, wherever it was needed, it gave a new, if not a purer motive to his liberality, supplying it " with a wider aim, and a nobler arena." The actual income, it is true, which in the first year of its existence it supplied, was comparatively small and insufficient. The whole sum yielded by the Associations throughout that year amounted to £68,700, which, divided equally among 600 clergymen, afforded to each a salary of £100. Many, how- ever, of the Associations had but recently been organized — many had been in full working order, under the eye of an ordained clergyman, during a portion only of the past )^ear ; and when the large and exhausting efibrts expended upon church-building were over, it was confidently and generally expected that the Sustentation Fund would be largely replen- ished. To some extent Dr. Chalmers participated in this expectation. He rejoiced that one of the primary objects of 364 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1844. the Fund — the maintenance of the Church of the Disruption in all its original magnitude, had been more than realized. But he had been watching with eager and anxious eye the working of the system during the past twelvemonth; he had subjected the returns which specified each item of congregational income, and the object to which it was appropriated, to a most search- ing scrutiny, and the result was, that beneath a flourishing outward aspect he detected symptoms of weakness and decay, presages of a contracted rather than of an expanding Church. Dividing all the congregations of the Free Church into two classes — those which gave into the Fund more than they got out of it, and those which got more than they gave, it ex- cited his liveliest apprehensions to discover that more than three-fourths of the whole belonged to the latter, while by so small a number as fifteen of the former, one-fifth of the whole Fund was furnished. Confining his attention again to the aid-receiving congregations, the sluggishness of some and the selfishness of others, pained and alarmed him. More than 150 congregations gave less than £20, and more than 350 less than £50 to the Fund, and yet some of them reckoned their com- municants by hundreds. He would not admit the plea of pov- erty, when urged in excuse of such neglect of duty. " I am only sorry," he said in the General Assembly of 1844, "when some of the Highland brethren were telling us of the inability of the people in some districts to give any thing, that I did not put the question, whether the practice of snuffing was at all prevalent among them ? Why, I believe that I could make out by the Excise returns, that in the island of Islay alone, some £6000 a year is spent on tobacco. The power of lit- tles is wonderful. I began with pennies; I now come down to pinches, and say that if we got but a tenth of the snufF used by Highlanders — every tenth pinch — it would enable us to support our whole ecclesiastical system in the High- lands. It is astonishing, the power of infinitesimals. The mass of the planet Jupiter is made up of infinitesimals; and surely, after that, it is in the power of infinitesimals to make /ET. 64. DR. CHALMERS'S DISAPPOINTMENT. 3G5 up a stipend for the minister of Ballachulish I" But the playful changed into the indignant when he turned to con- template those congregations which, while receiving from the Fund more than they contributed to it, afforded palpable evidence of their ability to be aid-giving, rather than aid-get- ting, by what they raised for their own home uses. He won- dered whether the congregational conscience was at all awake, when they could permit themselves to extract from a Fund, designed for the weak and helpless, twice as much as they forwarded to it, and yet give to their own minister a supplement twice or thrice, or eight or ten times greater than their contribution to the Fund. He foresaw and he deplored the fatal influence which such apathy and ignoble selfishness must necessarily in the long run exert, in deaden- ing the generosity of the wealthier and aid-giving congrega- tions, who could not fail to be disheartened by perceiving that though, year after year, they renewed their efforts to enlarge the Fund and raise the equal dividend, these efforts were fruitless. And still more distressing to Dr. Chalmers than the depression of the general ministerial income which he anticipated, was the fatal check to Church extension which these aid-receiving congregations interposed. " It is, no doubt, desirable," he writes, " that we should increase both the number and liberality of the aid-giving congrega- tions, but it is of far more vital importance to our cause that we should lessen the number, and diminish the enormous absorptions of the aid-receiving congregations. They form a wall of interception in the way of extending the Church to places and people more destitute than themselves ; or per- haps they were better compared to an annular belt of sand, which drinks in all the waters that issue from the central reservoir, making it impossible to reach or fertilize the regions beyond it. We should infinitely less value all the additional hundreds and thousands that might be raised from the wealthier congregations, than we should an average elevation of £50 in the contributions that come to us from the lower 366 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1844. half of the scale. This were like the opening of a gate that would set us at liberty, and make us free to expatiate, so that we might find our way both to the most wretched popu- lation in towns, and to the poorest and remotest extremities of Scotland."* Dr. Chalmers's chief desire for the Free Church was, that she should prove instrumental for accom- plishing this design ; and his fondest anticipation as to the Sustentation Fund had been, that it would afford her an ad- ditional facility for doing so. As things stood this could not he. With more than a hundred congregations of adherents craving to be supplied with a regular ministry, and ready to absorb all that the General Fund could furnish, that Fund was smitten with impotence as an instrument of Church ex- tension. Dr. Chalmers, to a large extent, attributed this to the fixed and universal equality of the dividend. When the rule was absolute that, let a congregation give what it liked, its minister should receive the same salary from the Fund, no stimulus was applied to its generosity — no check imposed upon its selfishness. This rule, he conceived, should be re- linquished, and some other adopted in its stead, constructed upon the principle that the " gettings out" should bear some equitable proportion to the " givings in." In deliberating upon what substitute he should propose, there were two qualities or characteristics which he regarded as essential. It should be simple, unencumbered with minute or complicated details ; and it should be self-acting, self-regulating, needing not the constant interference or agency of any central author- ity. Under a conviction, matured and strong, that a change in the method of distribution was imperatively required, and with these qualities or characteristics before his eye, he pro- posed to the General Assembly of 1844, that the equal dividend should be abolished ; that no Congregation should be put upon the Fund till its annual contributions should amount to £50 ; and that each Congregation should receive from the Fund one-half more than it transmitted, till the * Earnest Appeal, p. 14. MT. 64. PROPOSED MODIFICATION. 367 ministerial income should amount to £150. The proposi- tion came abruptly upon an Assembly, unprepared, amid the glow of early triumphs, to he told of impending disaster. The exi.stence of so great a peril, and the necessity for so great and immediate a change were not perceived, and the remedy suggested was as little relished as the need for its application was felt. It was strenuously and almost unani- mously rejected. All that Dr. Chalmers could obtain, was the consent of the Assembly that a trial of his method should be made in future, with such new charges as were added to the Church ; and that a committee should be instructed to watch over all embryo congregations, and stimulate their associations into such activity that they might prove less burdensome than heretofore, when sanctioned as ministerial charges. In the spring of 1845, he printed and circulated a pamphlet, "On the Economics of the Free Church of Scotland," the preface of which commenced as follows : "In announcing my determination now to retire from the public business of the Free Church, I feel confident that it will not be ascribed to any decay of affection for its cause. It is not a matter of choice, but of physical necessity, I have neither the vigor nor the alertness of former days ; and the strength no longer remains with me, either for the debates of the Assembly, or for the details of committees and their correspondence. " At the last Assembly, during the first days of which I enjoyed a health that I never expect to regain, I did a very rash thing. I moved the appointment of an extension committee, and accepted of its convenership. I fondly imag- ined the possibility of weathering one twelvemonth more of such active service as had long been familiar to me, and deemed the object I had in view of such special importance as to justify the attempt. A few weeks convinced me of my error ; and, since the month of August, my connection with our financial affairs has been little better than nominal. I can still describe, however, what I can not execute ; and the 363 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1844. process which I hoped to set a-going will be laid before the reader in the following pages. Its accomplishment by me is now wholly out of the question ; and, if judged worthy by the Church of being carried into effect, should be devolved on younger and abler men." As the General Assembly of 1845, whose transactions this pamphlet was mainly intended to influence, made no approx- imation whatever toward the adoption of its views,* Dr. Chalmers had it reprinted and published in the spring of the following year, under the new title of an " Earnest Appeal to the Free Church on the subject of its Econo- mics."! A second preface prefixed to the pamphlet, opened * How deeply Dr. Chalmers felt this, appears from the following letter to the Rev. Mr. Tweedie : " MoRNiNGSiDE, 29^^ November, 1845. '•]\Iy dear Sir — I have been greatly saddened ever since I heard from you of the set in, on the part of the ministers, for an equal div- idend— believing as I do that it will ruin the economics of the Church, and reduce what I fondly hoped could have been worked up into a great national institute within the narrow dimensions of a limited ec- clesiastical corporation. It is in sorrow and not in anger that I write — the latter emotion being the excitable one in the heat of an argu- ment yet hopeful with an opposing adversary. Such a feeling, how- ever, is completely overborne when hope expires and is succeeded by the apathy of despair. My expectation now of what has been long the object of my existence — a universal Christian education — is transferred from the Free Church of Scotland to such a union of the really good and wise of all evangelical denominations as is now contemplated by many. "I can pay no more earnest and prolonged attention to this melan- choly subject till spring, when I propose to come forth with my last words in the form of a final protest. I shall endeavor to take refuge from the disappointment in my professorial studies and the enjoyment of my private friendships. Among these last, I have the greatest value for confidential intercourse with yourself, and I do hope that our meetings will be frequent. Let me see you soon and the sooner the better. Thomas Chat.mers. "To the Rev. W. K. Tweedie." t An edition of this pamphlet was published in America by the Board of Publication of the Presbyterian Church, and through the lib- erality of a friend a copy of it was sent to each minister of that Church JET. 65. THE EARNEST APPEAL. 3fi.9 thus : — " The body of this little worlc was printed, but can scarcely be said to have been published, last year. As it contains the most matured views of its author, the fruit of much thought and of some experience, he is unwilling that it should be altogether lost. He therefore presents it anew to the Church, in a form which leaves the main pamphlet untouched, but with this peculiarity in its structure, that each topic which required any further enlargement, or to be represented over again with still greater earnestness and urgency than before, has a distinct place assigned for it in a little section with its own distinct title, which sections are made to compose an Appendix to the work. It is to this Appendix that I would invite the special attention of the reader, as containing a series of final deliverances on the matters which are there successively taken up. This is the last representation which I mean to offer upon the subject ; and, such being the case, it is most natural that I should feel the importance, nay, the paramount duty, of stating not only the truth, but the whole truth, however unpalatable, if but salutary or needful and desirable to be made known." From a pamphlet ushered in by such weighty sentences, we offer an extract or two bearing upon its main topic — the condition of the Sustentation Fund. " It is obvious that if we are to give the same yearly allowance to every new minister, however Httle we shall receive from his congregational association, we can not hold out long upon such a system, unless by such successive re- ductions of the dividend as must sooner or later involve the whole Church in one common overthrow. This is an argu- ment, and a strong one ; but we confess that it is not ours. Our argument against the continuance of an equal dividend is, that it would put an end to Church Extension. On the principle that the minister's work is of far higher consideration that the minister's stipend, we have ever regarded an addition to the number of our zealous and hard-working ministers as of paramountly higher value than an addition to their livehhood. 370 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. "The great and essential reform needed upon our financial system is some provision, call it either a stimulus or a check, by the operation of which our aid-receiving associations shall be either made to contribute more, or receive less, from that great central fund, which, if but relieved from the present inordinate pressure, could be made so greatly more available for our Church's prosperity and enlargement. * =* * It were well if the Sustentation Committee had authority to proclaim such a rule of distribution, as that if associations will give little — whether because they give much for supplements, or from any other cause — they will receive proportionably little. The enactment of ' one and a half answers this purpose, though there might be other and perhaps better ways of it. It were the removal, for instance, of a mighty incubus upon our operations, if it could be made law — that in no instance we should give more than £50 to any minister, over and above what we received from his association ; — to which it might be added, that the connection of an associa- tion with the Sustentation Committee should only commence when its own contribution came to <£50 a year. Without some check of this sort, I predict, with ail confidence, but in great heaviness of heart, that sooner or later we must lay our account with a most fearful overthrow ; or at least, that a sore paralysis will be inflicted on the support and enlarge- ment of the Church, which might otherwise, in respect of both these interests, be made to advance most prosperously." The warning given here was unheeded. The brief ex- periment of the " one and a half" method was abandoned by the General Assembly of 1847, and matters returned to the position in which they stood in 1844. Recently how- ever, the opinion of the Church has been undergoing a rapid change. The gross amount of the fund has been steadily progressing till from £68,700 it has amounted to the sum of £91,949, or within a few hundred pounds of what Dr. Chalmers predicted at the Convocation, yet the equal dividend has not increased. Considerable additions iET. 65. RECENT CHANGES OF OPINION. 371 have been made to their returns by the more generous con- gregations, yet the end aimed at, of increasing the annual dividend, is as far out of sight as ever. The charges which, between 1844 and 1847, were dealt with as Dr. Chalmers desired, have been put upon the footing of the equal dividend, and the result has been a declension, almost -per saltum, of their annual contributions to the extent of about £3000. Facts like these have at last sufficed to work a very general conviction that a change of some kind is imperiously required ; and, as these pages pass through the press, the Church is in the midst of a controversy relative to a new method of dis- tribution which has been proposed. It would form but another illustration of the singular foresight of Dr. Chalmers should the discussion upon which the Church has thus em- barked terminate in the adoption, either of the plan which he recommended, or of one to which the same two features of a simple and self-regulating character are attached. It has taken nearly eight years to convince the Church of the existence and fatal nature of the disease ; it may take less to satisfy her of the suitableness and efficacy of the remedy. CHAPTER XX. CHRISTIAN Ux\IOX— THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. During the collegiate session of 1831—1832, in com- menting upon that section of Dr. Hill's lectures on Divin- ity which relates to Church Government, Dr. Chalmers ad- dressed his students in the following words : — " It has been exceedingly well said by the judicious Andrew Fuller, that the points on which the disciples of the Saviour agree greatly outnumber, and in respect of importance, very greatly out- weigh, the points on which they differ — that for many ages the attention and the zeal of Christians have been vastly too much expended on the points on which they differ, but that now it is to be hoped the sentiments which they hold in com- mon will be far more the objects of their steadfast and har- monious regard. " Without disputing the superior expediency of one kind of government to another, I do think that, considering the manifold ties of common sentiment and principle between us and the evangelical sectaries of Chiistendom, it were better that we drew more closely together, and that the movement, at all events, instead of being one of wider distance and sep- aration, were in the way of kindlier and more intimate con- verse than we have hitherto held."* The spirit of these remarks was fully participated by that party in the Church with which Dr. Chalmers acted. The great controversy in which they became involved did nothing to deaden it. It was in the very thick of that conflict that they abolished the statute which,. by restricting its ministerial * See Prelections on Butler''s Analogy^ Paley. Hill, &c., Posthumous WorhSy vol. ix- p- 425, JET. 65. WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY BICENTENARY. 373 communion, had isolated the Church of Scotland from all the other Churches of the Reformation; and it was when the shadow of the Disruption was hanging over them, that, in the General Assembly of 1842, they moved and carried the appointment of a committee for the cultivation of friendly relations with all evangelical Churches at home and abroad. An active correspondence with some of these Churches had in fact already commenced, originated by their sympathy with that struggle of which Scotland had become the theatre — a sympathy of whose width and depth an impressive token was afforded by the presence in the General Assemblies of 1841 and 1842 of distinguished members of one or other of the Churches of the Continent. Amid its multifarious en- gagements the expansive zeal of the first General Assembly of the Free Church found time for prosecuting the work so auspiciously begun. Measures were adopted for uniting with other branches of the Presbyterian family in celebrating the Bicentenary of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. This great commemorative meeting assembled in Edinburgh on the 13th July, 1843. Its object was comparatively a confined one, but nothing narrow or sectarian marked its proceedings, in which Dr. Chalmers took so conspicuous and influential a part as to be hailed by one of the succeeding speakers as the great Apostle of Union. He was prepared to go farther here than many could follow. " For myself," he said, " I can see no obstacle in the way of our being fellow-workers, and that to a great extent, for the objects of our common Chris- tianity. And I rejoice to observe the growing prevalence and popularity of this sentiment — a sentiment which, I can perceive, has formed itself into a sort of watchword, brief and memorable, and having in it a certain cadence or allit- eration, which recommends it all the more to the ear of the public, and is fitted to give it a larger currency and reception throughout the Churches of our land ; I advert to the well known and oft-repeated aphorism of, ' Co-operation without Incorporation.' I am aware that by many this goodly and 374 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. well-sounding aphorism has been fathered upon myself, and yet it is not just the motto that I would inscribe upon an escutcheon wherewith to signalize my family. I have no quarrel with the co-operation, and whenever aught which is good is expedited thereby, the more of it the better ; but I except to the negative, as being by far too absolute, that is laid by this maxim on the incorporation. The truth is, that wherever incorporation can be effected with advantage and without violence to the consciences of the parties, it is in itself a most desirable object ; and therefore without saying, roundly and universally, ' Co-operation without Incorporation,' I would, though at the hazard of marring somewhat the euphony of the saying, and of laying an arrest on its way toward the rank and celebrity of a proverb — I would substi- tute for these words, ' Co-operation now, and this with the view, as soon as may be, to Incorporation afterward.' " One fruitful source of past divisions — one signal obstacle to future incorporation — lay in discordant beliefs as to the form of church government which had been divinely pre- scribed. But no obstruction of this kind lay before Dr. Chalmers. He did not believe that any peculiar form of ecclesiastical government had been authoritatively enjoined, so that its adoption was matter of imperative and universal obligation.* Let there be an essential unity of faith, and * " The contx-oversies about Church Government have been exposed to much illogical treatment from the want of a right discrimination between the lawful and the obligatory. The distinction which I now make is different from that of Paul between the lawful and the expe- dient. I use another word than expedient at present ; and I beg you will attend to the import of the difference between that which is lawful and that which is obligatory. Many things are lawful for me to do which I am under no obligation of doing ; for, though lawful to do them, it may be equally law^ful for me to refrain from doing them. The law- fulness of doing a particular thing does not necessarily imply the un- lawfulness of not doing it ; as, for example, it may be lawful to cele- brate the Sacrament of the Supper in a sitting posture, yet not unlaw- ful to celebrate it in a kneeling posture ; whereas, if, instead of lawful, it were obligatory to celebrate it in a sitting posture, then it would be .ET. 65. CHRISTIAN UNION. 375 he would have merged his own Presbyterianism, much as he valued it, either in. Episcopacy on the one hand, or in Inde- pendency on the other, had it appeared that the great object of a visible unity in the Church of Christ could thereby have been attained. In existing circumstances this was impossible. There appeared even to be wise and important purposes sub- served by those strong national, or denominational attach- ments, by which difierent sections of a common Protestantism were characterized. Every approximation, however, which unlawful to celebrate it kneeling. In other words, though you prove the lawfulness of a given practice, you do not on that account prove the unlawfulness of a different or an opposite practice; but, once make out that a practice is obligatory, then all other practices diverse from it, or opposite to it, are held in the face of the obligation, and therefore positively unlawful. " Now, even though the Independents should be able to allege, which I am very far from conceding to them, that their mode of church gov- ernment had the warrant of scriptural example, this might establish no more than the lawfulness of that constitution, but not, most certainly, the exclusive obligation of it. There might be the warrant of a scrip- tural example, and so far this may be called scriptural authority, for Independency ; but I would not hold such an authority as this as es- tablishing the divine right of Independency. For when we speak of the divine right of any particular form of church government. I imagine that by this is meant, its being obligatory that we should adopt that form, and that only ; or, in other words, by the adoption of it we do right, and by the adoption of any other we do wrong. * # * " I must confess that the testimony of Epiphanius is highly accord- ant wnth my own views on the question of church government, which seems historically to have been changed and adapted according to the purposes of what may be termed Christian expediency ; and instead of being decisively settled in Scripture, left very much to the discretion of Christian men. In as far as we are at liberty to judge from his ac- count of the matter, there seems to have been no regular Episcopacy at first, and that men, instead of starting with it from the days of the Apostles, at length found their way to its more full and formal estab- lishment through centuries afterward. " You will not fail to perceive from what a dimly conjectural region it is that the authorities on all sides of the question respecting church government are gathered ; insomuch that I can not enter with any very keen or decided earnestness into the controversy at all." — Posthumous Works, vol. ix. pp. 420-424. 376 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. the different Churches could make to one another, every thing* that tended to cement their brotherly attachment and to bind them in the bonds of a closer fellowship, Dr. Chalmers delight- ed to countenance and carry forward. In the General Assem- bly held at Glasgow in the autumn of 1843, it fell to him to give an account of the various communications expressive of approval and congratulation which had been sent to him as Moderator of the preceding Assembly. " I confess to you," he said, " that I was much interested by the arrival, by one post after another, of these addresses and resolutions from various Churches, of whose very existence I was not aware till I re- ceived their letters. And I think that every man whose heart is in the right place, will be delighted with such movements. They are movements quite in my own favorite direction — because one and all of them are movements of convergency ; or in other words, movements which point, in the first instance, to union ; and, as soon as possible and prudent, I trust their landing-place will be incorporation. There is among them one very pleasant address, signed b}^ — I have not had time to count the names — but I believe some of the youngsters of my family tried a more wholesale method of arriving at a probable estimate of the amount of support thus given to the Free Church ; instead of numbering, they measured it, and found it about seventeen yards long." Having enumerated about twenty different Churches, at home and abroad, from which communications of this kind had emanated, '* I have felt," he added, " exceedingly delighted with these commu- nications. I must say that I consider it as infinitely more characteristic of the religion which we profess — the religion of peace and charity — that instead of each denomination sit- ting aloft and apart upon its own hill, and frowning upon each other from their respective orbits, that they should hold kindly and mutual converse, and see each other eye to eye, while they will discern, to their mutual astonishment, if not how thoroughly, at least how substantially, they are at one. And I just conclude with observing that now is the time to ^T. 65. FOREIGN CHURCHF.S. 377 rally about the common standard all that is pure and vital in Protestantism ; for now it is that we shall have to make head against a new form and revival of Antichrist, whether in the form of Popery — naked Popery — or Popery in disguise, even that Antichrist which threatens to shake a most withering mildew over the whole of Christendom." " There is that scattereth yet increaseth ;" so there is that divideth, yet it tendeth to unity. So was it with the Disrup- tion. Blamed by many as a schismatic act, a great prompter to and promoter of division — no public incident of our times has done more to bring together into one the scattered Churches of the Reformation. For a time, and that the very time when it was most needed, the Free Church formed a centre of union whence the best and happiest influences were spread abroad. Its Assemblies of 1844 and 1845 prosecuted that work of union which preceding Assemblies had commenced. Within two years, and around the moderator's chair of these Assem- blies, more Christian ministers, of a greater variety of profes- sion, and from greater distances on the surface of this earth, met for Christian fellowship, than have ever congregated in modern times at the councils of any of our existing churches. And if it cheered the Free Church amid her labors and trials to receive expressions of sympathy, she was not backward in returning them. The Report of the Committee " appointed for corresponding with Foreign Churches, and aiding them in their evangelical operations," given in to the Assembly of 1845, informed the House, that for continental objects of religious usefulness alone, there had been put into the hands of the Committee during the preceding year, a sum three or four times exceeding the largest contribution ever sent from Scotland for the same objects. It was upon a most memor- able occasion (that of May 28th) that this Report was read. Dr. Merle d'Aubigne of Geneva, Mr. Frederic Monod of Paris, and Mr. Kuntze of Berlin, were present. Dr. Chalmers had resolved to absent himself from the meetings of this Assembly, but the temptation to introduce these distinguished 378 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. foreigners was too great for him to resist. When he entered, the vast crowd which the singularity of the occasion had con- gregated, the whole House rose to welcome him, and saluted him with a tumult of generous applause.^ " The high and honorable office," said Dr. Chalmers, " has been assigned to me of announcing the presence in this Assembly of certain evangelical and much esteemed ministers from various places on the Continent. At the present junct- ure of affairs, I can not but regard the appearance of such men among us as providential. If ever there was a time when the friends of a scriptural faith and a free gospel should draw closer together, surely it is now, when the spiritual tyranny of former days is raising its head again, and threat- ens to resume its ancient lordship over the consciences of men. It is possible that, for the maintenance of our liberty, we may again be called upon for the same sacrifices, for the same struggles of principle with power, for the same heart- felt devotion to a noble cause, for the same lofty and intrepid doings on the side of Christian principle, which were first put forth in Germany, under the championship of one whom I need not name, because for three centuries he has been known and revered over all Christendom as the Hero of the Reformation. And, Sir, I am delighted to think — it makes me feel as if I were now at the most interesting moment of my existence, when I can point to one of those strangers whom, in this great Assembly, I need as little to name — who is universally known as the Historian of the Reformation." Dr. Chalmers proceeded then to speak of the works of Dr. Merle, and of the many interesting ties which bound together Geneva and Scotland. But the personal and the national was soon lost in a wider topic — " I hail," said he, " the footsteps of those friends from the Continent, because I know that one, and I believe that all of them, may be regarded as the apos- * " The audience rose, shouted, clapped their hands, and waved hats and handkerchiefs." For a fall description of this scene, see " Germany, England, and Scotland," by J. H. Merle d'Aubigne, p. 117. ^T. 65. THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 379 ties of Christian union ; and I do hope that their presence among us, and their conversation with the ministers of various denominations, M'ill have the effect of expediting that sacred cause in this country. I trust you will not charge me with over-liberality if I say, as I do from my conscience, that among the great majority of evangelical dissenters in this country, I am not aware of any topics of difference which J. do not regard as so many men of straw, and I shall be ex- ceedingly delighted if these gentleman get the heads of the various denominations to meet together, and consent to make a bonfire of them." In the Bicentenary commemoration there had lain con- cealed the germ of the Evangelical Alliance. Catching the enlarged and unsectarian spirit which then had been dis- played, John Henderson, Esq., of Park, a name dear now to every lover of the truth, proposed to eight distinguished clergymen of various churches to frame together a volume on Christian union. Dr. Chalmers furnished the Introductory Essay to this volume, closing his brief sketch of " How such a union may begin, and to what it may eventually lead," by quoting a passage from the Moravian poet Gambold, which we have heard him more frequently repeat than perhaps any other passage in English poetry : " I'm apt to think, the man That could surround the sum of things, and spy The heart of God and secrets of his empire, Would speak but love. With him the bright result Would change the hue of intermediate scenes, And make one thing of all theolog3\" It was from the Rev. Dr. King, one of Dr. Chalmers's co- adjutors in the preparation of this volume, that the first pro- posal of a general conference emanated. With this proposal Dr. Chalmers cordially concurred, and his name was placed first in the list of requisitionists. The conference met at Liverpool on the 1st October, 1845, and led to the organiza- tion in the summer of 1846 of the " Evangelical Alliance." 330 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. Unable to take part personally in the deliberations of the *• Alliance," Dr. Chalmers's contribution in furtherance of its object was given in the form of a pamphlet. The main drift of this publication was to dissuade the Alliance from doctrinal discussions, and invite it to instant united action as the best expedient for promoting perfect harmony of senti- ment, and even of belief. '• It will not do," he said, " for the thing to evaporate, as many other magnificent enterprises have done, in the mere phantasmagoria of committeeship and sub-comraitteeship, with an imposing list of officials, and large periodical assemblages, where first-rate speakers make their eloquent demonstrations, but are sadly at fault for the materials of real business, or how to assign an operative pro- cess by which they might advance toward the completion of the object on which they have met." Dr. Chalmers was at no loss himself in prescribing the special objects to which he conceived that the members of the Alliance should immediately direct their energies. "We feel all confidence," he said, " in recommending that they should stand forth in the character, first of a great Anti- Popish Association ; and secondly, of a great Home Mission ; believing as we do that to walk together in the field of Christian philanthropy is a likely preparation for thinking together on the questions of Christian Faith." As serving to mark more distinctively what he conceived should be the primary object of the institution, he proposed that it should be called the Protestmit rather than the Evangelical Al- liance. After describing the benefit which might arise from this change of name in the way of warding off the perplexi- ties which might arise from any attempt to define the evan- gelical doctrine, so as to obtain for the definition a universal concurrence, "There is another argument," he added, "in favor of our proposed title. Its single watchword not only describes very clearly the qualifications of the proposed membership ; but it intimates with equal clearness what the precise work is, in ^T. 65. PROPER OBJECT OF THE ALLIANCE. 381 which, when brought together and formed into an association, they are expected to engage. It is an alliance in delense of Protestantism. Were there no danger to be warded off, there might be no reason in pleading for such an association as we now advocate, or for its title either. But who can deny the existence of a most imminent and daily increasing danger ? Who can be ignorant of the busy aggressive proselytism and undermining policy that are now in active operation, under the conduct of agents and emissaries from the Church of Rome ? Who can be blind to the evidences now sprinofino^ up in various lands, that the old priestcraft of the Middle Ages is lifting its head again, and shedding baleful influence over Churches that were wont to boast of theirs being the foremost place, and theirs the first-rate services in the cause of the glorious Reformation ? Whether the Antichrist that is now reappearing be in the ancient and unmitigated form of Popery, or in the no less dangerous though milder form of Puseyism, surely there is most urgent call for vigilance and alarm ; and, should it be made the first and most ostensible object of the Alliance to repel the inroads of this threatening mischief, we are confident, if such an undertaking were to give forth its certain sound, that thousands and tens of thou- sands would hasten to its summons, in the sacred cause of religious freedom, and scriptural Christianity, and the rights of private judgment. It will be miserable indeed, if the hostile demonstrations from without do not lead us to look outwardly ; or if we shall waste our energies on the yet pre- mature attempt to settle the account between the various modifications and distinctions of Protestantism, when the common enemy is at the door, and if not met with a sys- tematic and combined resistance, might bury Protestantism, throughout all its varieties, in one common ruin. " We tell of a distinct thing to be done, and a distinct thing to correspond about, when we state how desirable it is to ascertain the statistics of Popery all over the world, and more especially the statistics of Puseyism and High Church- 382 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. ism — these great feeders of Popery in our own island ; and furthermore, when we state as most fitting objects for deUb- eration, what the best methods are by which to arrest the progress of this threatening mischief, not only at home, but in America and the British Colonies, and the Continent of Europe, and every other place where Jesuitism is plying her wiles, and practicing with deadly success her manifold delu- sions. And reverting to our own affairs, as well as making an advance from deliberations to doings, what more patent than the various methods by which our literary and ecclesi- astical and influential men might arouse the Protestant com- munity of Great Britian ; and put our constituencies on the alert ; and raise funds for the multiplication of scriptural schools ; and outrival our adversaries, who at this moment are laboring with all their might to obtain possession of the masses by their unwearied attentions in the houses of the common people, and doing whatever in them lies to influence and gain over our heretofore sadly neglected population."^ In this enumeration of things needing to be done. Dr. Chal- mers put last of all what he had so long considered to be the greatest and most urgent of all — the evangelization of the neglected masses. For more than thirty years this had been the ruling passion of his life. That life, though none imagined so at this period, was drawing near its close ; and as if knowing that its time was short, this ruling passion rose into redoubled strength, and broke forth into most beauti- ful manifestation. His first expectation was that the Free Church in her organized capacity, and by help of her Sus- tentation Fund, might press forward her Christian services into the polluted recesses of city life, and help to heal the spreading leprosy. That expectation failing he lifted at the close of his " Earnest Appeal to the Free Church" this im- ploring entreaty to other evangelical denominations : — " We would earnestly wish the concurrence, the practical concur- * The reader will recollect that these paragraphs were written in 1846. iET. 65. EVANGELIZATION OF THE MASSES. 383 rence, of all other evangelical communions in this great work. We are all the more desirous of this, when we think on the mighty, nay, the yearly increasing spaces of wild and out- landish territory which are still unoccupied. Are there not myriads of immortal, yet perishing because neglected, spirits in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and other large towns of Scot- land, as well as in hundreds of outfields throughout the country at large, which would require the united efforts of all the wise and good in our land for many years to come ? Why put off for another hour, we do not say the fulfillment, but at all events the commencement of this glorious enter- prise— for in truth this, though forming the greatest moral problem of our day, has scarcely been entered on ? In our city wastes, in our manufacturing villages, in many, very many of our remote and rural hamlets — in all these put to- gether, are there thousands of families who live in guilt and die in darkness, and have never up to this moment been the objects of aught like an adequate effort for their Christian education. Should not all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, form themselves into agencies, and select their respective fields of operation ? And though each of these bodies will labor far more effectively when laboring apart from each other, or when not overlaid by the weight of that very usual, but, at the same time, very useless apparatus — we mean the incubus of a complex and cumbrous committee- ship— ^yet this need not hinder a busy converse and compar- ison of their several methods on the part of these distinct bands of philanthropists, the individual members of which might often meet together in social party, and there provoke each other to love, and more especially to this great and good work. And another mighty benefit might be expected from such a co-operation as this. A common object of Christian charity, zealously prosecuted by all, will lead to a more general community of thought and feeling betwixt them. It would speed the cause of Christian union at an infinitely more rapid pace than ever will be effected by Synods and 334 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845 Assemblies laboring in conjunct deliberation to n,ew-model their formularies, and settle their articles of agreement. Let us be one in well-doing ; and this, wherever there is real sin- cerity and right good earnest, will prove the high-road to being one in sentiment. A oneness in conduct will often lead to an essential oneness of creed — for the reflex influence of the former upon the latter is far greater than perhaps lo- gicians and controversialists in theology are wilhng to allow. And so may we speed onward the accomplishment of our blessed Saviour's prayer — even that palpable unity among Christians, which He has announced as an indispensable stepping-stone to the world's regeneration." When he wrote these sentences, he was not without the hope that the Evangelical AUiance when fully constituted, though not itself undertaking the great task, would become its public patron, by proclaiming its necessity, and stimulating the Church and Christian societies of Britain to its vigorous prosecution. It was mainly, in fact, with a view to this that his pamphlet on the Evangelical AUiance was published. Here also, to a large extent, his hope was frustrated ; but the undying flame burned on, and made for itself a fitting vent. CHAPTER XXI. THE WEST PORT. The Report of the Royal Commissioners on Religious In- struction established and proclaimed the fact, that one-third part of the entire population of Edinburgh had no fixed connection with any Christian church. A statement, how- ever, couched in such general terms could give no adequate conception of the religious condition of the lower classes of the community — more than three-fourths of whom (and in many sections the proportion was much higher) had forsaken the ordinances and renounced all visible profession of Chris- tianity. Nor was Edinburgh at all singular in this respect.* In all the large towns of the empire, the vast bulk of the working population had been suffered to sink into a profound abyss of ignorance and irreligion. Ever since his own per- sonal observations at Glasgow had convinced Dr. Chalmers that this was the nearest, the greatest, the most growing, and the most alarming of all our national evils, it had been the un- wearied effort of his life to stimulate into vigorous operation that peculiar instrumentality which was alone able, as he believed, to cope with this gigantic evil — effectually to re- duce, and finally to remove it. It was to this end that his * London is much worse — " It is by no means an uncommon occur- rence for whole streets to be found without a single individual who attends public worship, or recognizes the claims of God. Of the work- ing classes, and especially of the working men of the metropolis, there is only the merest fraction who are to be seen within its churches or its chapels, a proportion so small as perfectly to appall the Christian heart with the consideration." — London City Mission Magazine, Jan. 1852, pp. 5-9. VOL ^.^ — E 386 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. own ministerial labors in Glasgow were so steadily and stren- uously directed, but the extraordiary general popularity by which that ministry was attended, to a great extent frustrated his attempts, He took up and carried on the Church Exten- sion scheme as an effort on a wider scale to compass the same object ; but just when that great enterprise had touched the borders of those wide moral wildernesses which were waiting to be reclaimed, he saw it arrested in its course. He was convinced that a Church in which unmitigated Patronage prevailed, and over which a direct spiritual control was ex- ercised by the State, could never be an effective instrument in Scotland for evangelizing the masses, and this conviction quickened the zeal with which he entered upon the Non-In- trusion controversy. He longed, however, for the close of that controversy, in order that, rid of its embarrassment, the Church might devote herself to this most urgent and import- ant work ; and when the Disruption came, he cherished for a brief season the expectation that, by force of its powerful impulse, the Free Church would be impelled onward to its accomplishment ; but busied with the supply of so large an adhering population, that Church was unable to make any great or systematic effort in this direction. For a time he turned his hopes toward the Evangelical Alliance, and besought its countenance for his favorite method of territorial cultivation, but that countenance was withheld. Baffled thus in his endeavors to obtain the support of public bodies, with a conviction unshaken, and zeal unquenched. Dr. Chalmers resolved to engage single-handed in this great enterprise — to select one of the worst districts of Edinburgh, and, by the help of such zealous associates as he could gather around him, to institute an experiment of so testing a kind that, if successful, it might compel belief and invite imitation. "I have determined," he says, writing to Mr. Lennox on the 26th July, 1844, " to assume a poor district of 2000 people, and superintend it myself, though it be a work greatly too much for my declining strength and means Yet such do MT. 65 THE WEST PORT. 387 I hold to be the efficiency of the method, with the Divine blessing, that, perhaps, as the concluding act of my public life, I shall make the effort to exemplify what as yet I have only expounded." Recurring again to the same topic, in a letter dated the 9th August — "Indulge me," he says, " if I feel encouraged to state the grievous spiritual destitution of the thousands and tens of thousands in all our large towns who are utter strangers to all the habitual decencies of a Christian land. I could not in my own individual strength, even though aided by the means and energies of all my acquaintances, ever think of coping w^ith this enormous evil e7t masse, or in all its magnitude and entireness. I feel very confident as to the likeliest steps by which, piecemeal and successively, the whole even of this great and growing evil might be overtaken. But the most which I can personally undertake to do is, to work off one model or normal specimen of the process, by which a single locality might be reclaimed from this vast and desolate wilderness ; and after the confirmation of my views by a made-out experience of this sort, pressing it on the imitation of all other philanthropists of all other localities. # * # Such is the value and importance which I attach to this enterprise, that, now I have done all I can for the economics of the Free Church at large, I mean to give up all general business, and, with God's help, will devote my remaining strength to the special object which I have now explained." As preparatory to the execution of his purpose, Dr. Chal- mers delivered four public lectures in the months of June and July, directed mainly to the illustration of the superior efficacy of local schools and local churches, so related to the limited districts in which they are planted as to bear with special and concentrated effect upon the surrounding families ; and with as great freshness of thought and feeling as if the topic were wholly new to him, the attractive and the aggres- sive systems were compared and contrasted. The time was. 388 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. in one respect, favorable for a re-hearing of the subject. He could present now his favorite territorial scheme, dissociated from all those public questions with the discussion of which it had been formerly mixed up, and upon the ground of its own naked and inherent merits, he could urge its claims equally upon Churchmen and Dissenters. It was true that in each locality in which that scheme was tried, he desired to see a church erected, which must be connected with some Christian communion. It was equally true, that in that particular locality which he might himself select, the church so raised would come naturally to be connected with the Free Church ; but, with some hope of his motives being under- stood and appreciated among his former opponents — the Vol- untaries— he could indignantly repudiate all sectarian aims, and in the fervor of intense excitement could exclaim — " Who cares about the Free Church, compared with the Christian good of the people of Scotland ? Who cares about any Church, but as an instrument of Christian good ? for be as- sured, that the moral and religious wellbeing of the population is of infinitely higher importance than the advancement of any sect."^ The locality selected by Dr. Chalmers as the scene of his projected enterprise was the West Port ; a part of Edin- burgh to which a few years previously an infamous notoriety had been attached by those secret murders, the discovery of which sent a thrill of horror through the land. By an ac- curate survey, it was found that the main street and its adjoining wynds contained 411 families, of which 45 were attached to some Christian communion ; 70 were Roman Catholics ; and 296 had no connection with any Church whatever. Out of a gross population of 2000, three-fourths of the whole, or about 1500 of the inhabitants were living — within sound of many a Sabbath-bell, and with abundance of contiguous church accommodation — lost to all the habits * This passage was uttered with great vehemence of expression, at a public meeting held in Edinburgh on 27th December, 1845. ^T. 65. THE WEST TORT. 389 and all the decencies of the Christian life. In these families the number of children capable of attending school was only 411, and of these 290 were growing up altogether untaught. The physical and moral condition of this community was deplorable : one-fourth were paupers on the poor-roll, and one- fourth were street-beggars, thieves, or prostitutes. When Mr. Tasker, the minister of the West Port made his first visits to some of the filthiest closes, it was no uncommon thing for him to find from twenty to thirty men, women and children, huddled together in one putrid dwelling, lying in- discriminately on the floor, waiting the return of the bearer of some well-concocted begging-letter, or the coming on of that darkness under which they might sally out, to earn by fair means or by foul, the purchase-money of renewed de- bauchery. Upon one occasion he entered a tenement with from twelve to twenty apartments, where every human being, man and woman, were so drunk they could not hear their own squalid infants crying in vain to them for food. He purchased some bread for the children, and entering a few minutes afterward a neighboring dram-shop, he found a half- drunk mother driving a bargain for more whisky with the very bread which her famishing children should have been eating. He went once to a funeral, and found the assembled company all so drunk around the corpse, that he had to go and beg some sober neighbors to come and carry the coffin to the grave. These were extreme cases, indicative, how- ever, of a deep and general moral corruption. It was a somewhat formidable enterprise — to many it would have seemed altogether hopeless — to come into close quarters with such a population. Aided, however, by that band of zealous associates which his public lectures, and the many private in- terviews by M^hich they were followed up had gathered around him, Dr. Chalmers went hopefully forward. The plan of operations laid down by him was sufficiently simple, but it needed zeal and regularity and devoted perseverance to carry into execution. The West Port was divided into 390 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. twenty districts, containing each about twenty familes. Over each of these districts a visitor was appointed, whose duty it was to visit, once each week, all the families committed to his care; by all such attention and services as he could offer to win their good-will — by reading the Scriptures, by dis- tributing tracts, by entering into conversation, and by en- gaging in prayer — to promote, as fit openings were given him, their spiritual welfare. A printed slip, drawn up by Dr. Chalmers, was to be left in every house by each visitor, explaining the objects of his present and future calls.* As the demand for education precedes that for spiritual instruc- tion, it was proposed that the first step taken should be the opening of a school somewhere within the West Port, and the visitors were advised to direct much of their attention, in the first instance, to the young, and to persuade parents to send their children to the school which would be opened for them ere long in some convenient place. In the exe- cution of this plan there were two points to which Dr. Chalmers attached particular importance. To protect the purity of the enterprise, he was most anxious that his agents should not become almoners, and should dispense as little money as possible among the poor. Dilating upon this subject in one of his lectures, he recounted his own experi- ence at Glasgow — " I may state to you, that in the outset of my settlement in Glasgow, I was placed in the Tron Church parish, with a population of 10,000 souls, which afterward increased. I was anxious to become acquainted with the habits of a city population, and the parish I got was quite to my mind. I was anxious to become acquainted with the inner springs of that department of society, and I therefore resolved to go personally round among the people. My first entry was upon a close, reaching from the Salt Market to the celebrated Molendinar Burn ; and to be sure, in that close there were to be found wretchedness and misery of every kind. I was struck with the great apparent * See Appendix, F. ^T. 65. THE WEST PORT. 391 interest and cordiality of my reception, so very unlike to what I had anticipated. There was even a competition for me, each one wanting me into their own house. I could not understand it. But I soon discovered that I was thought to possess great influence in the city charities — I found that was the subject they constantly broached whenever they got me into their houses. What I judged and apprehended as the consequence of this was, that it would neutralize the in- fluence which I wanted to have as a Christian minister. I saw that this would vitiate my influence among them. I felt that it would never do if I were to go among them first as a dispenser of temporal good things, and then as urging upon them the things which make for their everlasting peace. I felt the want of compatibility between the two objects, and, rather than defeat my primary object, I determined to cut my connection with the city charities, and to let it be understood that I would not attend any more of the meetings of this hospital, or that charity, or Millar's Mortification — I am sure it produced great mortification to me — I fairly cut my connection with them all; I let the people understand that I dealt only in one article, and that, if they valued the advantages of Christian instruction, they were welcome to any approximation which I could make to them. Now, the thing that delighted me was, that after this declaration was made to them, the people were disabused of the imagination that T had an inexhaustible treasury to dispose of, and that it was in my power to scatter plenty through their habita- tions, but that if they would insist upon asking me, I could tell them that any thing I might do for them must be at my own expense, and I was not very rich. The effect of this frankness between me and the people was, that, if there was any difference, they received me more cordially than ever. # * *: I had an elder who was a person of great benevolence, but not so judicious and discriminating in this instance as 1 would have liked ; for when I instituted the Sabbath-school system, it was reported to me that he was devising, and had 392 MEMOIRS OF DK. CHALMERS 1845, gone a considerable length in forming — and the scheme looked feasible enough — a local Sabbath-sehool clothing soci- ety for the parish of St. John's. Sir, said I to him, your society will blast our Sabbath-school enterprise ; I wish to have 1200 scholars, do you mean to clothe all these ? No, said he, only the most necessitous. Well, said I, but all the rest will wait their turn to be clothed, and we shall get no more than a fraction. My object is that they should come with the clothes they have on ; so do not embarrass us with your society. I accordingly got the society knocked on the head. You may go forth with perfect safety, having this inscription on the forefront of your enterprise — ' Educa- tion for all ;' but what would be the efiect if you were to go forth with this inscription — ' Money or meat for all?' If you go forth with that inscription it will require very little effort on the part of the people, by a trifle more of dissipation or of indolence, to qualify themselves for relief in that way." He was equally strenuous in resisting the proposal that in the school about to be opened, the children should be educated gratuitously. " I don't think," he said, " that you will achieve any permanent good for the population unless you enlist them as fellow-workers in, or at least as fellow- contributors to the cause. I think that a great and radical error in the management of our population has just pro- ceeded from the idea that they are utterly helpless and unable to do any thing for themselves. I believe that if you proceed rightly, it will be found that they are able to do a great deal for themselves. I know that there is a dif- ference of opinion on this point ; but I stand up most inflex- ibly on the subject of school-fees, and think those persons ought to pay for the education of their children. I want to train up the families in the sentiment that education is worth its price, and to win them to the paying of that price. I am unfriendly to gratuitous education ; nor do I wish that any of our agents, or the people themselves, shall, in the imagin- ation of our indefinite resources, look for any relaxation of JET. 65. THE WEST PORT. 393 this system. The lesson which I am constantly giving out is, that we shall not be able to do aught which is per- manently effectual for the people's good, unless they will lend a hand and do something for themselves." Dr. Chalmers held his first regular meeting with his agents in Portsburgh Hall, an old court-house within the bounds of the West Port, on Saturday evening, the 27th July, 1844. Having made in the interval their weekly round among these families, the visitors were to assemble here every Saturday evening to give in their reports, and to converse together about the most effectual methods of carrying on the enterprise upon which they had now fairly embarked. Dr. Chalmers was prevented by illness from presiding at their meetings for a few weeks in August and September, but so intense was the interest which he took in them, that he addressed the following notes to the chairman : — '' Morningside, olst August, 1844. — It grieves me to say, that I at present labor under such prostration of strength as to be unfit for the business of meetings. My physicians have laid me under an interdict against all committee work. I have pled hard with them on behalf of the meetings of the West Port, and I am happy to say, that so soon as the in- terdict is removed, the first use I will make of my freedom will be to revisit the West Port, and take all the share I can in the management of its important affairs, deeming this to be of far greater importance than that I should continue my connection with any of the public committees of the Church. These I mean to give up ; but our present attempt to reclaim the population of the West Port is what I never can abandon till forced to it by absolute necessity. " For the present, I would only request that full minutes should be taken of your meetings, and that I should be favored with the sight of them. I fear that for some little time my only converse with you may be by such a weekly letter as the present. But I trust that, by the blessing of God, I may soon appear among you ; and I can not adequately express 394 iMEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. how much I long- for the opportunity of addressing: the house- holders of the West Port, either in your Court-Hall, or in some larger place, for the accommodation of a general meet- ing. Thomas Chalmers. " My best regards to all who are assemhled." ** Morningside, 6th September 1 844. — I return the minutes, which I have read with the deepest interest and satisfaction. " There is one providential object which might be gained by my present retirement. I feel quite certain that success is to be attained in no other way than by the blessing of God on the assiduous prosecution of that task which you have severally had the goodness to undertake. Be assured that our doings will be regarded as far more imitable if, instead of being stimulated by the personal influence of any one in- dividual, they are quietly and perseveringly performed by each man doing his duty. I have often said, that great re- sults are to be looked for, not from a gigantic exertion on the part of one, but from the accumulation and practicable efforts on the part of many. I hope that by the time the winter sets in, we shall have all our districts provided with agents, and all our agents in regular operation. " Thomas Chalbiers." " Morningside, 20th September, 1844. — There is no statement made by any of you which has yielded me greater hope and satisfaction than the progressive liking which you feel for the families of your respective districts. There can not be a better security, or more solid guarantee than this, for the perpetuity of our operations. Let me, therefore, once more entreat your perseverance in the great and good work, that with the blessing of God, in answer to our united prayers, a great and signal benefit may be rendered to the population among whom you labor. With my most cordial regards to all members of your meeting, I ever am, &c., " Thomas Chalmers." MT. 65. THE WEST PORT. 395 A school-room was at last obtained. It lay at the end of the very close down which Burke and his associate decoy- ed their unconscious victims. Fronting the den in which those horrid murders were committed, stood an old deserted tannery, whose upper store-loft, approached from without by a flight of projecting M'ooden stairs, was selected as affording \he best accommodation which the neighborhood could sup- ply. Low-roofed and roughly floored, its raw, unplastered walls pierced at irregular intervals with windows of unshapely form, it had little either of the scholastic or the ecclesiastical in its aspect ; but never was the true work of school and church done better than in that old tannery-loft of the West Port. Dr. Chalmers invited all the inhabitants of the neigh- borhood to meet him there on Wednesday, the 6th Novem- ber. By this time the frequent calls of the visitors had awakened a general curiosity, and the invitation was accept- ed, the loft presenting a larger assembly of what he called *' genuine West-Porters" than had met together for many years. Acting upon the saying of Talleyrand, which he so often quoted : " That there is nothing formidable in meeting with the very lowest of the people, if you only treat them frankly," Dr. Chalmers told them all that he and his friends meant to do for them, and all that he expected that they would do for themselves. He told them, in homely but vigorous terms, that a school was to be opened for their chil- dren, and that one of the best teachers in the country had been obtained for it ; but that they must pay twopence a week for each child's education ; that the article they were to be supplied with was worth a great deal more than that, and that they were quite able, and he was sure would be quite willing to pay that much for it. The audience were quite delighted with the address, and quite persuaded that they both should and could do all that was required. Dr. Chalmers was singularly fortunate in his selection of his first teacher, Mr. Sinclair, to whom, soon after his nomination, he addressed the following letter : 396 MBxMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. ^^ M(y}'ningside, oOth October, 1844. — I expect to tell you in a day or two when the school may be opened ; but, meanwhile, it is of prime importance that you should clearly understand our object. " It is not to fill that school any how, but to fill it from the families of the West Port ; a process which will be more or less gradual, but in which, if we fail, we shall conceive our peculiar object to be lost — even though the school should, on being opened for children from all quarters, be filled to an overflow. " I have all confidence in your energy and ability as a teacher, and like exceedingly the special attention which you mean to bestow on those clever boys that you would employ as monitors. But I should particularly like that your pre- ference should be for West Port boys, rather than for those who might be afterward brought in from beyond the locality. Be assured that you will meet with a full average of talent among the ragged children of this outlandish population. Our great object in fact is, to reclaim them from their pres- ent outlandishness, and raise them to a higher platform. We may have a good deal to encounter in the way of slovenliness and untoward habits at the outset : but the achievement will be all the more honorable if you succeed ; and be assured that it will be at length productive of a far mightier eflect on the interest of plebeian education than if, lying open to children from all distances, you were filled to the very door with a higher style of scholars for better classes in society. *' Let us only have patience and toleration for all the dis- agreeables of our outset, whether as regards the school or the scholars. Let us recollect the coarse materials that we have in the first instance to deal with, gradually to be improved, however, by the refining and humanizing process which they will be made to undergo. " Do come then, my dear sir, with a heart alive to the importance, and resolved, as far as in you lies, on the suc- cess of this great enterprise, and so earn the title to one of ^T. G5. THE WEST PORT. 397 the highest achievements which can possibly be contemplated, either by the enlightened patriot or by the Christian philan- thropist.—I am, &c., Thomas Chalmers." The school was opened with sixty-four day scholars, and fifty-seven evening scholars, on the 11th November, 1844 ; and m the course of a single year, no fewer than 250 were in attendance, and those chiefly from the West Port. The educational part of the process having been fairly set a-going the higher and more difficult operation was commenced, of bringing the adult population under regular spiritual instruc- tion. On the forenoon of Sabbath the 22d December, Dr. Chalmers opened the tan-loft for pubHc worship. We were present on the evening of that day, when the city missionary officiated, and when we looked round and saw that the ivhole fruit of the advices, and requests, and entreaties which for many previous weeks had been brought to bear upon all the families by the visitors, was the presence of about a dozen adults, and those mostly old women, we confess to strono- mis- givings as to the result. But the services were regularly continued thrice each Sabbath, and the private agencies were renewed. In April, 1845, Dr. Chalmers was so pecuharly fortunate as to secujre the services of the Rev. Mr. Tasker the attendance grew under his ministry, and at the close of the year the nucleus of a good congregation began already to appear. The scheme, however, was obviously working at disadvantage so long as an apartment so difficult of access and so rudely fitted up, formed at once the school-room and the church. Ground, therefore, was purchased, and all other needful steps were taken for the erection within the West Port of a church and school-room. Meanwhile, under the zealous ministry of Mr. Tasker, who in due time was reo-. ularly ordained, and with the aid of those ladies and gentle- men who, with the utmost devotedness, gave themselves to the work, all those different operations were carried on which the reader will find so well described in the - Territorial 398 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. Visitor's Manual" of Mr. Tasker. A library and a savings'- bank, and a washing-house, and a female industrial school, were all established, and all succeeded. Dr. Chalmers preach- ed frequently in the loft ; addressed several meetings of the inhabitants to explain to them the different parts of the scheme, as they successively were instituted ; presided at many of the agents' meetings, and was, in fact, the central spring which set the whole machinery in motion. There may have been other works of his hands, upon which a larger amount of labor was bestowed, but there was none over which so many prayers were offered. It lets us into his secret feel- ings, and tells us of the depth of that peculiar interest with which he watched the progress of this undertaking, when we find him in his study at Morningside, on Sabbath morn or Sabbath even, penning such prayers as these : " It is yet but the day of small things with us ; and I in all likelihood shall be taken off, ere that much greater progress is made in the advancement of the blessed gospel throughout our land. But give me the foretaste and the confident foresight of this great Christian and moral triumph ere I die. Let me at least, if it be Thy blessed will, see — though it should be only in one or in a small number of specimens — a people living in some district of aliens, as the West Port, reclaimed at least into willing and obedient hearers, afterward in Thine own good time to become the doers of Thy word. Give me, O Lord, a token for the larger accomplishment of this good ere I die." " Moving fearlessly onward, may I at length obtain such possession of the West Port, as that the gospel of Jesus Christ shall have the moral ascendency over a goodly num- ber of its families. And let me not forget the conquests of Thine all-subduing grace, and the preservations of Thy faith- ful servants in the history of the missions of other days. And oh, in this as well as in other work, let it be my care to follow the Lord fully ; neither let me go up thither unless Thy presence and favor go along with me. Thou surely hast not forbidden this enterprise ; and therefore will we ever JET. 65. THE WEST PORT. 399 pray that Thou mayest prosper and extend it. We would give Three no rest, O Lord, till Thou hast opened the win- dow of heaven and caused righteousness to run down that street like a mighty river." -O pour forth the spirit of generosity on my coadjutors and their friends in the work of cultivating the West Port of Edinburgh ; and let such a memorial of Christian philanthropy be set up in that place as to be a praise and an example both in the city of our habitation and in the other cities of our land." " Reveal to me, O God, the right tactics, the right way and method of proceeding in the management of the affairs of the West Port. O that I were enabled to pull down the stroncrholds of sin and of Satan which are there ; and O save me^ save me from the difficulties to which I am exposed should hol- lowness of heart or principle be found to obtain with any of the agency. O how incompetent I feel myself to be for act- mg the part of a cautious and wise general in the midst of them. Be my help and my adviser, O God, and tell me by Thy Word and Spirit what I ought to do." " O my God, give me the power of ordering matters aright in the West Port ; let all be peace and harmony, and no confusion there ; direct all my footsteps in that undertaking ; and may I more and more be made to abound in such suggestions as Thy Spirit will prompt and approve of Let me keep all the im- pulses of my own spirit under the subjection of a presiding and circumspect wisdom. And more especially, O God, let me understand Thy will in regard to the right place and performances of a female agency. May their work be abun- dantly blessed and countenanced from on high, and have a happy effect on the families. Let me beware of mine being too much of a restraining authority ; and let me seek tha°t all things be done for edification, and all things be done de- cently and in order." - Bestow on me in larger measure and proportion that grace which Thou didst so plentifully bestow on the churches of Macedonia. Let it spread abroad more and more among the sadly deficient congregations of 400 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. our Free Church : Do Thou begin it even now among the families of the West Port. Make them willing in the day of Thy power, that abounding in all that is good, they may abound in this grace also. It is still but a day of small things. O, do Thou brighten it onward even unto the latter day glory. Cause the poorest to take part in the fellowship of Christian charity ; and may the substantial equality be maintained among all the classes, by the rich casting in their larger gifts, and each man giving in proportion to his ability." " O my God, give me to set my delight here on the excel- lent ones of the earth, that I may be prepared for the per- fect enjoyment of their and my presence before Jesus Christ at His coming ; and draw close the afiection and the affinity between Mr. Tasker and the families of the West Port. Do thou plentifully endow him with the graces and gifts of the Aj)ostle Paul. May he have many souls for his hire ; and bestow Thy guidance on him and on all the other associates in the good work of attempting to reclaim an outcast popu- lation to the light and obedience of the gospel. O may the attempt be a successful one ; and may he, in particular, have many for a crown of joy and of rejoicing in the great day of account." " And I pray not for myself alone, but for him who labors in holy things among the families of the West Port. Prosper, O Lord, his meditations upon thy word. Let me ever rejoice in the endowments which Thou hast been pleased to bestow upon him. Do Thou guide and encourage him, O Lord. May he be enabled to wait upon Thee without distraction ; and let him so minister, that not only his own profiting, but the profiting of those under his charge, may appear unto all. O may he not only be himself saved, but may he be the instrument of salvation to many ; and may both he and I be carried in safety and at length with triumph to that prosperous consummation for which we are jointly laboring." ^ * Horse Sabbaticse, vol. i. pp. 238, 255, 302, 319 ; and vol. ii. pp. 229, 238, 241, 303. JET. 65. THE WEST PORT. 401 These impressive petitions were all offered up while yet the West Port enterprise was in its infancy — an infancy shad- owed by many doubts and fears. It was while one of those shadows hung over it that Dr. Chalmers addressed the follow- ing letter to Mr. Tasker : " Fairley, by Largs, Ju7ie 12th, 1845. — My chief anxiety is that neither you nor any of our coadjutors shall lose heart because of a less rapid progress than some of them may per- haps have anticipated. We are not worthy of having entered on the experiment, if not capable of persevering with it under the discouragement, it may be, of many alternations, and for a time, if God so please, to exercise our faith and patience, of reverses. Such a spirit is peculiarly called for in a work of which it may be pre-eminently said, that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. ^ * * " While dependent on the Divine contribution for success, I must say that I feel the importance too of no ingredient in the human contribution being wanting. On this ground I desiderate that all justice should be done to our undertaking, and that as an experiment it should be made as complete as possible, otherwise the instruction given by it will be imper- fect ; whereas even from its failure we shall learn a great deal more from a full than from a partial operation. I therefore desiderate, and that as soon as may be, a church not only within the locality, but, agreeably to your own view, as much in the view of the families as possible. I look on the present steady attendance, say of 80 or 100, in the present disadvan- tageous circumstances, as a sufficient nucleus, under God, for a future congregation. And what should reconcile us all to this step is, that even though the worst should come to the worst, though the local preference should not give us a full local congregation for years together, we can, after giving it a local constitution, that is, securing the offer of all vacant sittings in the first instance to the people of the West Port — we can, at each seat-letting, hold out the room not disposed of to the public at large ; so that, after having done all for 402 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. a local, we have still the same resource that is had in all other churches for supplementing the deficiency from our first aim, by means of a general congregation. The sooner the operation is expedited the better for me, who am getting on in life ; and I desire, whatever may be the result, to take the instruction of it with all the calmness both of a philosopher and a Christian, viewing it in. one light as the lesson of ex- perience, and in another, as the lesson which God pleases to give me, whether to humble or to gratify me before I die. Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours most cordially, '- Thomas Chalmer.s." The prospect of a speedy and remarkable triumph bright- ened before Dr. Chalmers as the year 1846 progressed. Visible success cheered on the various agents, and their ef- forts were multiplied as the fair and pleasant fruits of them ripened under their eye. The liberality of many Christian friends supplied Dr. Chalmers with funds sufficient not only to build a church and school-room, but to purchase and fit up a tenement of houses as model houses for working-men, in which, at a low rent, additional means of cleanliness and comfort were enjoyed. It was in a tone, therefore, of rising confidence that, while the church was building, he issued his last circular. — " We have long thought," he said, " that the failure of every former attempt to reclaim the masses of our population is due to the insufficiency of the means which have been brought to bear upon them ; and while deeply sensible that means alone will prove of no effect without the blessing from on high on the devotedness and the conscien- tious labors of those into whose hands they are intrusted, yet we hold it irrational to look for any great or sensible re- sult with so slender an apparatus as that of Sabbath-schools, and prayer meetings, and rare occasional visits from house to house, under the conduct, it may be, of a few missionaries for the whole of a large town — each sinking under the weight of the many thousands who have been committed to his care ; ;ET. 65. THE WEST PORT. 403 and dispirited by the want of any such visible fruit as might serve to satisfy both himself and his employers that his efforts are not wholly dissipated or lost, to all observation at least, in that mighty aggregate of human beings wherewith he has to deal. "It is under this conviction that we have long advocated the concentration of commensurate efforts and means on a small enough territory. What can not be done in bulk, and all at once, let us try in separate portions — each within the compass of such an agency as would form a sufficient eldership and set of office-bearers for an ordinary congrega- tion. We are aware of the ridicule that has been poured in other departments, whether of politics or philanthropy, on the process of what has been termed a bit and bit reform. But let us ascertain whether this bit and bit process be not, after all, the only one that is suited to the real mediocrity of the human powers. " The very essence of our scheme lies in the thorough op- eration of what we have called the territorial principle. We limit our attention to a single district or locality, itself split into sub-districts, having each a Christian agent attached to it ; so that not a home or family which might not be fre- quently and habitually visited by one having the charge of not more, if possible, than twenty households. By this busy internal missionary process, a vast amount of direct good might be done, even were there nothing more than a kindly influential converse, all, of course, on the side of morality and religion and a better economics, than now prevails through- out the population. But one of the main benefits of such a system as this is, that it might be made to act so powerfully as a recruiting process both for church and schools, as at length to terminate in a parochial economy of a power and character so pervading that each child shall receive a whole- some education, and at the sound of their own Sabbath-bell nearly each house may be seen to pour forth its family of worshipers. We are sensible that even though this were 404 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. to take effect, it would yield nothing more than but a re- claimed portion of the whole territory. But if the hundreds of Christian philanthropists in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the thousands in London, were in little separate bands to se- lect their respective localities and do the same thing, a single decade of years might not pass away without our being land- ed in the blessed result of a better and happier generation." On Friday the 19th February, 1847, the West Port Church was opened for public worship by Dr. Chalmers, and on the 25th April, he presided at the first sacrament admin- istered within its walls. On the following Monday, he said to Mr. Tasker — " I have got now the desire of my heart — the church is finished, the schools are flourishing, our eccle- siastical machinery is about complete, and all in good work- ing order. God has indeed heard my prayer, and I could now lay down my head in peace and die." On Tuesday the 27th, he wrote thus to Mr. Lennox : — "I wish to com- municate what to me is the most joyful event of my life. I have been intent for thirty years on the completion of a ter- ritorial experiment, and I have now to bless God for the consummation of it. Our church was opened on the 1 9th of February, and in one month my anxieties respecting an at- tendance have been set at rest. Five-sixths of the sittings have been let ; but the best part of it is, that three-fourths of these are from the West Port, a locality which, two years ago, had not one in ten church-goers from the whole popula- tion. I presided myself, on Sabbath last, over its first sacra- ment. There were 132 communicants, and 100 of them from the West Port." Scarcely more than two years had elapsed, yet how great was the transformation. When the work began, the number attending all places of worship did not exceed one-eighth of the whole population of the West Port. In the new church 300 sittings were taken as soon as it was opened ; and of the 100 communicants from the district who sat down at the first communion, there were so many as eighty (some far ^T. 65. THE WEST PORT. 405 advanced in life) who had never communicated in their Hves before, or so long ago that they had wholly forgotten the nature and objects of the ordinance. When the work began, of those capable of education three-fourths were not at school ; already the ratio had been reversed, and three-fourths were in regular attendance. Many of these children were of the poorest class, yet school-fees, amounting in the aggregate to upward of X70 per annum, had been cheerfully and grate- fully paid by their parents. The change was beginning to show itself even in the outward appearance of the district — in the increased cleanliness and tidiness of the children* — in quieter Saturday nights, and more orderly Sabbaths. Many * We have upward of a hundred girls at this school, and I have no recollection of any thing so sudden, so much per salluni, as the transition in the aspect of these girls, from the time of their first rag- gedness, as they were found running about the streets in that destitute locality, to the personal cleanliness and respectability which they now exhibit. Their appearance, indeed, is altogether delightful. — The boys. I may state, have not made so large an advance as the girls in point of appearance ; but altogether the schools present a most attract- ive and delightful spectacle. I have been told that a number of the plebeian schools in our city have been abandoned by female visitors, in virtue of want of personal cleanliness. By the use of baths, this want is counteracted. The truth is, that there is nothing like going thor- oughly to work ; w^e even take cognizance of the hair-cutting, as far as the boys are concerned. We have made a bargain — I don't know that it is a very cheap one — but we got a hair-dresser to clip the boys' heads at eighteenpence a dozen, which is at the rate of three-halfpence a head. I can just say this much, that I am sure that the ruder and rawer the material is, out of which finished goods are worked, the greater is the triumph of the manufacturing art : and in this point of view I would consider it a most attractive and inviting circumstance, w^hen we recollect that these poor people have all the capacities of human spirits — that they have talents — that they have imperishable souls — that they are on a full level of equality with ourselves in all that is essential to man — and that we have nothing to do but to go and do them justice, and to give up the shameful neglect which we have indulged toward the lower classes for half a century, I would say for almost a whole century; and it is not to be told to what height of advancement, morally, intellectually, and economically, they are capable of beings raised." 406 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. moral and physical agencies still existed which wrought powerfully against the attempted reformation. More than twenty dram-shops in that single district hung out their in- vitation to debauchery, while fetid nests of filth and vice lay festering in many a close. There was something to be done here which the public authorities alone could do, and which Dr. Chalmers urged them in vain to undertake. — " I would again implore the aid of the authorities for the removal of all those moral, and the aid of the Sanitary Board for the removal of all those physical nuisances and discomforts which are found to exist within the limits of a territory so full of misery and vice at present, yet so full of promise for the future. Could I gain this help from our men in power, and this co-operation from the Board of Health, then, with the virtue which lies in education, and, above all, the hallowing influences of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I should look, though in humble dependence on the indispensable grace from on high, for such a result as, at least in its first beginnings, I could interpret into the streaks and dawnings of a better day — when, after the struggles and discomfitures of thirty years, I might depart in peace, and leave the further prosecution of our enterprise with comfort and calmness in the hands of another generation." It was but the dawning which he was permitted to behold. A few weeks after that first communion in the West Port, he was removed to the communion of the heavens, and the work was left in other hands. There were some who thought that his removal would be fatal to its success ; and that it was only by such impulses as he could give, that such an enterprise could be sustained. But five years have past since he was at his head; and, under the admirable manage- ment of Mr. Tasker, each year, has witnessed an advancing progress. In its educational department the work is com- plete. In the different schools, male and female, day and evening, between 400 and 500 children are in attendance; nor is it knovjn that there is a single child of a family JET. 65. THE WEST PORT. 407 resident within the West Port who is not at school. Of what other hke district in this country could the same be said, and by what other instrumentality could it have been accomplished ? The most commodious schoolroom might have been built, and the ablest teacher salaried, and the education offered gratis to all the families, and yet hundreds of these children have remained untaught. It was the district visiting, and the zeal especially of those ladies by whom a special oversight of the children's regular attendance at school was undertaken, by which this great achievement has mainly been accomplished. The ecclesiastical depart- ment presents us with a no less gratifying result. The habit of church attendance has become as general and regular with- in the West Port as it is in the best conditioned districts of Edinburgh. The church is filled to overflowing, and, while these pages are passing through the press, the people of the West Port, who among themselves contributed no less than £100 to the building of their church at first, are contrib- uting, at an equal rate of liberality, for the erection of a gallery. It was Dr. Chalmers's conviction that in the worst localities the means existed, and could be evoked, by which an effective gospel ministry, if once created, could afterward be sustained ; and the history of the West Port confirms that conviction. The ecclesiastical machinery is now com- plete, and were it separated from the rest it could be main- tained in all its present efficiency by the freewill offerings of the people themselves. During the last year, besides meet- ing all the expenses necessary for the due support of Christian ordinances, amounting to nearly £250, the West Port con- gregation has contributed £70 to missionary and educational objects.* Nor has the cost been great at which all this has been effected. A site has been purchased, a church, seated for 520, has been erected, commodious schoolrooms have been built and furnished, a large adjoining tenement has been bought and fitted up, the minister's and the schoolmaster's, * For the last Annual Balance-Sheet, see Appendix, G. 408 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. and the schoolmistress's salaries have been paid, and all incidental expenses discharged, during seven years and a half, for less than £5500. At the same cost, among the same class, within the same limits, and during the same time, there never have been ac- complished in this or any other land any thing like the same educational and spiritual results. It stands the only instance in which the depths of city ignorance and vice have been sounded to the very bottom ; nor can the possibihty of cleansing the foul basement-story of our social edifice be doubt- ed any longer. How the spirit of the departed would have rejoiced had he lived to witness what the West Port now presents ; and how gladly would he have hailed every token that the lessons given forth thereby were not likely to be lost !* We have dwelt the longer upon it because we know how willingly he would have seen eveiy other thought of his heart and every other work of his hands perish from the remembrance of his fellows, if only the guiding light were followed which this example furnished as to the best method of raising the sunk millions of our fellow-countrymen to a higher level of character and comfort on earth, and preparing them for " glory, honor, and immortality" hereafter. * It is with the greatest pleasure that we have noticed two recent articles in the Christian Journal of the United Presbyterian Church, containing an account of the operations in the West Port, and strongly recommending the territorial principle upon which they have been con- ducted. CHAPTER XXIL SUGGESTIONS FOR ALTERING THE CURRICULUM IN THE SCOTTISH UNIVERSITIES— THE COURSE OF THE- OLOGICAL EDUCATION— DR. CHALMERS'S PROFES- SORIAL CAREER— APPOINTMENT AS PRINCIPAL IN THE NEW COLLEGE— INSTITUTES OF THEOLOGY— THE NORTH BRITISH REVIEW— THE GERMAN PHI- LOSOPHY—THE FAMINE. Dr. Chalmers's attention had been early directed to the course of education pursued in the Scottish Universities, to the defects attached to it, and the improvements of which it was capable. In the year 1828, during his examination before the Commissioners appointed to visit the Universities of Scotland, he suggested that the first Latin and Greek classes, in which the elements of those languages were taught, should be abolished, as suited rather for a school than for a college ; and that, by the establishment of gymnasia* and * '^ Edinburgh, April 22d, 1 846. — Dear Sir — I have now read your Pamphlet, and with high approbation of its general views. I like in pai'ticular your strong recommendation of gymnasia. Such is my con- ception of their usefulness that I think they might do even more than prepare for the literary and philosophical classes of our Universities. I think they might prepare for an immediate entry on all the studies of the learned professions, whether theological, or legal, or medical. But at this rate would they not supersede our Universities altogether ? I think they ought not ; and that to these Universities there would re- main the high function of elevating the literatui'e and science of our land, purely for their own sakes, and apart from their subserviency to any merely professional object. What a glorious country it would make, if, for the expense of some £10,000 or c£20,000 a year more, we could thus get our Universities placed in those higher regions of philosophy and taste, where they might contribute to the indefinite ele- vation of our national authorship in every department, whether of letters or of science ! These hastv sentences represent mv views very im- TOL IV S 410 MExMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. a strict entrance examination, the standard of qualification for commencing a University education should be elevated. He also suggested that an important change should be made in the order of the Undergraduate course. According to the existing arrangement, Logic and Moral Philosophy occupy the second and third sessions in a four years' curriculum ; Mathematics and Natural Philosophy occupying the third and fourth. Upon the principle that the mental and moral sciences required a maturer intelligence, he proposed that this order should be reversed, and that the Moral Philosophy of the Undergraduate course should be brought thus into juxta- position with the Natural Theology of the Divinity curricu- lum. Without altering the place already given to Natural Philosophy, the Royal Commissioners, in their Report of 1830, recommended that Moral Philosophy should be taught during the fourth year of the student's attendance at College. But this, with all the other valuable recommendations of that Report, has lain for years unheeded, so as to make one wonder why such Commissions were appointed. Although not a member at this time of the Theological Faculty, Dr. Chalmers was examined also as to the course of Theological study. In St. Andrews, as in all the other Scottish Colleges, the Theological Faculty consisted of three Professors — one of Divinity, one of Hebrew and the Oriental Languages, and one of Church History. The course lasted for four years, attendance, however, being only imperative during three sessions. There fell thus into the hands of the Divinity Professor, to be treated in a four years' course of lectures, the whole range of Natural Theology, the Christian Evidences, and Systematic and Pastoral Theology. Inde- perfectly, but should we ever have the opportunity of meeting, I should like to talk more at large with you upon the subject. Meanwhile, I rejoice in your having advocated a high system of preliminary scholar- ship that might well enable us all to take up higher positions in our respective territories. — I am, dear Sir, yours respectfully, "Thomas Chalmers. •'Professor Blackie, Aberdeen.'' MT.65. THE UiNIVERSITY CURRICULUM. 411 pendently of the undue amount of labor thrown thus upon a single Professor, it was obvious that, entering as they did at different parts of the course, it was only the students of one Session in every four who began the course with the Pro- fessor and followed it consecutively to its close. And the few students who might have enjoyed it were deprived even of this benefit, by the prevalent habit of attending only during three sessions, and interposing the session of absence at differ- ent points in Ihe curriculum. In a scheme of Theological Edu- cation which he drew up and presented to the Commissioners, Dr. Chalmers suggested that if not five, as he would have de- sired, there should be at least four Professors in the Theological Faculty ; and that there should be two Professors of Divinity, the junior to teach two classes each day, and the senior to do the same ; so that, enter when he might, the student should be carried regularly forward, and the subjects be presented in a consecutive order. Upon this subject the Commissioners satisfied themselves with advising that a new Professorship of Biblical Criticism should be instituted at the different Uni- versities— an advice which waits till some Government shall be patriotic enough to execute it. Upon his own appointment to the chair of Theology in Edinburgh, Dr. Chalmers was fully exposed to the disadvantages which the existing arrangements entailed upon the Professor, nor were all the efforts which he made to extricate hinlself * sufficient to yield any thing * In answer to an inquiry made by a member of one of the English "Universities, Dr. Chalmers gave the following account of the manner in which his classes were conducted : " The Professor of Theology, Dr. Chalmers, teaches two classes, a junior and senior. The junior class commences on Tuesday the 12th of November, and its hour of meeting is two o'clock. This class is attended by all the professional students, or students of divinity, at the beginning of their course ; and the following account of its topics of lectureship will serve to show why, of the two classes, it is the most adapted to the demand and convenience of those gentlemen who, not of the ecclesiastical profession, wish to become acquainted with the grounds or evidences of the Christian faith. " The general object of this class is to demonstrate the evidences 412 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. like content. Could he have satisfied himself with drawing up a four years' course of lectures, to be repeated again and again as the four j^ears' curriculum came round, he might of natural and revealed religion, which is done in a series of lectures delivered from the Chair on the three first days of every week. The lectures on Natural Theology take up nearly half the Session, and are succeeded by lectures on the historical and internal evidences for the truth of Christianity; and the course is concluded by lectures on the inspiration of Scripture, with a general view of Scripture'Criticism and Sj^stematic Theolog}'. " It will be seen that the main design of this class is to establish the credentials of Revelation, or to unfold the grounds on which the Bible ought to be regarded as the genuine record of a genuine communica- tion from heaven to earth. It is for this special reason, that an attend- ance on this class is recommended to the general or extra-professional students, while it is only imperative on those who are destined for the clerical profession. By opening this part of theological education to all sorts of students, we approximate to the academic system of England, in which sacred is blended, to a certain extent, with general literature. " Two days of the week are occupied with lectures, both written and extemporaneous, on the various topics of a text- book, which gives the Professor an opportunity for entering with greater minuteness and familiarity into the details of the Christian argument; it is in this part of the course that the students are most subjected to examination. It is the practice to examine all the professional students, and only those of the general students who express a wish for it. The text-book for the ensuing Session is ' Butler's Analogy.' " The senior class of Theology commences on Tuesday the 12th of November at eleven o'clock ; it receives tRe appellation of Senior from the circumstance of its being attended by those professional students who have advanced beyond the first year of their attendance on the Divinity Hall, as the attendance of regular students generally lasts four years. The course of lectures in the senior class, in accommodation to this practice, is completed in three years ; comprising, therefore, the instructions which are proper to the divinity students of the second, third, and fourth year's standing. This class is attended by a large proportion of general students, notwithstanding the inconvenience to them of their receiving by one year's attendance only a fraction of its course ; and notwithstanding a still greater inconvenience, that for two sessions out of the three, instead of beginning with the commencement of this senior lectureship, they have to begin with the ulterior parts of it. " The object of the senior class, as distinguished from that of the ^T. 65. PROFESSORIAL CAREER. 413 have earned for himself the same ease and comfort with which the duties of his Chair had been discharged by ordinary and inferior men. But he could not confine himself within such limits. Upon some of the great topics in Natural Theology and the Christian Evidences, he had original and valuable contributions to offer, which, after first offering them to his students in a course of lectures, he lost no time in presenting to the public. His early professorial career at Edinburgh resembled that of those German professors who pass so fre- quently through the press the lectures of the preceding year, entailing thus upon themselves a new burden of composition for the future. Subjects, besides, were constantly occurring to Dr. Chalmers of a character somewhat extraneous to the proper topics of his course, upon which a brief set of lectures were drawn up and delivered to his students, The result of the whole, while impairing the orderly treatment of the common heads of Divinity, was eminently favorable to that freshness and force of impulse which it was his great distinction as a teacher to communicate. He who studies at- tentively the first four volumes of the one, and the last three volumes of the other series of his Works, will not readily believe, that even in respect of the amount and variety of information communicated to them, the students of Dr. Chal- mers fared worse than others ; but it was not here that his power and glory lay, as the greatest teacher of Theology our country has ever seen. Others have amassed larger stores of learning, and conveyed them to their students in more com- prehensive and compendious forms. But who ever lit up the junior, is to expound not the credentials, but the contents of the Chris- tian message ; or, if the business of the junior is to establish the truth in opposition to all infidelity, the business of the senior is to establish the truth in opposition to all heresy ; its main topie is the subject-mat- ter of the Christian Theology, and it should conclude with a series of lectures on the duties of the ministry and of the pastoral cure." The reader is referred to the ninth volume of the ' Posthumous Works' for information as to the text-books used in the Theological Classes, and the manner in which they were employed. 414 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMKRS. 1845. evidences and truths of Christianity M^ith a light so attractive ; and who ever filled the youthful breasts of those who were afterward to occupy the pulpits of the land, with the fire of so generous and so devoted an enthusiasm I His professorial career had lasted for twenty years when the Disruption oc- curred. Even at that time he could travel, he said, from one end of Scotland to the other, and spend each night in the manse of one of his former pupils ; and if the growing majorities in the General Assembly by which that event was preceded were analyzed, it would appear that nine-tenths at least of those who had listened to his fervid prelections in the University, counted it an honor to stand by the side of their venerated instructor when the hour of trial came. Immediately after the Disruption, Dr. Chalmers resigned his Chair at the University, and accepted the appointment of Principal and Primarius Professor of Divinity in whatever collegiate institution the Free Church might be able to erect. Strongly convinced that with the slender attractions which its unendowed and under-paid offices held out, the future min- istry of the Free Church could alone maintain its position in the country by the superior scholarship and deeper piety of its ministers, he gave an increased measure both of time and care to the duties of his professorship ; and after the ex- perience of three sessions he had this hopeful testimony to bear : " The convener of your Committee has the satisfaction of bear- ing witness, and this after the experience of eighteen winters as a Professor of Theology, and five more as the occupier of a previous chair, that his class of last session stands the highest in his estimation of all which have preceded it, if not in its superior number of eminent and distinguished stu- dents who stand above the level of their fellows, in what is far better — a more elevated table-land of general proficiency and good scholarship. But it is of greatly surpassing moment that we should have to report an obvious increase, from year to year, in their sense of things sacred, and devotedness of heart and spirit to the great objects of the Christian ministry." iET. 65. PROFESSORIAL CAREER. 415 In the hope of contributing to this increase, during his last collegiate sessions Dr. Chalmers was in the habit of inviting his students to private interviews, devoted wholly to conver- sation relative to their own spiritual condition and prayer. In the General Assembly of 1844, the Moderator, Dr. Grey of Edinburgh, was singularly felicitous in returning the thanks of the Church to Dr. Chalmers, for the valuable services which he had rendered to it. "We are all aware," he said, in closing his address, "of the important and directly spiritual duties which you fulfill in training up the future teachers of Israel, and in your manifold labors as a minister of Christ ; but even in the department of finance we feel that your services are invaluable, as clearly and directly sub- servient to the maintenance and extension of true religion in the land. Sir, we duly appreciate the self-denying, generous zeal, which makes you willing, at the present stage of your valuable and fruitful life, to continue to labor in the service of a Church which, if dear to you, holds you also most dear to her — granted her by a gracious Providence as her orna- ment and guide. In the review of our noble controversy, the words of Milton, in a sonnet addressed to Sir Henry Vane the younger, occur to me as so applicable, that I trust you. Sir, and the Assembly, will excuse me if I conclude with them. After mentioning other high qualities and at- tainments, he adds — ' Both spiritual power^ and civil, ivhat each means, What severs each, thou hast learned, which few have done, The bounds of either sword to thee w^e owe. Therefore on thy firm hand religion leans In peace, and reckons thee her oldest son.' " "I can only ascribe," said Dr. Chalmers in reply "these high eulogiums to my having long held a principle which I should like to see carried into efTect throughout the whole of the Church's business — I mean the principle of division of employment. I should like to see that principle made per- manently applicable to the management of our whole eccle- 416 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS 1845. siastical affairs. So sacred is my respect for this principle, and, I trust, also my observance of it, that all the time and strength which I have been able to sj)are, have been given to the labor of but one department of the Church's service ; and I trust, from experience, and am in some measure confi- dent, that the little, or rather no part I have taken in other, and perhaps more important duties of the Church, has been of more avail than if I had meddled with them all. I knew that these were in other hands, and I wished to allow them to get the full benefit of the same principle. Even although I was at the head of the academical department of the Free Church, I have not attended a single meeting of the Educa- tional Committee. This may seem odd, and incongruous with my situation, as at the head of our Theological Faculty ; but it is because I would infinitely rather be satisfied with doing a single task well — with being an efficient doer in one thing, than being a dabbler universal in every thing." For some time after the Disruption, the general superin- tendence of the collegiate and educational departments of the Free Church devolved upon Dr. Welsh, and Dr. Chalmers took little share in their management — his class duties, and the oversight of the Sustentation Associations, engrossing his attention. An event, however, soon afterward occurred which modified his conduct in this respeet. In the spring of 1845, the Free Church lost one of her brightest ornaments. " I dare not," said Dr. Chalmers, in alluding to the event, "incur the hazard of exciting the pathos and profound regrets of this assembly by saying all I might on the bereavement which a mysterious though all-wise Providence has been pleased to inflict upon us by the death of Dr. Welsh. This institute, of which he was so distinguished a member, will ever associate with his memory a sense of grateful obligation for high services. The College fabric now on the eve of its commencement, and to which, I might add, our choice and rapidly increasing, and even already our well-stored library, inin-ht be regarded as all his own. And beyond the circle JET. 65. TRIBUTE TO DR. WELSH'S MEMORY. 417 of our Free Church, there must be the general feeling of a heavy, loss, in that he was arrested on a most promising career of authorship, when engaged in supplying what migh°t well be termed a great desideratum in British literature" a good Church History. His first volume, all that was pub- lished before his death, will ever abide a standing monument to the erudition, and classic taste, and scholarlike accom- plishments of its author. Would to God that the lesson of mortality given forth by so near and affecting an example of It— that lesson which of all others is the the oftenest re- peated, yet the soonest and the oftenest forgotten were to tell with all the force and feeling which it ought on the hearts of survivors, more especially on those survivors who, years before him in the journey of life, are now pressing hard on the confines of both worlds, on the twilight of their e'arthly existence, and on the dawn of their eternity." It was a large debt under which Dr. Welsh laid the Free Church by providing the funds for the erection of a new College in Edinburgh. In the midst of great pecuniary sacrifices required for other and more pressing necessities, it was one of the noblest offerings which Christian generosity presented, when at his solicitation twenty individuals came forward and gave each £1000 to effect this object. At the close of the Assembly of 1846, the foundation-stone of the edifice was laid by Dr. Chalmers. At a public breakfast which preceded the ceremony, he quoted and applied to him- self the lines of Byron, " I am not what I have been, and my visions flit Less palpably before me" — but there was no sign either of faded sentiment or decaying power, when, after the triple stroke with the mallet upon the stone, he addressed those who had collected at the spot, among whom were a considerable number of operatives. Having referred first to the great objects of a theological education, « It delights me," he said, " to observe that so many of the working classes in our city now stand within 418 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. the reach of my voice. Within the walls now to be raised by their hands there may or there may not in time be deliv- ered the lessons of general science. But from the very out- set, we hope, there will be the lessons of that higher wisdom which is often hid from the wise and the prudent, and re- vealed unto babes. We leave to others the passions and politics of this world ; and nothing will ever be taught, I trust, in any of our halls, which shall have the remotest ten- dency to disturb the existing order of things, or to confound the ranks and distinctions which at present obtain in society. But there is one equality between man and man which will strenuously be taught — the essential equality of human souls ; and that in the high count and reckoning of eternity, the soul of the poorest of nature's children, the raggedest boy that runs along the pavement, is of like estimation in the eyes of heaven with that of the greatest and the noblest of our land. The youth who frequent our classes will with all earnestness and emphasis be told, that the Christian minister is a man of no rank, because a man of all ranks ; and that although he should have an education which might qualify him for holding converse with princes and peers, it is his peculiar glory to be a frequent visitant of the poor man's humble cottage, and to pray by the poor man's dying bed. Heaven grant that the platform of humble life may be raised immeasurably higher than at present, and through the whole extent of it — that the mighty host who swarm upon its surface, brought under the elevating power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and so rescued from groveling ignorance and loathsome dissipation, may rise to a full equality with our- selves in all that is characteristic of humanity, and take place along with us, side by side, on the footing of kindred and companionable men. Let kings retain their sceptres, and nobles their coronets, what we want is a more elevated ground- floor for our general population, and this without derange- ment to the upper stories of the social and political edifice — where may our beloved Queen, God bless her, long retain JET. 65. INSTITUTES OF TH EOLOGY, 419 upon its summit the place of gracefulness and glory which she now occupies. The beauteous structure behind us, and which bears her name, will not injure, but illustrate our humbler fabric — not humbler, we think, in respect of its tasteful and becoming architecture, but as rising from a lowlier platform — whence let us close the ceremonial of the day by the acclamations of honest and deep-felt loyalty, with thanks to heaven for the many preservations which a merci- ful Providence has awarded to our good Queen Victoria." In consequence of Dr. V/elsh's most lamented death, Dr. Chalmers accepted the convenership of the College Commit- tee, which he was the readier to do, as, owing to recent cir- cumstances, he stood relieved, to a great extent, of the charge of the Sustentation Fund. When the new collegiate arrange- ments following upon the Disruption were completed. Dr. Chalmers had the satisfaction of seeing the scheme for the- ological education (first broached by him in 1828) adopted by the Free Church, and an additional Professor of Divinity appointed.* The preliminary branches being committed to his colleague, Dr. Chalmers's undivided labor was bestowed upon systematic theology. It had for many years been the highest object of his literary and professorial ambition to leave behind him a complete body of Divinity, containing the fruits of his maturest reflections, both on the credentials and con- tents of the Christian Revelation. Had his Lectures on Natural Theology and the Evidences not been already given to the public, they would have been subjected to the same process of condensation through which his other lectures were made to pass, and his " Institutes of Theology," w^hen given to the world, would have presented a more uniform and homogeneous aspect than they now wear. As for many years * With a staff of five Theological Professors the Free Church Col- lege provides now the most comprehensive and corapiete course of the- ological education supplied by any British Institution. For full in- formation on this subject the reader is referred to the Inaugural Ad- dress of the Rev. Dr. Cunningham, delivered at the opening of the New College. 420 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. he had, however, to go over the same ground with his stu- dents which the first four volumes of his works embraced, he adopted the plan of employing these volumes as text-books, accompanying his examinations with that summary and re- view of their contents which form Book II. and Book III. of his " Institutes of Theology." With the obvious disad- vantage of subjecting the reader of this last work to a reitera- tion of familiar topics, those two books of the " Institutes" exhibit a compactness of diction, which amply proves that he could when he pleased transfer the brevity and force of his spoken into his written language, and what will be of no ordinary importance to any one who undertakes the hitherto unattempted task of estimating the direct and original con- tributions which Dr. Chalmers had made to theological sci- ence, they give us his own estimate of what he conceived to be most valuable in his earlier writings. It is, however, to that portion of the "Institutes" which treats of the subject- matter of Christianity that we would especially solicit atten- tion. Upon no part of his pubhshed writings was so large a share of their author's care and thought bestowed. There are to be found here his latest and ripest thoughts upon some of the profoundest questions with which the human intellect has engaged ; if not set forth in the gorgeous amplifications in which he loved previously to indulge, yet in the simpler, purer, weightier diction which became one who was leaving his last intellectual legacy to the world. The " Institutes of Theology" and the " Daily Scripture Pleadings" were commenced about the same time, and were carried on simultaneously, a portion of each being written daily, and the transition being frequently instantaneous from the one composition to the other. Engaged with the one, he brought to the Divine oracles a mind singularly free of theological prejudice ; he sat as a little child at the feet of Divine wisdom, and received into a meek and loving heart, according to its plain and natural meaning, each utterance she gave forth. Engaged with the other, he brought to the JET. 65. THE NORTH BRITISH REVIEW. 421 sacred oracles a mind full-fraught with the true spirit of the Inductive Philosophy, and, collecting the varied testimonies of the Divine record as they lay scattered over the sacred page, he combined them into one complete and harmonious system. The two engagements were most unlike. Very rarely has the same simplicity in the one, and the same sci- ence in the other, been exhibited ; but where shall we find another instance in which the two, brought into such daily and close proximity, went on so harmoniously together ? The many prayers, however, which Dr. Chalmers offered that he might be preserved from the fetters of an artificial ortho- doxy,=* may be taken as an evidence that even in his instance it was not without an effort that simplicity sat embosomed in system, while system did nothing to hurt simplicity. Besides the composition of his " Institutes of Theology," the only other literary occupation of Dr. Chalmers's later years was an occasional contribution to the " North British Review." This publication, which, under its present accom- plished Editor, ranks with the best conducted and most influ- ential of our literary journals, was established in 1844 by Dr. Welsh, Mr. Edward F. Maitland, and a few friends in Edinburgh, to whom it appeared that there was both room and need for a Review of the highest class, the organ of no party, political or ecclesiastical, and which, instead of ignor- ing or affecting to disown Christianity, was imbued with its spirit. What the " Enghshman's Register," of Dr. Arnold, * " Let me not be the slave of human authority, but clear my way through all creeds and confessions to thine own original Revelation. # # # Deliver me, O God, from the narrowing influences of human lessons, and more especially of human systems of theology. Teach me directly out of the fullness and freeness of thine own Word, and hasten the time when, unfettered by sectarian intolerance, and unawed by the authority of man, the Bible shall make its rightful impression upon all, because the simple and obedient readers thereof, they call no man master but Christ only. * * # Oh, that we were fully unfettered iVora all which has the eflTect of distorting and deranging the Chris- tianity of the Bible in the artificial systems of human ortliodoxy." — HortB SabbaticcE, vol. i. pp. 69, 350, 373. 422 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. was meant to do for the great mass of the population, the *' North British Review" was intended to accompHsh in the highest branches of literature and for the highest class of readers. " I never wanted," says Dr. Arnold, " articles on religious subjects half so much as articles on common sub- jects, written with a decidedly Christian tone" — language which the founders of the " North British Review" would have been forward to adopt. Its pure and independent, its Christian yet unsectarian aim, recommended it to Dr. Chal- mers, who entered warmly into the project of its establish- ment, and contributed several articles to it while under the editorship of Dr. Welsh and Mr. Maitland.*" Upon the re- tirement of the latter, the writer of these Memoirs was invited to be his successor, an office which he was encouraged to undertake by the large promises of counsel and aid held out by Dr. Chalmers. For the brief period that remained, those promises were energetically fulfilled. Mr. Maitland had already put into Dr. Chalmers's hands Morell's History of " Modern Philosophy," and invited him to review it. This work gratified a curiosity which had hitherto been unsatisfied. He had been sensible of a tide of speculation setting in from Germany, which threatened to displace all our ancient faiths, both in theology and in science ; he had marked the increas- ing influence which it was exerting, and had become some- what alarmed as to the result. As it stood before him, clothed in the dark mantle of a new and obscure phraseology, he had not as yet been able to form any distinct conception of the prima "philosopliia of the German metaphysicians, and he was glad and grateful when an intelligent expositor ena- * The following were the Articles which he contributed : Number I. Art. 1. On the Corn Laws. On the Political Economy of the Biblo. On the Poor Laws of Scotland. On Savings' Banks. On Sterling's Philosophy of Trade. On Morell's History of Philosophy. On the Political Economy of a Famine. HL Art. 1. IV. Art. 7. VL Art. 3. XI. Art. 4. xn. Art. 1. XHL Art. 9. ^T. 65. GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 423 bled him to do so. He resolved forthwith to institute a comparison between it and the Philosophy of Reid, and to test its power, whether for good or evil, upon the established theology of Scotland. It was a subject altogether new to him, which threw him back upon the studies of earlier days ; but so eagerly did he embark upon it, that in the introductory address which he delivered as Principal of the New College, in November, 1846, he announced it to be his intention to deliver a short course of lectures to his students upon the German Philosophy. These lectures were embodied after- ward in an article which appeared in the 1 2th Number of the " North British Review." Dr. Chalmers's knowledge of the subject was too slender, and taken up too much at second-hand, for us to expect from him any minute or pro- found analysis of the Continental speculations ; but as there were few better fitted to take a general survey of any wide- spread intellectual field, and to mark off the broad boundaries of truth and error, it was most interesting, at this period of his life, to watch the almost boyish zest with which the new region opened to his contemplation was traversed — most in- structive to mark the first impressions he received, and the conclusions to which he was conducted. " I have a great respect," he used to say in his private conversations at this time, " for the preference they show in Germany to mental over material products. A book bears a much greater pro- portional value to a bale of silk there than among us. It shows a high people — the value they have for pure thought. But there is a great want of solidity about their philosophy. They overstep the limits that separate the known from the unknown in a most unphilosophical way. I've no reverence for profound reasoning, the grounds of which can not be made patent to other minds. Their fine airy speculations may show a certain mental power in the mind that originates them, but they have not the weight of a straw to direct me on my path — great acumen — great grandeur of conception — < but where is the appeal to undoubted fundamental truth and 424 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. historical fact ? It is ridiculous to oppose a fine wire-drawn argument to a historic fact. I just say to all their arguments and their counter-arguments, that I can't undertake to arbi- trate between conflicting maggots.^ Truth, no doubt, lies at the bottom of a well ; but which should get most credit, the man that leaves it there, or the man that brings it to the surface ?" Such was the way, sometimes playful, some- times profoundly serious, in which he used to speak in private to his family and friends. The terms were more measured, the tone more solemn, in which he addressed his students. " I should esteem it one of the highest services which our Institute could render to society, and among the proudest of its literary honors, did there issue from these walls in those days of conflict which are coming, when many of ourselves shall be reposing in the dust, profoundly asleep to all the noises of the living world above us, some master minds that could measure strength with every system of philosophy on the continent, and by the weight of a more jjowerful and ponder- ous demonstration than was wielded by any, could rebuke and overbear all the infidelity that was to be found in them. * * * * * " Full of the subjects of the Germans and their philosophy, it was natural that during breakfast that morning, he should lead the conver- sation in that direction. On this particular occasion, however, it hap- pened that his hostility to what he considered a vicious tendency in all characteristic Gei-man speculation, predominated over the respect which he acknowledged for the powerful intellectual manifestation visible in this species of labor. As he spoke, he became excited, even angry. There was much false reverence, he thought, for many things, simply because they were foreign, and this was seen in the present rage for German philosophy. It was the greatest madness imaginable. ' Ger- many! a country where system after system was springing up, none of them lasting a day; every man, as it were, holding up his cheeks, crying, "Look at me, too !" I tell you I'll look at none of you — your Skillers (Schillers), and your Skagels (Schlegels), and your .' There he was interrupted by the merry laughter of all at his half-con- scious mispronunciation of the two German names that had the misfor- tune to occur to him in his moment of wrath, and, well aware of the cause, he broke down into a laugh at himself." — Pictures of Dr. Chal- mers^ in Lotceh Magazine. ^T. 65. GERMAN PHILOSOPHY. 425 " I feel it incumbent on me to enter on a computation of the distances and bearings between this transcendentalism on the one hand, and the theology of the Bible upon the other. This I apprehend to be all the more necessary, that I do re- collect of some who, chiefly in the University, and before our Disruption, were a good deal carried, as if by a sort of fashionable infection, which might have been seen in the phraseology of their discourses, and I will add, however mor- tifying to one's own self-love, and all the more mortifying that they were really superior and aspiring young men, who gave forth the symptom which I am now to describe in their ob- vious inattention to the lessons of the Chair, as if they had only been plain Scottish boluses, having vastly too much in them of the home-bred and the commonplace to be at all suited for those higher appetencies which nothing else can satisfy but the more exquisite and recherche articles of a foreign preparation, just as if we had been serving up milk for babes, instead of strong meat for men of a full-grown un- derstanding, or speaking from the outer court to those who had already been initiated in the mysteries of the inner tem- ple. What I want to make out is, that the unintelligible does not always imply the solid, or even the profound ; and, far more momentous than this, that the simple verities of the Christian faith rest on a foundation deep enough and strong enough to uphold them against the more recent, or, I should rather say, the ever-shifting philosophy that now sets in upon us from abroad. " Many of you know my value for the intelligible, and my conviction of the magnitude of that service which lies in transmuting what is profound, and only understood by a few, into what is plain, and so that it may be understood by many. We know well the penalty that awaits the successful execu- tor of such an aim, that, had he abstained, he would have been still ranked among the profound thinkers of the day ; but, because he has not only made the endeavor, but fulfilled it, he sinks down to the level of a very plain and ordinary 426 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. personage. Nevertheless, I will rejoice in it as the best achievement of philosophy, when it has made its products patent to every eye, and accessible to the world at large." It fell singularly in with the current of Dr. Chalmers's thoughts, that, when engaged in the study of the German philosophy. Professor Tholuck, of Halle, visited Edinburgh. He took an early opportunity of spending an evening with him, at the house of the friend with whom he resided.* "Dr. Chalmers," says this friend, "seated himself on a low chair close to the learned German, and listened with an air of genuine docility to all he said, throwing in a stray charac- teristic observation now and then, always, however, in the way of encouragement, never in the way of contradiction. Dr. Tholuck had published some verses of a religious charac- ter, which had given umbrage to some sect or other. He showed the lines to Dr. Chalmers, who admiring them, ob- served that he had often been taken to task himself for a similar latitudinarianism ; ' for, my dear Sir,' he added, ' some people have a very fine nose for heresy.' While Dr. Chal- mers was sitting in this posture, drinking in all that was said to him, Tholuck turned to his host, and said in German, that he had never seen so beautiful an old man. The words coming out so suddenly in an unknown tongue, instantly changed the whole expression of Dr. Chalmers's face from that of happy acquiesence, to one of puzzled amazement, which was in the highest degree comic, and this effect was not lessened by his eager putting of the question, ' What is it. Sir, that he says V — a question impossible to answer, and yet not easy to evade. The result of this interview was an amount of mutual confidence and esteem, as deep and sincere as it was sudden. Dr. Tholuck took an early opportunity of returning the visit, and spent some hours with Dr. Chal- mers, urging upon him in the most direct and homely way, the necessity of directing his mind to the study of the Ger- man Theology, for, as it was from that quarter the bane had * Dr. Rutherfurd Rus.sell. yET. 65. THE FAMINE, 427 come which was poisoning the simple faith, so it was there alone that the antidote could be found. The day before Tholuck's departure, Dr. Chalmers called upon him and found him at his mid-day repast. He sat with him only for a few minutes, and said little, but looked at him constantly with an expression of earnest interest and affection. He rose to take leave ; and, instead of taking him by the hand, he threw his arms round his neck and kissed him, while ' God bless you, my dear friend,' broke with apparent difficulty from his overcharged heart. After he was gone, it was noticed that a tear had gathered in the eye of him who had received the apostolic benediction and seal of brotherhood from one he loved and venerated so much. His only observation was a half-muttered, half-spoken, eben ein Kuss — even a kiss." The article upon Morell's History was to have been follow- ed by a series of papers on Kant, Fichte, and Cousin, for which Dr. Chalmers had collected some materials, when another subject arrested his sympathies and occupied his pen. The almost total failure of the potato crop in 1846 left 300,000 of the population in the Highlands and Islands of Scot- land, and many millions in Ireland, to face the coming year with food in hand sufficient to sustain them only for a few weeks. The extent of the failure of the crop was no sooner announced than the avvfulness of the impending catastrophe filled Dr. Chalmers with alarm and anxiety. He foresaw that nothing but an act of prompt and unparalleled generos- ity could ward off the fearful calamity of hundreds and thou- sands in a Christian land miserably perishing from want of food. To wait till the cry of actual hunger was heard, and the sight of the dying kindled sympathy, was to ring the death-knell over multitudes to whom the relief would come too late. Fastening his first thoughts upon the Highlands, he not only hastened to gather up all the information con- veyed through public channels, but by private circulars of his own, widely distributed, he obtained the most minute and trustworthy accounts of the state of the suffering population. 428 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. As a great proportion of them were members of the Free Church, it became that Church to step prominently forward in this emergency, and to do what she could to save them from the horrors of famine. Nor did she fail in her duty at this time ; being the first public body that moved, organ- izing an effective Committee of Pwelief, and ordering a public collection to be made in all her churches on Sabbath, the 6th December. Animated by a generous philanthropy, Dr. Chal- mers addressed the following letter to Dr. Mackay of Dunoon, who was leading this movement of the Church : " Edinburgh, 2Qlh November, 1846. " My dear Sir — I quite agree with you in thinking that the public have a most inadequate view of the efforts neces- sary to keep our suffering population alive ; and I earnestly hope that the collection, on Sabbath, the 6th of December, will be somewhat proportional to the magnitude of the call, though I am quite aware that it will not reach, by a tenth part, the magnitude of the necessity. Still let us do our part, and it may stimulate others to like efforts, and not, I hope, supersede them. I trust that your anxieties as to the amount of the collection will prove unfounded. It should very greatly exceed the average collections for any of our schemes ; and most heartily do I wish that the people were brought up to a high pitch of liberality, by a juster view than I fear is generally entertained, both of the immense number of destitute families and the extreme urgency of their wants. " Ever since the failure of the potato crop became quite notorious, I have felt as if the country at large were under a delusion in underrating, as I fear they do, the fearfulness of a visitation, which, if not provided against, will land us in a great national tragedy. If people would only have re- course to the plainest arithmetic, and think of the hundreds of thousands of families, both in the Highlands and in Ireland, who are positively without the materials of subsistence for a week, and further think, that for six months at least, we can ^T. 65. THE FAMINE. 429 look for nothing from the soil, this might well convince them how far the public imagination falls short of the reality of the case. "But it is not by means of the feeble and unimpressive generalities which I now pen, that sympathy will be awaken- ed, and therefore I would value more the plain and literal details of suffering from people on the spot, than I would any elaborate statement or demonstrations which could be put forth on the subject.— I ever am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. " The Rev. Dr. Mackay, Dunoou." This call was nobly responded to. The collection was the largest, I believe, ever made by any Church in Scotland for any object ; the Committee of Relief being put into pos- session of no less a sum than £15,000. This denomination- al effort was soon merged into those larger measures of relief which Scotland so promptly and successfully adopted, so that while thousands died in Ireland — whole households perishing together, and many lying unburied till the dogs came and devoured their bodies — it was not known that in Scotland a single individual died solely and directly from want of food. It required, however, incessant vigilance, and no small amount of generosity, to be sustained all through the winter. In ad- dition to the public tide of charity flowing in upon the High- lands, innumerable lesser streams were kept constantly flow- ing. Very large sums were committed to Dr. Chalmers for private distribution. There was scarcely, indeed, a daily post which did not bring him some donation ; and he never watched for letters more eagerly, and he never read any with greater delight. He had many methods of communicating directly or indirectly with the Highlands, and of dispensing the money intrusted thus to his care. To one lady alone, the late Mrs. Mackay, we are aware of his having commit- ted more than £500. Nor was Ireland forgotten Her greater sorrows claimed a large share of his sympathy ; and, 430 MExMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. through Miss Pringle of Edinburgh, and Dr. Edgar of Belfast, he had pleasure in conveying his own and other gifts of charity. The extraordinary spectacle of upward of 300,000 men employed on the relief works — of upward of three mill- ions of people fed daily by the hand of public charity, and yet many perishing notwithstanding — afforded matter of most interesting speculation. When the spring months came, there was a fear that large breadths of the country would be left uncultivated. The crofters had neither seed-corn of their own, nor money to buy it; and even after it was fur- nished to them, they knew little or nothing of the new modes of agriculture which it would be necessary for them to adopt. The state of a country thrown suddenly into circumstances so new, appeared to Dr. Chalmers so worthy of investigation that he resolved to devote himself to the task. Having pre- sented his general views in a paper entitled, " The Political Economy of a Famine,"^ he proposed to prosecute a minute and searching inquiry into the past condition and future pros- pects both of the Highlands and of Ireland, with a view to de- termine what were the likeliest means of permanently improv- ing the economic condition of their inhabitants. It is ever to be regretted that he did not live to execute a work for which much preparation had been made, and many materi- als collected. We can but indicate, that from the singular history of the Relief Works in Ireland he meant to draw a fresh illustration of the evils by which all public charity is accompanied, and of the inseparable connection which obtains between the moral and economic well-being of a community. He meant to test the various expedients for promoting the future prosperity of Ireland, by applying to them the general axioms, that it was out of her own soil, and by the industry of her own inhabitants, that she must be taught to draw her support, and that the best and most effective aid which could be given her, was that which promised the soonest to set her free from all foreign help. And had he lived to see what ^ See North British Rcvieic. No. XIII. . Art. IX. MT. 65. THE FAMINE. 431 since his departure has been attempted, I can have little doubt, that while rejoicing over the progress of female indus- trial schools in various parts of Ireland, his eye would have rested with particular complacency upon such operations as those prosecuted at Ballinglen,* where the young are trained to that kind of industry, for which there is a permanent de- mand, and have instilled into them the lessons of truth and righteousness. * For a recent admirable proposal by Dr. Diiflf relative to the exten- sion of this establishment, see No. 14 of '• Voice from Ireland." CHAPTER XXIII. LAST VISIT TO ANSTRUTHER— INCIDENT AT BARNS- MUIR— SERMON AT ST. MARY'S LOCH— CAVERS RE- VISITED—DOMESTIC HABITS— TIMES AND MODES OF COMPOSITION — NUMERICAL ADJUSTMENTS — THE TOILET— THE BREAKFAST TABLE— MODE OF RECOG- NIZING HIS STUDENTS — CONVERSATIONAL MEjNIO- RANDA— APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION — THE MONASTE- RIES AND THE MIDDLE AGES— AMERICAN SLAVERY —THE SPIRITUAL RABBIT-WARREN— EXCESS AT TA- BLE—EVENING READINGS OF GIBBON, SHAKSPEARE, AND MILTON— CATECHISMS AND CONFESSIONS- SCRIPTURE CHARACTERS— LIFE AT BURNTISLAND— FEELING OF YOUTHFULNESS— HEAVINGS OF INCIPI- ENT CIVILIZATION— JANET OF THE GALLOWGATE AND THE ASTRONOMICAL DISCOURSE — CONSOLA- TORY LETTERS. In the spring of 1845, Dr. Chalmers visited his native village. It almost looked as if he came to take farewell, and as if that peculiarity of old age which sends it back to the days of childhood for its last earthly reminiscences had for a time and prematurely taken hold of him. His special object seemed to be to revive the recollections of his boyhood — gathering Johnny-Groats by the sea-beach of the Billowness, and lilacs from an ancient hedge, taking both away to be laid up in his repositories at Edinburgh.* Not a place or person familiar to him in earlier years was left unvisited. On his way to the church-yard, he went up the very road along which he had gone of old to the parish school. Slip- ping into a poor-looking dwelling by the way, he said to his companion, Dr. Williamson, " I would just like to see the * After his death, a drawer of his desk was found filled with relics of many kinds, among which was a piece of lilac, labeled " Lilac from my father's garden." ^T. 65. SCENE AT BARNSMUIR. 433 place where Lizzy Green's water-bucket used to stand" — the said water-bucket having been a favorite haunt of the over- heated ball-players, and Lizzy a great favorite for the free access she allowed to it. He called on two contemporaries of his boyhood, one of whom he had not seen for forty-five, the other for fifty-tv/o years, and took the most boyish de- light in recognizing how the " mould of antiquity had gather- ed upon their features," and in recounting stories of his school- boy days. " James," said he, to the oldest of the two, a tailor, now upward of eighty, who in those days had aston- ished the children, and himself among the number, with dis- plays of superior knowledge, " you were the first man that ever gave me something like a correct notion of the form of the earth. I knew that it was round, but I thought always that it was round like a shilling till you told me that it was round like a marble." " Well, John," said he, to the other, whose face, like his own, had suffered severely from small-pox in his childhood, "you and T have had one advantage over folk with finer faces — theirs have been aye getting the waur, but ours have been aye getting the better o' the wear I" The dining-room of his grandfather's house had a fire-place fitted up behind with Dutch tiles adorned with various quaint de- vices, upon which he had used to feast his eyes in boyish won- der and delight. These he now sought out most diligently, but was grieved to find them all so blackened and begrimed by the smoke of half a century, that not one of his old wind- mills or burgomasters was visible. To one apartment he felt a peculiar tie, as having been appropriated exclusively to his use in his college days when the love of solitary study was at times a passion.^ But the most interesting visit of all was to Barnsmuir, a place a few miles from Anstruther * A visitor of old Mr. Chalmers once noticed him coming out of this room with a singular smile upon his face. When asked what had amused him, he said, "It's Thomas there; I went in upon him and disturbed him in his studies, and what do you think he exclaimed ? ' It's too bad that I can't get even a room — I just wish that I had a wrrld to myself to study in !' " vol.. IV.— T 434 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. on the way to Crail. In his schoolboy days it had been occupied by Captain R , whose eldest daughter rode in daily on a little pony to the school at Anstruther. Dr. Chalmers was then a boy of from twelve to fourteen years of age, but he was not too young for an attachment of a singu- larly tenacious hold. Miss R was married (I believe while he was yet at college) to Mr. F and his oppor- tunities of seeing her in after life were few, but that early impression never faded from his heart. At the time of this visit to Anstruther in 1845, she had been dead for many years, but, at Dr. Chalmers's particular request, her younger sister met him at Barnsmuir. Having made the most af- fectionate inquiries about Mrs. F and her family, he inquired particularly about her death, receiving with deep emotion the intelhgence that she had died in the full Chris- tian hope, and that some of his own letters to her sister had served to soothe and comfort her latest hours. " Mrs. W ," said he, eagerly, «' is there a portrait of your sis- ter any where in this house ?" She took him to a room, and pointed to a profile which hung upon the wall. He planted himself before it — gazed on it with intense earnest- ness— took down the picture, took out his card, and, by two wafers, fixed it firmly on the back of the portrait, exactly opposite to the face. Having replaced the likeness, he stood before it and burst into a flood of tears, accompanied by the warmest expressions of attachment. After leaving the house, he sauntered in silence round the garden, buried in old recol- lections, heaving a sigh occasionally, and muttering to him- self— " more than forty years ago I" It is not often that a boyish feeling survives so long, and still less frequent that after such a hfe of variety and occupation as his had been, it should break out so freshly and strongly ; nor would wie have ventured to record the incident, did it not appear to us to prove that Dr. Chalmers was as much distinguished for the tenderness and tenacity of his attachments as for the brilliancy of his intellectual gifts. MT. 65. SERMON AT ST. IVIARY'S LOCH. 435 On Sabbath, the 12th April, 1846, he preached in the small but beautifully situated Free Church, built upon the edge of St. Mary's Loch. Mr. Parker, who had been the chief agent in the erection of the church, went with him as his guide and companion, and he was accompanied besides by two of his daughters. " I like," said he, as they wended their way through the bare and treeless but purely green and beautifully moulded hills of Peebles-shire — " I like these quiet hills, these sober uplands. Hills, all bare like these, are what I call the statuary of landscape." The valley of the classic Yarrow was entered, and its intense stillness and lone- liness powerfully excited him. He stopped his carriage, and calling out to Mr. Parker, who was on the box of another carriage in which his two daughters were seated — " Tell them," he exclaimed, " to look at the solitudes that are about them." That night at Sundhope, where he was most hos- pitably entertained, he called his daughters into his own room, and read to them Wordsworth's exquisite description of Yarrow, repeating with great emphasis of delight the lines — " Meek loveliness is round thee spread, A softness still and holy ; The grace of forest charms decayed, And pastoral melancholy." The Sabbath sustained well the fitful character of a changeful April day. It rose hopefully, bright all over with the lustre of recent rain. The lake lay glass-like under the wave-like clouds which flitted gently over it. At the hour for worship, and as Dr. Chalmers was seen approaching, for the first time since the chime of the monks was silenced, the sound of the Sabbath-bell came floating over its waters. Dr. Chalmers preached from his favorite text, Isaiah xxvii. 4, 5. There was unruffled beauty without and perfect stillness within till the service was over ; but as the worshipers began to disperse, a storm-blast swept the loch, and a perfect waterspout of rain poured down upon them, forcing the 436 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. plaided shepherds and their famihes to cower for shelter behind knoll or dyke. The next morning, Dr. Chalmers had o-reat pleasure in breakfasting with John Cowan, a ven- erable shepherd — the patriarch of Yarrow — and spent the day in visiting Henderland and the " Gray Mare's Tail," listening to the ballads which his daughters repeated, and gazing with ecstasy upon the waterfall which, swollen with the heavy rain, filled the reeky chasm from side to side, and sent out its foam-like clouds of snow-drift into the air. Yarrow and St. Mary's were the only new localities which Dr. Chalmers visited during his last summers, j^et even here his thoughts were wandering over the hills of Ettrick to another neighborhood. His daughters had climbed a hill near Sundhope, and he was waiting to receive them on their descent. " And did you," he said with impatient eagerness, after listening for a moment or two to their description — "did you see Cavers?" and then turning to the shepherd who had been their guide — " Can you see the hills about Cavers from that elevation?" An affirmative reply having been given to the question, he looked up wistfully to the hill-top, lamenting that his strength did not permit of his ascending it, and uttering some ejaculations about the scene of his early ministry. Three months afterward he went to Cavers — seeking out old acquaintances, surveying the little room in Hawick where so many of his first sermons were written and his mathematical preparations had been prosecuted, and en- tering with the utmost interest into all the domestic history of the family in whose house he had then lodged. At Jed- burgh he passed a few days with Mr. ElHot, the grandson of the clergyman to whom he had been assistant, and we have to refer our readers to the Appendix for a most striking and in- structive record of what occupied and interested him at the place.* The last visit of the last summer was to Glasgow, and down the Clyde. At Tilliechewan and at Strathloven he sauntered through the wooded parks, catching glimpses * See Appendix, H. ^T. 65. PECULIAR PHRASEOLGY. 437 of Lochlomond through breaks of the foliage,* luxuriating amid the kindnesses of those whose personal friendship to himself he could not but associate with their boundless hber- ality to his Church. In returning to Edinburgh, he staid a day or two with Mr. Bain at Morriston near Glasgow, and preached in the open air at Cambuslang to a vast multitude, assembled within some natural amphitheatre where White- field had once preached. These farewell summer visits paid, he returned into the bosom of his family. * He had a peculiar epithet for such kind of views. I remember once walking with him in company with a refined English Baronet, when he suddenly caught sight of a fine mountain view, seen through a gap in a neighboring hedge. Stopping suddenly, he exclaimed — "Ha! very fine ; it's very fine. Sir — an ulterior through an opening," — (or, as he pronounced it, "through an oppening.") His English companion stood embarrassed ; politely inquired what it was that was so fine ; had the same words repeated— and looked as bewildered as before. Another instance of perplexity, produced by the singularity of his phraseology, occurs to me. While staying at Rosstrevor, a pic- nic party proceeded across the bay to visit the ruins of Carlingford Castle. The day was fine, the company numerous, the scenery en- chanting, and Dr. Chalmers was in the highest spirits. We dined on a green knoll near the ruins, and as dinner proceeded, some old crones from a neighboring village were seen hanging around us, in the hope of sharing the spoil. When Dr. Chalmers was told that the inhab- itants of the village spoke the Irish language, he declared that it would be quite an acquisition to him to hear a new set of vocables uttered by a native. To gratify his curiosity, one of the most picturesque of the old villagers was selected, and a sixpence was given to her to come forward and speak a sentence or tv.'o of Irish. By this time we were all upon our feet, and had formed a circle, in the centre of which stood Dr. Chalmers ; fronting, him the old and greedy-looking crone, and beside her the village doctor, who v»'as to act as an interpreter. " Well sir, tell her now to say something in her own tongue." A sentence, accordingly, was spoken, and, turning eagerly to the interpreter, Dr. Chalmers said — "What was it that she said?" "Why, Doctor, she says that she wants another sixpence," The revolt was instantaneous, from curiosity to intense disgust and indignation. Addressing himself instantly to the woman, he said, "It is too bad ; you must really learn to set limits to your unbridled appetency." An interpreter was evidently as much needed as before. When Dr. Chalmers had done with her — leaving her, however, quite untouched by his rebuke — a 438 MEiMOlRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. It may gratify a natural curiosity should we follow Dr. Chalmers through the different engagements of a day at Morningside, and furnish some details of his personal habits and mode of domestic life. Whatever variety the day exhib- ited, it had one fixed essential feature. The motto, " Nulla dies sine li7iea" never met with a more rigorous fulfillment. The period allotted to what he called "severe composition" had never (if we except his first winter at St. Andrews) ex- ceeded two or three hours at a time, and in ordinary circum- stances there was seldom more than one sitting daily at such work. The tension of the mind during the effort was extreme, but it was never so long continued as to induce fatigue or exhaustion. During the last six or seven years of his life, his daily modicum of original composition was completed be- fore breakfast, written in short-hand, and all done in bed. The preparatory ruminating or excogitating process was slow, but it was complete. He often gave it as the reason why he did not and could not take part in the ordinary debates of the General Assembly, that he had not the faculty which some men seemed to him to possess, of thinking extempore ; nor could he be so sure of any judgment as to have comfort in bringing it before the public till he had leisurely weighed and measured it. He was vehement often in his mode of expression ; but no hasty judgment was ever penned or pub- licly spoken by him. " I have often fancied," he once said to me, " that in one respect T re.semble Rousseau, who says of himself that his processes of thought were sloiu but arclcnf good lady of the company stepped forward to inquire of her, w'hether it really could be true that she worshiped the Virgin. She appeared to be much provoked, and the village doctor, who had no relish for such kind of conversation, cut the colloquy short, and sent the woman away. The lady, fearing that she had really hurt the woman's feel- ings, followed her to a retired place, and telling her that she had no intention whatever to give her pain, in proof of her good-will put a shilling into her hand. The woman looked for a moment at the shill- ing, then at the donor; and wnth a toss of hand and head, she said, in tones of the greatest glee, " Och ! and what does your ladyship think I care about the Virgin?" JF.T. 65. HABITS OF COMPOSITION. 439 — a curious and rare combination. In proportion, however, to the slowness with which his conclusions were reached, was the firmness with which they were riveted. He has been charged with inconsistencies, but (putting aside the alteration in his religious sentiments) I am not aware of any one opinion formally expressed or published by him, which he ever changed or retracted. This slow and deliberate habit of thinking gave him a great advantage when the act of composition came to be performed. He never had the double task to do, at once of thinking what he should say, and how he should say it. The one was over before the other commenced. He never began to write till, in its subjects, and the order and propor- tion of its parts, the map or outline of the future composition was laid down ; and this was done so distinctly, and, as it were, authoritatively, that it was seldom violated. When engaged, therefore, in writing, his whole undivided strength was given to the best and most powerful expression of pre- established ideas. So far before him did he see, and so methodically did he proceed, that he could calculate, for weeks and months beforehand, the rate of his progress, and the day when each separate composition would be finished. The same taste for numerical arrangement was exhibited in the most insignificant actions and habits of his life. It regulated every part of his toilet — down even to the daily stropping of his razor. Beginning with his minimum, which was two strokes, he added one stroke more each day succes- sively, till he got up to a number fixed on as his maximum, on reaching which, he reversed the process, diminishing the number of his strokes by one each day, till the lowest point was touched ; and so, by what he would have called a series of oscillations between his maximum and his minimum, this matter of the stropping undeviatingly progressed. It would be tedious, perhaps trifling, to tell how a like order was punctually observed in other parts of his toilet. He did almost every thing by numbers. His stafi' was put down to the ground regularly at each fourth foot-fall ; and the num- 440 MExVIOlRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. ber of its descents gave him a pretty accurate measure of the space over which he walked. Habit had rendered the count- ing of these descents an easy, indeed almost a mechanical operation ; so that, though meeting friends, and sustaining an animated conversation, it still went on. This mode of mea- suring distances was variously applied. When he lived at No. 7 Inverleith How, a complication of streets lay between him and the University, and he imjjosed upon himself the problem of discovering a new route each day, and keeping a register of their relative lengths. Next to the pleasure of being introduced to an altogether new locality, was that of thoroughly exploring one already known. " I like," he said to one of his favorite students, "to find out new spots in places I am familiar with. The other day I had some time to spare, so I tried if I could extemporize a new route be- tween Comely Bank and Inverleith Row. I sauntered, rather dubious I must confess, up a sort of cart-lane, and, be- fore I was aware, I got involved in the accessories of a farm-house, where I was set upon by a mastiff, and so obliged to turn back." When, in the spring of 1843, he removed to a dwelling-house which he had built for himself at Morning- side, as the distance was too great for him to walk from Col- lege, he generally drove to the outskirts of the town. While walking from Wright's Houses, the point at which he was set down, to his house at Churchhill, he, one winter, kept an accurate reckoning of the number of persons he met upon the road each day — curious to know whether a fixed average would be observed, or whether it would vary as the days shortened or lengthened. Many more like instances might be quoted, but we must return to our details of his daily life. " J. find," he says, " that successful exertion is a powerful means of exhilaration, which discharges itself in good-humor upon others." His own morning compositions seldom failed in this effect, as he came forth from them beaming and buoyant, with a step springing as that of childhood, and a p})irit overflowing wnth benignity. If his grandson, or any of JET. G5. MODE OF RECOGNIZING HIS STUDENTS. 441 the younger members of his family were alone in the break- fast-room, a broad and hearty " Hurro I hiirro I" ringing through the hall, announced his coming, and carried to them his morning greeting. As his invariable mode of dealing with introductions was to invite the introduced to breakfast, very interesting groups often gathered round his breakfast table. In the general conversation of promiscuous society, Dr. Chal- mers did not excel. There are minor acts of governing, such as those needed for the management of a House of Commons, or the conduct of a General Assembly, in which he was ut- terly defective ; and there are minor graces of conversation required for its easy guidance through varied and fluctuating channels, which his absorption with his own topics, and the massive abruptness of his movements, made it difficult, per- haps impossible, for him to practice. But at his breakfast table, with half a dozen strangers or foreigners around him, his conversation was in the highest degree rich and attract- ive. Opportunities naturally occurred, or were willingly made, for him to " expatiate" upon some passing public topic, or upon some of his own favorite themes, and he was never seen nor heard to greater advantage. His power of pithy ex- pression (remarkably exhibited in his occasional employment of vernacular Scotch), and of pictorial narrative, his concen- trated and intense moral earnestness, his sense of humor, his boundless benignity, the pure, transparent, and guileless sim- plicity of his character — received many of their happiest illustrations at such times. He had one morning in the week reserved especially for his students. On meeting with them in his own house, he was often at a loss to recognize them by name, and the mode he took to extricate himself from the difficulty was rather singular. He had a card with the names on it of all the students whom he had that morning invited to breakfast. When all had assembled and were seated, holding the card below the level of the table, as he thought out of sight, he glanced furtively down at it to catch the first name on the list. Then, lifting his eyes and looking 442 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. eagerly and rapidly around, he would say — "Tea or coffee, Mr. Johnson ?" hoping by this innocent artifice to identify the person so addressed, and to save him the pain of being apparently unknown or forgotten. The device was too trans- parent to be unnoticed ; but which of his students did not love him all the more for the kindliness which dictated it I The recognition once got over, no after difficulty remained. The student was asked generally from what part of the coun- try he came, and it must have been some very remote and inaccessible region which found Dr. Chalmers unprepared to enter immediately into conversation upon its topography. It was his first and favorite subject, and he revived in this way, during the winter, the knowledge gathered in his summer travels. When he met with one of kindred taste, or capable of informing him, he would talk for half an hour about a single locality, and with all the zest of a regular tourist. There was one desire which upon such occasions he seldom failed to express : "I should like exceedingly," he would say, " that we had a series of maps of our Scottish horizons ; it would be most interesting to recognize the appearances which the different elevations of the country presented as seen upon the horizon from different centres. It should have been one of the Government instructions to those engaged in the na- tional survey to furnish us with such a set of maps." With visitors from England, the conversation at the break- fast table turned frequently upon the state of the English Establishment, of which Dr. Chalmers had been an ardent admirer, but whose cause he felt less confidence in advocating after the inroad of Puseyism, and the absence or the impo- tence of all attempts to check it. " In speaking of apostolic succession," says one of his English visitors,* he told us of a summary which Campbell of Aberdeen had made of the diffi- culties of that question, which had always appeared to him most excellent. Campbell conducts his inquiry relative to apostolic succession by putting three questions — Where is it ? * Lady Richardson. JET. 65. AMERICAN VISITORS. 443 how is it ? and what is it ? — and, after a learned disquisi- tion, conchides in some such terms as these : — ' We find therefore that it is a something nobody knows where, con- trived and produced nobody knows how, and leading to con- sequences nobody knows what.'* Allusion having been made to the Middle Ages, and to the piety of many of the monks, ' I had no idea,' he said, ' that so much of the history of that period was preserved till I read Hallam. As to the personal character of the monks, I could not dogmatize upon that question. It is astonishing the confidence of some of your orthodox folk in their judgments upon others, and that too under our system of progressive development. T just say, we have not the materials for settling such a question. We would need to penetrate the counsels of God, and the secrets of another bosom, before we could pronounce through how much distorting error a man may grope his way to a blissful immortality ; and 1 would say, therefore, that as in the rude ages the monasteries were conservatories of learning, so, for aught I know, they were conservatories in thousands of in- stances of genuine piety — debased no doubt by a superincum- bent superstition." Dr. Chalmers was much gratified by the reception given to his works in America, and had great pleasure in making * Connected with the sacraments, Dr. Chalmers often told a favorite story about a Highland baptism. A clergyman went to administer the rite in the house of one of his hearers, near which there ran a small burn or river, which, when he reached it, was so deep and swollen with recent rains that he could not get across. In these circumstances, he told the father to bring his child down to the burn-side. Furnished with a wooden scoop the clergyman stood on the one side, and the father, holding bis child as far out in his arms as he could, stood upon the other. The service proceeded, and when the time came for sprink- ling the babe, the minister dipping the scoop into the water, flung its contents across, aiming at the baby's face. He failed more than once, calling out to the father after each new trial, " Weel, has't gotten ony yet?" Dr. Chalmers wondered what the great sticklers for form and ceremony in the sacraments would think of a baptism by a burn-side, performed with a wooden scoop. 444 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. the personal acquaintance of Dr. Elton, Dr. Sprague, Dr. Smyth, Dr. Cox, Dr. Beecher, and other eminent American clergymen. In the summer and autumn of 1845, many Transatlantic visitors were his guests at Morningside. The recent controversy about the propriety of the Free Church receiving pecuniary aid from Churches which admitted slave- holders to the Communion, had directed Dr. Chalmers's at- tention to the general question of slavery in America, and the measures of the immediate abolitionists. =^ His conversa- tions with Americans at this time were frequently directed to this subject. " I observe," he said, " that the abolition- ists have tried to extort from your Board of Missions a decla- ration in favor of emancipation. It is really too bad that they should try to implicate in that way their one undoubted good thing with all the other good things that are going on in the world. I do hope that this obtrusive spirit of theirs wall have an efTectual check put upon it. It impedes, be- sides, the very object which their own hearts are set upon, and which there are other hearts as zealous, but only some- what wiser, which are as much set upon as theirs. I ad- mire exceedingly the deliverance of the Board of Missions and the report of the American General As.sembly — both done, I do think, with admirable tact and wisdom. They have greatly elevated my estimate both of the wisdom and force of principle which pervade the ecclesiastical mind and philanthropic public of America." While the West Port enterprise was going on, more than one breakfast party was composed exclusively of agents in that undertaking. At one of them he was told of an objec- tion which had been started by a minister, that if many churches like that of the West Port were erected, each of them would abstract some hearers from one or other of the existing Edinburgh ministers. It created a storm of indig- nation. " And for the sake," said he, " of the paltry few that * For the matured expression of his sentiments on this subject, see Appendix, I, -^T. 65. HIS ABSTEMIOUSNESS. 445 would drop from this and that man's congregation, am I to let the masses live in dirt and die in darkness ? Horrible I to make a rabbit-warren of human souls I Can that man believe what he preaches who would stand by and see hun- dreds sink into an unprovided eternity, rather than run the risk of Mr. John this [spoken with an ironical drawl], or Mr. James that, being lost to his congregation ? There is a vast deal of spurious faith, and I see more and more the meaning of Christ's question — ' When the Son of man Com- eth, shall He find faith upon the earth ?' But [the indigna- tion gradually giving place to despondency] I have little hope of the impracticable understandings of the general public. People talk of the enlightened public ; I just look upon the public as a big baby. Eh, man [turning now archly to Tommy], if a' the gowks in the world were brought together, they wad fill a great muckle house." Before or after breakfast, Dr. Chalmers would go round the garden lying immediately behind his house, in the pro- gress of which he took great pleasure. " Well dearie daughtts," he would say, after finishing a round, "it's a noble instrument a garden ; I've just counted all the things in flower (in May) round all the walks, and they are 320. There is one which occurs with a nauseous uniformity, but with that exception they are all most beautiful." He was always the first to bring in the first snow-drop of the season, of which flower he was passionately fond. The interval between breakfast and dinner was devoted to the " Biblical Readings," and to extending the short-hand of the " Institutes." He dined latterly at one o'clock, and as he had to be at his class at two, the meal was necessarily a hur- ried one. He was indifferent about food, and remarkably ab- stemious. But there was no habit of life about which he was so scrupulous. His private journals are filled with constant laments over his own incautiousness and excess at table ; so much so, that were these journals ever to fall into the hands of one ignorant of Dr. Chalmers's habits, he might draw from 446 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. them a conclusion exactly opposite to the truth. One night at supper at Merchiston Castle, a water biscuit, as thin as a wafer, but of large circumference, was put upon the plate before him. As he got into an animated conversation, he continued breaking down this biscuit into small parts, and eating them. When he discovered that the biscuit was consumed, he expressed himself surprised and shocked ; and although that was all that he partook of upon this occasion, there was an entry that night in his journal — " exceeded to-night at supper." The truth was, that whenever he felt his capacity for any intellectual effort or any spiritual exer- cise impaired after eating, he attributed it to an excess, which it was his duty to curb. By a single extract from his jour- nal, let us convey an impression of the light in which this part of self-government was regarded. "Incapable of study, and in great physical discomfort. How shameful ; and let me here record my humbling sense of it, that this was in great part due to excess at table, which has made me bilious, and alive to all sorts of plague and provocation. I gave way to this vile indulgence at Mr. P 's, and have not been careful in the least for weeks past. Enable me, O God, to make a stand now, to enter on a new habit, and strive with all might for the mastery over this degrading appetite. But work in me by the might of thy Spirit, O God ; not me, but the grace of God that is in me. Let me slay this enemy. Let me keep the body under subjection. Let me embark with all strength of purpose on this holy warfare. Henceforward may I be circumspect, awake — awake both to duties and consequences, with a con- stant sense in me of God, and the predominating influence of His will, and that consciously, and with the distinct feeling of its obligation over my will, else how can I be said to be living otherwise than without God in the world. My God, let me enter now on a set career of self-government ; and hav- ing the prospect of several convivial engagements before me, let me have the comfort of recording a victory over the lusts JET. 65. SHAKSPEARE, 447 which war against the soul. Let me bethink myself of what I might yet do with my mind, and what I have yet to recover of a spirituality faded and well-nigh extinct, because overlaid by the sensualities of the flesh. The contest is for heaven, which I shall never reach unless the spirit so lust against the flesh as to prevail over it. Let me therefore carry the principle of godliness abroad over the whole plat- form of my life, and downw^ard to the minutest actions of it, that whetherl eat or drink, or whatsoever I do, it might be to the glory of God ; and O save me from those sad effusions of temper which are so opposed to the second law, to the charity of the Gospel, and that long-suffering which is one of the Spirit's most precious fruits." Dr. Chalmers's evenings were given to general reading, and to the society of his family and friends. He kept stead- ily by one book at a time, and however small a portion of it might be overtaken each evening, the perusal was regularly prosecuted to a close. And here too, as well as in his sum- mer visits, he sought out the friends of his youth. Within the last two or three years of his life, he completed an entire perusal of Gibbon, Shakspeare, and Milton. " I don't won- der now," he said, " at Milton's own preference for ' Para- dise Pv-egained ' over ' Paradise Lost.' " The single passage of Shakspeare which he most frequently recited, was that one in Henry IV., which commences " I saw young Harry — with his beaver on, His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly armed," &c. ; and the single play in which he took most pleasure was Mid- summer Night's Dream, among the fairy pictures of which he delighted to revel. *« I look," he would say, after laying down the book, " I look on Shakspeare as an intellectual miracle ; I would put him before Milton from his exhaust- less variety." One of his students once told him of the en- thusiasm of the Germans about Shakspeare, and related the anecdote of Goethe's comparison between Tieck, Shaks- peare, and himself, in which, with a singular mixture both 448 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. of pride and humility, he said, " That relation which Tieck holds to me, I hold to Shakspeare. I regard Shakspeare as a being of a superior nature." "Well, sir, do you know," said Dr. Chalmers, after hearing the anecdote, " I like that very much. I dare say Shakspeare was the greatest man that ever lived — greater perhaps even than Sir Isaac New- ton." In February, 1845, two years after the Disruption, we find the following entry in Dr. Chalmers's journal : " A few days ago finished the complete perusal of Shakspeare. Began ' Paradise Lost,' and am reading with great interest ' Edwards on the end of God in Creation.' Let me hence- forth betake myself to serious reading." In his domestic intercourse with his daughters, there was much playful familiarity. Finding one of them sitting alone in a room, he said to her — " Well, my dear little howlet — Hail, mildly pleasing solitude, Companion of the wise and good ; but I'm no for us growing perfectly uncognizant of one an- other, sitting in corners like sae mony cats." After some of his great public appearances, when he came home exhausted, his daughters would gather round him as he lay at ease in his arm-chair. One would play Scotch music, another sham- poo his feet (a very frequent, and to him always a very agree- able operation), a third would talk nonsense, and set him into fits of laughter. At such times, in a mock heroic way, he would repeat Scott's lines, " O woman, in our hours of ease," &c. A spirit of chivalry ran through all his inter- course with his daughters : they not only ministered to his comfort in the hours of relaxation, he made them companions, as it were, of his public life, and sought their intellectual sym- pathy with his even highest exercises of thought. Busied with his pamphlet on the Evangelical Alliance, in which he was dealing with the proper plan and use of Confessions of Faith, " I look," said he to one of his daughters, " on Cate- chisms and Confessions as mere landmarks against heresy. If there had been no heresy, they wouldn't have been want- ^T. G5. SCRIPTURE CHARACTERS. 449 ed. It's putting them out of their place to look on them as magazines of truth. There's some of your stour orthodox folk just over ready to stretch the Bible to square with their catechism : all very well, all very needful as a landmark, but [ kindling up ] what I say is, do not let that wretched! mutilated thing be thrown between me and the Bible." " Bacon," said his daughter, " compares the Bible to the well-spring, and says, he were a huge fool that would not drink but from a tank." " Ha ! ha ! where does Bacon say that ? it's nasty in the tank too, whiles ?" The conversa- tion turned upon Mr. Carlyle, for whom he cherished great regard and admiration. - It is a most interesting phenom- enon," said he, '' to me, Carlyle's state of mind. The lad looking with a most graphic and intelligent eye on the pe- culiarities of Calvinism, having a sort of regard too for them, and yet" * * # « Jt jg a curious faculty that I have"— ^ we quote now from another of his conversations " of mag- nifying things. Now I find no difficulty in looking at this [a little tuft of tree-moss which he held in his hand] as if I were an animalcule living there within it, and these little fibres a great pine forest with fine green mounds in it. * * * What an infinite variety of systems may the planetary world embrace ! For aught I know, our own system may be di- versified with worlds no bigger than that table head. There would be scope enough for exquisite panoramas — the master existence no larger than a bee or butterfly. Who knows in the inexhaustible profusion of nature what may be ?" Reposing in his easy-chair, and recalhng the subjects of his " Bible Readings," he would say, " I am fond of the Old Testament ; what a stately procession of Scripture char- acters ! I have just twelve that I call my magnates ; what a pinnacle that speech of our Saviour's lifts' Abraham to 'he rejoiced to see my day,' piercing the futurity of 2000 years. — I hke Isaac, there was such a mildness about him: it is very picturesque his going forth to meditate in the evening tide. — Jacob's early life is most distasteful to me. The truth 450 MEMOIRS OF DR. CEIALMERS. 1845. is, h« was just too much o' a sneck-drawer : he was the sneck-drawer, and Esau was the snool about the pottage. But how impressive his interview with Pharaoh and his closing scene I — There was great chivalry no doubt in David pouring out the water before the Lord — the chivalry of the Middle ages, in the antique Jewish way of it. I can not say I altogether sympathize in it ; I wad e'en ha'e ta'en a willy-waucht o' the water. — I like every thing that marks the identity of human nature. I am sure that judgment of Solomon's would make a great stir among the women ; tongues wad no be idle at Jerusalem." ''About the beginning of 1834," we quote now from a manuscript of the Pvev. Mr. Couper of Burntisland, " Dr. Chalmers became the proprietor of a house in this locality, and here, for seven or eight years following, nearly one-half of his time was spent. His liking for the locality was very strong. It was not so bustling then as it is now ; but on this account was all the more congenial to his tastes and habits. 'Some people,' he remarked, 'say that this is a dull place ; but what they call dull, I call delicious.' His mode of life while here was tolerably uniform and exceedingly simple. The earlier portion of the day he generally devoted to study and correspondence, reserving the afternoon and evening for the society of his family and friends, and for the exercise of walking, in which he took great delight. He had many visitors, not a few of them from other countries ; and he scarcely ever failed, when time and weather per- mitted, to conduct them to his favorite points of view, where he expatiated with wonderful enthusiasm on the varied beauty of the surrounding scenery. It was scarcely possible to take even one short walk with him without perceiving that his capacity of enjoyment was singularly large. He could find beauty every where ; at least he could single out from the most ordinary scene, some feature or other on which his mind could dwell with interest and pleasure. All the points from which the scenery of this locality could be viewed ^T. 65. FEELING OF YOUTHFULNESS. 451 to most advantage, he knew most thoroughly ; and, however interesting the conversation in which he might be engaged, it was sure to be interrupted when any one of these points was reached. He would pause for a moment — his eye would wander over the landscape, and, with a smile mantling over his countenance, he would give a brief but expressive utter- ance to his feelings of joy and admiration. The unselfish- ness of his delight in Nature was very noticeable. He seemed to have a positive affection for the scenes and objects from which he drew so much pure enjoyment — it was as if his heart went out to them. On a calm and bright summer day, I happened to be with him in one of his favorite haunts, the small promontory called Lammerlaws, which forms the eastern portion of the peninsula on which this town is situated — the tide was full, the water rippled gently be- tween the low ledges of rock, and laved the roots of the grass and wild flowers that skirted every little nook. ' I have a great affection for these nooks,' was the characteristic remark that fell from Dr. Chalmers ; and in the tone in which it was uttered there was a warmth, and withal a certain indescribable pathos, which conveyed at once the im- pression that he spoke from the fullness of his heart. «' His youthful freshness of feeling imparted a singular charm to his manners and conversation. Even when verging on old age, he was very strikingly characterized by the sim- plicity of vivacious and. unsuspecting boyhood. Of this peculiarity he was himself quite conscious, and I have heard him more than once allude to it. Having equipped himself one evening to go to Edinburgh, he appeared to have out- grown his ordinary dimensions — the pockets of his great-coat being well stuffed, I think, with books and pamphlets. This occasioned some merriment, in which he heartily joined. Placing his hands on his sides, he went on to say, ' I have now somewhat of the solidity and gravity, and somewhat also of the breadth of middle age ; but I can scarcely shake off the feehng of boyhood. I remember, Mr. Couper, when 452 . MExMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 184.G. I was a student at St. Andrews, with what profound ven- eration I regarded the Professors ; when I came to be a Professor there myself, I used to wonder if these gilpies could have the same feeling toward me.' I may give another instance equally characteristic. A steep wooded bank over- hanging the sea, commences about a mile and a half to the west of Burntisland, and terminates near the village of Aberdour. Here Dr. Chalmers delighted to ramble, and great was his satisfaction when he had one or tv/o friends along with him to explore the Hews — for such is the name of the locality. One day on reaching the west end of the Hews, we found the gate locked, and, as we intended to pro- ceed to Aberdour, we had to scale the wall. Dr. Chalmers declined the offer of assistance, feeling assured that he was quite competent to the task himself He soon succeeded in planting himself on the top of the wall, but felt it expedient to rest for a little before attempting to come down. Perched on this rustic eminence, he felt as if carried back into the scenes of his boyhood, and, looking blandly down upon the companions of his walk, gave vent to his feelings in a very curious and racy strain of observation : the purport of it was that he felt it very difficult to realize his progress in life, and that there was often a great contrast between his feelings and his years. ' When I meet,' he said, ' a respectable matron, who is perhaps a dozen years younger than myself, I feel quite disposed to look up to her with the same sort of veneration that I felt when I was a boy.' " While engaged in conversation, Dr. Chalmers would oc- casionally fall into a reverie, which, by those not acquainted with him, was felt to be embarrassing. The reverie, when not broken in upon by others, was generally terminated by the abrupt utterance of some important sentiment which he had been revolving in his mind. Thus, he one day remarked, after we had walked for a while in silence, ' What a blessed thing it is. Sir, that it is confidence that is required of us.' At another time, a pretty long pause was broken by his ^T. 65. FEELING OF YOUTHFULNESS. 453 saying with much emphasis, ' I know no point of orthodoxy that is not susceptible of a practical treatment. Take an extreme case — the doctrine that man can do nothing of him- self; I would just say, Pray all the harder.' I may record another of the sayings which fell from him in this abrupt but impressive manner; it is one which young ministers especially would do well to ponder. ' It is of great importance to keep up a high tone of pulpit preparation ; the efficacy of your private ministrations will depend very much upon it.' " He often became extremely animated — sometimes even vehement — though conversing with only a single individual. This was especially the case when his mind was occupied with any great question in which he had been led to take a prominent part. He might begin calmly, but as he spoke, ' the fire burned,' and a torrent of glowing eloquence soon came rushing from his lips. I have heard him at a fireside, in the recess of a window, and even while sitting up in bed, break forth in a style of stormy grandeur sufficient to elec- trify a whole assembly. A scene which took place in my own study is worthy of being recorded. He called one day with Isaac Taylor, whom he greatly loved for his virtues, and admired for his genius. It was at a time when the Church Extension cause had materially suffered from what Dr. Chalmers regarded as the unscrupulous conduct of men in power; and on this subject he broke forth, not, as he him- self would have expressed it, with the vehemence of passion, but with the vehemence of sentiment. His face kindled up, his eye flashed, the tone of his voice became impetuous, and his whole bearing afforded unmistakable indications of the strength of the emotions that were at v/ork within. When he began, he was seated about two yards off' from Mr. Taylor, but with almost every sentence that he uttered he gave Ijis chair a hitch nearer, until the knees of the two were in very close proximity, and Mr. Taylor had to draw himself up and lean back on the wall in order to save his head from the uplifted arm of ' the old man eloquent.' In a few minutes 454 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. the thunder-cloud passed away, and his bland and genial nature beamed forth again with the sunny serenity that usually characterized it. "He had a wonderful store of anecdotes of which he could avail himself with a happy promptitude, for the illustration of any subject that turned up in conversation, and on such occasions his keen sense of the ludicrous was often evinced with irresistible effect. One evening as we were walking together silently, after I had come to this parish, he was much gratified with the respectful demeanor of the people whom we met, and in particular with the fact (afterward described by himself in broad Scotch) that ' an auld wife hirsled aff a dyke to mak her courtesy.' Toward the end of our walk, a person having passed without making any sign of recognition, Dr. Chalmers observed, ' I perceive your people don't all recognize you yet. This brings to my mind a story connected with Buckhaven, which you know, is a peculiar sort of place. It was long, and is yet, to some extent, behind other places in point of civilization ; but some few of the inhabitants got a little in advance of the rest. The minister of the parish went one day to solemnize a marriage ; he made the bridegroom, of course, promise to be a faithful, loving, and indulgent husband — at least, he put the question to that effect, but could not get him to alter his stiff, erect posture. Again and again he repeated the form, but the man remained silent and stiff as ever. A neighbor was present who knew more about the forms and footsteps of the thing, and was considered to have advanced a little more in civilization that the rest. Enraged at the clownish- ness of the bridegroom, he stepped forward, gave him a vigorous knock on the back, and said to him with cor- responding energy, «Ye brute, can ye no boo to the minis- ter!' Dr. Chalmers's commentary on this scene was brief but emphatic — ' The heavings of incipient civilization, you know.' " Interesting snatches of his personal history were some- ^T. 65. STORE OF ANECDOTES. 455 times brought out in the most natural and incidental manner, as parallels to what had been mentioned in the course of conversation. I happened to tell him the following incident which I had heard of not long before. At the close of a communion season in the north, tJie men of the parish, being assembled with the ministers who had assisted on the oc- casion, expressed their satisfaction with the services that had been rendered, and each particular minister received his modicum of applause, with the exception of one, of whose performances not one word was said. He was foolish enough to ask, ' And have you not a good word to say of me ?' In order to soothe his feelings, one of the men, who had much of the milk of human kindness, and who was resolved to go as far as truth and honesty wo.uld permit, but no farther, said to him with much simplicity, ' Sir, you had fine psalms.' Dr. Chalmers, who was greatly amused with the story, observed that something parallel had occurred in his own experience. While preaching one of the Astro- nomical Discourses, he noticed among the audience a plain, honest, godly woman who lived in a close ofi^ the Gallowgate, and with whom he was well acquainted. She was' one of a little company who attended a simple religious service which he sometimes conducted in the neighborhood. The Doctor felt an irresistible desire to know what Janet thought of the sermon, as he was quite sure that it was above her reach, and he knew that he would not require to ask her opinion, for, being a frank, outspoken person, she would not fail to give it of her own accord. A day or two after, he threw himself in her way, when he soon got what he was in quest of. ' Weel, Sir, I was hearing ye in the Laigh Kirk the ither day ; I canna say that I liket ye sae weel as in our bit placey here — I canna say that I understood ye a'thegither — but, ae Sir, there was something unco suitable and satis- fyin' in the psalms.' Dr. Chalmers was evidently delighted with the thought that her spiritual instinct had fastened on what could really profit her ; and that, though she had f.-)6 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. io45 derived no advantage from his sermon, she had not been sent empty away." With all his social cheerfulness and beaming joy, there were tokens not a few of an internal conflict — glimpses of an inward desolation which told unmistakably that, like David, he felt himself to be a stranger upon this earth. " I would not live alway," was a sentence often uttered. " What a vv'ilderness the world is to the heart with all it has to inspire happiness I I have a great and growing sense of desolation.* What a marvelous solitude every man bears about with him ; and then that other and mysterious seclusion — the intercepting vail between us and the Deity. You would think [speaking in a hesitating tone] that He w^ould delight to manifest him- self to His creatures. No doubt the obstacle must be in the subjective — the clearer the reflecting medium, the brighter the manifestations. That is strikingly put in Matthew, ' the pure in heart, they shall see God.' * * * I look on it as a strong proof of our alienation from God, how short a time we can sustain a direct contemplation of Him ; what a mighty transformation when the vail of outer things shall be withdrawn, and we stand naked and alone before Him with Avhom we have to do I" Into the peace and rest of the Sabbath Dr. Chalmers entered with a peculiar joy. Besides his usual evening in- terviews with his children in his study, there was one duty of a peculiar kind thrown always upon the afternoon of this day. He never received the notification of a death without writing to some member of the afllicted family, and these letters of sympathy were always written on the Sabbath evenings. " I take it very kind," he wrote to the Rev. Mr. Chalmers of Dunfermline, " that you have sent me the * " I am conversant more with principles than with persons. I begin to suspect that the intensity of my own pursuits has isolated me from Uving men, and that there is a want of that amalgamation about me which cements the companionships and closer brotherhoods tha? obtain in society." — HorcB SabbaticcBy vol. i. p. 59, ^T. 65. LETTER TO MRS. JOHNSTOiN. 457 notice of an event so interesting, though painfully interesting to your family, I know not a more touching expression of confidence from one human being to another, than when the sorrow which oppresses his heart is communicated to his fellow, and this in the expectation that he will sympathize with and share it. This is the only explanation I can give of a feeling which I have long experienced, that whenever I receive the intimation of a death, I am by that very act domesticated with the house of mourning whence it comes, invited in short to partake along with its inmates in the griefs and emotions of our common humanity. " Give my best regards to Mrs. Chalmers ; and with earnest prayer that these visitations may lead us all to prepare for the eternal and the abiding home of the blessed — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers." On receiving the intimation of the death of J. J. Gurney, Esq., he wrote thus to Mrs. Johnston :* Edinburgh, January llth, 1847. *' My dear Mrs. Johnston — This is a very sad and truly solemnizing event. Your letter gave me the first intelligence of it, and I afterward on the same day read his obituary it the Universe Newspaper. The sensation created by his death must be very deep and very general. For myself, I feel it to be a very great personal bereavement — standing as he did among the best and highest of my Christian friends both in respect of intelligence and worth. Ever since 1833, when I spent some days at Earlham, I have had the privilege of en- joying his friendship. Very pleasant was he at all times to me, and the remembrance of him is sweet. " But what precious alleviations are attendant on the loss of him though near and dear to us — translated from a world of sin and sorrow, and now among the glorified spirits of the just made perfect. I associate with Mr. Gurney almost all the great and good men in England whom I had the happiness * Daughter of Sir T. F. Buxton. VOL. IV. — U 458 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALxMBRS. 1845. of knowing — your dear and venerable father, Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Clarkson, and Mr. Foster, who still survives, and whose acquaintance I made in Dorsetshire : add to these Mrs. Fry. But it is only now that I learned, and from you, of Mr. Hoare's death, who along with Mrs. Hoare (one of the finest specimens of feminine Christianity I ever met) suffered so much from the death of their eldest son. What a lesson does the disappearance of all this society convey ; what a call to labor for the meat which endureth, and to disengage our af- fections from a world that passeth so speedily away I " I take it exceedingly kind that you should have thought of me on this melancholy occasion. It was very good in you thus to single me out for a letter on a subject which went so near to my heart ; and I felt it exceedingly genial when you told me of your dear son, and adverted to his baptism. It gives me a certain sense of the affinity of relationship to you and yours. It is my earnest prayer that he may pass through the world uninfected by its profligacy and vices, and that after a manhood of usefulness and honor, he may be admitted to the glories of an everlasting inheritance. Meanwhile, as friends drop away from us, let us draw nearer together — more resolved to befriend and support each other throughout the remainder of this short and uncertain pilgrim- age.— Ever believe me, my dear Mrs. Johnston, yours very affectionately and truly, " Thomas Chalmers." CHAPTER XXIV. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. On the 17th March, 1845, Dr. Chalmers made the follow- ing entry in his Journal : " My birth-day ; I have got over the half of my seventh decade, being now sixty-five, and have entered on what I call the Sabbath afternoon. My God, may it have a more Sabbatical character than my Sab- bath forenoon has had. I would henceforth live wholly unto thee." The outward Sabbath quiet was not given to him, but there came an increasing gentleness and spirituality which gave few more affecting exhibitions of its depth and tender- ness than in the peculiar anxiety which he now manifested for the spiritual welfare of his children. Every reader of his biblical compositions must have been struck with the fre- quency with which the topic is there reverted to, and the fervor with which so many petitions are presented. His letters of this period present the same characteristics. To his eldest daughter, who, in 1836, had been united in marriage to the •writer of these Memoirs, he, in 1841, addressed the following letter : "Burntisland, June \st, 1841. " My dear, Anne — This is an important change that has taken place in my state and circumstances, now that I am disengaged from all the public business of the Church. It is true that the time heretofore devoted to this department I could find ample occupation for in the work of literary prep- aration both for the press and for my Chair ; and I shall feel it my duty to do a great deal more, if spared, in each of these walks than I have been able to do hitherto. Yet important 460 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. as these are, I have the urgent sense of its being a still prior and preferable duty to do all which in me lies, not for my own personal Christianity alone, but for that of my immediate relatives and friends. For these last thirty years, there has been always a strong under-current of earnest and anxious feeling in this direction, but sadly impeded and overborne among the fatigues and distractions and manifold calls on my attention and time to which my various official duties exposed me. These have all been removed, and that which was but an under-current before, I desire, throughout the remainder of my days, to have full and free vent in every possible thing which I can either devise or do for the religious wellbeing whether of myself or of my family. And I do hope that the consideration of the few years (it may be much shorter) which I have to live in this world may incline one and all of them to second my earnest wishes for the good of their imperishable spirits — for the high end, in comparison with which all other objects sink into insignificance — their preferment to that state of blessedness, in which it will be our everlasting employment to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. " I have not forgotten the impression made upon me by a short visit, of some years back, from Dr. Hanna,* and whence I could gather how intimately religion was blended and iden- tified with his moral being — forming part and parcel, as it were, of the element in which he breathed. I am quite sure that when such is the pervading tone of all the inmates in any household, it forms the hish road to a well-conditioned and happy family. It is a condition which I long, and with the grace of God, will labor to realize ; for Heaven forbid that the purposed Sabbath of my life, which should have commenced sooner, and which I trust will only be terminated by death — Heaven forbid that it should be limited in its effects to the selfish object of my own enjoyment, or my own preparation for the happiness of an immortal state. My long- ing desire is, that others also, and especially those who are * The Rev. Dr. Hanna of Belfast. ^T. 65. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 461 nearest and dearest to me, should receive an impulse in the same direction, and be fellow-travellers along with me to a blissful eternity. — I ever am, my dear Anne, yours very afiectionately and truly, Thomas Chalmers." As one step toward the accomplishment of this longing desire, he commenced a series of monthly letters, a copy of which was to be addressed to each of his daughters. The public demands upon his time, however, became so urgent, that these letters were not continued, and we have only the following specimen to offer : " Burntisland, JuJy 2Uh, 1841. " My dear Anne — It is true that the spirit is the alone effectual agent in the work of conversion, and without His agency nothing can be done to any good purpose. But this doctrine, so far from superseding diligence in the use of means, may supply the alone consideration which can justify that diligence and make it rational. Suppose it were true that in no possible way we could be made savingly to understand the Bible — then all inducement to the reading of it would be thereby done away. But, instead of this, let us suppose that there was one way, and that was the enlightening of the Spirit given to our prayers — this would instantly give a mean- ing and a motive to the exercise of dealing with our Bibles ; and the perusal of the sacred volume, accompanied with sup- plication for light upon it from on high, would instantly be- come a hopeful and a reasonable employment. And, accord- ingly, if I were asked to specify the likeHest prescription for the wellbeing and prosperity of the soul, I should say it was a prayerful reading of the Bible. " That we do stand in need of this supernal aid, we might well be convinced of from daily experience, for without it how often might we read again and again its most familiar and best known passages, and yet remain blind all the while to the veriest simphcities of God's word. I was much struck 462 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. J 84.5. with this when reading the evidence of Mr, Pnrves of Jed- burgh the other day on the subject of revivals. * * * What impressed me in it was, how seldom, after all, faith in God's sayings, which is surely a very obvious, simple, and intelli- gible idea — how seldom it is realized by any of us. People think they believe in them, because they so far acquiesce as not to gainsay them ; and yet with this acquiescence, an ac- quiesence so resolute and strong, that you would be shocked to utter aught in contradiction to them, there may yet be no faith For let there be but belief in the gospel, and where lies the hinderance to peace, joy, confidence in the good-will of a reconciled Father even at this moment ? Why post- pone all this ? Why not rely on the good tidings of great joy, and be glad accordingly ? How long shall we put ofT trusting in God for that redemption which is through . the blood of Jesus, even the forgiveness of sin ? It may startle you to be told, that this last question is tantamount to the following : — How long shall we persist in holding God to be a liar? He himself distinctly reduces it to this alternative, He tells us of the record that He has given of his Son, even that He has given us eternal life, and that this life is in His Son ; and He complains of being made a liar by all who won't believe this (John v. 10, 11.) This one might think is bringing salvation very near to us. It is telling us to take and live, to trust and be satisfied. On this footing, and it is the true one, there should be an instant translation from death to life, from darkness to the marvelous light of the Gospel. Let us not think that the way of being washed from our sins is any* thing more complex or circuitous than this, else we fall into the error of Naaman, the Syrian, when told to wash him from his leprosy in the waters of Jordan. We are washed from our sins through the blood of Christ (Rev. i. 5.) But this is through faith in His blood (Pwom. iii. 25. Let us so believe, and so shall it be done unto us. These are plain sayings — yet how few think of a salvation BO nigh, and so placed by God within our reach, even that .ET. 65 FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 463 God who offers and entreats, and beseeches and commands, nay, threatens it upon our acceptance. What need of prayer then that the scales might fall from our eyes, which hinder us from seeing this great salvation, and from beholding the wondrous things contained in the book of God's law. Read and pray then ; ask till you receive, seek till you find, knock till the door be opened to you, and to hasten the wished-for consummation, chide yourself out of your unbelief by the con- sideration that it is dishonoring to God's truth. For the opposite of this, read Rom. iv. 19—23, and learn from this pas- sage how thoroughly God's glory and your comfort are at one. May you obtain precious faith. May Christ be found in you. — I am, my dear Anne, yours very truly, "Thomas Chalmers," Although a systematic correspondence was relinquished, there was no diminution, but the reverse, in the solicitude felt for his children's religions welfare. This was touchingly educed by the death of a beloved infant in my own family. " DUNKELD, April 30th, 1842. " My very dear Anne — This is a sad privation ; and I can not adequately express how much we all feel for you. I have often marveled at the forbearance of God, in that though for nearly thirty years a family man, death should for all that time have made no inroad upon my own household ; and little did I expect that the first of these visitations was to be on the persons of my grandchildren — you being the nearest and the principal sufferer. May He sustain, and, above all, may He sanctify you under it ; and superadding the influences of His grace to the aflecting demonstrations of His providence, may this heavy trial, not joyous but griev- ous, yield unto you abundantly the peaceable fruits of right- eousness. " Perhaps a very few lines from your own hand could inform us how you all are, and in particular Tommy, who is 464 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. the object of great anxiety to us all, and for whose recovery and establishment of health I daily pray. *' The present, if I may so express it, is a great occasion, and may, in the hands of the .Divine Spirit, become a great era in your spiritual history. For myself, I have no doubt that your babe is in heaven — where those smiles which glad- dened you here may again open upon you. The pitying Saviour who loved children, and welcomes all who approach Him — to Him would I commit you. Cast yourself on Him, and He will give you a place and a mansion in his unsuffer- ing kingdom. *' I offer you these considerations, for there are none other but such as these which can be of any real or abiding efScacy. As Wilberforce says, the faith of immortality gives to every mind which cherishes it a certain firmness of texture. Lay hold, then, of eternal life, by laying hold of Christ as your propitiation. And may the fruit of this bitter dispensation be the work of faith in you with power. " ' Whom God loveth he chastcneth.' I remember being much struck many years ago with an Exposition of John xv. 2, by Dr. Campbell of Edinburgh. Our Saviour there says of the great spiritual husbandman, that every branch which beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. He pruneth it ; he cuts off some of its lateral or smaller branches, that the vegetable juice may not run to luxuriance in a wrong direction, but may so pervade the whole as will contribute most to the nourishment and vigor of the tree. And in like manner do our affections move side- ways or downwardly to the objects which are on earth and around us ; and God, in the exercise of a wise and skillful husbandry, is often pleased to sever or cut off these objects, that our affections may take an upward and a heavenward direction to himself May such be your blessed experience ; and the medicine, though severe, will prove salutary, and the instrument of health to your soul. '• Give my best and most affectionate regards to Mamma vET. Go. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 465 and Mr. Hanria ; and tell dear Tommy how much I love him, and pray for his being good. May God, the giver of ail grace, fix and perpetuate every good impression which the events of his providence are fitted to awaken. — I am, my very dear Anne, yours most affec- tionately, Thomas Chalmers." In 1839, Dr. Chalmers's second daughter was married to the Pwev. John Mackenzie, at that time minister of the parish of Dunkeld, in Perthshire. Immediately after the marriage he proceeded on his Church Extension tour in the north of Scotland, from which he writes to Mrs. Mackenzie : "Inverness, August 28ih, 1839. " My dearest Eliza — * =* ^ Bnt let me stop all further description of my travels, and conclude this letter with the expression of ray earnest wishes for your highest wellbeinsr. I have often felt it as one great evil of too public a life, that it dissevered one from his family ; and when I think how highly favored I have been in that, though twenty-seven years a family naan, I have never yet been exposed in my household to the visitation of death, I deeply feel that such a lengthened opportunity should have been consecrated more to the culture and preparation of those immortal spirits over whom I am appointed to watch. Let me hope that you will not in your new circumstances neglect this greatest of all concerns ; and while I am far from wishing that you should overtask yourself with the duties either of the house or of the parish, I can not but rejoice that you are so much in the way of all that stands most connected with the things of faith and of eternity. With the aim fixed on a better world, not only is the happiness of the future but that of the present hfe most effectually provided for ; and the power of him who has chosen God in Christ for his portion is in itself a fulfillment of the saying, that godliness hath the promise of the life which now is as well as of that which is to come. — I am, my dearest Eliza, yours very affectionately, Thomas Chalmers." 466 xMEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. J845. "BURNTISLAXD, September 2Btk, 1841. " My dearest Eliza — There is doubtless much of the re- serve that obtains in conversation on religious subjects to be ascribed to our stale of spiritual inanition. It is out of the fullness or abundance of the heart that the mouth speaketh ; and, therefore, it is necessary that the reformation of this matter be rightly gone about — that we begin at the beginning. It is with this as with every other department of practical Christianity. Whatever good fruit we are aiming after, we must make the tree good that the fruit may be good. It is well that our sense of want and helplessness should thus throw us back on the deep and fundamental articles of our faith, and that we should thus be made to see in every attempt at being right, another experimental proof of the doctrine of regeneration, or of the necessity that, to be as we ought, we must be born again and become new creatures. " I feel that this is being very general ; but not more so than that most pregnant of all verses, ' God will give His Spirit to them who ask it.' Let us cry, therefore, as we can ; and it is as you say to prayer we must add watchful- ness— watchfulness for the Spirit as well as prayer for Him. And this gives me to feel the special importance of the last clause of Eph. vi. 1 8 — ' watching thereunto with all per- severance.' '' Still it is furthermore of mighty importance to learn what are our specific wants, that we may state them spe- cifically before God, and that we may afterward watch as specifically for the supply thereof Believest thou that I am able to do this ? was the question put by our Saviour to the man who asked a cure, and according to his particular faith, so was it done unto him. Whatever the impediment or infirmity may be, let us ascertain it, and pray for its removal. This will give rise to that process of discipline and cultiva- tion in which what is called experimental religion mainly lie3 I have had several talks with the children here, and JET. 65. FAMLIY CORRESPONDENCE. 467 am not discouraged by the results of these. — I am, ray dearest Eliza, yours very affectionately, " Thomas Chalmers." From the letters to his eldest unmarried daughter, who possessed much of his own genius, we select the follow- ing— "Edinburgh, November lltk, 1838. " My dearest Grace — I received your valued letter ; and, in return, I have to say, that the first essential to a pleasant and productive employment of your time is the regular and systematic distribution of it. This does not supersede the relaxations of society, domestic concerns, light reading, and exercise out of doors. The truth is, that the zest of the last is greatly heightened by the previous tension and fatigue which you may have incurred throughout those parts of the day which are given to the more serious pursuits of instruction and self improvement. Regulate your hours then ; for it were quite vain to offer any advice to those who will not relinquish the habit of living at random, and living as they list. " With this as my great preliminary advice, I would further recommend — 1. That the first time of your day should be devoted to religious meditation and prayer, both of which would be mightily helped by a little serious practical reading. Of course, I suppose a regular progress through the Bible ; but, over and above this, a pious practical com- mentary, though only of a single verse each morning, might tell impressively on the heart. I give as samples, ' Bridges on the 119th Psalm,' 'Home on the Psalms,' Doddridge's ' Family Expositor,' Scott's and Henry's ' Bibles.' The same in the evening as well as morning. ''2. One or two hours of solid reading — such as the Evidences of Christianity — its doctrines expanded so as to suit a general reader : as ' Symington on the Atonement ;' « Owen on the Work of the Holy Spirit ;' « Owen on the 468 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 184.5. Person of Christ,' &c. Intellectual literature — as Reid's, Stewart's, and even Brown's * Works ;' Foster's ' Essays ;' ' Chalmers on Endowments and Establishments,' &c., &c. "3. All proper female work — as the management of cow- heels in the kitchen, and stocking-heels in the drawing-room, the making of puddings in the one place, and of pin-cushions in the other ; the orderly arrangement of all your articles in drawers, and on mantle-pieces, and table-heads ; the proper keeping of accounts, with as much letter-writing as is in- cumbent upon you. " 4. After standing acquitted of these, I give you great license as to all proper and innocent recreations ; and I ask you to make trial for a week of the regularity I now pre- scribe, and see whether there is not a charm in it which might well convince us of the immense resources both for improvement and enjoyment that have been placed within our reach by a kind Providence. «'iV. B. — I would rank biography and even history as light reading, along with imaginative literature, such as poetry and a few good and right novels. I will allow yon, however, to make Cowper's 'Poems' and 'Paradise Lost' tell for solid reading. Tell me what you think of Thomson's * Seasons.' " And now my last advice to you is, self-denial, or the habit of giving up your own will first to the will of God ; and then, in things lawful, even in things indifferent, to the will of others also, I promise you the greatest enjoyment from the success of such a discipline; and remember what I have often felt to be a most precious connection between two things in Christianity — the connection between obedience and spiritual discernment, in virtue of which I should look as the fruit of the sacrifice that I now recommend for a clearer view of the Gospel and its method of salvation. " Yours most truly, " Thomas Chalmers." JET. 65. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 469 " Edinburgh, January ^0(h, 1842, " My very dear Grace — I am exceedingly struck-, on the comparison of your state with mine, at the variety of human states and experiences. I have no difficulty in fill- ing up every hour with business, and business, too, which stands related to duty and good objects, and be interested all the while in the performance. But I do feel a great difficulty in upholding converse with God, directly and devotionally ; or, in the immediate exercise of spiritual contemplation for any length of time. Now your case seems to be the reverse of this. I have heard you complain that you could not feel an interest in the routine of outward duties, while, at the same time, for hours together you could engage in prayer and medi- tation For myself, I feel the utmost desirousness after such a habit and capacity as this — conscious as I am how very greatly I am deficient therein ; and when reading such lives as those of Brainerd and Doddridge, have often stood amazed, I could almost say envious, of their power to sustain a real and spiritual intercourse with heaven for large portions of a whole day. At the same time, it is worthy of remark that even Brainerd testified to the great importance of a right and systematic distribution of time, and filling up each sec- tion of it with its own proper work, even for a healthful re- ligious state of the soul, '« Both are best ; and of the cultivation of both we have the best and highest examples. What a man both of per- formance and prayers, was the Apostle Paul ; but, greatest of all, can aught be more instructive than the mingled life of our Saviour, of whom it is so often recorded that, after a day spent in the works and labors of love, he retired from the world, and spent whole nights in prayer to His Father, the doing of whose will was meat and drink to Him. Let us grow more and more in a conformity to His blessed image. — My dearest Grace, yours very truly, «< Thomas Chalmers." 470 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. " GouRocK House, near Greenock, July 2ith, 1845, " My very dear Grace — I have not forgotten j-our birth- day ; and it is my firm belief, that both you and I are alive to the solemn thoughts which the recurrence of every such occasion ought to awaken. There is, in truth, a great prac- tical delusion in the prevalent system of human life. We look at things as if by an inverted vision — investing time with all the worth and magnitude of eternity ; while eter- nity, as if by the optical law of distance, shrinks into the littleness and insignificance of time. This is not as it should be ; and to protect ourselves from the enchantment of such a treacherous and delusive imagination, let us ever keep by the side of Him who alone has the words and the gift of life everlasting. All would be well did we but attain the habit of the Apostle, in living a life of faith on the Son of God. — Ever believe me, my very dear Grace, yours very affection- ately, Thomas Chalmers." Dr. Chalmers's correspondence with his grandson, my eld- est child, began early, and was frequently sustained, as the reader of the following letters will find, in circumstances not a little peculiar : "Burntisland, Jtuie 21st, 1841. *' My dear Tommy — This is the longest day in all the year, and it is also the day of the year in which you were born. This day you are four years old, and we have not forgotten it. " As you grow in years, you should grow in knowledge and understanding ; but what is still better than this, you should grow in goodness, and pray every day that God would give you His Holy Spirit to make you good. ^ * * " Give all our kind regards to papa and mamma, and in reply to this letter you may say a letter to me back again, which mamma will write. — I am, my very dear Tom, your affectionate grandfather, Thomas Chalmers." ^T. 65. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 471 " Burntisland, July 22d, 1841. " My dear. Tommy — I am very sorry to hear that you have got sore eyes again, and are obliged to sit, poor fellow, in a dark room. But they tell me you are happy : and I think it quite a possible thing to be happy even when not well and in the dark. There is one way of being happy, and that is the best way of it, which is to think rightly, and think much of God. He is all goodness ; He made you and loves you, and, though you do not see Him, He is not far from you, but sees every thing you do, and hears every thing you say. We shall see Him when we get to heaven ; and there is no sorrow, no wickedness there. You can at all times pray to Him ; and one thing you should often pray for is, that He would make you good, and so fit you for His company and His friendship for evermore. * * * I am, my very dear boy, your most affectionate grandfather, " Thomas Chalmers." "Edinburgh, December 3Qih, 1841. " My dear little Tommy — Why do you like your hob- by-horse better than grandpapa ? * You tell me because it is bigger than him ; but so are the haystack and the hill that you see from the window, and any house in the village — these are all bigger than grandpapa, and will you tell me that you don't like grandpapa so well as you do a house, or a hill, or a haystack I And besides, the hobby-horse can not write letters to you like grandpapa, neither can he buy toys for you and send them from Edinburgh to Skirling ; neither can he show you pictures, or do for you any of those things which you best like. Therefore give up this foolish argument about bigness, and learn to like things for a better reason than the mere size of them. " And what grandpapa would rejoice to hear that you * " Dear little Tommy said that he liked his hobby-horse better than me ; but retracted this afterward, and said that he only liked it as well now." — Dr. Chalmers's Journal, of date 17th December, 1841. 472 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1845. liked best, was that you loved God with all your heart and soul. It is He who made all things, and gives us all things that we enjoy. He is the author of all our happiness here, and if we please Him, He will make us eternally happy with Himself in heaven. Give Samuel a kiss from me, and offer my kind love to your mamma. I am, my dear little boy, your afl^ectionatc grandpapa, " Thomas Chalmers." •'January lUh, 1841. ** My dear little Boy — I have two things to say to you : First, you must now learn to speak less like a baby — not g7'andj)a, but grandpapa ; not gaie, but great ; not lickle, but little. Recollect you are no longer a babe, but a boy, and you must leave off your baby words for Samuel Robert, and speak yourself like a man. But secondly, how- ever fond you are of toys — and I like to see you happy in an innocent way — remember that you must prepare for the business of life ; and one of the first things you must learn is to read. The greatest use of reading is to know the words of the Bible ; its words are of far higher worth than its pictures. The God whom it is your duty to please and obey wrote all these words by the hands of His servants : and all good people learn, by reading this book, the way to heaven : and you should learn now how to begin, and what you must do to inherit eternal life there. Jesus Christ likes young children, and you should think of Him, and pray to God for His sake to make you good and willing to do all His will. " Thomas Chalmers." "Burntisland, July 8th, 1844. " My dear Tommy — I have just seen a sight which if you had been present would, I dare say, have frightened you. I went down the pier to see Dr. Cunningham off in the steam- boat, which had just come from the other side. A gig-horse with all its harness on, was taken out of the boat and landed JET. 65. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 473 on the pier ; but it refused to go any farther, and when the men tried to pull it by its bridle forward, it went backward till its hind feet got beyond the edge of the pier, and down it fell with a tremendous plunge into the deep water. We all ran to the edge of the pier to see what had become of it. I knew that horses could swim, but then I was afraid lest the weight of the harness should have sunk it ; and to be sure it Avas very near sinking, for with holding up its head as high as it could, it scarcely kept its ears and nostrils for breathing above the water ; and, poor stupid thing, instead of swimming to the shore, it swam out to the sea — upon which some men ran into a little boat and rowed with all their might, and, by means of a long boat-hook, got hold of its bridle and towed it after them to the end of the pier — upon which it got, with some difficulty, on its four legs, and was led, all dripping, up to its stable. ^ * * ** Be a good boy — fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. — I am, my dear Tom, your affectionate grandfather, Thomas Chalmers." " Churchill Dining-Room,* March nth, 1845. " My very dear Tommy — This is my birth-day, and I beg to send you my best wishes — hoping that if God please, you will have a longer life than grandpapa. Our Father in heaven is the giver and preserver of the lives of every one of us. ^^ * * " Be a good boy, and do not forget to thank God in your prayers for all His goodness to you. — I am, my dear Tommy, your affectionate grandpapa, Thomas Chalmers. "To Master Thomas Chalmers Hamia, Back Drawing-Room. * As scarlet fever was in the family at Morningside. it was thought advisable to separate it into two sections, one of which occupied the upper or drawing-room story of the house, and the other the dining- room story. For some days, no intercourse M^as permitted. It was while matters were in this condition that the two following letters were written. 474 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. l'845. " DiNi.VG-RooM, March 18/Ji, 1845. " My dearest Tommy — When I arrived in Edinburgh yesterday I first went to the library, and got out a very amusing book for you — Gulliver's Travels. * * * It is not a true history, but just a story, or stories, made for the reader's entertainment. Gulliver first travels to the country of the Lilliputians, where, the men and women are not bigger than grandpapa's fore-finger, and the babies not bigger than your little toe, and where they drive about in coaches not near so large as a tea-pot. He then travels to a country inhabited by giants, to whom Gulliver is as little a creature as the Lil- liputians were to him : why, they can take him up with one hand and swing him back and fore upon one of their fingers. Then he travels to a floating island called Laputa ; but I am not sure that you will care so much for this partof the story. And then he travels to a country where instead of the men com- manding the horses, the horses command the men. I don't like this part so well as I do his travels among the Lilliputians. " Be a good boy, and remember how much you owe to Him who has made you so much better. — I ever am, my dear Tom, your afiectionate grandpapa, " Thomas Chalmers. " To Master Thomas Chalmers Haiina, Back Draxciiig-Room." " Fairlie, by Largs, June 22(?, 1845. " My very dear Tommy — Though this be Sabbath, I write you a few sentences because this is your birth-day; and I wish to lake the opportunity of pressing upon you the consid- eration of the shortness of life, and nearness of your latter end. You are now eight years old ; and I want you to reflect se- riously on this, that every year by which you get older, brings you a year nearer to death than you were before. It is there- fore my earnest prayer, that as you grow in years and in stature, you may grow in grace and in the knowledge of your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; and I would earnestly warn you to remember your Creator in the days of your youth, lest vET. 65. FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE. 475 the evil days come, when you shall say, I have no pleasure in them. I shall now leave this letter open till to morrow, when I mean to write some more to you. " Monday morning. " You are now eight years old, and I am more than eight times older than you — for eight times eight make sixty-four, and I am sixty-five ; but I can assure you, that though you should live to be as old as I am, it is your highest interest, as well as solemn duty, to begin your preparation for eternity now, to make no delay in keeping the commandments, and observing the whole will of God for the salvation of man. •' Give my kind regards to papa and mamma. I should like if T could come soon to Skirling. Perhaps I will in autumn.—-! am, my very dear Tommy, your most afTection- ate grandfather, Thomas Chalmers." " Churchill, June 22d, 1846. " My dear Nine-older — I write you because this is your birth-day, and because it is my earnest wish and prayer, that by every year you become older you may become so much better and wiser. And let me tell you, that the beginning of wisdom is to fear God and keep His commandments. There is only one book in the world which is able to make you wise unto salvation, and far the greatest use for learning is, that it enables you to read the Bible. Pwead it with a good and honest heart, and pray that God would open your understand- ing to understand it ; and by His blessing you will attain to that knowledge of Himself, and of His Son, which is hfe ever- lasting. " I am more than seven times older than you, and yet when I look back on my past life, and I remember when I was so young as three, I feel that time is very short. But eternity is long, and will never end ; and be assured that to provide for it is the best and highest of all wisdom. " I wish you had been at Craigholm with us, where I lately spent three weeks. The railroad cuts the green into two parts 476 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 184G. not far from our house. But we can go from the one part to the other under an arch, and I should like to stand in that arch with you at the time when the steam-engine and all the carriages are passing and rattling over our heads. — Be- lieve me, my dear Tommy, your very affectionate grandpapa, "Thomas Chalmers. " P. S. — I have got so many new books that I have com- pletely filled G e. There are only two and a half shelves now to fill in G, and when these are filled I must put away any more books I get into the empty shelves of the closet. Next time you come we must overhaul the old books and pamphlets that are in the garret.* — T. C. " Another very curious thing I have to tell you of — a bird's nest in one of our strawberry tufts, near the corner where your old garden was. T looked several times both to the eggs and afterward to the birds. I was much afraid lest our black cat should find them out and eat them : how- ever it did not, and the birds had leave to grow, till their wings have been formed for flight, and now they are off. But the nest is still there ; and I hope to show it to you when you come next. I never saw a bird's nest in a bunch of strawberry leaves all my days before." * Dr. Chalmers imagined that the earliest faculty developed in his grandson was the love of order, to cultivate which he had set times appointed when they arranged together the works of the library. On the Sabbath evenings he always had Tommy alone with him in his study. Beginning the conversation with the "reddings up," or some topic equally remote, Dr. Chalmers found his way at last to speak to him about religion. They then knelt down together, when he prayed that he himself might be a true child of God, and his little grandson a lamb of the Saviour's flock ; that his health might be improved ; that his eyes (weak at the time) might not trouble him in after life : that what- ever happened with his bodily vision, the eyes of his understanding might be opened to the knowledge of Jesus Christ; that he might be made in God's hand an instrument for good : and that when they both died and rose again, they might stand side by side on the right hand of the everlasting throne. CHAPTER XXV. THE SUCCESS OF THE FREE CHURCH— FINAL VERDICT OF DR. CHALMERS ON VOLUNTARYISM— THE GOV- ERNMENT SCHEME OF EDUCATION— PAPER DRAWN UP BY DR. CHALMERS— EVIDENCE BEFORE THE SITES COMMITTEE— VISIT TO LONDON AND GLOUCESTER. SHIRE— RETURN TO EDINBURGH— HIS LAST SABBATH —HIS DEATH. The erection of the Free Church was hailed by the Vol- untaries as a triumphant evidence that state endowments are not needed for the support or extension of Christianity. And there were not a few of their former adversaries who, sur- prised and impressed by the generosity which the Disruption elicited, were disposed to modify their former conceptions as to the limited power and range of the Voluntary principle. Although Dr. Chalmers did not partake in their surprise, he threw his mind open to any new convictions which the history of the Free Church might originate or confirm. He was not prepared at the instant to cast his old convictions away, but he was ready to admit whatever light this new experience might supply. At the Bicentenary Meeting held at Edinburgh in July, 1843, he said, " I confess a keener scientific interest in this question than ever, now that Volun- taryism, brought to the test of experience, is fully put upon its trial ; I for one will make it my strenuous endeavor to do it all justice, by drawing on its resources and capabilities to the uttermost. The most direct way surely of giving it a trial is just to try how much it will yield after that a full and fair appliance has been brought to bear upon it. It is but justice to add, that we are now in the very thick of the experiment. We call upon Voluntaryism to open all its 478 MExMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847. fountain-beads, even though it should land us in the predica- ment of the well-digger, who succeeded so amply in his at- tempts to obtain water, that he made a narrow escape from drowning in the abundance of those rushing streams which he himself had evoked from their liiding-places. Now, though my own theory should incur by it the semblance, nay, even if so be, the reality of a defeat or confutation, I for one should most heartily rejoice if Voluntaryism, playing upon us in every direction, shall make such demonstrations of its exuberance and its power as well-nigh to submerge myself and utterly to overwhelm my argument." Dr. Chalmers only lived to see this trial of Voluntaryism to the close of its fourth year. And looking at the aspect which the Free Church presented in May 1847, the Vol- untaries might confidently enough have asserted that the verdict of experience was in their favor ; for here was a Christian community not of the wealthiest classes, upon which 470 clergymen had suddenly been thrown, and which had not only accepted and fulfilled the obligation to sustain them, but in four years had added 250 more to the regular ministry which it upheld. At a cost of upward of X450,000, it had erected churches for all its congregations, and in ad- dition to this had subscribed £100,000 to build manses for all iis ministers. It had instituted a College with nine Professorships, to each of which a salary of from £300 to £400 per annum was attached. It had 340 students under education for the holy office, among whom bursaries and scholarships to the amount of £700 had been distributed in a single year. By a single effort it had raised £50,000 for the building of 500 school-houses, and it had already connected with it about 600 schools, in which nearly as many children were instructed in the ordinary branches of education as were in attendance at all the endowed parochial schools of Scotland. For the teaching and training of school- masters it had two extensive normal estabUshments in Glas- gow and Edinburgh. At home 110 licentiates and 116 JET. 67. VERDICT UPON VOLUNTARYISM. 479 calechists were engaged in the spiritual instruction of" the people, while abroad it had agents laboring in every quarter of the habitable globe. At Pesth, at Jassy, at Berlin, at Constantinople, seventeen missionaries and assistants were endeavoring to promote the conversion of the Jews. At Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Puna, and Nagpur, it supported fifteen European clergymen ordained as missionaries, nine converted natives engaged in the work of the Christian ministry, and a large band of teachers and assistants, both native and European, from whom 4000 Indian children were receiving a complete Christian education. In Nova Scotia, the Canada.s, the West Indies, the Cape, Australia, Madeira, Malta, Leghorn, and Gibraltar, there were minis- ters supported in whole or in part by the bounty of the Free Church, while £1000 per annum had been intrusted to the Evangelical Societies of France and of Geneva, to aid in circulating the Gospel over the continent of Europe. In 1847, the Free Church raised fur educational and missionary objects three times as much as the united Church of Scot- land did in 1843. It had continued for four years to yield the princely revenue of £300,000, and in that short period had contributed about a million and a half to the Christian cause.* The annals of Voluntaryism present no instance of like success : yet bringing it to the test which he constantly employed, and which he believed to be the only true and legitimate one, Dr. Chalmers's final verdict was unfavorable. "I can afford," said he, "to say no more than that my hopes of an extended Christianity from the efforts of Volun- taryism alone have not been brightened by my experience since the Disruption. This is no reason why we should seek an alliance with the State by a compromise of the * Assuming the number of families in her connection to be 400,000, and their average income to £50 per annum, the revenue of the Free Church, at the time of her greatest pecuniary efforts, did not exceed three per cent upon the income of her members. Applied elsewhere, this method of calculation indicates how small a portion of its wealth the Christian world dedicates to the cause of Christianity. 480 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847. Church's spiritual independence ; and still less with a Gov- ernment which, on the question of endownents, disclaims all cognizance of the merits of that rehgion on which it confers support, and makes no distinction between the true and the false, between the scriptural and the unscriptural. Still, it may be a heavy misfortune — it may prove a great moral calamity — when a Government does fall into what, speaking in the terms of my own opinion, I hold to be the dereliction of a great and incumbent duty. And ere I am satisfied that Voluntaryism will repair the mischief, I must first see the evidences of its success in making head against the fearfully increased heathenism, and increasing still, that ac- cumulates at so fast a rate throughout the great bulk and body of the common people. We had better not say too much on the pretensions or the powers of Voluntaryism, till we have made some progress in reclaiming the wastes of ignorance and irreligion and profligacy which so overspread our land ; or till we see whether the congregational selfish- ness which so predominates every where, can be prevailed on to make larger sacrifices for the Christian good of our general population. Should their degeneracy increase to the demolition, at length, of the present frame-work of society, and this in spite of all that the most zealous Voluntaryism can do to withstand it, it will form a most striking experi- mental demonstration of the vast importance of Christian Governments for the Christian good of the world. The lights of experience and prophecy will be found to harmonize, when, after what may he called the horrors of the middle passage, the desolating flood of anarchy and misrule that is coming on the earth — millennium will at length emerge from it ; but then, in conjunction therewith, the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; or, in other words, the Governments of the world shall all be Christianized. " It seems very clear that internal Voluntaryism will not, of itself, do all, and, with all the vaunted prosperity of the MT. 67. THE EDUCATION QUESTION. 481 Free Church, we do not find that external Voluntaryism will either make up the deficiencies of the former, or, still less, of itself, do all either. * * * We rejoice, therefore, in the testimony of the Free Church for the principle of a National Establishment, and most sincerely do we hope that she will never fall away from it. Little do those of her enemies, who, at the same time, are the friends of loyalty and order — (for, besides these, we can rank many of the turbulent and disaffected in society as among the deadliest of her enemies) — little do they know that the Free Church is at this mo- ment lifting a far more influential testimony on the side of ecclesiastical endowments that can possibly be given in any other quarter of society. Hers is a wholly disinterested testimony in their favor, for she reaps no advantage from them ; but, sorely aggrieved though she has been by our rulers, she will neither underrate the importance of their friendship, nor yet the solemn obligation which lies upon them to care for the rehgion of the people, and to provide within their sphere for this best and highest interest of the commonwealth."* In the spring of 1847, the Free Church was agitated by a discussion relative to the Government scheme of education. By their Minutes of August and December, 1846, the Com- mittee of Council on Education offered grants to all schools indiscriminately which should submit to the conditions — that they should be visited regularly by a Government Inspector ; that the Holy Scriptures should be daily read ; and that such religious instruction as the managers approved of should be communicated. A difference of opinion arose as to whether the Free Church should permit any of the schools in connection with her own Education Scheme to accept of grants tendered upon such terms, and considerable difficulty was experienced as to the judgment which the Church should express upon the general character of the Govern- ment measure. Viewing the question as an ecclesiastic, and * "Earnest Appeal," pp. 52, 53. VOL IV. — X 432 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847. for the purpose mainly of deciding what part the Free Church should take, and what attitude she should assume, Dr. Chalmers transmitted the following expression of his opinion to Dr. Cunningham : MORNINGSIDE, EDINBURGH, 3d April, 1847. " My dear Sir — I promised to write you on the Educa- tion question, for I am quite willing on every occasion to state my opinions, though I may no longer fight for them, and must, therefore, be excused from being present at the Presbytery. But really I am at loss what to say. I wait for more data than we are yet in possession of. I would infinitely rather that, in hoc statu, the Presbytery would not take up the question at all. I deprecate every precipitate and premature committal of ourselves, and would prize it as a signal honor for the Free Church, if, when it did come forward, it was with a well-weighed and unexceptional deliverance upon this great question. •' 1. I feel no hesitation as to the wrongness of an indis- criminate endowment, if it carry in it the expression of an equal countenance by the Legislature to all forms of religion. I believe that there are modifications upon their scheme by which this might be done away, so as to give no other character to the movement on the part of the State, than a desire for the elevation of the people in general intelligence and scholarship — an object which we should no more resist than the object of public health, or economic improvement, or any other amelioration that can be devised for the tem- poral well-being of the masses in our land. " 2. Again, I would not object to a most strenuous rec- ommendation of every exertion being made in each of our Free Church localities for the support of our own schools. None would more sincerely rejoice than I should, if, by the liberal contributions given to our educational scheme, the popular endowment were to supersede the necessity for a State endowment altogether. To avoid the hazard, or t^ven iue .^T. 67. GOVERNMENT SCHEME OF EDUCATION. 483 semblance of any mischief, and I am hopeful that it is but a semblance, yet, to avoid even this, I should look upon it as a higher position, if we could draw all our means for a sound education to our families from the liberality of our Christian friends, rather than from the public treasury. " I am inclined to hold that the Free Church fully acquits herself of all that she owes on the score of principle by her honest and fearless testimony under the first head, and her earnest recommendations under the second. Should the recommendation, however, not take full effect, and should Government at the same time abstain from all control over our methods, and although they inspected as much as they had a mind to, I would be far from laying an authoritative in- terdict on the managers in any of our localities against their availing themselves of Government aid. I would therefore leave the determination of this question in each particular case to the consciences of those who have to do with it. " And let it ever be recollected that if we should come to any deliverance at all, it must be a very peculiar one, and very different from that of our dissenting Voluntaries'. It is my earnest prayer that the Free Church may be rightly guided in this matter — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. " Rev. Dr. Cannineuam.'' During the last few months of his life the subject of national education was much upon Dr. Chalmers's mind. Convinced that the Free Church, was as unlikely by its vol- untary efibrts to supply the educational, as it was to supply the spiritual wants of the country, that what would have been the best system for the Government to adopt was no longer practicable, and anxious that public aid in some large and effective way should be extended, he had pondered the problem as to the course which, under existing circumstances, the Government should pursue. His views, the fruit of much previous consideration, were stated by him in con- 484 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847 versation to Mr. Fox Maiile, and other members of Her Majesty's Government, whom he met in London in May. Mr. Maule having requested that he would embody them in writing, he took advantage of" a day's leisure while living with his sister, Mrs. Morton, in Gloucestershire, on his way home, to comply with this request. The following paper prepared under these circumstances, and with this object, was written about a week before his death, and comes to us sealed with the impressive characteristic of being the last formal expression of his judgment on any great public question. " It were the best state of things that we had a Parlia- ment sufficiently theological to discriminate between the right and the wrong in religion, and to encourage or endow ac- cordingly. But failing this, it seems to us the next best thing, that in any public measure for helping on the educa- tion of the people. Government were to abstain from intro- ducing the element of religion at all into their part of the scheme, and this not because they held the matter to be insignificant — the contrary might be strongly expressed in the preamble of their act; but on the ground that, in the present divided state of the Christian world, they would take no cognizance of, just because they would attempt no control over, the religion of applicants for aid — leaving this matter entire to the parties who had to do with the erection and management of the schools which they had been called upon to assist. A grant by the State upon this footing might be regarded as being appropriately and exclusively the expres- sion of their value for a good secular education. " The confinement for the time being of any Government measure for schools to this object we hold to be an imputa- tion, not so much on the present state of our Legislature, as on the present state of the Christian world, now broken up into sects and parties innumerable, and seemingly incapable of any effort for so healing these wretched divisions as to present the rulers of our country with aught like such a clear JET. 67. GOVERNMENT SCHEME OF EDUCATION. 485 and unequivocal majority in favor of vi^hat is good and true, as might at once determine them to fix upon and to espouse it. " It is this vv'hich has encompassed the Government Vi^ith difficulties, from which we can see no other method of ex- trication than the one which we have ventured to suggest. And as there seems no reason why, because of these unre- solved differences, a public measure for the health of all — for the recreation of all — for the economic advancement of all — should be held in abeyance, there seems as little reason why, because of these differences, a public measure for rais- ing the general intelligence of all should be held in abeyance. Let the men, therefore, of all churches and all denominations alike hail such a measure, whether as carried into effect by a good education in letters or in any of the sciences ; and, meanwhile, in these very seminaries, let that education in religion which the Legislature abstains from providing for be provided for as freely and amply as they will by those who have undertaken the charge of them. " We should hope, as the result of such a scheme, for a most wholesome rivalship on the part of many in the great aim of rearing on the basis of their respective systems a moral and Christian population, well taught in the principles and doctrines of the gospel, along with being well taught in the lessons of ordinary scholarship. Although no attempt should be made to regulate or to enforce the lessons of religion in the inner hall of legislation, this will not prevent, but rather stimulate to a greater earnestness in the contest between truth and falsehood — between light and darkness — in the outer field of society ; nor will the result of such a contest in favor of what is right and good be at all the more un- likely, that the families of the land have been raised by the helping hand of the State to a higher platform than before, whether as respects their health, or their physical comfort, or their economic condition, or, last of all, their place in the scale of intelligence and learning. " Religion would under such a system, be the immediate 486 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMHKS. 1847, product, not of legislation, but of the Christian and philan- thropic zeal which obtained throughout society at large. But it is well when what legislation does for the fulfillment of its object tends not to the impediment, but rather we ap- prehend, to the furtherance of those greater and higher objects which are in the contemplation of those whose desires are chiefly set on the immortal wellbeing of man. " On the basis of these general views I have two remarks to offer regarding the Government Scheme of Education. " 1. I should not require a certificate of satisfaction with the religious progress of the scholars from the managers of the schools, in order to their receiving the Government aid. Such a certificate from Unitarians or Catholics implies the direct sanction or countenance by Government to their re- spective creeds, and the responsibility, not of aUowing, but more than this, of requiri??g, that tliese shall be taught to the children who attend. A bare allowance is but a gen- eral toleration ; but a requirement involves in it all the mis- chief, and, I would add, the guilt, of an indiscriminate en- dowment for truth and error. " 2. I would suffer parents or natural guardians to select what parts of the education they wanted for their children. I would not force arithmetic upon them, if all they wanted was writing and reading ; and as little would I force the Catechism, or any part of the religious instruction that was given in the school, if all they wanted was a secular educa- tion. That the managers in the Church of England schools shall have the power to impose their Catechism upon the children of Dissenters, and still more to compel their at- tendance on church, I regard as among the worst parts of the scheme. " The above observations, it will be seen, meet any ques- tions which might be put in regard to the applicability of the scheme to Scotland, or in regard to the use of the Douay version in Roman Catholic schools. " I can not conclude without expressing my despair of any MT. 67. REFUSAL OF SITES. 487 great or general good being effected in the way of Christian- izing our population, but through the medium of a Govern- ment themselves Christian, and endowing the true religion, which I hold to be their imperative duty, not because it is the religion of the many, but because it is true, " The scheme on which I have now ventured to offer these few observations, I should like to be adopted, not be- cause it is absolutely the best, but only the best in existing circumstances. " The endowment of the Catholic religion by the State I sliould deprecate, as being ruinous to the country in all its interests. Still, I do not look for the general Christianity of the people but through the medium of the Christianity of their rulers. This is a lesson taught historically in Scrip- ture by what we read there of the influence which the per- sonal character of the Jewish monarchs had on the moral and religious state of their subjects — it is taught experiment- ally by the impotence, now fully established, of the Volun- tary principle — and last, and most decisive of all, it is taught prophetically in the Book of Revelation, when told that then will the kingdoms of the earth {paGiXeiai, or governing powers) become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ ; or the governments of the earth become Christian governments. " Thomas Chalmers." There M'as one other expression of Dr. Chalmers's opinion delivered so publicly and so close upon his death, that a pe- cuhar weight attaches to it. At the Disruption a large body of the landed aristocracy of Scotland had refused upon any terms to grant sites on which churches or manses might be built. Such stable fabrics would give permanence to a move- ment which they intensely disliked, and might prevent that reunion with the Establishment which, when the flush of the first excitement was over, they hoped to see accomplish- ed. When these anticipations were falsified, and it became evident that the Free Church was to rank among the per- 483 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1847. nianent institutions of the country, many of these hostile proprietors gave way, but a goodly number still stood out. Having waited patiently, but in vain, for two years, in the hope that this spirit of intolerance would spontaneously sub- side, and having exhausted all means of private influence and remonstrance, the General Assembly of 1845 petitioned Parliament and the Legislature, stating the (grievance, and praying for legislative redress. The Government having shown no disposition to move in the matter, Mr. Maule, in June, 1846, introduced a bill into the House of Commons, the object of which was to oblige the proprietors to concede. The leading members of the House concurred in condemning the conduct complained of, but as its conclusion was thought to be too stringent, and the hope was cherished that their own good sense and good feeling would induce the proprietors to yield without the necessity of legislative interference, the Bill was thrown out. No symptoms of concession appear- ing, Mr. Bouverie, in March, 1847, moved and carried the appointment of a Committee of the House " to inquire whether, and in what parts of Scotland, and under what circumstances, large numbers of her Majesty's subjects have been deprived of the means of religious worship by the refusal of certain proprietors to grant them sites for the erection of churches." It soon became evident that the examination of witnesses be- fore the Committee was to take a wide and important range, and that an attempt was to be made by representing the grounds of the Disruption as so untenable, and the opposition offered to the Establishment so violent, as to palliate if not excuse even the strong step of refusing sites for churches. In these circumstances, it was deemed desirable that Dr. Chal- mers should appear as a witness before the Committee. He had lately retired very much from public life, and was in a situation to take a wider and calmer survey of the principles and position of the Free Church, than was possible at the period of the Disruption, or easy even now for those still mixed up with her affairs. His withdrawal from the public busi- iET. 67. JOURNAL. 489 ness of the Church had even created in some quarters the impression, that disappointed in his first expectations, the strength of Dr. Chalmers's attachment to the Free Church had been of late somewhat shaken, so that no small amount of curiosity was awakened as to what kind of evidence he would give. On Sabbath, the 2d of May, he assisted at the Communion in the Free Chutch of Ratho, and preached the evening sermon, his last in Scotland. On the Thursday following, accompanied by his son-in-law, Mr. Mackenzie, he set out for London, where he arrived on the evening of Friday, the 7th, when he found that his examination was not to take place till the following Wednesday. On the intervening Sabbath he officiated in Mary-le-bone Presbyterian Church. From his own journal-letters we ofier the following extracts : " Sunday, May 9th. — Preached with greater comfort than I had ever done before in London. The church was thin when we first entered it, but became full, with a good many in the passages, before I began. Preached less than an hour ; made an early retreat from the vestry to Mr. Car- michael's house close by. Was afterward told that Lord John Pi-usselL Lady Carlisle, Lord Morpeth's mother, and Lord Morpeth himself, had come to the vestry to shake hands with me, but I had gone. ^ * * Delighted with a call after dinner from Dr. Bunting, with whom I and Mr. Mackenzie were left alone for an hour at least. Most ex- quisite interview with one of the best and wisest of men. Mr. M. and I both love him to the uttermost. " Mo7iday, 1 0th. — Went a second time to the Athenaeum. On my way met a gentleman coming out of it, who looked hard at me, and continued looking after we passed ; and when I parted from Mr. Hamilton came back to me. It was Dr. Whewell, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. As we stood and talked at the door, there came to it two mem- bers, to whom he introduced me — the Bishop of Gloucester, mid Mr. Lj'ell the geologist. Dr. Whewell and I sat to- 490 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. 1S47. gether at our little table in the AtheriEeum, where we talked and took our respective soda waters. The treasurer and secre- larj^ are both most attentive to rne, and I have a good mind to propose the JS^orth British Review for being taken in, which I fear it is not yet : at Jeast I have not met it, though I have gone through a great number of their papers and periodicals. Went back tO my lodgings, where I siesta'd — thence at five to the National Gallery, where we S])ent half an hour among the pictures of the great masters: Wilkie is conepicDous by a statue of him at the entrance and a large portrait np stairs.* The pictures are ia-w and select, but of first-rate value, and I should like to revisit them ; — the i-^Gallery is but a step from our lodgings. Thence took a cab ' (or Mr. Maule's, where we dined : a small eightsome party, reminding rne of Lord Lansdowne's select parties round a small circular table. Besides Mr. and Mrs. Maule, Miss Abercrombie, a nephew, and ourselves, there were but two more — Mr. Ptutherfurd, Lord Advocate, and last, though not least. Lord Morpeth. We had a deal of easy familiar talk about the Government Scheme of Education, Health of Towns (Lord Morpeth's department). Territorial System, &C-, &c- After coffee I had a sofa talk with Lord Morpeth on the subject of West Port improvements, nuisances, public health, Sec, '." Extracts from Letters of Sir William Rae to Dr. Chalmers AND jNIr. Thomson. '• London. February 5th, 1840. — It gave me much satisfaction to learn from a letter from Mr. Dunlop. as Secretary to the Assembly's Committee, that the suggestion which I made for restoring to a certain extent the provisions of the Act 1690, had been viewed by the Com- mittee as fitted to form a basis for a satisfactory arrangement. I need hardly say that I never contemplated hampering the Presbytery in any way whatever, in dealing with the reasons assigned by the parishion- ers, or disposing of the whole affair. I should hold them responsible for their actings solely at the bar of the .superior Church Judicatories, and at that of public opinion. ^'London. March 25th. 1840. — The Government seems greatly puzzled what to do with your Kirk question. After the Cabinet had deli- berated on Saturday, instead of stating the result upon ]Monday; they re- solved to hold a meeting of their friends in our House upon Tuesday, to consider the matter. This took place, and such was the difference of opinion, that they were obliged to adjourn the meeting to another day. I should not wonder if it was to end in their declaring that they meant to do nothinor. The course which the Dissenters have taken, and along with these the Radical party in our House, joined to the little real in- fluence which the more violent Church party are proved to possess by the result of the Perth election, will doubtless bear on their decision. You hint at my trying my hand upon the subject, but that is out of the question. I am willing to go as far as Mr. Drummond has moved, thereby putting it in the power of the Presbytery to give effect to the objections of the people, however absurd or unexplainable these may be : the Presbytery* acting under the control of public opinion, and that of the superior Church Courts alone. This I believe would satisfy Dr. Chalmers, and most reasonable men. But what security could we have that an enactment of that nature, brought in by an individual member, would be submitted to by the whole Church, either now or hereafter. Wm. Rae." Extracts prom Letters of J. C. Colquhoun, Esq. " Putney Heath. February 2^th, 1840.— You will learn from Mr. Dunlop the particulars of his mission — the little success he heis met with from this Government. I hope he will report to you that there is no indisposition on the part of Lord Aberdeen to meet the views of the Church, at least to a large extent. I indulge the hope APPENDIX. 511 that he may even go yet further in favor of popular right ; the Presby- terial right of rejection, Lord Aberdeen admits to its fullest extent. " Putney Heathy April 20iA, 1840. — The two essential points which I am most anxious to see clearly embodied in Lord Aberdeen's Bill, are the liberum arbitrium of the Presbytery on the dissent of the people — the other, the clear severance between the civil and ecclesiastical juris- dictions ; so that where the one ends, supreme in its own territory, the other shall begin, and its decisions be unreviewed by any Civil Court in the land. I take this to be indispensable. " Putney Heath, May 19th, 1840. — I saw Lord Aberdeen yesterday, but was unable to bring him to any satisfactory conclusion. I was glad, however, to find that Mr. Home Drummond and Sir James Graham quite concur with me in the propriety of the Presbyterial dis- cretion being free, always understanding by that, that there is to be no such rule as that laid down in the Veto Act, by which the Presbytery are to accept the dissent of the people as a conclusion, barring the fur- ther inquiry of the Church Courts. J. C. Colquhoun." Extract fkom Letter of Sir George Clerk. ^^ London, February 7th, 1840. — I herewith send you a copy of the 'Morning Post,' which contains the most accurate report of the obser- vations of Lord Aberdeen on the present position of the Church of Scotland, and also of Lord Melbourne's reply to the question whether the Government w^ere prepared to introduce any measure on the sub- ject. There is one slight inaccuracy in the report of what Lord Aber- deen said with respect to the judgment of the House of Lords in the Auchterarder case. He said, ' that he did not acquiesce in all the declarations of opinion expressed in delivering that judgment, though he entirely concurred in the justice of the decision itself.' It is now clear, from Lord Melbourne's reply, that the Government have not made up their minds as to the course to be taken. Unless, therefore, your Committee, acting on the part of the General Assembly, prepare a legislative measure yourselves, I doubt whether any thing can be done toward a settlement of this important question, as amidst the pressure of business while Parliament is sitting, I fear there is little probability that the Government will find time for its due considera- tion. " No Member of Parliament, unconnected with the Government, could bring forward any measure with the smallest hopes of success, unless he were assured either of the cordial support of the Church in Scotland, or of the Government here. " The recent communications which have been made by direction of your Committee, by your Secretaries, to Lord Aberdeen, Sir Willinm Rae, and myself, would lead me to hope that the points of difTereiK-e between us are now so much narrowed that little difficulty would be 512 MLMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. found to exist in framing a measure that might be very generally ap- proved of. " Lord Aberdeen, I believe, has already explained to you that he con- curs in every point with me, and adopts the plan I took the liberty of stating in my letter to you of the 21st of January, and which I rejoice to learn is considered satisfactoi-y to your Committee. That has been restated by Sir William Rae in a more concise form, who has shown that a combination of the provisions of the Act 1690 with the Act of Anne would be all that is required. I think that an Act to explain tho meaning of the words of the Act of Anne, ' ihat the Presbytery is to re- ceive and admit in the same manner as the persons presented before the making of this Act ought to have been admitted,'' to be according to the mode of procedure prescribed in the Act 1690, would, without almost any thing further, remove all the present difficulties of the Church. "I hope the Procurator may be authorized by your Committee to draw up the heads of a bill on this basis, as the only chance of a settle- ment of the question, before the next meeting of Assembly. " George Clerk." Extracts from Letters of John Hamilton, Esq., Advocate. '■'■London^ April 13f/i, 1840. — To-day I have had a long conversa- tion w^ith Sir James Graham, who stated his views very explicitly. They come up, in the fullest manner, to the Committee's minimum measure — an entire exclusion of the Civil Courts, and an absolute re- linquishment of the patron's and presentee's rights to the arbitrium of the Church Courts. At present he is no way inclined to go further. ^'London, April loth, 1840. — I had another long conversation with Lord Aberdeen this morning. Had we to deal with Lord Aberdeen alone, we should not have much difficulty in obtaining a popular meas- ure, but from what he says it is apparent that the obstacles lie with others, and that they are such as his Lordship conceives to be abso- lutely insuperable ; at the same time, I understatid that his measure will be a full and honest one, according to its own nature — one which will studiously avoid all interference with the independence of the Church, and will expressly enact an entire exclusion of the Civil Court. Such a measure will form a prodigious step in advance for the Church; and our friends in the Committee who are the most anxious to go further should weigh well the hazard to which we may expose all bv attempting now to drive matters to extremities. His Lordship stated, that from his personal communications with members of the Govern- ment he was persuaded that the Government would not oppose his measure, provided it met with a fair and candid reception on the part of the Church ; and the object which he will keep steadily in view, in framing his measure, will be to make it, in all points, as acceptable to livt C^hurch as the general nature of the measure will possibly admit APPENDIX. 513 ^^ London, April 20th, 1840. — I have had another long conversation with Lord Aberdeen to-day, and must confess to you that his views on some points do not seem to me so satisfactory as I could wish. At the same time, it is not easy to come precisely to a point with him until his views are actually embodied in. the shape of a Bill, or are at least expressed in such explicit terms as he deliberately states will be satis- lactory to him. Until I came to London I always understood his Lord- .^hip was prepared to allow to the Church Courts a liberum arbitrium to decide upon the case of every presentee, according to the whole cir- cumstances, as they might present themselves, but he rather seems disposed to limit the Church Courts to a simple power o[ judging upon the merits of the objections stated by the people. Is this last your un- derstanding of his Lordship's intention ? and does it occur to you that a measure upon such a principle would be acceptable to the Church, or ought to be so ? '^London, April 2Ath, 1840. — I was led to express myself doubt- fully in my last respecting the character of the measure contemplated by Lord Aberdeen, in consequence of the manifestly inconsistent way in which he expressed himself when I came fairly to converse with him over the whole subject. In treating of the matter, in one view of it, his expressions were all that we could wish, but, in coming round to another view of it, he expressed his fixed purpose and object to be something in which we should have found it impossible to acquiesce. His notions, in fact, were totally incompatible one with another. He had some sense of this himself, but said that his intention was, if pos- sible, to realize them both in the measure he was to produce. How this was to be effected I could not, for my life, conceive ; and I am happy to find that, in his conversation yesterday with Mr. Buchanan, his Lordship stated that he had found it pi'actically impossible to recon- cile two conflicting objects, and that he had in consequence given up all idea of carrying into effect that which is opposed to our views, and is to confine himself to that which is likely to afford us satisfaction. Still, however, I am a little anxious until I see the way in which his Lordship expresses himself in his Bill. From all I have heard from his Lordship, I doubt extremely if he is yet prepared to subscribe to the view so distinctly stated in the extract you gave me from Sir George Clerk's letter. I suspect his Lordship contemplates placing the power of the Presbytery on a somewhat different footing from what Sir George there does. At the same time, I hope that, practically, his Lordship's way of putting it will come to the same result, so that we need not make any insuperable objections to it. My last conversation with his Lordship, and Mr. Buchanan's yesterday, ended exactly in the same point, viz., that we could say nothing further on the matter until we s iw the Bill. This, Mr. Buchanan has informed you, we are to do oil Monday, if nothing unforeseen occurs ; and then we shall know 514 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. definitively where we stand. I feel considerable confidence that the result will be favorable, as Lord Aberdeen'.s intentions are perfectly fair, and his desire to bring matters to a satisfactory issue is raost sincere. " London, May 6th, 1840. — I have just had a long conversation with Sir George Clerk, the result of which was that he expressed his clear opinion that the Bill ought to be altered in the way that we recom- mended ; and he is in consequence gone to Lord Aberdeen in the hopes of getting his Lordship to agree to one alteration being now introduced before the Bill is printed for the House. I have marked the alteration in pencil on the inclosed copy; and you will see it to be in the most essential part of the Bill ; and if it is once introduced, a few other slight verbal alterations here and there will make the Bill quite to our satis- faction, and these there wnll be no difficulty in getting afterward attended to. "iowrfow, May 7th, 1840. — I regret to say that Sir George Clerk found Lord Aberdeen quite firm not to admit at present any alterations of the nature to which I referred in my last. ^^ London, May 7th, 1840. — The Bill, as it stands, will appear to you, as it is, in fact, decidedly defective, inasmuch as it does not di- rectly and unequivocally confer upon the Church Courts a full power to dispose of each case as it occurs, according to its circumstances, and according to the discretion and conscientious convictions which the Church Courts may have in regard to it. This defect in the Bill is designed and intentional on the part of Lord Aberdeen. I stated to you formerly, in general terms, that his Lordship appeared to me (before the Bill was actually framed) to have two objects in view, which ap- peared to me to be absolutely incompatible. These objects were, on the one hand, to confer on the Church Courts a full and unfettered dis- cretion— a liberum arbitrium — in the discharge of their duty in every individual case ; and, on the other hand, to confer this power in such a way as would make it impossible for the Church Courts to give effect to the dissents of a majority, however great, of the congregation, unless the grounds of that dissent were valid and sufficient in the judgment of the Church Courts. I mentioned to you further, that at the first meet- ing Mr. Buchanan had with his Lordship, his Lordship stated that he had found, on full consideration, that the latter object was incompatible with the former, and that he had therefore given up all idea of attain- ing it by his Bill, which he intended should intrust a full and uncondi- tional discretion with the Presbytery. Subsequently to this conversation, however, his Lordship had reverted to his original idea, and accordingly, the Bill, as originally submitted by him to us, actually contained a clause expressly discharging and prohibiting the Church Courts from giving effect to the dissents of the people, where they (the Church Courts) did not find the reasons supporting the dissents to be solid and sufficient. APPENDIX. 515 This clause, and various other expressions throughout the Bill — all tending to limit the powers of the Church to a judgment upon the rea- sonableness of the people's dissents — his Lordship struck out, at our suggestion 5 but still he refused to make the requisite alterations on what we considered to be the most essential parts, and what his Lord- ship also distinctly recognized as the most essential, and stated that it was just because they were the most essential that he declined to alter them. His Lordship, for the present, seems to be very firm in that determination ; and after conferring with Mr. Buchanan you will be able to judge how far it is right to try still to influence him, and what means are the most likely to have that effect. "I am satisfied that not only Sir George Clerk, but Mr. Home Drummond, Sir James Graham, Sir William Rae, &c., are perfectly ready and willing that the Bill should be put into the most satisfactory shape which its nature admits of; and the objectionable matter which still remains in it is to be ascribed to nothing but an unfortunate bias in Lord Aberdeen's mind. It so happens, however, that the Bill is Lord Aberdeen's Bill, and it is hardly, if at all, possible to get it altered, except by moving his Lordship himself, which Sir George Clerk at least has failed to do as entirely as Mr. Buchanan and myself have done. '■'■London^ May 14f/i, 1840. — I had a conversation to-day, for nearly two hours, with Sir George Clerk, who intends (first, privately) to urge Lord Aberdeen to come frankly into our views, and failing that, the purpose is, as I mentioned, to hold a meeting of Scotch Conservative members, with a view of bringing their joint influence to bear on his Lordship. What the result may be I know not. In the meantime matters are kept in suspense by my not hearing from you as to your proceedings on Monday, or with the remonstrance or representation which I was informed you were likely to forward to Lord Aberdeen and the Conservative members here. I found Sir George Clerk much less indisposed than I expected to admit a clause into the Bill restricting the interference of the Civil Courts to a withdrawal of the temporali- ties, J. Hamilton." APPENDIX, C— P. 295. Claim, Declakation, and Protest, anent the Encroachjments of THE Court of Session. General Assembly 1842. — Act XIX. " Edinburgh, 30th May, 1842. Sess. 17. " The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, taking mto consideration the solemn circumstances in which, in the inscrutable providence of God, this Church is now placed ; and that, notwithstand- ing the securities for the government thereof by General Assemblies, 516 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. Synods, Presbyteries, and Kirk-Sessions, and for the liberties, govern- ment, jurisdiction, discipline, rights, and privileges of the same, provided by the statutes of the realm, by the constitution of this country, as unalterably settled by the Treaty of Union, and by the oath, ' inviolably lo maintain and preserve' the same, required to be taken by each Sovereign at accession, as a condition precedent to the exercise of the inyal authority ; — which securities might well seem, and had long been I'liiught, to place the said liberties, government, jurisdiction, discipline, iiglits, and privileges of this Church, beyond the reach of danger or invasion ; — these have been of late assailed by the very Court to which the Church was authorized to look for assistance and protection, to an extent that threatens their entire subversion, with all the grievous calamities to this Church and nation which would inevitably flow therefrom ; — did and hereb}^ do solemnly, and in reliance on the grace and power of the Most High, resolve and agree on the following Claim, Declaration, and Protest : That is to say : '' Whereas it is an essential doctrine of this Chm-ch. and a funda- mental principle in its constitution, as set forth in the Confession of Faith thereof, in accordance with the Word and law of the most holy God, that 'there is no other Head of the Church but the Lord Jesns Christ,' (ch. xxv. sec. 6); and that, while 'God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil magistrates to be under him over the people, for his own glory, and the public good, and to this end hath armed them with the power of the sword,' (ch. xxiii. sec. 1) ; and while ' it is the duty of the people to pray for magis- trates, to honor their persons, to pay them tribute and other dues, to obey their lawful commands, and to be subject to their authority for conscience' sake,' 'from which ecclesiastical persons are not exempt- ed,' (ch. xxiii. sec. 4) ; and w^hile the magistrate hath authority, and it is his duty, in the exercise of that power which alone is committed to him — namely, ' the power of the sword,' or civil rule, as distinct from the ' power of the keys,' or spiritual authority, expressly denied to him, to take order for the preservation of purity, peace, and unity in the Church, yet ' the Lord Jesus, as King and Head of his Church, hath therein appointed a government in the hand of Church officers distinct from the civil magistrate,' (ch. xxx. sec. 1) ; which govern- ment is ministerial, not lordly, and to be exercised in consonance with the laws of Christ, and with the liberties of his people : "And whereas, accoi'ding to the said Confession, and to the other Standards of the Church, and agreeably to the Word of God, this gov- ernment of the Church, thus appointed by the Lord Jesus, in the hand of Church officers, distinct from the civil magistrate or supreme power of the State, and flowing directly from the Head of the Church to the office-bearers thereof, to the exclusion of the civil magistrate, compre- hends, as the objects of it, the preaching of the Word, administration APPENDIX. 517 of the Sacraments, correction of manners, the admission of the office- bearers of the Church to their offices, their suspension and deprivation therefrom, the infliction and removal of Church censures, and, gener- ally, the whole ' power of the keys,' which, by the said Confession, is declared, in conformity with Scripture, to have been ' committed' (ch. XXX. sec. 2) to Church officers, and which, as well as the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments, it is likewise thereby declared, that ' the civil magistrate may not assume to him- self,' (ch. xxiii. sec. 3) : " And whereas, this jurisdiction and government, since it regards only spiritual condition, rights, and privileges, doth not interfere with the jurisdiction of secular tribunals, whose determinations as to all tem- poralities conferred by the State upon the Church, and as to all civil consequences attached by law to the decisions of Church Courts in matters spiritual, this Church hath ever admitted, and doth admit, to be exclusive and ultimate, as she hath ever given and inculcated im- plicit obedience thereto : "And whereas the above-mentioned essential doctrine and funda- mental principle in the constitution of the Church, and the government and exclusive jurisdiction flowing therefrom, founded on God's Word, and set forth in the Confession of Faith and other standards of this Church, have been, by diverse and repeated Acts of Parliament, recog- nized, ratified, and confirmed ; inasmuch as — " First, The said Confession itself, containing the doctrine and prin- ciples above set forth, was ' ratified and established, and voted and approven as the public and avowed Confession of this Church,' by the fifth Act of the second .session of the first Parliament of King William and Queen Mary, entituled, ' Act ratifying the Confession of Faith, and Settling Presbyterian Chm-ch Government,' (1690, c. 5) ; to which Act the said Confession is annexed, and with it incorporated in the statute law of this kingdom. " Second, By an Act passed in the first Parliament of King James VI., entituled, 'Of admission of ministers : of laic patronages,' (1567, c. 7), it is enacted and declared, 'That the examination and admission of ministers within this realm be only in the power of the Kirk, now openly and publicly professed within the same :' and, while the ' pre- sentation of laic patronages' was thereby ' reserved to the just and ancient patrons,' it was provided, that, if the presentee of a patron should be refused to be admitted by the inferior ecclesiastical authori- ties, it should be lawful for the patron ' to appeal to the General As- sembly of the whole realm, by whom the cause being decided, shall take end as they decern and declare.' " Third, By an Act passed in the same first Parliament, and renewed in the sixth Parliament of the said King James VI., entituled, ' Anent the jurisdiction of the Kirk,' (1567, e. 12, fol. edit.) the said Kirk is 518 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. declared to have jurisdiction 'in ihe preaching of the true Word of Jesus Christ, correction of manners, and administration of the holy sacraments,* (1579, c. 69) ; and it is further declared, ' that there be no other jurisdiction ecc/esfosizca^ acknowledged within this realm, other than that which is and shall be within the sa^ne Kirk, or that flows there- from, concerning the premises ;' which Act, and that last before men- tioned, were ratified and approven by another Act passed in the year 1581. entituled, 'Ratification of the liberty of the true Kirk of God and religion, wuth confirmation of the laws and Acts made to ihat effect of before,' (1581, c. 99) ; which other Act, and all the separate Acts therein recited, were again revived, ratified, and confirmed, by an Act of the twelfth Parliament of the said King James VI., entituled, "Ratification of the liberty of the true Kirk,' &c., (1592, c. 116); which said Act (having been repealed in 1662) was revived, renewed, and confirmed by the before mentioned statute of King William and Queen Mary, (1690, c. 5.) " Fourth, The said Act of the twelfth Parliament of King James VI., ratified and approved the General Assemblies, Provincial Synods, Pres- byteries, and Kirk Sessions 'appointed by the Kirk,' (1592, c. 116), and ' the whole jurisdiction and discipline of the same Kirk ;' cassed and annulled ' all and whatsoever acts, laws, and statutes, made at any time before the day and date thereof, against the liberty of the true Kirk, jurisdiction and discipline thereof, as the same is used and ex- ercised within this realm;' appointed presentations to benefices to be directed to Presbyteries, ' with full power to give collation thereupon, and to put order to all matters and causes ecclesiastical within their bounds, according to the discipline of the Kirk, providing the foresaid Pi-esbyteries be bound and astricted to receive and admit whatsoever qualified minister, presented by his Majesty or laic patrons,' (the effect of which proviso and of the reservation in the Act of the first Parlia- ment of King James VI., above mentioned, (1567, c. 7), is hereinafter more fully adverted to) : and farther declared that the jurisdiction of the Sovereign and his Courts, as set forth in a previous Act (1584, c. 129), to extend over all persons his subjects, and ' in all matters,' .should ' noways be prejudicial nor derogate any thing to the privilege that God has given to the spiritual office-bearers of the Kirk, concern- ing heads of religion, matters of heresy, excommunication, collation, or deprivation of ministers, or any such like essential censures, grounded and having warrant of the Word of God :' by which enactment, dec- laration, and acknowledgment, the State recognized and established as a fundamental principle of the constitution of the kingdom, that the jurisdiction of the Church in these matters was ' given by God' to the office-bearers thereof, and was exclusive, and free from coercion by any tribunals holding power or authority from the State or supreme civil maofistrate. APPENDIX. 519 ''Fifth, The Parliament hoklen by King Charles II. (1662, c. 1), immediately on his restoration to the th"rone, while it repealed the above-recited Act of the twelfth Parliament of King James, and other relative Acts, (1592, c. 116), at the same time acknowledged the supreme and exclusive nature of the jurisdiction thereby recognized to be in the Church, describing the said Acts, as Acts ' by which ihe sole and only power and jurisdiction within this Church doth stand in the Church, and in the general, provincial, and presbyterial assemblies and kirk-sessions,' and as Acts ' which may be interpreted to have given any Church power, jurisdiction, or government to the office- bearers of the Church, their respective meetings, other than that which acknowledgeth a dependence upon, and suboi-dination to the sovereign power of the King, as supreme.' " Sixth, The aforesaid Act of King William and Queen Mary, (1690, c. 5), on the narrative that their Majesties and the estates of Parlia- ment conceived ' it to be their bounden duty, after the great deliver- ance that God hath lately wrought for this Church and kingdom, in the first place, to settle and secure therein the true Protestant religion, according to the truth of God's Word, as it hath of a long time been professed within this land ; as also, the government of Christ's Church within this nation, agreeable to the Word of God, and most conducive to true piety and godliness, and the establishing of peace and tranquil- lity within this realm' — besides ratifying and establishing, as aforesaid, the Confession of Faith, did also ' establish, ratify, and confirm the Presbyterian Church government and discipline ; that is to say, the government of the Church by Kirk- Sessions, Presbyteries, Provincial Synods, and General Assemblies, ratified and established by the 116 Act of James VI., Parliament 12, anno 1592, entituled, " Ratification of the liberty of the true Kirk," &c. (1592, c. 116), and thereafter received by the general consent of this nation, to be the only govern- ment of Christ'' s Church ivithin this kingdom;^ and revived and con- firmed the said Act of King James VI. " And whereas, not only was the exclusive and ultimate jurisdic- tion of the Church Courts, in the government of the Church, and espe- cially in the particular matters, spiritual and ecclesiastical, above men- tioned, recognized, ratified, and confirmed — thus necessarily implying the denial of power on the part of any secular tribunal, holding its authority from the Sovereign, to review the sentence of the Church Courts in regard to such matters, or coerce them in the exercise of such jurisdiction ; — but all such power, and all claim on the part of the Sovereign, to be considered supreme governor over the subjects of this kingdom of Scotland in causes ecclesiastical and spiritual, as he is in causes civil and temporal, was, after a long-continued struggle, final- ly and expressly repudiated and cast out of tie constitution of Scotland, as inconsistent with the Presbyterian Church government established at €L 520 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. the Revolution, and thereafter unalterably secured by the Treaty of • Union with England ; by the constitution of which latter kingdom, differing in this respect from that of Scotland, the Sovereign is recog- nized to be supreme governor, ^ as well in all spiritual and ecclesiastical things and causes as temporal.^ Thus : '■''Firsts The General Assembly having, in the year 1582, proceeded To inflict the censures of the Church upon Robert Montgomery, minis- ter of Stirling, for seeking to force himself, under a presentation from the King, into the archbishopric of Glasgow, contrary to an act of the General Assembly discharging the office of Prelatic bishop in the Church, and for appealing to the secular tribunals against the infliction of Church censures by the Church Courts, and seeking to have these suspended and interdicted — and having deposed and excommunicated him, notwithstanding of an interdict pronounced by the Privy Council of Scotland, the then supreme secular court of the kingdom — and hav- ing at the same time declared it to be part of the subsisting discipline of the Church, that any ministers thereof who 'should seek any way by the civil power to exempt and withdraw themselves from the juris- diction of the Kirk, or procure, obtain, or use any letters or charges, &c., to impair, hurt, or stay the said jurisdiction, discipline, &c., or to make any appellation from the General Assembly to stop the dis- cipline or order of the ecclesiastical policy or jurisdiction granted by God's Word to the office-bearers within the said Kirk,' were liable to the highest censures of the Church ; although their sentence of ex- communication was declared by one of the Acts of Parliament of the year 1584, commonly called the 'Black Acts,' to be void, yet ulti- mately the King and Privy Council abandoned their interference. Montgomery submitted to the Church Courts, and the statute of the twelfth Parliament of King James VI., already mentioned, (1592, c. 116), cassed and annulled 'all and whatsoever acts, laws, and statutes made at any time before the day and date thereof, against the liberty of the true Kirk, jurisdiction and discipline thereof, as the same is used and exercised within this realm;'' since which enactment, no similar interference with the discipline and censures of the Church was ever attempted till the year 1841. " Second^ It having been declared by another of the ' Black Acts' aforesaid, (1584, c. 129), entituled, 'An Act confirming the King's Majesty's royal power over all the estates and subjects within this realm,' that ' his highness, his heirs and successors, by themselves and iheir councils, are, and in time to come shall be, judges competent to all persons his Highness' subjects, of whatsoever estate, degree, func- tion, or condition that ever they be of, spiritual or temporal, in all matters wherein they or any of them shall be apprehended, summoned, i-r charged to answer to such things as shall be inquired of them by uur .sovereign Lord and his council,' it was, by the .said before-men- APPENDIX. 521 tioned Act of the twelfth Parliament of King James VI. (1592, c. 116), declared that the said Act last above mentioned 'shall noways be prejudicial, nor derogate any thing to the privilege that God has given ♦o the spiritual office-bearers of the Kirk, concerning heads of religion, matters of heresy, excommunication, collation or deprivation of minis- ters, or any such like essential censures, specially grounded and having warrant of the Word of God.' " Thirds It having been enacted, on the establishment of Prelacy in 1612, (1612, c. 1), that every minister, at his admission, should swear obedience to the sovereign as ' the only lawful supreme governor of this realm, as well in matters spiritual and ecclesiastical as in things- temporal,' the enactment to this effect was repealed on the restoration of Presbyterian Church government, (1640, c. 7.) '"''Fourth^ A like acknowledgment, that the Sovereign was 'the only supreme governor of this kingdom over all persons and in all causes,' (1661, c. 11), having been, on the second establishment of Prelacy consequent on the restoration of King Charles II., required as part of the ordinary oath of allegiance, and having been also inserted into the 'Test Oath,' (1681, c. 6),* .so tyrannically attempted to be forced on the subjects of this realm during the reigns of Charles II. and James IL, and the same doctrine of the King's supremacy in all causes, spir- itual and ecclesiastical, as well as temporal and civil, having farther been separately and specially declared by the first Act of the second Parliament of the said King Charles II., (1669, c. 1), entituled, 'Act asserting his Majesty's supremacy over all persons and in all causes ecclesiastical,' whereby it was 'enacted, asserted, and declared, that his Majesty hath the supreme authority and supremacy over all per- sons, and in all causes ecclesiastical, within this kingdom,' (Estates, 1689, c. 18),— the Estates of this kingdom, at the era of the Revolu- tion, did set forth, as the second article of the 'Grievances,' of which they demanded redress under their 'Claim of Right,' 'That the first Act of Parliament 1669 is inconsistent with the establishment of Church government now desired, and ought to be abrogated.' ''Fifth, in compliance with this claim, an Act was immediately thereafter passed, (1690, c. 1), of which the tenor follows: — 'Our Sovereign Lord and Lady the King and Queen's Majesties, taking into their consideration that, by the second article of the Grievances presented to their Majesties by the Estates of this kingdom, it is de- clared, that the first Act of the second Parliament of King Charles the Second, entituled, 'Act asserting his Majesty's supremacy over all persons and in all causes eccfesiastical,' is inconsistent with the establishment of the Church government now desired, and ought to be abrogated : Therefore their majesties, with advice and consent of the estates of Parliament, do hereby abrogate, rescind, and annul the fore- said Act. and declare the same, in the whole heads, articles, and clauses 522 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. thereof, to be of no force or effect in all time coming.' In accordance also therewith, the oath of allegiance above mentioned, requiring an acknowledgment of the King's sovereignty 'in all causes,' (1689, c. 2), was done away, and that substituted which is now in use, simply re- quiring a promise to be ' faithful, and bear true allegiance' to the Sov- ereign; and all preceding laws and Acts of Parliament were rescinded, ' in so far as they impose any other oaths of allegiance and supremacy, declarations and tests, excepting the oath de fideli.' By the which enactments, any claim on the part of the Sovereigns of Scotland to be supreme rulers in spiritual and ecclesiastical, as well as in temporal and civil causes, or to possess any power, by themselves or their judges holding commission from them, to exercise jurisdiction in matters or causes spiritual and ecclesiastical, was repudiated and excluded from the constitution, as inconsistent with the Presbyterian Church govern- ment then established, and secured under the statutes then and sub- sequently passed, 'to continue, without any alteration, to the people of this land, in all succeeding generations,' (1766, c. 6.) " And whereas, diverse civil rights and privileges were, by various statutes of the Parliament of Scotland, prior to the Union with En- gland, secured to this Church, and certain civil consequences attached to the sentences of the Courts thereof, which were farther directed to be aided and made effectual by all magistrates, judges, and officers of the law ; and in particular : " It was, by an Act of the tw^elfth Parliament of King James VI. (1592, c. 117), enacted, 'That all and whatsoever sentences of depri- vation, either pronounced already, or that happens to be pronounced hereafter by the Presbytery, Synodal or General Assemblies, against any parson or vicar within their jurisdiction, provided since his High- ness' coronation, is, and shall be repute in all judgments, a just cause to seclude the person before provided, and then deprived, from all profits, commodities, rents, and duties of the said parsonage and vicar- age, or benefice of cure ; and that either by way of action, exception, or reply : and that the said sentence of deprivation shall be a sufficient cause to make the said benefice to vaike thereby :' " As also, by the fifth Act of the first Parliament of King William and Queen Mary, (1690. c. 5), it was enacted, 'that whatsoever min- ister, being convened before the said general meeting, and represent- atives of the Presbyterian ministers or elders, or the visitors to be appointed by them, shall either prove contumacious for not appearing, or be found guilty, and shall be therefore censured, whether by sus- pension or deposition, they shall, ipso facto^ be suspended from, or deprived of their stipends and benefices :' " As also, by an Act passed in the fourth session of the first Parlia- ment of King William and Queen Mary, (1693. c. 22), entituled an 'Act for settling the peace and quiet of the Church,' it was provided, APPENDIX. 523 that no minister should be admitted, unless he owned the Presb3'terian Church government, as settled by the last-recited Act, ' to be the only government of this Church ;' ' and that he will submit thereto, and concur therewith, and never endeavor, directly or indirectly, the pre- judice or subversion thereof; and it was statute or ordained, 'that the lords of their Majesties' Privy Council, and all other magistrates, judges, and officers of justice, give all due assistance for making the sentences and censures of the Church, and judicatories thereof, to be obeyed, or otherwise effectual as accords :' " As also, by an Act passed in the fifth session of the foi-esaid Par- liament, (1695, c. 22), entituled an 'Act against intruding into churches without a legal call and admission thereto,' on the narrative, 'that min- isters and preachers, their intruding themselves into vacant churches, possessing of manses and benefices, and exercising any part of the ministerial function in parishes, without a legal call and admission to the said churches, is an high contempt of the law, and of a dangerous consequence, tending to perpetual schism ;' such intrusion, without an orderly call from the heritors and elders — the right of presentation by patrons being at this time abolished — and 'legal admission from the Presbytery,' was prohibited under certain penalties ; and the lords of the Privy Council were recommended to remove all who had so in- truded, and ' to take some effectual course for stopping and hindering those ministers who are, or shall be hereafter deposed by the judica- tories of the present Established Church, from preaching or exercising any act of their ministerial function, which' (the said statute declares) ' they can not do after they ai'e deposed, without a high contempt of the authority of the Church, and of the laws of the kingdom establish- ing the same.' " And whereas, at the Union between the two kingdoms, the Par- liament of Scotland, being determined that the ' true Protestant relig- ion,' as then professed, ' with the worship, discipline, and government of this Church, should be effectually and unalterably secured,' did, in their Act appointing commissioners to treat with commissioners from the Parliament of England, (1705, c. 4), as to an union of the king- doms, provide ' That the said commissioners shall not treat of or con- cerning any alteration of the worship, discipline, and government of the Church of this kingdom, as now by law established ;' and did, by another Act, commonly called the Act of Security, (1706, c. 6), and entituled, ' Act for securing the Protestant religion and Presbyterian Church government,' 'establish and confirm the said true Protestant religion, and the worship, discipline, and government of this Church, to continue without any altei-ation to the people of this land in all suc- ceeding generations;' and did ' forever confirm the fifth Act of the first Parliament of King William and Queen Mary,' (1690, c. 5), entituled, 'Act ratifying the Confession of Faith, and settling Presbyterian Church 524 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. government, and the whole other Arts of Parliament relating thereto ; and did 'expressly provide and declare, That the foresaid true Prot- estant religion, contained in the above-mentioned Confession of Faith, with the form and purity of worship presently in use within this Church, and its Presbyterian Church government and discipline — that is to say, the government of the Church by Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, Provin- cial Synods, and General Assemblies, all established by the foresaid Acts of Parliament, pursuant to the Claim of Right, shall remain and continue unalterable : and that the said Presbyterian government shall be the only government of the Church within the kingdom of Scotland :' And farther, * for the greater security of the same,' did. inter alia^ enact, ' That, after the decease of her present Majesty, the sovereign suc- ceeding to her in the I'oyal government of the kingdom of Great Brit- ain, shall, in all time coming, at his or her accession to the crown, swear and subscribe, That they shall inviolably maintain and preserve the foresaid settlement of the true Protestant religion, with the gov- ernment, worship, discipline, rights, and privileges of this Church, as above established by the laws of this kingdom, in prosecution of the Claim of Right ;' which said Act of Security, ' with the establishment therein contained,' it was specially thereby enacted, ' should be held and observed in all time coming as a fundamental and essential con- dition of any treaty or union to be concluded betwixt the two king- doms, without any alteration thereof or derogation thereto^ in anij sort, forever:' It being farther thereby provided, that 'the said Act and settlement therein contained shall be insert and repeated in any Act of Parliament that shall pass, for agreeing and concluding the foresaid treaty of union betwixt the two kingdoms ; and that the same shall be therein expressly declared to be a fundamental and essential condition of the said treaty of union in all time coming.' In terms of which enactment, this Act of Security was inserted in the Treaty of Union between the two kingdoms, as a fundamental condition thereof, and was also inserted in the Act (1706, c 7) of the Parliament of Scot- land ratifying and approving of the said Treaty, and likewise in the corresponding Act of the Parliament of England, entituled, ' An Act (5 Anne, c. 8) for a Union of the two Kingdoms of England and Scot- land :' " And whereas, at the date of the said Treaty of Union, the right of patrons to present to churches stood abolished by statute, after the following manner — viz., By the Act of King William and Queen Mary, (1690, c. 5), herein before mentioned, the Act of James VI. (1592, c. 116), also herein before mentioned, then standing totally repealed, was only revived, subject to the express exception of ' that part of it relat- ing to patronages,' which consequently remained repealed and unre- stored, and 'which,' the Act 1690, c. 5, farther bore, 'is hereafter to be taken into consideration.' The part of the said Act thus left re- APPENDIX. 525 pealed and unrevived, was the provision, that Presbyteries ' be bound and astricted to receive whatsoever qualified minister presented by his Majesty or laic patrons' — a provision which, while it subsisted, was held to leave the Church free to proceed in the collation of ministers, * according to the discipline of the Kirk ;' and non-compliance with which implied only a forfeiture of the fruits of the particular benefice, which it did by virtue of the immediately succeeding statute, 1592, c. 117, whereby it was enacted, that, 'in case the Presbytery refuses to admit any qualified minister presented to them by the patron, it shall be lawful to the patron to retain the whole fruits of the benefice in his own hands.' This subject having accordingly been thereafter taken into consideration in the same session of Parliament, was definitively settled by an Act, (1690, c. 23), entituled, 'Act concerning Patron- ages,' whereby the right of presentation by patrons was 'annulled and made void,' and a right was vested in the heritors and elders of the respective parishes ' to name and propose the person to the whole con- gregation, to be approven or disapproven by them,' the disapprovers giving in their reasons ' to the effect the affair may be cognosced upon by the Presbytery of the bounds, at whose judgment, and by whose determination' (as is declared by the said Act), ''the calling and entry of a particular minister is to be ordered and concluded :' " And whereas the said Act last mentioned formed part of the set- tlement of the Presbyterian Church government efTected at the Revo- lution, and was one of the ' Acts relating thereto,' and to the statute 1690, c. 5, specially confirmed and secured by the Act of Security and Treaty of Union ; yet, notwithstanding thereof, and of the said Treaty, the Parliament of Great Britain, by an Act passed in the 10th of Queen Anne, (10 Anne, c. 12), repealed the said Act, ' in so far as relates to the presentation of ministei's by heritors and others therein mentioned, and i-estored to patrons the right of presentation, and enacted that Presbyteries should be 'obliged to receive and admit in the same manner, such qualified person or persons, minister or ministers, as shall be presented by the respective patrons, as the persons or minis- ters presented before the making of this Act ought to have been admitted :' " And whereas, while this Church protested against the passing of the above-mentioned Act of Queen Anne, as ' contrary to the constitu- tion of the Church, so well secured by the late Treaty of Union, and solemnly ratified by Acts of Parliament in both kingdoms,' and for more than seventy years thereafter uninterruptedly sought for its repeal, she at the same time maintained, and practically exerci.«ed, without question or challenge from any quarter, the jurisdiction of her Courts to determine ultimately and exckisively, under what circum- stances they would admit candidates into the office of the holy min- istry, or conS'titute the pastoral relationship between minister and 526 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. people, and, generally, ' to order and conclude the entry of particular ministers :' " And whereas, in particular, this Church required, as necessary to the admission of a minister to the charge of souls, that he should have received a call from the people over whom he was to be appointed, and did not authorize or permit any one so to be admitted till such call had been sustained by the Church Courts, and did, before and subse- quent to the passing of the said Act of Queen Anne, declare it to be a fundamental principle of the Church, as set forth in her authorized standards, and particularly in the Second Book of Discipline, (ch. iii. sec. 5), repeated by Act of Assembly in 1638, that no pastor be in- truded upon any congregation contrary to the will of the people : " And whereas, in especial, this fundamental principle was, by the 14th Act of the General Assembly 1736, (c. 14), re-declared, and directed to be attended to in the settlement of vacant parishes, but having been, after some time, disregarded in the administration of the Church, it was once more re-declared by the General Assembly, 1834, (c. 9), who established certain specific provisions and regulations for carrying it into effect in time to come : " And whereas, by a judgment pronounced by the House of Lords, in 1839,^ it was, for the first time, declared to be illegal to refuse to take on trial, and to reject the presentee of a patron (although a lay- man, and merely a candidate for admission to the office of the minis- try), in consideration of this fundamental principle of the Church, and in respect of the dissent of the congregation ; to the authority of which judgment, so far as disposing of civil interests, this Church implicitly bowed, by at once abandoning all claim to the jus devolutum — to the benefice, for any pastor to be settled by her — and to all other civil right or privilege which might otherwise have been competent to the Church or her Courts ; and anxiously desirous, at the same time, of avoiding collision with the Civil Courts, she so far suspended the operation of the above-mentioned Act of Assembly, as to direct all oases, in which dissents should be lodged by a majority of the congre- gation, to be reported to the General Assembly, in the hope that a way might be opened up to her for reconciling with the civil rights declared by the House of Lords, adherence to the above-mentioned fundamental principle, which she could not violate or abandon, by admitting to the holy office of the ministry a party not having, in her conscientious judgment, a legitimate call thereto, or by intruding a pastor on a reclaiming congregation contrary to their will ; and far- ther, addressed herself to the Government and the Legislature for such an alteration of the law (as for the first time now interpreted), touch- ing the temporalities belonging to the Church (which alone she held the decision of the House of Lords to be capable of affecting or reg- 1 Auchterarder Case, 1839. APPENDIX. 527 ulating), as might prevent a separation between the cure of souls and the benefice thereto attached : "And whereas, although during the century which elapsed after the passing of the said Act of Queen Anne, Presbyteries repeatedly rejected the presentees of patrons on grounds undoubtedly ultra vires of the Presbyteries, as having reference to the title of the patron or the validity of competing presentations, and which were held by the Court of Session to be contrary to law^, and admitted others to the pastoral office in the parishes presented to, who had no presentation or legal title to the benefice, the said Court, even in such cases, never attempted or pretended to direct or coerce the Church Courts, in the exercise of their functions in regard to the collation of ministers, or other matters acknowledged by the State to have been conferred on the Church, not by the State, but by God himself. On the contrary, they limited their decrees to the regulation and disposal of the temporalities which were derived from the State, and which, as the proper subjects of ' actions civil,' were within the province assigned to the Court of Session, by the Constitution refusing to interfere with the peculiar functions and exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of the Church. Thus — " In the case of Auchtermuchty,^ where the Presbytery had wrono-. fully admitted another than the patron's presentee, the' Court found, ' That the right to a stipend is a civil right ; and therefore that the Court have power to cognosce and determine upon the legality of the admis- sion of ministers in hunc effectum, whether the person" admitted shall have right to the stipend or not ; and simply decided, that the patron was entitled to retain the stipend in his own hands. " So also, the same course was followed in the cases of Culross, Lanark, and Forbes f in reference to one of which (that of Lanark), the Government of the country, on behalf of the Crown, in which the patronage was vested, recognized the retention of stipend by the patron, as the only competent remedy for a wrongful refusal to admit his presentee ; the Secretary of State having, in a letter to the Lord Advocate of Scotland (January 17, 1752), signified the pleasure of his Majesty, 'directing and ordering his lordship to do every thing necessary and competent by law, for asserting and taking benefit in the present case of the said right and privilege of patrons by the law of Scotland to retain the fruits of the benefice in their own hands till their presentee be admitted.' " So farther, in the before mentioned case of Culross,^ the Court re- fused, ' as incompetent,' a bill of advocation presented to them by the patron, for the purpose of staying the admission by the Presbytery of another than his presentee. 1 MoncriefFt;. Maxton, Feb. 15, 1735. 2 Cochrane v. Stoddart, June 26, 1751. Dick v. Carmichael, Marcli 2, 1753. Forbes V. M'William, February, 1762. 3 Cochrane, November 19, 1748. 528 MEMOIRS OF DU. CHALMERS. " So likewise, in the case of Dunse,^ the Court would not interfere in regard to a conclusion to prohibit the Presb3-ter3^ ' to moderate in a call at large, or settle any other man,' because 'that was interfering with the power of ordination, or internal policy of the Church, with which the Lords thought they had nothing to do.' '• And so, in the same manner, in the case of Unst," where the party concluded to have the Presbytery ordained to proceed to the presentee's settlement, as well as to have the validity of the presentation and the right to the stipend declared, the Court limited their decree to the civil matters of the presentation and stipend : '■ And whereas, pending the efforts of the Church to accomplish the desired alteration of the law, the Court of Session — a tribunal instituted by special Act of Parliament for the specific and limited purpose of 'doing and administration of justice in all civil aclions,' (1537, c. 36,) with judges appointed simply ' to sit and decide upon all actions civil,^ (1632, c. 1,) — not confining themselves to the determination of 'civil actions — to the withholding of civil consequences from sentences of the Church (Courts, which, in their judgment, were not warranted by the statutes recognizing the jurisdiction of these Courts — to the enforcing of the provision of the Act 1592, c. 117, for retention of the fruits of the benefice in case of wrongful refusal to admit a presentee, or the giving of other civil redress for any civil injury held by them to have been wrongfully sustained in consequence thereof — have, in numerous and repeated instances, stepped beyond the province allotted to them by the Constitution, and within which alone their decisions can be held to declare the law, or to have the force of law, deciding not only ' ac- tions civil,' but ' causes spiritual and ecclesiastical' — and that, too, even where these had no connection with the exercise of the right of patron- age— and have invaded the jurisdiction, and encroached upon the spiritual privileges of the Courts of this Church, in violation of the constitution of the country — in defiance of the statutes above mention- ed, and in contempt of the laws of this kingdom : as for instance — " By interdicting Presbyteries of the Church ffom admitting to a pastoral charge,'' when about to be done irrespective of the civil bene- fice attached thereto, or even where There was no benefice — no right of patronage — no stipend — no manse or glebe, and no place of worship, or any patrimonial right connected therewith.'* "By issuing a decree,^ requiring and ordaining a Church Court to take on trial and admit to the office of the holy ministry, in a particu- lar charge, a probationer or unordained candidate for the ministry, and to intrude him also on the congregation, contrary to the will of the people ; both in this, and in the cases first mentioned, invading the Church's 1 Hay V. Presbytery of Dunse, Fetiruary 26, 1749. 2 Lord Dtmdas v. Presbytery of Shetland, May 15, 1795. 3 1st hethendy Case. * Stewarton Case. s Marnocli Case. APPENDIX. 529 exclusive jurisdiction in the admission of ministers, the preaching of the Word, and administration of Sacraments — recognized by statute to have been ' given by God, directly to the Church, and to be beyond the limits of the secular jurisdiction. " By prohibiting the communicants' of the Church from intimating their dissent from a call proposed to be given to a candidate for the ministry to become their pastor. " By granting edict against the establishment of additional ministers to meet the wants of an increasing population,^ as uninterruptedly practiced from the Reformation to this day : against constituting a new kirk-session in a parish, to exercise discipline ; and against innovating on its existing state, ' as regards pastoral superintendence, its kirk-ses- sion, and jurisdiction and discipline thereto belonging.' " By interdicting the preaching of the gospel, and administration of ordinances,"^ throughout a whole district, by any minister of the Church under authority of the Church Courts ; thus assuming to themselves the regulation of the ' preaching of the Word' and ' administration of the Sacraments,' and at the same time invading the privilege, com- mon to all the subjects of the reahn, of having freedom to worship God according to their consciences, and under the guidance of the min- isters of the communion to which they belong. " By holding the members of inferior Church judicatories liable in damages'* for reusing to break their ordination vows and oaths (sworn by them, in compliance with the requirements of the statutes of the realm, and, in particular, of the Act of Security embodied in the Treaty of Union), by disobeying and setting at defiance the sentences, in mat- ters spiritual and ecclesiastical, of their superior Church judicatories, to which, by the constitution of the Church and country, they are, in such matters, subordinate and subject, and which, by their said vows and oaths, they stand pledged to obey. "By interdicting the execution of the sentence of a Church judica- tory, prohibiting a minister from preaching or administering ordinances within a particular parish,^ pending the discussion o[ a cause in the Church Courts as to the validity of his settlement therein. " By interdicting the General Assembly and inferior Church judica- tories from inflicting Church censures ; as in one case, where inter- dict was granted against the pronouncing of sentence of deposition upon a minister found guilty of theft, by a judgment acquiesced in by himself j^ in another, where a Presbytery was interdicted from pro- ceeding in the trial of a minister accused of fraud and svi^indling ; '' and in a third, where a Presbytery was interdicted from proceeding with a 1 Daviot Case. 2 Stewarton Case. ^ Strathbogie Cases. * 2d Auchterarder Case. s Culsalmond Case. ^ Cambusnethan Case. ' Stranraer Case. VOL. IV. — Z 530 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. libel against a licentiate for drunkenness, obscenity, and profane swear- " By suspending Church censures,^ inflicted by the Church judica- toi'ies in the exercise of discipline (which, by special statute, all 'judges and officers of justice' are ordered ' to give due assistance' for making ' to be obeyed, or otherwise effectuaF), and so reponing ministers sus- pended from their office, to the power of preaching and administering ordinances ; thus assuming to themselves the ' power of the keys.' " By interdicting the execution of a sentence of deposition from the office of the holy ministry, pronounced by the General Assembly of the Church j-^ thereby also usurping the ' power of the keys,' and sup- porting deposed ministers in the exercise of ministerial functions ; which is declared by special statute to be a ' high contempt of the authority of the Church, and of the laws of the kingdom establishing the same.' " By assuming to judge of the right of individuals elected members of the General Assembly to sit therein,"* and interdicting them from taking their seats ; thus interfering with the constitution of the Supreme Court of the Church, and violating her freedom in the holding of Gen- eral Assemblies, secured to her by statute. " By, in the greater number of instances above referred to, requir- ing the inferior judicatories of the Church to disobey the sentences, in matters spiritual and ecclesiastical, of the superior judicatories, to which, by the constitution in Church and State, they are subordinate and subject, and which, in compliance with the provisions of the stat- utes of the realm, their members have solemnly sworn to obey; thus subverting ' the government of the Church by Kirk-sessions, Presby- teries, Provincial Synods, and General Assemblies,' settled by statute and the Treaty of Union, as ' the only government of the Church w^ithin the kingdom of Scotland.' " By all which acts, the said Court of Session, apparently not ad- verting to the oath taken by the Sovereign, from whom they hold their commissions, have exercised powers not conferred upon them by the Constitution, but by it excluded from the province of any secular tri- bunal— have invaded the jurisdiction of the Courts of the Church — have subverted its government — have illegally attempted to coerce Church Courts in the exercise of their purely spiritual functions — have usurped the ' power of the keys' — have wrongfully acclaimed, as the subjects of their civil jurisdiction, to be regulated by their decrees, ordin- ation of laymen to the office of the holy ministry, admission to the cure of souls, Church censures, the preaching of the Word, and the admin- istration of the Sacraments — and have employed the means intrusted to them for enforcing submission to their lawful authority, in compel- ling submission to that which they have usurped — in opposition to the 1 4th Lethendy Case. 2 ist and 2d Strathbogie Cases. 3 3d Strathbogie Case. * 5th Strathbogie Case. APPENDIX. 531 doctrines of God's Word set forth in the Confession of Faith, as ratified by statute — in violation of the Constitution — in breach of the Treaty of Union, and in disregard of divei's express enactments of the Legis- lature : " And whereas farther encroachments are threatened on the govern- ment and discipline of the Church as by law established,^ in actions now depending before the said Court, in which it is sought to have sentences of deposition from the office of the holy ministry reduced and set aside, ^ and minorities of inferior judicatories authorized to take on trial and admit to the office of the holy ministry, in disregard of, and in op- position to the authority of the judicatories of which they are mem- bers, and of the superior judicatories to which they are subordinate and subject : " And whereas the government and discipline of Christ's Church can not be carried on according to his laws and the constitution of his Church, subject to the exercise, by any secular tribunal, of such powers as have been assumed by the said Court of Session : " And whereas this Church, highly valuing, as she has ever done, her connection, on the terms contained in the statutes herein before recited, with the State, and her possession of the temporal benefits' thereby secured to her for the advantage of the people, must, never- theless, even at the risk and hazard of the loss of that connection and of these public benefits — deeply as she would deplore and deprecate such a result for herself and the nation — persevere in maintaining her liberties as a Church of Christ, and in carrying on the government thereof on her own constitutional principles, and must refuse to intrude ministers on her congregations, to obey the unlawful coercion attempted to be enforced against her in the exercise of her spiritual functions and jurisdiction, or to consent that her people be deprived of their rightful liberties : " Therefore, the General Assembly, while, as above set forth, they fully recognize the absolute jurisdiction of the Civil Courts in relation to all matters whatsoever of a civil nature, and especially in relation to all the temporalities conferred by the State upon the Church, and the civil consequences attached by law to the decisions, in matters spiritual, of the Church Courts — do, in name and on behalf of this Church, and of the nation and people of Scotland, and under the sanc- tion of the several statutes, and the Treaty of Union herein before recited, CLAIM, as of RIGHT, That she shall freely possess and enjoy her liber- ties, government, discipline, rights and privileges, according to law, especially for the defense of the spiritual liberties of her people, and that she shall be protected therein from the aforesaid unconstitutional and illegal encroachments of the said Court of Session, and her people secured in their Christian and constitutional rights and liberties. 1 4th Strathbogie Case. 2 3d Auchterarder Case. 3d Lethendy Case. 532 MExMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. " And they declare, that they can not, in accordance with the Word of God, the authorized and ratified standards of this Church, and the dictates of their consciences, intrude ministers on reclaiming con- gregations, or carry on the government of Christ's Church, subject to the coercion attempted by the Court of Session as above set forth ; and that, at the risk and hazard of suffering the loss of the secular benefits conferred by the State, and the public advantages of an Estab- lishment, they must, as by God's grace they will, refuse so to do : for, highly as they estimate these, they can not put them in competition with the inalienable liberties of a Church of Christ, which, alike by their duty and allegiance to their Head and King, and by their ordin- ation vows, they are bound to maintain, 'notwithstanding of whatso- ever trouble or persecution may arise.' " And they protest, that all and whatsoever Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, passed without the consent of this Church and nation, in alteration of or derogation to the aforesaid government, discipline, right, and privileges of this Church (which were not allowed to be treated of b}' the Commissioners for settling the terms of the union be- tween the two kingdoms, but were secured by antecedent stipulation, provided to be inserted, and inserted in the Treaty of Union, as an unalterable and fundamental condition thereof, and so reserved from the cognizance and power of the federal Legislature created by the said Treaty), as also, all and whatsoever sentences of Courts in con- travention of the same government, discipline, right, and privileges, are, and shall be, in themselves void and null, and of no legal force or effect: and that, while they will accord full submission to all such acts and sentences, in so far — though in so far onl}' — as these may regard civil rights and privileges, whatever may be their opinion of the justice or legality of the same, their said submission shall not be deemed an acquiescence therein, but that it shall be free to the members of this Church, or their successors, at any time hereafter, when there shall be a prospect of obtaining justice, to claim the restitution of all such civil rights and privileges, and temporal benefits and endowments, as for the present they may be compelled to yield up in order to preserve to their oflSce-bearers the free exercise of their spiritual government and discipline, and to their people the liberties, of which respectively it has been attempted, so contrary to law and justice, to deprive them. " And, finally, the General Assembly call the Christian people of this kingdom, and all the Churches of the Reformation throughout the world, who hold the great doctrine of the sole Headship of the Lord Jesus over his Church, to witness, that it is for their adherence to that doctrine, as set forth in their Confession of Faith, and ratified by the laws of this kingdom, and for the maintenance by them of the jurisdic- tion of the office-bearers, and the freedom and privileges of the mem- APPENDIX. 533 bers of the Church from that doctrine flowing, that this Church is sub- jected to hardship, and that the rights so sacredly pledged and secured to her are put in peril ; and they especially invite all the office-bearers and members of this Church, who are willing to suffer for their alle- giance to their adorable King and Head, to stand by the Church, and by each other, in defense of the doctrine aforesaid, and of the liberties and privileges, whether of office-bearers or people, which rest upon it ; and to unite in supplication to Almighty God, that He would be pleased to turn the hearts of the rulers of this kingdom, to keep un- broken the faith pledged to this Church, in former days, by statutes and solemn treaty, and the obligations, come under to God Himself, to preserve and maintain the government and discipline of this Church in accordance w^ith His Word ; or otherwise, that He would give strength to this Church — office-bearers and people — to endure resignedly the loss of the temporal benefits of an Establishment, and the personal suf- ferings and sacrifices to which they may be called, and would also in- spire them with zeal and energy to promote the advancement of His Son's kingdom, in w^hatever condition it may be His will to place them ; and that in His own good time. He would restore to them these benefits, the fruits of the struggles and sufferings of their fathers in times past in the same cause ; and, thereafter, give them grace to em- ploy them more effectually than hitherto they have done for the mani- festation of His glory." Protest by those Commissioners to the General Assembly ap- pointed TO MEET ON 18tH MaY 1843, BY WHOM THIS ASSEMBLY WAS CONSTITUTED. " At Edinburgh, and within a large Hall at Canonmills; the IBth day of May 1843 years. Sess 1. " The Commissioners to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, appointed to have been holden this da}'^, having met in St. Andrew's Church, the Ministers and Elders, Commissioners thereto, w^iose names are appended to the Protest then and there made, and hereinafter inserted, having withdrawn from that place, and having convened in a large hall at Canonmills, in presence of a great con- course of Ministers, Elders, and People, and having duly constituted themselves in the name of the Head of the Church, and appointed the Rev. Dr. Chalmers to be their Moderator, the Protest above-mentioned was produced and read, and thereafter ordered to be recorded as fol- lows : " We, the undersigned Ministers and Elders, chosen as Commis- sioners to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, indicted to meet this day, but precluded from holding the said Assembly by reason of the circumstances hereinafter set forth, in consequence of 534 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. which a Free Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in accordance with the laws and constitution of the said Church, can not at this time be hold en — " Considering that the Legislature, by their rejection of the Claim of Right adopted by the last General Assembly of the said Church, and their i-efusal to give redress and protection against the jurisdiction assumed, and the coei-cion of late repeatedly attempted to be exercised over the Courts of the Church in matters spiritual by the Civil Courts, have recognized and fixed the conditions of the Church Establishment, as henceforward to subsist in Scotland, to be such as these have been pronounced and declared by the said Civil Courts in their several i"e- cent decisions, in regard to matters spiritual and ecclesiastical, where- by it has been held, inte?- alia — " 1st. That the Courts of the Church by law established, and mem- bers thereof, are liable to be coerced by the Civil Courts in the exer- cise of their spiritual functions ; and in particular in the admission to the office of the holy ministry, and the constitution of the pastoral re- lation, and that they are subject to be compelled to intrude ministers on reclaiming congregations in opposition to the fundamental principles of the Church, and their views of the Word of God, and to the liberties of Christ's people. " 2d. That the said Civil Courts have power to interfere with and interdict the preaching of the gospel and administration of ordinances as authorized and enjoined by the Church Courts of the Establishment. " 3d. That the said Civil Courts have power to suspend spiritual censures pronounced by the Church Courts of the Establishment against ministers and probationers of the Church, and to interdict their execu- tion as to spiritual effects, functions, and privileges. " Ath. That the said Civil Courts have power to reduce and set aside the sentences of the Church Courts of the Establishment, deposing ministers from the office of the holy ministry, and depriving probation- ers of their license to preach the Gospel, with reference to the spiritual status, functions, and privileges of such ministers and probationers — restoring them to the spiritual office and status of which the Church Com-ts had deprived them. " 5th. That the said Civil Courts have power to determine on the right to sit as members of the supreme and other judicatories of the Church by law established, and to issue interdicts against sitting and voting therein, irrespective of the judgment and determination of the said judicatories. " 6th. That the said Civil Courts have power to supersede the ma- jority of a Church Court of the Establishment, in regard to the ex- ercise of its spiritual functions as a Church Court, and to authorize the minority to exercise the said functions, in opposition to the Court itself, and to the superior judicatories of the Establishment. APPENDIX. 535 " 7th. That the said Civil Courts have power to stay processes of discipline pending before Courts of the Church by law established, and to interdict such Courts from proceeding therein. " 8th. That no pastor of a congregation can be admitted into the Church Courts of the Establishment, and allowed to rule, as well as to teach, agreeably to the institution of the office by the Head of the Church, nor to sit in any of the judicatories of the Church, inferior or supreme — and that no additional provision can be made for the exercise of spiritual discipline among the members of the Church, though not affecting any patrimonial interests, and no alteration introduced in the state of pastoral superintendence and spiritual discipline in any parish, without the sanction of a Civil Court. " All which jurisdiction and power on the part of the said Civil Courts severally above specified, whatever pi^oceeding may have given occasion to its exercise, is, in our opinion, in itself, inconsistent with Christian liberty, and with the authority which the Head of the Church hath conferred on the Church alone. "And further considering, that a General Assembly, composed, in accordance with the laws and fundamental principles of the Church, an part of commissioners themselves admitted without the sanction of the Civil Court, or chosen by Presbyteries composed in part of mem- bers not having that sanction, can not be constituted as an Assembly of the Establishment without disregarding the law and the legal con- ditions of the same as now fixed and declared ; " And further considering, that such commissioners as aforesaid would, as members of an Assembly of the Establishment, be liable to he interdicted from exercising their functions, and to be subjected to civil coercion at the instance of any individual having interest who might apply to the Civil Courts for that purpose 5 " And considering further, that civil coercion has already been in divers instances applied for and used, whereby certain commissioners returned to the Assembly this day appointed to have been holden, have been interdicted from claiming their seats, and from sitting and voting therein; and certain Presbyteries have been, by interdicts directed against their members, prevented from freely choosing commissioners to the said Assembly, whereby the freedom of such Assembly, and the liberty of election thereto, has been forcibly obstructed and taken away ; " And further considering, that, in these circumstances, a free As- sembly of the Church of Scotland, by law established, can not at this time be holden, and that an Assembly, in accordance with the funda- mental principles of the Church, can not be constituted in connection with the State without violating the conditions which must now, since the rejection by the Legislature of the Church's Claim of Right, be held to be the conditions of the Establishment ; 536 INIEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. " And considering that, while heretofore, as members of Church judicatories ratified by law and recognized by the constitution of the kingdom, we held ourselves entitled and bound to exercise and main- tain the jurisdiction vested in these judicatories with the sanction of the constitution, notwithstanding the decrees as to matters spiritual and ecclesiastical of the Civil Courts, because we could not see that the State had required submission thereto as a condition of the Establish- ment, but, on the contrary, were satisfied that the State, by the acts of the Parliament of Scotland, forever and unalterably secured to this nation by the Treaty of Union, had repudiated any power in the Civil Courts to pronounce such decrees, we are now constrained to acknowl- edge it to be the mind and will of the State, as recently declared, that such submission should and does form a condition of the Establishment, and of the possession of the benefits thereof; and that as we can not, without committing what we believe to be sin — in opposition to God's law — in disregard of the honor and authority of Christ's crown, and in violation of our own solemn vows, comply with this condition, we can not in conscience continue connected with it. and retain the benefits of an Establishment to which such condition is attached. " We, therefore, the Ministers and Elders foresaid, on this, the first occasion since the rejection by the Legislature of the Church's Claim of Right, when the commissioners chosen from throughout the bounds of the Church to the General Assembly appointed to have been this day holden, are convened together, do protest, that the conditions foresaid, while we deem them contrary to and subversive of the settlement of church government effected at the Revolution, and solemnly guaran- teed by the Act of Security and Treaty of Union, are also at variance with God's Word, in opposition to the doctrines and fundamental prin- ciples of the Church of Scotland, inconsistent with the freedom essen- tial to the right constitution of a Church of Christ, and incompatible with the government which He, as the Head of his Church, hath there- in appointed distinct from the civil magistrate. "And we further protest, that any Assembly constituted in submis- sion to the conditions now declared to be law, and under the civil co- ercion which has been brought to bear on the election of commissioners to the Assembly this day appointed to have been holden, and on the commissioners chosen thereto, is not and shall not be deemed a lawful and free Assembly of the Church of Scotland, according to the origin- al and fundamental principles thereof: and that the Claim. Declara- tion, and Protest, of the General Assembly which convened at Edin- burgh in jNIay, 1842, as the act of a free and lawful Assembly of the said Church, shall be holden as setting forth the true constitution of the said Church, and that the said Claim, along with the laws of the Church now subsisting, shall in nowise be affected by whatsoever acts and proceedings of any Assembly constituted under the conditions now APPENDIX. 537 declared to be the law, and in submission to the coercion now imposed on the Establishment. " And, finally, while firmly asserting the right and duty of the civil magistrate to maintain and support an establishment of religion in ac- cordance with God's Word, and reserving to ourselves and our suc- cessors to strive by all lawful means, as opportunity shall in God's good providence be offered, to secure the performance of this duty agreeably to the Scriptures, and in implement of the statutes of the kingdom of Scotland, and the obligations of the Treaty of Union as understood by us and our ancestors, but acknowledging that we do not hold ourselves at liberty to retain the benefits of the Establishment, while we can not comply with the conditions now to be deemed there- to attached — we protest, that in the circumstances in which we are placed, it is and shall be lawful for us, and such other commissioners chosen to the Assembly appointed to have been this day holden, as may concur with us, to withdraw to a separate place of meeting, for the purpose of taking steps for ourselves and all who adhere to us — maintaining with us the Confession of Faith and Standards of the Chmx'h of Scotland, as heretofore understood — for separating in an orderly way from the Establishment ; and thereupon adopting such measures as may be com.petent to us, in humble dependence on God's grace and the aid of the Holy Spirit, for the advancement of His glory, the extension of the gospel of our Lord and Saviour, and the adminis- tration of the affairs of Christ's house, according to His Holy Word ; and we do now, for the purpose foresaid, withdraw accordingly, hum- bly and solemnly acknowledging the hand of the Lord in the things which have come upon us, because of our manifold sins, and the sins of this Church and nation; but, at the same time, with an assured conviction, that we are not responsible for any consequences that mav follow from this our enforced separation from an Establishment which we loved and prized — through interference with conscience, the dis- honor done to Christ's crown, and the rejection of his sole and supreme authority as King in His Church," APPENDIX, D.— P. 313. Address to the Convocation of November. 1842. "The question whether we should not persevere in such measures as might eventually break up the connection between the Church and State hinges on distinct merits and considerations of its own, and I am not very clear that the view which I shall now submit will furnish any positive element for the decision of it. It might be wrong to precipi- tate the entire destruction of an endowed Church in these lands, even 7* 538 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. though we could demonstrate the securities which would be still within our reach for the amply sufficient maintenance of a Voluntary Church in its place; and it might be right to hazard, nay, even to help on, with our eyes open to the consequences, the demolition of our present Establishment, although with the certainty of extreme destitution to all our families. I will not enter on the question of which would be the right and which the wrong decision in this matter. I have no doubt that events on the one hand, and the resolved unalterable prin- ciples of the great body among our clergy on the other, will, by God's grace, insure a determination worthy of men who are in readiness to do all, or to suffer all, which conscience might require of them. But still it is practically of the greatest importance to relieve that determ- ination, whatever it might be, of all those adverse or disturbing in- fluences which are fitted to shake the constancy of men and frighten them from their propriety. It is even our duty to lessen, as far as may be consistent with truth, the force of those temptations, or remove them altogether, which might cause men to falter in their onward course, and to swerve from the path of Christian integrity and honor. On this ground I am thankful for the permission to state in the hearing of my brethren my own anticipations on that subject, or how it is that I think the matter really stands. Most assuredly I do not want to hasten your decision beyond what, on its own proper grounds, you might deem to be right and necessary. But, on the other hand, I should like to see removed out of the way aught which might hinder or even cause a hurtful delay in our adoption of what ought to be the final decision of the Church on the matters which are now pending; or, in one brief sentence, I should like to demonstrate the grounds on which, should the worst come to the worst, I look for the stability of our present Church of Scotland in these lands, even should the foster- ing care of the State be withdrawn from her, and should she be sev- ered from all her present endowments and civil immunities by the hand of violence. "The arithmetic on which, under God, I found the confidence I feel is soon told. It is not because I count on a multitude of great things. These may be either more frequent or more numerous than I shall attempt to specify, but I do count on a multitude of small things. It is not on the sti-ength of large sums that I proceed ; it is on the strength and accumulation of littles. I am not looking for much that is remark- able in the way either of noble efforts or noble sacrifices ; nor yet is it on the impulse of strong but momentary feeling that I at all reckon. It is on the assiduities of habit and principle, such as a very common and every-day exertion in each district of our land might secure if be- gun, and such as the general influence of custom alone might suffice to perpetuate. Such is the character, the plain unimaginative charac- ter of the premises with which I am now dealing, and the conclusion APPENDIX. 539 I draw from them. What I call my minimum result, because the very least to which I aspire, is a hundred thousand pounds in the year. And the way in which I calculate so as to come to this result is, that more than this will be yielded by a penny a week, not from each indi- vidual, but a penny a week from each family of our Scottish population. " Could I only get your attention directed to the figures and statistics of this process, I should not despair of winning the firm faith and con- fidence of your award. And when I speak of^figures, they are not the figures of rhetoric, let me assure you, which I at all mean. They are the figures of arithmetic, and of an arithmetic where the postulates and the data might, by a little exertion, be made alike sure. My only pos- tulates are a demand for a penny a week, on the average, from each household throughout the country at large, and a demand for half an hour's time every Monday from each agent or visitor who will under- take for the collection of it, and my only data are that, while abund- antly sensible that there are thousands of families in Scotland w^ho will not only withhold, but passionately refuse any contribution to our cause, and influence others to do the like, still there are as many thousands who will replace their lack of service, and count it no great heroism though they should convert their penny into tw-opence a week; nay, should feel it no great stretch of generosity though, instead of a penny a week from the whole famil}^, there should be that amount of offering from each member of it. I will now stop short at that part of my demonstration, although I might go upward a great deal higher, and tell of the thousands I know who will give their sixpences a week, of the hundreds who will give their guineas or half guineas a quarter, of the tens, }'ea, of the fifties, who will tithe themselves to the extent of from five to twenty pounds a year. But I will desist, and that long before I have parted company with the realities of the question, lest there be any who now hear me who might think that I am taking an aerial flight toward the fairy land of romance. Let me only, without giving names, tell of four specimens who have cast up within these few days; first, a thriving manufacturer, who is to stake o6l50 a year on the moment that we are severed from endowments ; then a gentle- man of moneyed fortune, who undertakes, on that event, to furnish the maintenance of three clergymen and their families ; then a widow, who, from the proceeds of her dowry, and her own little fortune, dedicates £200 to the cause ; and, lastly, of a master tradesman who will let down his establishment to that of a journeyman or common mechanic rather than that the Church, if abandoned by the State, should not be up- held at at least the present extent of her efficiency and her means. But I will expatiate no further on this walk — a walk, though it be not of speculation, but of real security, because I do not want to divert either the attention or the efforts of our friends from what I hold to be the solid groundwork on which the expectations I have now ventured to 540 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. announce will be most surely, and most permanently realized, which is to enlist on our side the humble offerings of the great bulk and body of our common people, small as mites individually, but of vast amount in the aggregate, because the mites of a million. It is mainly for the sake of pointing out the way in which deficiencies will be covered, and so as to uphold the average, that I have adverted at all to that higher liberality which will flow in upon the treasury of our Church from the more affluent in society. Still our chief security lies not wn'th any spe- cial class, but with the public at large ; primarily, no doubt, and above all, at the first with the religious public, who, down to the poorest among them, will unite their offerings with their prayers in behalf of those who suffer for conscience' sake. It is by their help that we shall be enabled to penetrate and pervade the great mass and interior of our commonwealth, and to perfect the regulation which brings us in con- tact with the wealth of all down to its humblest degrees, and wMth the good-will of all, never more precious than when it glows in the breast of an artisan or a peasant for the Church of his fathers, to add incon- ceivably both to the means and the moral strength of that Church, even should it cease to be an Establishment — made an outcast by our rulers and disregarded by the official aristocracy of our land. " Thus much for the arithmetic of the question, as grounded on a computation of the means or requisite moneys for the maintenance of our Church, on the event, should that ever happen, of its being cast by the State into a condition of orphanhood or abandonment. That the means do exist, not I mean in the coflers of the wealthy, whence it could only be elicited in large sums from the few, but in that state of general dissemination whence it could be called forth by small weekly payments from the many ; in other words, that such means do exist, not somewhere alone, but every where, could be made patent to the consciences of men any where, and by no mode more eflectually than by a simple assertion of the sufficiency to that amount in the hearing of the population themselves, collected for the purpose of listening to an exposition of the Church's sufferings, and of the great expedient by "which it was proposed still to uphold its ministrations and services throughout the parishes of our land. I feel thoroughly persuaded that, let the experiment be tried in the midst of an assemblage, made up of any contiguous thousand or two thousand people, called together from the households of any locality in Scotland — I feel most thoroughly per- suaded that, in every nineteen cases out of twenty, the people at large ■would have a perfect feeling of their own competency for the part which they would be expected to take in it. What we stand most in doubt of is the very thing which they would feel the least doubt or dif- ficulty about. The very part in the whole demonstration about which we, in all likelihood, .should feel the greatest mistrust, being the very part respecting which the greatest confidence and security v/ould be APPENDIX. 54] felt by the people themselves. The truth is, the very question whether, on an average, a penny a vi^eek niifrht be looked for from each house- hold of any neighborhood in which a general meeting of the inhabitants might be held, would provoke a smile from the multitude that any one should stand in doubt or make a question of it at all, and this after mak- ing every allowance for particular instances of distress and destitution. We are aware that men in their hurried and wholesale contemplation of things are apt to be carried away by generalities, and under an over- whelming sense of an extreme and universal helplessness among the common people, think that nothing is to be had from them. The only way of dislodging and dissipating that impression is by going piecemeal to w'ork, and making the actual trial in one parish or vicinity after an- other. For ourselves we are at no loss to understand how it is that the people of Ireland, whose distresses are rung perpetually in our ears, .should support, not in comfort alone, but often in affluence, the great body of the Catholic priesthood; nor were we in the least surprised when, in convei'sation with one of my clerical friends in the Isle of Skye, and told by him of one of its parishes that the people there could do nothing, could give no assistance whatever, and must be altogether helped from without for keeping up the Gospel ministry among them, when I asked whether absolutely nothing could be looked for, though even at the rate of a penny a week from each household, he at once admitted, that if I came down to such a nothing, such a bagatelle as this, it could be easily afforded. Now, it is just by a putting together of such bagatelles that I arrive at my conclusions, and I therefore repeat, that as far as the means are concerned, we could obtain — and it is the very least and lowest computation we should think of mak- ing— we could obtain after the loss of all our endowments, the sum of £100,000 in the year for the support of a Christian ministry in Scotland, without sensible encroachment on the comfort of any, without so much as the feeling of a sacrifice. " On these considerations we feel quite satisfied that there is no de- fect of means, and no barrier to the fulfillment of our hopes, as we have now stated them, in the poverty of the people. But there is another ground on which I do admit my anxieties as well as my hopes, and will frankly confess, along with the confidence I feel that there is no defect of means, my apprehensions at the same time that there may be a defect of agency. Not that I look upon this defect as at all insuper- able, for though I do feel anxious about it, it is not that anxiety which leads in the least to despair, it is only the anxiety which would lead me to vigilance and exertion. I have no fear about the means in that all is clear and satisfactory as respects what may be called the arithmetic of the question. I have my fears as to the agency, and therefore I re- gard as an object of the utmost consideration what may be called the human nature of the question. The premises on which I calculate are 512 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. to be found, but then the prenaises must be sought after ; and while I repeat that I have no distrust as to the sufficiency, or even the willing- ness of those whose province it is to give the offerings. I do have mis- givings if certain provisions are not made and certain precautions are not taken as to the doings of those whose province it is to gather the offerings. The whole gist and difficulty of the problem lies in this, to secure for every little district on which we enter an aggressive move- ment of half an hour a w^eek on the part of those who take the office of collectors ; for if we gain this the problem will be resolved, and the scheme, instead of a fancy will become a living fulfillment, passing from the ideal into the real, and the produce which might appear well-nigh marvelous to those who have neither the genius to devise nor the pa- tience to do, having just as little, in fact, with all their contempt for the visionary, and all their pretensions to the practical, just as little of true arithmetic as they have of sanguine imagination. " We have no fear as to the forming of the agency at first ; our only fears, or rather the only thing which will require being guarded against, is the falling away of that agency afterward. What is done at first is done of impulse, nor can we imagine how a more powerful or a more general impulse will be given, and so as to extend far beyond the re- ligious public of Scotland, than by a movement, if it shall be made, of hundreds of our most honored clergymen, who, in obedience to the high behests of a great and a sacred principle, resolve to cast themselves on the care of Providence, and on such an instrumentality as Providence might be pleased to raise for the maintenance of a Free Church and an incorrupt Gospel in these lands. We have no fear that there will be a very fresh and vigorous impulse at the first, but a thing of mere impulse is destined to subside, and care must be taken that what is a thing of impulse at the first shall be so sustained and so operated upon as to be- come a thing of habit afterward. It may have been impulse at the first, which, in the days of John Knox, brought forward thousands of deacons at a call, whose province it was to attend on the collections at the church-doors ; but it was habit afterward which secured their con- tinued attendance, and, let me add, which secured a regular and con- tinued offering from the bulk of our common people. And by impulse still do we look for an instant resuscitation of this important order in the Church, on the instant that the urgent necessities of the Church shall require it ; and when impulse has once set into operation a weekly round among the families of each allotted district, habit will keep it a-going. The regular periodic meeting of the Court of Deacons, in which each will be required to give an account of his proceedings, and deposit his proceeds in the common stock, will at length make of it an operation as sure as mechanism. The omnipotence of habit will tell alike on both parties in this transaction, both on the collectors and con- tributors, both on the deacon himself and on the inhabitants of the dis- APPENDIX. 543 trict for which he is responsible. The process would be immensely facil- itated, if, going back to older times than the days of John Knox, we availed ourselves of the subsidiary order of deaconesses, whereof we read in the primitive Church, and whether we look for a greater enthu- siasm at the outset, or for patient, untiring, duteous attention and assi- duity afterward, for devotedness of purpose and principle, followed up by diligent and ever-doing performance, it will be found in greatest read- iness and perfection among the members of a female agency, who, still as in the purely apostolic times of Paul, are ready to give themselves up like Phoebe of old as servants of the Church, or like Priscilla, to be our helpers in Christ Jesus, or like Mary, to bestow ranch labor on us, or like Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labored in the Lord, or Persis, who labored much in the Lord. The Wesleyans, who raise their £200,000 a year on a mere congregational system, should be greatly outdone by the members of a Church, who, with or without endowments from the State, will never, I trust, let down the parochial system, who will still continue to hold by parishes as well as congrega- tions, who will not relinquish this their present vantage ground, and so identify our doings over the whole length and breadth of the country with the localities and families of Scotland. " Let it not be imagined, however, that I undervalue the good of a sti-ong though momentary impulse, nor do I think the season of its brief operation should be suffered to pass away without having to the utmost improved by it. I have no doubt that the great and high-minded sac- rifices at the shrine of duty on the part of the Church's ministers will be followed up by a like great and high-minded enthusiasm on the part of the Church's friends, in that should a movement once be resolved on of cutting our connection with the State because we can no longer main- tain it but at the expense of our most sacred liberties, it is a movement which should be followed up without a moment's delay by simultane- ous meetings in all the important towns and parishes of Scotland, and that then not periodical subscriptions, but the instant donations, should be called for, ready to be poured forth from the many thousand open hearts and open hands which will then be enlisted on the side of our Church's independence. Whatever the produce of this great and gen- eral contribution might be on that day, even to half a million, I would not touch one farthing of it either for the maintenance of clergymen or for any current and periodical expenses w^hatever, which should be wholly defrayed by current and periodical offerings. There is a grand expediency involved in this, a transgression of which might prove of in- finite damage to the infant economy of our affairs. There will be am- ple room for the beneficial allotment of this large and wholesale munif- icence both in the erection of fabrics and the compensation of those suf- ferers whom the so-called law of the land shall have amerced in fines or damages. The danger of alienating any part of this sum received on 544 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. the first and great excitement to the maintenance of the ejected minis- ters is, that it perils the less showy, but in the end far more productive operation of those weekly gatherings which come in little by little to our treasury, and on which alone the salaries ought to be devolved, and w^hat is of capital importance, to be devolved wholly. It were prema- ture to explain this more fully or particularly at present. Let me only say, that to seize on the money raised by the impulse of a gi^eat and rare occasion for those expenses which are ever recurring at given periods, instead of laying them, and laying them altogether, on those ever-recurring subscriptions which, though individually small, will be to us yet by their summation a large collective amount of w^eekly in- comings for the quaiterly or yearly outgoings of the society. Such a proceeding, I say, were as grievously impolitic as to place our calcu- lations for the agriculture of the country on the brawling winter tor- rents which perform their brief and noisy course in channels that soon run out, and are only known to have existed by the dry and deserted beds they have left behind them, instead of placing their calculations and their hopes on those tiny but innumerable drops which fall in uni- versal and fertilizing showers on the thirsty ground that is beneath them. " I have now said all I can afford on the organization of the country necessary to the raising of money for the requisite supplies, and I will state in as few words as possible what I have to suggest regarding the distribution and disposal of it. " Firsts then, the money raised in any given locality ought not to be reserved for the expenses of that locality. All the means raised through- out all the localities should be remitted to a large central fund, whence a distribution of it should be made of the requisite siims or salaries for the ministers of all our parishes. The benefits of such an arrangement are manifold and inestimable. It becomes an operation of infinitely greater delicacy and good taste when the offerings called for in any given neighborhood are not for the direct and personal behoof of their own clergyman. He could do nothing to extend or .stimulate such a process ; but his deacons and even himself might, without the violation of decorum, bestow^ upon it their full countenance and activity when seen in its true character as part of a general scheme for the high patriotic object of supporting a ministry of the Gospel throughout the whole of Scotland. " Secondly, and what gives a still more disinterested character to the scheme, is the noble resolution announced at the memorable meet- ing held in the West Kirk in the month of August, 1841, wherein the town ministers — the ministers of the most opulent parishes, and whence the largest contributions will be made to the general fund — agree to share alike with the ministers of the poorest parishes in Scotland. This law of equal division among the clergy will give rise to the APPENDIX. 545 operation of pure and high principles both in the rich and the poorer parishes. The liberality of the former will be stimulated not by the near and narrow consideration of a support for their own minister, but by the great and soul-expanding consideration that they are helping out a provision for the Gospel in the most destitute localities of the land ; and the efforts and sacrifices of the latter will be stimulated by the honorable ambition of raising their contributions as near to the dividend as possible — nay, in this noble work of provoking each other to love and to good works, of raising it to a point which might enable them to say, 'We give as much as we receive;' or, adopting the lan- guage of Paul, ' Our own hands have ministered in full to our neces- sities.' But whether this be attainable or not, it is well that the min- isters of our most remote and destitute localities should know that they have not the capability of their own parishes alone, but the capability of the whole religious public in Scotland, to count upon — yea, more, and it were one of the most precious fruits of this arrangement, that the very oldest of our ministers — those venerable fathers who have borne the burden and heat of the day, perhaps unable to labor, yet un- willing and ashamed to remain in fellowship with a spurious and de- graded Church that shall have then bowed the knee to an Erastian domination, it were indeed a heartfelt satisfaction to assure all such that they will not be forsaken by their brethren at large, but that, ad- mitted to a just place of honor in the then free and unfettered Church of Scotland, they to the day of their death will be made to participate equally and alike with them in the joint offerings of her children. " But, thirdly, you wull observe that on this system of the equal division, right and beautiful as it is, yet did our financial operations stop here and proceed no further, then the clergy in different parts of our Establishment, with nominally the same means, would yet fare very unequally. On the supposition that the yearly produce of a hun- dred thousand pounds were I'ealized — and we repeat that most cer- tainly this is the lowest minimum we should ever think of — and on the further supposition that five hundred of our body, on her submission to an Erastian rule over the Church, were severed from its endowments, this, yielding as it would £200 a year to each, might almost make out a full compensation for the loss in many of our least and worst provided parishes ; while in our large towns, and even in the best and richest districts of the country, it would work a sudden and severe reduction in the income of the minister. It is for this reason that our financial system ought not to stop at the lowest point to which I have yet car- ried my explanation of it. There is one step more, and as far as the support of our existent clergy is concerned, the whole w^ould be com- pleted. After that the organization has been set up in each parish ibr behoof of the general fund — oi-, in other words, after that an association has been formed and put into regular working order for 546 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. the raising and the remitting of its quarterly or yearly proceeds to what may be called the great national treasury of the Church, there can be no objection — nay, it were most desirable that a distinct supplementary effort should be made in each parish for the express purpose of eking out and extending the allowance of its own minister. A weekly col- lection at the church door opens up a ready channel for carrying this into effect ; but in whatever way the thing is done, and, and let each congregation take its own way of it, hei-e is a method by which the inequality of the equal dividend might most effectually be repaired. The same dividend would come to each all over the land ; and from that part of his stipend which he received at the hands of external Voluntaryism — a principle this, w'hich, so far from conflicting, coin- cides and is in perfect harmony with the principle of a National Estab- lishment— the supplementary contributions again would be very unequal which each would receive at the hands of internal Voluntaryism — a principle not identical w^ith the former, yet not superseded either by it or even by the principle of a National Establishment — not in England, where both fees and gratuities are superadded to the regularly ordained provision — and not in the Old Testament Church, where, in addition to the tithes and levies, scope was allowed for the free-will offerings of the people. These offerings will vary exceedingly in the various parts of our land ; but it is satisfactory to think that they will be largest in those towns where they wnll be most needed, and smallest in those places where the dividend comes the nearest to the stipend that has been relinquished — a beautiful adaptation, which might perhaps cause the income of certain ministers to be better; and it is to be hoped, that of all the others not worse than before. ''Bnt, fourthly, and lastly, and most importantly of all. Though we can never consent to regard the whole sum of £100,000, which we have made the basis or base line of our calculation — though we can never consent to regard it in any other light than as a minimum capa- ble of large and indefinite augmentation, yet nevertheless there ought for each dividend or share, which each minister receives of the fund, to to be an understood maximum, a fixed quantity, whether it be £200 a year or something else, not to be increased with the increase of the contributions — that is, not to be made larger out of the central treasury, however much larger it might be made by the supplementary and sep- arate efforts of each congregation. In other words, although the in- come of the national treasury should become larger — and we think it capable of being made very much larger than the minimum which we have supposed and set out with — we would not on this account have the general allowance for each minister from the central fund, after it has reached the given amount, we would not go beyond that amount by having it made larger. It is true that there would then be a greater revenue, and so there would, and ought to be a greater ex- APPENDIX. 547 penditure ; but this additional expenditure should not go to increase the stipends of ministers — it should go to the increase of the number of them. This will open a boundless field for the liberality of oui Christian brethren — a bright and beautiful ulterior to which every eye should be directed, that each may have in full view the great and glorious achievement of a Church commensurate with the land in which we dwell, and every heart be elevated by the magnificent aim to cover with the requisite number of churches, and with God's bless- ing on the means, Christianly to educate, and in return for our per- formances and prayers to Christianize the whole of Scotland. " There is a very great and high expediency in this arrangement ; and it is made up of the three following parts : First^ the provision of our existing ministers would not be neglected, because it would form the prior and preferable object to be met and provided for in the first instance, and which would be made all the more secure that it was bound up with so noble a fulfillment as that in which it w^as made to issue, and have its final outgoing. " Secondly, it would place our whole enterprise before the eye of the public in its true character. What proves the character of any under- taking is its terminus ad quern. Now the terminus ad quern of ours is not a°provision for the ejected ministers ; it is, in the first instance, the benefit of their Christian services, and then the multiplication of these services over the whole face of our territory. I could plead and hold up my face unabashed for such a design in any company, and before any assemblage. It would and will be stigmatized by our enemies as a beggarly expedition for a beggarly purpose. It will be no such thing. It will be a high career of religious philanthropy; an enlarged and liberated scheme of Church extension, carried forward by pure, and great, and heart-stirring appeals, in behalf of a great object of Christian patriotism. " Thirdly, such an aim and a direction will not only have the effect of keeping our object altogether pure. It will have the undoubted effect of making the contributions high. We shall soon overshoot our proposed minimum, and look back upon it as the paltry beginning of our great national undertaking. The liberalities of the Christian pub- lic will be kept at a loftier pitch, when you thus supply them with a loftier aim and a larger arena. Thousands w^ill give tenfold more than the weekly pence which we set out with at the commencement of our demonstration ; and yet, after all they have given, and experienced how little they have foregone of any substantial comfort, or of so much as one enjoyment that" is worth the caring for, will they see reason for the exclamation of Hannah More, ' 0 how cheap is charity ; O how expensive is vanity.' " Behold, then, our capabilities for a great and high work of Chris- tian philanthropy ; and Scotland, our own beloved Scotland, will be the 548 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. first lo realize it — I mean first in the order of importance, and not in the order of time, for I have no idea that, let the transition come when it ma)', any of our present enterprises will need for a moment to be suspended. When we carry the Church, we carry all the Church's schemes along with us. If faithfully doing God's work, God will cause our cup to overflow, and pour down such a blessing as that there shall be no room to receive it. But confining ourselves to the operations of a great home mission into which we should then be re- solved, not only might we keep possession of all the ground at present occupied by our right-minded ministers, but proceed to take possession, first, of all that heathen territory which we have not yet been able to overtake ; and, second, of all the Erastian territory, which for the present we might be forced to leave behind us. It were indeed a great and a glorious Church extension, with the indispensable satellite of a com- mensurate School extension keeping onwardly by its side, or following closely in its train. Be assured there would bo no di-awing in of our Christian philanthropy. There would be an immeasurable expansion or going out of it ; and that on hundreds of places not yet entered or visited by any of its operations — on the lanes and plebeian streets of our large towns, on the desolate untrodden outfield of our more un- wieldy parishes. There a numerous band of youthful, zealous, and devoted agents in the form both of students and preachers ready even now to go forth as pioneers of this moral wilderness, and in whose hands there might be an instant and visible display of the Christian good which the Church, shaken loose from its present entanglements and fetters, is able to accomplish. It would give rise to a strong re- ciprocal emulation between the givers and the doers of this noble en- terprise, who would act and react most beneficially and powerfully into each other's hands. It were like the law of action and reaction in the mental world, when thus a prosperous interchange takes place between the services and the liberalities of the Church's friends : the services awakening and calling forth the liberalities — the liberalities sustaining and extending the services. '' It is not to speed, and far less to overbear your determinations that we have endeavored to set this argument before you, but to re- move, if possible, disturbing forces in the way either of clearly per- ceiving, or of righteously judging where it is that the path of duty and of rectitude lies. It is to demonstrate, in as far as it can be made intelligible to the eye of sense, what ought never to be lost sight of by the eye of faith — that the Church even though driven from her present holdings, might yet be sustained on as firm and high a vantage ground of Christian usefulness as before, when, broken loose from her present entanglements, she goes forth at the call and the openings of Provi- dence, cheered by the smiles of an approving Heaven, and rejoicing in the inspiration of liberty. You will now, perhaps, be better able to APPENDIX. 549 compare the two sides of your prospect, and say whether it were bet- ter to prolontr this weary and harassing struggle with the enemies without our Estabhshment, and the rebels within, or by shaking your- self free, make clean escape from the tracasseries which compass and impede you in every direction. But let me not forget that this is not immediately, though it may afterward come to be eventually the question. The thing for present decision, is not whether now the Church shall cut connection with the State, but what now shall be our language to them who have the power and authority of the State in their hands ; and I confidently ask, on the premises which I have tried, however imperfectly, to lay down, whether this ought to be a language of irresolution and timidity — of men in perplexity because their hearts are failing them for fear, or ready in the least to recede or to compro- mise, because of the approaching riiin that is now, in the scared im- aginations perhaps of a few, opening to engulf and swallow up the majority of ministers in Scotland ? My prayer is for an unfaltering progression in a steady, rectilineal coui-se, and that you may never be tempted to subordinate the kingdom which is not of this world to the Government of this world's powers." APPENDIX, E.— P. 362. "In the summer of 1841, I drew up the following scheme for the Economics of our Church, should it be severed from its endowments, and submitted it to the view and judgment of several of my friends : " Scheme for the Economics of a Free Church. " 1st. That Associations should be formed in all parts of the country for receiving both donations and termly payments in support of the Church. " 2d. That the produce of these Associations should be remitted to Edinburgh, and there formed into a General Fund, under the manage- ment of a Central or Metropolitan Board. " 3d. That this Fund should furthermore be upheld by direct offer- ings, either single or periodical, on the part of those who may not be in the way of remitting their contributions through the medium of a local Association. '' Ath. That the General Fund shall be separated into two parts — a Building and a Sustentation Fund — the former made up of the dona- tions, and the latter of the termly payments, unless otherwise specified by the contributors, who of course are at perfect liberty to assign either of these objects. " 5th. That from the Sustentation Fund a certain equal dividend 550 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. should be awarded to each minister of the Church, not exceeding the sum of yearly. " 6th. That whatever surplus remained after the allocation of their yearly dividend to the ministers of the Church, should be devoted to the objects of Church and School Extension, " 7th. That it shall be competent for each congregation to increase the allowance received by the ministers from the General Fund, by separate and supplementary efforts of their own. '• 8th. That the ancient order of Deacons shall be revived in each congregation, whose special office, as formerly, shall be to take such charge as might be committed to them of those funds which are raised whether for the relief of the poor or the sustentation of the ministry. " This scheme, of course, but presents the features of a very general outline, subject to such modifications as might be approved of — various of which modifications will fall to be discussed in the following pages. There is in it. however, what we hold to be the essence of every such scheme as is fitted, not only to support the Church up to its present magnitude, but so to extend it as that it shall become commensurate to the full supply of religious instruction for the whole of Scotland. "At the great public meeting held at St. Cuthbert's Church in Au- gust, 1841, there was a general exposition given by Dr. Candlish of a scheme bearing a close resemblance in all its essential elements to the one which I have now presented to the reader. Whether it was that he had seen this scheme, and had approved of it, or that it was sug- gested originally and independently to his own mind, it is most satis- factory to find that it met the support of one whose opinion is so fitted to influence the counsels of the Church. "I did anticipate, therefore, that it would have obtained a greater amount of credit and coalescence, when I unfolded it at some length at the meeting of the Convocation in the November of 1842, I was disappointed in this expectation ; and could well perceive that what to my own view was manifest as day, having all the lights both of arith- metic and experience to rest upon it, was held by many, if not by most of those whom I addressed, as but the dream of a fond and ardent im- agination. I felt fhat the success of our Church Extension (where the result was at least tenfold of what the Church at large had ever deemed to be possible) might have protected me from the mortification of so great an incredulity. But such was not my good-fortune : and certain it is, that my attempted demonstrations fell, at the time, still-born on the ears, if not of unwilling, at least of unimpressed and unconvinced auditors." The reader interested in the condition and prospects of the Susten- tation Fund, is requested, after perusing the chapter in the Memoir, to read the following extracts from Dr. Chalmers's " Earnest Appeal :'''' APPENDIX. 551 On Scales of Distribution- " These can be variously constructed. The rate of one and a half more, would give rise to a scale, No. 1, of the three here subjoined. The other two have been actually proposed. (1.) (2.) (3.) Contribution. Stipend. Contribution. stipend. Contribution. stipend. jCSO £75 £60 £120 £50 £120 60 90 70 130 60 130 70 105 80 140 70 136 80 120 90 150 80 144 90 135 110 165 90 152 100 150 130 180 100 158 155 190 110 164 The increase of the 2d 180 200 120 170 column stops here. The 200 205 130 176 first rises upward through 220 210 140 180 the aid-receiving to tlie 150 184 contributions of the aid- Both columns continue 160 188 giving congregations. to increase. 180 200 220 193 198 208 Both columns increa,se. " It will be observed that by the second and third scales no congre- gation becomes an aid-giver till its contribution has risen above £200. All at or below d£200 are aid-receivers. Let it be observed that at present we have only sixty-seven congregations who give up to or above £200 ; and that if there be no increase in the number of them, over and above providing the stipends of their own ministers, they would have to make up the deficiency of toward six hundred aid-re- ceiving congregations. " We hold that the main purpose of scales would be served by the simple regulation, that no congregation should be connected with our General Fund till it remitted £50 a year — after which, let us imagine a scale terminating where No. 1 does ; but that, instead of its rate of one and a half, each should receive £50 more than its contribution till the stipend came to £150, and there should be no further increase upon it. This would give rise to the following scale : For £50, get back £100; for £60, £110; for £70, 120; for £80, 130; for £90, £145; for £100, £150. After the selfish principle had carried up so many congregations to the contribution of £100, it is to be hoped that so many more would not stop there ; but that the generous prin- ciple would then begin to operate, and we should have contributions of dBllO, 66120, anddElSO — lessening their burden upon us from <£50 to c£40, dESO, &c., till they became self-supporting at £150. Then, and at this point would there commence our aid-giving congregations ; 552 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. and it will give some idea of the capabilities of our Church, if to avoid complexity we shall keep out of view the intermediate congregations ; and, suppose that all the aid-receiving congregations cost £50 each to the General Fund. Let us then conceive our Church to consist of 750 congregations, and that one-third of them only, or 250, are aid- giving, while two-thirds, or 500, are aid-receiving. This would imply a deficiency on the part of the latter to the extent of ^25,000 to be made up by the former, whose contributions would therefore require tn average ,£250 each — that is, £150 reserved each for its own minister, and £100 over and above for the deficient congregations. The sum total from the 250 aid-giving congregations would amount to £62,500. The sura total from the aid-receiving congregations, on the supposition that they averaged £100 each, would be £50,000. Or, in other words, from a net revenue of £112,500. we could afl^ord to give £150 a year to each of 750 ministers. This might be realized next year, could we only get rid of the enormous deficiencies of those who now give us less than £50 a year. Why. to get up these alone to this £150, we should require to exj')end more than the whole £25,000 of surplus put into our hands by the aid-giving congregations — whereas, with this surplus, and on the simple adoption of the regulation that none should be admitted into connection with us till they give £50 — we could, with the same £25,000 of surplus, insure a dividend of £150 a year through- out nearly all, or with a very few straggling exceptions, a whole Church of 750 ministers. " And let it not be said that by ridding oui'selves of this incubus, we doom to extinction so many of our poorer congregations. The truth is, that almost, if not altogether, they, every one of them, under the stimulus of getting as they gave, would remit the 6650. Or if some few did not, there is not one of them, if found by the Home Mis- sion Committee to be meritorious cases, which would not receive what would make up c£l00 from their funds — a sum as great as they ever can receive under the system of an equal dividend — a system, there- fore, which, though continued for their sakes, would yield no practical good to them, and at the heavy expense of keeping down the general dividend to its present level ; or, if the extension of our Church is to be prosecuted, of sinking it still lower. " When I think of the perfect ease wherewith both dividends might be increased, and the Church rapidly extended, I am all the more con- .scious that these various schemes of distribution should be discussed with the most perfect temper and forbearance ; and, also, that enough of time should be taken for the maturing of them. It were grievous, indeed, if, when within demonstrable reach of so blessed a consumma- tion, we should fall short of it by falling out among ourselves. Let us not give our enemies this triumph. " There is nothing which has more shaken our confidence in the APPENDIX. 553 disposition of the Free Church to become an extending Church, or at least in its perception of the right measures for carrying this into ef- fect, than a late resolution on the part of a numerous meeting of its ministers and elders, that the equal dividend should be kept up in those charges whose ministers came out at the Disruption, even after the outgone minister had been removed by death or by translation, and been succeeded by one who had made no sacrifice. If there be any soundness in the principle that congregations should be encourao-ed to make an effort for themselves by getting in proportion as they give — then there is so little sense or reason in exempting from the operation of this rule, and that forever, all those geographical portions of the Free Church territory whose ministers happened to come out at the Disruption, that the resolution they should be so exempted looks very like a blow at the rule or principle itself. And then, should the blow take effect, it will involve the restoration of a universal equal dividend, both present and prospective. Our reason for deprecating such a measure as ruinous, is not that it wuU hang with depressing effect in all time coming upon the dividend, though this must be one of its sure results, but that it will prove a death-blow to our Church's extension, and thus incaj-iacitate her for taking a share in the honorable work of making aught like a large or successful inroad on that outfield popu- lation who occupy the wide and fearfully increasing domain of the country's practical heathenism. It will land us in a most anomalous sj-stem, at variance with all the attempts which have been made of late years for adding to the number of ministers, or churches, or schools in the land. The regium donum proceeds on the rule of getting as they give — the sum awarded to the minister from the Treasury bear- ing a proportion to the sum raised for him by the congregation. The present allowance from the State for the erection of schools is regu- lated by the amount of private subscriptions for the same object. The Church Extension of the old General Assembly, under which 200 churches sprang into being in four or five years, advanced with such rapid strides, not by granting to all equally from the Central Fund, at which rate we should not have had a tenth part of these additional churches — but by a certain regulated centage, which left the remain- der, or rather main bulk of the expense, to be provided for by local efforts. Let not our Church be abandoned to the recklessness of men who, under the power of one engrossing idea, or misled by some spe- cious plausibility that carries in it, the semblance, and but the sem- blance, of the reasonable and the right, would shut out the light of all these experiences, and rush headlong into a policy that would soon bring us to a dead stand. The equal dividend, carried out and per- sisted in, wnll not only operate, which it has already done, to a fearful extent, as a sedative on the efforts of the aid-receiving, but a.s a seda- tive loo, and that right soon, on the liberalities of the aid-giving con- VOL. IV. — A A- 554 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. gregations. The spectacle of nearly one-half of our Churches receiv- ing each £120 from the Central Treasury, and contributing less than £50, and this palpably due, not to the necessities of the case, but to the downright apathy or indolence of Deacons and Collectors — such a spectacle can not long be perpetuated, but will soon fall to pieces un- der the weight and the exhaustion of its own natural decay. " We have heard it objected to the method of getting as they give, that instances may occur of the remittance from the Association being made, not of a sum raised, but of a sum borrowed, and this to canse the larger proportional return from the Central Fund in Edinburgh. And it is argued, from the possible or even the actual occurrence of such a flagrant iniquity, in one or two instances, that the system, though otherwise and in general of most wholesome operation, .should be therefore done away. It were well if these reasoners would only bethink themselves of wherein it is that the necessity or the wisdom of legislation lies — not most certainly in the sacrifice of a universal good, and this for the prevention of such a rare and disgraceful enor- mity, that the very exposure of it would prove its own severest pun- ishment, and therefore its own most effectual check and corrective ; but for the prevention of a sore and universal evil, and this through the operation of a natural lethargy, which stirs up no vivid indignation whatever, because there are so many who share in it, and keep it in countenance. When a congregation, who might easily do three times more, give less than £50 to the General Fund, and yet without re- morse would take out £120 for the maintenance of their minister, there is readiness enough, we admit, to call out shameful ; but the shame of it is not really felt, or at least not so felt as to be of practical operation, as the very existence of 318 such congregations in the Free Church iuost abundantly testifies. The law of getting as they give supplies the very stimulus that is obviously a- wanting ; and which, if not supplied, will perpetuate such a drag upon the Church as shall both restrain, or rather wholly arrest its progress, and keep down the general circumstances of the whole body. " We would not have dwelt so long on the subject of this note, but for our apprehension of its being the very subject on which the Free Church is likeliest to go wrong. And should the apprehension be verified, then must we abandon our fondly cherished hope of its ever attaining to the magnitude of a national institute, or of its ever reach- ing farther than by a very little way among our yet unprovided fam- ilies. The loss of importance to it is comparatively a bagatelle ; but it is no bagatelle that we should adopt a system which limits and dis- ables us as a Home Mission, and so confines that gospel within a nar- rower territory, the blessed calls and overtures of which might, under another economy, be brought to every poor man's hovel, to every cot- tage door. . . . APPENDIX. 555 " Before quitting the subject of this article, let me state as minutely as I can the respective influences for good and for evil — first, of the system under which each locality receives as it gives ; and, secondly, of the system under which there is placed full before the view of each locality from the outset, the share that will fall to it, when once admitted among the ordained charges, of a prospective tmiversal equal dividend. " 1st. Let the locality in question be some plebeian district of a large town, or some recent manufacturing village, chiefly made up of utter aliens from the gospel — there, with the exception of school-fees, little or nothing can be expected, at the outset, from the co-operation of their own payments. The necessary advances will have to be made, in the first instance, by a voluntaryism ab extra, though it need not be long ere that the voluntaryism ab intra is brought into action. This, indeed, may begin so soon as a Sabbath service is instituted, with the customary oflTerings at the door ; but the great and decisive epoch of its operations is, when, after a sufficient nucleus has been obtained for the future regular congregation, a District Association is set up foi weekly contributions, and these placed in the custody and for the pur- poses specified in the body of our pamphlet. The Association has only to be well worked, and it will do wonders. The wholesome habit of lending a helping hand themselves to the good work will take root among the families. Themselves will be astonished to find how much they can do for the payment first, it may be, of their own catechist, then of their own probationer, nay, toward the erection of their own church — last of all, for the support of their own minister ; and they ought to be provided with one so soon as they can raise two-thirds of £100 a year. But they need not stop there. So great is our faith in the capabilities and willingness of our people under such a process as we are now describing, that it were no marvel to us though they should raise the whole £100 themselves, so as to obtain for their min- ister, at our present rate of one and a half more, £150 a year, and yield him a good supplement to the bargain. With what delight would our aid-giving Associations push forward their liberalities, if sure that, for every £50 additional to their present annual contribution, they gained a distinct parochial economy among our former out-field popu- lation. Church extension would proceed with rapid strides fi'om one territory to another, under such a procedure as this, till all the spirit- ual destitution of our land were at length overtaken. " 2d. But try the other way of it, and as yet we have been doing little better with our out-field operations. Let the people among whom we work be confirmed in their sordidness and lethargy by the imagina- tion that all is to be done for them, and that little or nothing is expected from themselves. Let the rudimental education, under which they are made to pass, be one of selfishness, instead of considerate regard for the necessities of a Church that has to provide for other places and 556 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. other people beside their own. Above all, let the prospect of an equal dividend be held out to vitiate both the parties concerned — luUinjr the people into apathy, and, perhaps, tainting, by a most unworthy motive, the heart of him whose predominant impulse to his M'ork, as an eccle- siastical laborer, should be an affection for human souls. Last of all, let it be found, when the measure of its full admission as a regular charge comes to be agitated, that it can not be done but at the ex- pense of nearly its whole up-keeping to the General Fund of the Church : and then we may well imagine, with the indisposition of aid-givers to do all if aid-receivers are to do nothing, with what slow- ness Church extension will proceed, or rather, with what certainty it will soon be brought to a dead stand. A process so impure in its earlier stage, and landing in such a burdensome result, neither will nor should go prosperously forward. And yet, .such is the mistiness and confusion of ideas upon this subject, that people will ask, How can extension go on without the encouragement of an equal dividend ? With the encouragement of the one-and-a-half more we can make way ; but with the equal dividend we shall never make way, at least throughout the dense and, as yet, unexplored masses of our increasing towns and newly-sprung-np villages. A wedge is employed for penetra- tion ; but it makes all the difference in the world, though not greater than the difl^erence between the two methods which we are now comparing, whether we shall present the fine or the blunt edge of it." APPENDIX, F.— P. 390. " The person who hands in this slip of paper wants to explain by it the purpose of his future calls on this family, and on a few of their next-door neighbors. " His main reason, and what he chiefly seeks after, is the good of their never-dying souls. He deeply feels the obligation which lies upon those who have been most favored by the light and opportunities of the Gospel to do all that in them lies, that these precious blessings may be extended to the less fortunate and less favored of their breth- ren. It is his clear and strong conviction that the various classes of people in this city — the rich and the poor — the educated and the uneducated — they who live at ease, and they w^ho live in the midst of difficulties, or on the earnings of hard and honest labor — have hitherto kept at far too great a distance from each other, and that there ought to be a vast deal more of intercourse and of mutual kindness betwixt them. It is on this account that he wants to become the acquaintance, and, if they will allow him, to be a frequent visitor of the households in that little district, on w^hich he means to bestow such attentions and such services as he is able to afford ; and should there be any opening to real usefulness in the midst of them, so that he may be the APPENDIX. 557 instrument of good, and more especially of moral and spiritual good to any of the inmates, he will bless God and rejoice. " What he and those who go along with him in this undertaking are most intent upon, is the sound, and thorough, and withal Christian education of your families. This of all other objects is that which their hearts are most set upon. Next to the salvation of their own souls, they would like parents to have the comfort, the great and unspeak- able comfort, of thriving, and well-brought up, and well-conditioned children ; and so convinced are they of the vast importance that you should be regularly served with good lessons on the Sabbath, and they, your sons and daughters, should be regularly served with good daily lessons through the week, that they have resolved to keep by this neighborhood, and never to let go their hold of it, till they see a church raised in the midst of it for the special behoof of its families — and schools, where a right and requisite learning is to be had for the whole, if they choose it, of the young and rising generation. " We are aware that some of you are already served both with Sabbath and week-day instructions. We have no wish to intrude on these, or to offer them any disturbance. We do not want to draw such away, either from the ministers who declare to them the words of eternal life, or from the teachers who supply them with a sound ant] good scholarship. Our main object is the Christian and educa- tional good, not of those who do not require the accommodation that we offer, but of the general population, and, w-e should say, of the working classes at large in this part of Edinburgh. Our object is in no shape an exclusive or a sectarian one. But we have great confi- dence in the power of Christian truth when brought closely and effec- tually home to the consciences of men ; and our main design is there- with to elevate the moral, and the intellectual, and above all, the spiritual condition of the very humblest in the scale of society. In the prosecution of this work, we confidently look for encouragement and good-will even from those in this locality who do not stand in need of any services at our hand, yet who, for the sake of their own neighbor- hood and their own neighbors, will bid us God-speed, nay, perhaps, will help us forward on this errand of charity. We shall, therefore, cherish the hope of co-operation and aid from the residenters of this place in the walk on which we now enter — an aid the nature and design of which we shall afterward have occasion to explain to them. Meanwhile, it is our prayer that God may showier down His grace on your households and families. INIay He prosper the ministrations of the Gospel to your eternal well-being. May the promises of the life that now is, as well as of the life that is to come, be abundantly real- ized upon you. ' The Lord bless you and keep you ; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you : the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you peace.' " 558 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. APPENDIX, G.— P. 407. Income of Dr. Chalmerses Territorial Church, West Port, for the Year ending March, 1852. 1. On hand £23 2 8h 2. Minister's Sustentation 107 4 7 3. Schoolmaster's do 6 7 1 4. Ordinary Church-door Collections 85 15 7| 5. Seat Offerings 41 4 6" 6. Extraordinary Collections — Church Schemes 24 11 10 7. Do. do. Library. Local Manse Fund, Royal Infirmary, Irish Mission, Sabbath Schools, and Juvenile Missionary Association . . 6 16 8^ Ordinary Income for the year. . . . £295 3 0^ 8. Subscriptions for Erecting a Front Gallery 10117 0 Total Income £397 0 0^ Expenditure for the Year ending March 18, 1852. 1. By Balance paid over to General Treasurer £ 2. Minister's Stipend 3. Psalmody 4. Officer, and Cleaning 5. Gas, Coals, &c 6. Feu, Water-duty, and Fire Insurance 7. Printing and Advertisements 8. Church and School Repairs 9. Library and Incidental Expenses 10. Presbytery, Synod, and Assembly Expenses 1 1 . Monthly Statements 12. Royal Infirmary 13. Teachers, Treat to Scholars, Ex- amination Expenses £22 2 11^ Loss on Books during last four years, paid to Mr. Foulis , 17 3 9 23 2 8. 25 0 0 10 0 0 10 11 4 12 16 4 8 n 8 7 7 9 6 10 11 5 19 8. 2 12 6 2 14 0 1 5 0 14. Sustentation Fund, as per vouchers. 1 5. Schoolmaster's Fund 16. Schemes 39 6 107 4 6 7 24 11 Carry forward £294 2 1 , APPENDIX. 559 Brought forward £294 2 17. Other extra Schemes 6 16 8 18. On hand for Gallery 101 17 0 Deduct Income £402 15 10 397 0 01 Balance against Treasurer £5 15 9| Income for Tivo preceding Years. 1. Minister's Sasten.Fund. 2. Schoolmaster's do. 3. Ordin. Church-doov Co). 4. Seat Offerings 5. Extra Collec, Schemes. March, 1851. £ s. 107 16 5 13 80 13 40 4 19 10 10 March, 1852. ■£ s. 107 4 6 7 85 15 41 4 24 11 10 Increase. £ s. d. 0 0 0 0 13 4 5 2 4 1 0 3 5 1 0 Decrease. £ s. d. 0 115 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Increase on five above items 11 16 11 0 115 11 5 6 Total Income for 1 851 279 7 1-5- 1852 !!!.'!.'!.'! 295 3 0| Total increase on last year £15 15 11 To which fall to be added Subscriptions for Gallery. APPENDIX, H.— P. 436. "Allars, Jedburgh, January., 1850. *' My dear Sir — I have not forgotten my promise made to you so long ago, to recall my impressions of the visit of Dr. Chalmers 'to this place in the summer of 1846. But several attempts to fulfill it have convinced me how difficult, or rather impossible it is, at this distance of time to do any thing more than put you in possession of some prom- inent particulars characteristic of his state of mind at that period. " It would be quite needless, nay, presumptuous, in me to say any thing of his intellectual being, as it displayed itself among us, or of the general features of his character. Even were I capable of entering on such a department, it would be unnecessary, as before you reach 560 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. that portion of his history, the grand characteristics of both his mind and heart must have been fully developed. I may only say in general, before passing to a point, which the circumstances in which he was placed while with us were peculiarly adapted to exhibit, that being the first time on which I had the opportunity of close and intimate intercourse with him. What struck me most in his deportment, was the patriarchal simplicity and parental benignity of character which every thing he did and said so beautifully displayed. You are aware he was the guest of the daughter of one of his oldest and most ven- erated friends, before whose portrait, I may mention in passing, he detained me one day when the rest of the party had gone into the drawing-room, and in language and with s\'mptoms of emotions I can never forget, spoke of the ' inexpressible veneration' he entertained for the memory of that woman. Surrounded by the family of such a per- son— sun-ounded also by several of his old students, now ministers in the neighborhood whom I asked to meet him, the features of his char- acter, which I have just mentioned, came out in high relief. The genial and kindly interest he took in every one — the delicate atten- tions he paid to all, even to the youngest child around him — the happy- heartedncss he so obviously felt in the prosperity of the young minis- ters, as he drew them out to state the circumstances in which they were placed, and the modesty and kindliness with which he dropped a word of advice or of encouragement to them, formed altogether one of the loveliest moral pictures I ever beheld. " But to pass from the general featui'es of character, what to me was especially worthy of note was the spiritual light in which he presented himself. At one of our private preliminary meetings, before the famous Assembl}^, 1846, at which he presided, I had heard him lament, that somehow or other, the circumstances in which he had been placed had always kept him in 'the outer Court of the Temple,' and that the inner and more spiritual sphere, he had rather looked forward to. as a land of Beulah in the distance, than actually attained to and enjoyed. Whether this was the confession of mere humility alone, I have no means of knowing. But I will say, that of all the individuals, whether ministers or private Christians, who have been here since there was a little quickening by the Spirit of God among this people. Dr. Chalmers showed by far the deepest interest in the spiritual history and state of the people. It formed the staple of our discourse during the two happy days we spent together. He asked me to recount to him all the prominent cases of conversion which had come under my notice, and never seemed weary in listening to such details as I could give him. Often and often would he break in on the little narratives with expressions of the highest delight, saying it had been his life-long wish to breathe jn a spiritual atmosphere, and that it was a kind of heaven upon earth lo do so. Even before we APPENDIX. 561 left the pulpit on the Sabbath when he preached for me, he remarked what a delifjht he had felt in preaching to and worshiping with a people who had so much of the simple, solemn spirit of Christianity in their aspect ; it M'as so different from the pressure, and bustle, and stare he had been so much accustomed to, and which was often so alien from true worship. I don't know how many persons he pointed out with whose countenances he had been arrested, and with whose history he begged to be made acquainted. With one of these persons he seemed to be especially taken, whose eye had never been removed from him for a single moment, and who remained riveted to her seat till every other member of the congregation had left the place. When informed that she was a kind of poor Joseph, whose mind was weak upon all points but that of religion, his interest in her was still more deepened. And after I told him how, when the news of the Disrup- tion reached the place, she had gone into a neighbor's house, and with a face beaming with delight, had said, ' Have you heard the good news? man is to have no more rule in Christ's house ! we are to have no other master now but Himself!' he dwelt on it at the time, and afterward in our subsequent intercourse often reverted to it as one of the happiest sayings elicited by our controversy, adding, it was one of the many proofs that, while the prominent points of our controversy could by no act be made to penetrate the higher intellects in the land, they seemed to be instinctively and intuitively seized by those, who, thouijh simple, were taught by the Spirit of God. "It was by his own request that, after we had seen the few anti- quarian curiosities in the place, we spent the rest of the day following in visiting as many of the people as possible who had lately, to all appearance, undergone a saving change of character. It was, unfor- tunately, at the season when their employments took them from home to the surrounding country ; and, as I was not to intimate our purpose, but to take them in their usual guise and occupations, it was some- what difficult to accomplish our object. You can easily imagine also, that knowing by report, and from hearing him on the preceding day, who the illustrious visitor was, the people in general were more dis- posed to listen than to speak. And what still further increased the difficulty of letting him see their every-day and spiritual being, was the circumstance, that on its being known that he was in any house, neighbors of a religious character at least dropped in, whose presence somewhat damped the freedom of communication on Christian experi- mental subjects. Notwithstanding all these obstacles, however, we saw a considerable number of recent converts to more or less advant- age ; and I may especially note one house with the group that assem- bfed, in which he seemed especially taken, as I knew the people them- selves were struck by the singular outpouring in prayer with which of his own accord he closed the interview. The plan was, I was quietly 562 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. and incidentally to draw the people into conversation, which might show the inner beinfr without their being aware of the purpose, while he was simply to listen. It happened fortunately in the case referred to, that I got next a woman whose impressions of divine things were but recent ; whose impressions also, both of sorrow and joy had been so deep, that she had found it nearly impossible to confine either to her own breast, and who was by this time laboring under that disease which a short while afterward transmitted her spirit to glory, and which even then may have given her such a presentiment of her approaching end as to make her more free and communicative than others would have been. She accordingly, with great modesty and interest, in her own homely way, recounted, in answer to the questions my knowledge of her previous history enabled me to put to her, the leading points of her change — her awakening to a sense of her lost condition, and the method in which God had brought hor to a state of peace and joy in believing. Never shall I forget the scene which presented itself, when, near the close of this narrative, I turned round my eye to see its effect on our venerable father. The whole scene was such as a painter would have liked to perpetuate. There were two beds running along one side of the apartment, on the edge of which so many as ten or a dozen of persons had, since the interview began, ranged themselves, including one of our humble elders, and several individuals, who, during the two or three previous years had been turned from darkness to light. The countenances of several of these, as they were lighted up with Christian sympathy — one more especially, whose foreign and gipsy-like features, and fine black eyes, swimming all the time in tears, greatly arrested Dr. Chalmers, as he afterward told me. But he himself was the most interesting object of all. The figure he presented was not a little grotesque, but pro- foundly afTecting. He had seated himself in a corner of the apart- ment, facing the above and along side, but rather behind the woman and me. The person in whose house we were had been baking bread before we entered, and the table, at the end of which he had placed himself, was covered with meal. Not observing this, he had placed one elbow in the midst of it, and drawing out a drawer in an old wardrobe on the other side, on which to rest his other elbow, there he was sitting in this posture, with a hand behind either ear. to catch what was passing, and with a countenance so inexpressibly bland and benignant, on which the interest, sympathy, and delight of the good man's heart had cast quite a heavenly radiance, as I shall never forget while I live. He put several questions himself to the elder above referred to, as to the former and present state of thinjis, which, having been long in the place, he was able to answer, and did answer in a way which evidently deepened the interest already depicted on Dr. Chalmers's countenance. He then, as I have mentioned, of his own ArPIJiN'DlX. 563 accord, engaged in prayer with and for the little band around him, like a father, or some of the ancient patriarchs, commending them to the care and keeping of God Almighty. It was a wonderful outpour- ing, full of an unction, compared with which even his eloquence was but tame. Indeed, the whole scene was one of uncommon interest. I felt at the time, that if circumstances had kept him in the outer court most of his life, all the man's likings, his deepest affections, his whole heart were within the vail. He said to me as we stepped out into the street, and he pressed my arm in his, ' That is one of the most interesting groups I ever beheld.' And I must say, that though I have seen him in many positions of deepest interest — in the pulpit — the pi-ofessor's chair — the chair of the first Free Assembly — and better than ail, among his ragged children in the West Port — I don't know but, now that the ripened spirit is removed to a more congenial world than this, my memory dwells with fonder delight on the picture of the venerable man in this humble cottage, than any where else it has ever been my lot to see him. There was more of character, and of the highest style of character. Christian benevolence, spirituality, heaven- liness, displayed in that humble dwelling, than any where else I had ever seen him. "We spent no inconsiderable part of the day in thus visiting the people, and I could not but wonder at his physical strength, for long after I was not a little jaded with speaking and the sultriness of the atmosphere combined, he seemed fresh and interested in our work, even as when we began it. At dinner the conversation turned chiefly on Foster, whose ' Memoirs' had then been recently published. He expressed, in the strongest manner, his regret at the letter in these ' Memoirs' against the eternity of futui-e punishments — dwelling chiefly on the loss of practical power to all the arguments in favor of godliness which would result from any doubt being cast on the tremendous motive to serious thought and holy action — an eternity of woe. He told us, and with the greatest glee, his controversy with Foster, on one of his visits to England, as to the value of Parliament- ary Reform as an element of national improvement. Foster was ex- travagant in his expectations, and Chalmers, as usual, had dwelt on the moral element — the educational and religious culture of the peo- ple as the only lever to raise the masses. Shortly afterward, an ac- count of the Bristol riots appeared in the papers, on reading which, Chalmers, as if still in conversation with his friend, had said to him- self— ' There ! take ye that, my friend, as a swatch of your political millennium !' When, after dinner, we went out to stroll about a very pi-etty, quiet orchard which surrounds my house, and with which he was greatly charmed, an incident occurred which has always seemed to me one of the strongest proofs of the strength of the spiritual ele- ment in his character. He drew me aside from the rest of the party, 564 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. and after expressing, for I dare say the twentieth time, the happiness of heart which the state of affairs with us had given hina, he begseJ me to give him an account of my plan of operations in the parish since the beginning of my incumbency. The request was rather a perplex- ing one to me, and I remember well the nervous trepidation which I felt when attempting to comply with it. You are well aware of the stress which he laid on household visitations, as a means of ministerial usefulness. He usually counted it a sine qua non in the ministry of reconciliation. I had on three successive occasions, acting chiefly on the instructions I had received from his lips, attempted a visitation of this whole parish, and was as often providentially hindered. This cir- cumstance had arrested my attention, and led me to reconsider the pro- priety and wisdom of this line of proceeding in the circumstances in which I was placed, with but a limited measure of physical strength at my disposal, in a parish at once populous and extending over a very wide district of country, and, above all. succeeding to a long coarse of ministry, w.hich left me, in the highest sense of the word, no flock. It occurred to me in these circumstances, that my first and most import- ant work was not pastoral, but evangelistic : and as I found that, from the perfect novelty of the thing, the people, both in town and country, were disposed to come out to sermons on the evening of week-days. I from that time forward devoted the bulk of my strength and time to do what our Lord is said to have done : ' He went throughout every city and village preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.' Generally two, often three, sometimes four evenings of every week were spent in this way, and with the greatest success as to drawing out the people — many coming three or four miles of a sum- mer's evening to the school-houses or barns in which the meetings w^ere held. Of coui-se, with such an amount of service, and in such a parish, I could undertake no other but the sick visiting, which, indeed, was labor enough of itself in a district where the eldership had been long obsolete, and the minister was the single man on whose shoulders all kinds of labor were laid. On principle, then, and with no small fear and trembling, I adopted this course and prosecuted it, which w^as a wide divergence from the usual canonical melhod, but which seemed to be, in all the circumstances, the wisest and most scriptural, till, as the result of it, a real spiritual flock should be formed, among whom pastoral visits would be apposite and profitable. All this I made a frank confession of to Dr. Chalmers, as frank as my timidity would allow me to do. And never shall I forget the way in which he received the half-apologetical statement. 'You know,' he said, in substance, 'the stress, the great stress I lay on household visitings. In usual circum- stances, the shortest way to a man's heart is to go into his house. Still, however, this is but a means to an end. The end is lodging the Gospel in the hearts of sinners, and thus bringing them to Christ. If APPENDIX. 561 this be gained, it matters not how. It has been gained to so great an extent with you, that you seem to have a divine sanction to the wisdom of the means. In the circumstances, you did entirely right — with the result foreseen, I would have broken through all old customs and done the same. The result is every thing — the salvation of souls !' I felt at the time, and have often thought since, considering the amazing tenacity with which he held his favorite points, that the warmth and cordiality with which he uttered these sentiments formed one of the strongest testimonials to the power of the spiritual principle which, often hidden from superficial observers by the very apparatus it was ever setting and keeping in motion, reigned dominant in his soul. No man in our day, or perhaps in any day since Luther, has more fully and purely imbibed the spirit and essence of primitive Christianity. Separating it from all mere accessories, and means of spreading, and modes of expressing it, the soul of Christianity, which is love, seemed again embodied in his large and congenial nature. '' A similar incident occurred on the evening of this day. He had begged me to convene a meeting in our vestry or vestibule of as many members of the surrounding Deacons' Courts and Collectors as could attend, that he might address them on his favorite scheme — the Sus- tentation Fund. He was most rigid in excluding all others but the above classes, and no persuasions could induce him to make it any thing but a quiet private meeting. Yet when it was opened, and he had spoken but a few prefatory sentences on financial matters, he turned round to me, and with that delicacy which so characterized him, asked if he might address them on another and more spiritual topic. He then told them that he had no heart to pursue his favorite theme at pres- ent ; expressed the hearty gladness which he had felt in the spiritual atmosphere he had been breathing during the day, and in all he had seen and heard; after which he broke out into a most animated exhortation on spiritual matters, pressing all who were really Christians to throw in their separate mites to such a blessed and holy cause as seemed to be in progress among them. I need not tell you, who know with what ardor he had thrown his whole soul into the great Financial Scheme of our Church, what an act of almost involuntary homage his nature here again paid to the superiority of the spiritual element, and how plainly the incident brings out the fact, that behind the immense machinery which all his life long he was either constructing or working, there sat enthroned in his inner being a high and holy principle of life, which, often itself unseen, gave form and action to ever}'' thing. '■ Before bringing my rambling reminiscences to a close, let me men- tion a little circumstance which proves with what energy, even at this late day, the good man was prosecuting the divine life. He was going out one morning for a drive, and vastly happy his benignant nature was at the thought of being driven bv a voung student whom he expected 566 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. ere long to be under his own care — the son of his host. A large portly octavo volume peered out from his wide-mouthed great-coat pocket. He noticed me smiling at this somewhat odd-like vade-mecum (or a summer morning drive through a beautiful country, and good-naturedly extracting the old musty volume from his pocket, asked me if I knew the book. It happened to be a volume of Bishop Patrick's Comment- ary. Ex pede Herculem. "I am sorry these are all the reminiscences I can now give you of a visit which left a most happy and hallowed impression not only on my- self and those privileged to be in nearest contact with him, but, I may say, on the whole place — the benignity and goodness of the man eclips- ing even his greatness, and leaving such an odor behind as made one feel ' 'twas even as if an angel shook his wings.' "With every wish and prayer for the successful accomplishment of your truly great work, a fitting memorial of such a man, believe me ever, my dear sir, very truly yours, John Purves." APPENDIX, I.— P. 444. At the request of the Rev. Dr. Smyth, of Charleston, Dr. Chalmers addressed to him the following letter : " Edinburgh, 25^A September, 1844. " My deap. Sir — I do not need to assure you how little 1 sympa- thize with those who — because slavery happens to prevail in the South- ern States of America — would unchristianize that whole region ; and who even carry their extravagance so far as to affirm that, so long as it subsists, no fellowship or interchange of good offices should take place with its churches, or its ministers. " As a friend to the universal virtue and liberty of mankind, I re- joice in the prospect of those days when slavery shall be banished from the face of the earth ; but, most assuredly, the wholesale style of excommunication, contended for by some, is not the way to hasten forward this blissful consummation. "Few things would afford me greater satisfaction than to hear of a commencement in your country of that process by which the labor of freemen might be substituted for that of slaves. As I mentioned to you. I was exceedingly struck, so far back as twenty-five years ago, by the description of such a process in Humboldt's Travels through Spanish South America, This was long anterior to the abolition of slavery in the British Colonies: and such was the confidence I then felt in its efficacy, that I ventured to draw out a sketch of the Spanish plan, which, if adopted at the time, might have insured a far safer and even earlier emancipation than took place afterward. You will find my account of it in the twelfth volume of my works, from page 395 and onward. APPENDIX. 567 "I have not been able to engage in any sort of public business since I had the pleasure of meeting with you ; but I observe that in our As- sembly's Commission, a few weeks back, the subject of American slavery was entertained. I do hope that the resolutions which they have adopted will prove satisfactory. "I ieel it a great acquisition that I have made your acquaintance. We owe you much, and I trust the ministers of the Free Church of Scotland will ever entertain a grateful sense of your able and disinter- ested services. Do believe me, my dear sir, yours most respectfullv and truly, Thomas Chalmers." The publication of this letter led to a demand upon Dr. Chalmers by the Anti-Slavery Society of Edinburgh of a disclaimer or explanation of the sentiments which it expressed ; in consequence of which he pub- lished the following letter in the " Witness'' newspaper: " MoRNiNGsiDE, 12th Matj, 1845. " My dear Sir — You will recollect that some months ago, there were communications held with you on the subject of American slave- ry, and.that in these there was the challenge or crimination, of myself, as having given forth a most inadequate deliverance on the evils of the system. At that time I looked forward to the opportunity of sharing in the discussion which this question will probably give rise to at the next meeting of our General Assembly. But as that expectation will not now be realized, I have to crave your permission for coming for- ward with a very brief and general exposition of my views, in the col- umns of your newspaper. "1. Slavery, like war, is a great evil; and there is no philanthropist, who bears an enlightened regard either to the virtue or happiness of our species, but must desire the final abolition of them from the face of the earth, and must also feel it his duty to support the best and likeliest measures for speeding onward so blissful a consummation. Yet, destructive and demoralizing as both are, inimical as Christianity is to all violence, and to all vice, it follows not that there may not be a Christian soldier, and neither does it follow that there may not be a Christian slaveholder. Let the moral atmosphere of both be as un- friendly as they may to the growth either of religion or of humanity, still it holds experimentally true, that within the limits of the delete- rious influence, and not of course by the influence, but in spite of it, the most exalted specimens of piety and worth are to be found. The Colonel Gardiner of Scotland, and the Mr. Macdonough of America, are not the singular, and we should hope, not the rare instances of either kind ; and they demonstrate, that vitiating as each of these systems is, and prolific of the most frightful and revolting atrocities that have ever disfigured the sad history of our race, yet that neither is incompatible 568 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. with the personal Christianity of those who have actually and person- ally to do with them. This is perfectly consistent with the fact, that all the tendencies of the Christian religion are opposed to war, and opposed to slavery, insomuch that the days of universal Christianity will be days of universal peace, and days of universal and equal liberty for all men. " 2. Distinction ought to be made between the character of a system, and the character of the persons whom circumstances have implicated therewith ; nor would it always be just, if all the recoil, and all the horror, wherewith the former is contemplated, were visited in the form of condemnation, or of moral indignancy, upon the latter. Slavery we hold to be a system chargeable with atrocities and evils, often the most hideous and the most appalling which have either afflicted or deformed our species. Yet we must not therefore say of every man who has been born within the confines of a territory accursed by its presence — who has grown up and become familiar with its sickening spectacles — who not only by habit has been inured to such tranactions, and such sights, as would sicken the heart of a stranger that for the first time had entered upon a region of slavery, but who by inheritance is him- self the owner of slaves — we are not to say of him, that unless, by an act of violence on all those possessory and proprietary feelings which exist in such strength within every bosom, he make the resolute sacri- fice of these, and, renouncing his property in slaves, renounce the all which belongs to him — we are not to say that, unless this surrender is made, he therefore is not a Christian, and should be treated as an out- cast from all the distinctions or the privileges of a Christian society. The truth is, that, according to all the laws and the likelihoods of human nature, the very men who are now looking at the object ab extra, and in the character, it may be, of zealous Abolitionists, would, if placed from infancy in the condition, and exposed through life to all the besetting influences which operate on the mind of the slaveholder, have been those very slaveholders themselves — the whole system of whose social economy they do well in denouncing, and in laboring to extirpate from the face of the earth; — yet, would they often sin, not- withstanding, both against truth and charity, if, by a sweeping and universal charge, they were to denounce all who partake of this system, nay, live upon the profits of it, as individually void of humanity and honor, or void of Christian principle. There are various methods — various lines of procedure and policy, on which philanthropists and patriots might enter, and join their forces for the abolition of slavery. The most unjustifiable — and, let me add, the most unwise and least effectual of these, were to pronounce a wholesale anathema, by which to unchristianize, or to pass a general sentence of excommunication on slaveholders. " 3. We deny not the vitiating tendency of slavery on the hearts and APPENDIX. 569 the characters of all who are engaged in it ; and let us concede, that in virtue of these, a greater number — if an inventory could be taken of them — of inhuman and licentious, of barbarous and brulalized men, are to be found in the middle and upper classes of society, throughout the slaveholding States of America, than throughout those other States which have so nobly rid themselves of this enormous evil. Now, what effect ought this admission to have upon the question? Not that slave- holding shall simply, and per se, infer exclusion from the ordinances of the gospel, but that, as many of the vices which slaveholding tends to generate and to multiply infer this exclusion, there will, and because of these vices, be a more frequent call for ecclesiastical discipline in the slaveholding congregations. The Apostle tells us not to keep com- pany— not to hold Christian fellowship, if ' any man that is called a bi-other be a fox-nicator, or covetous, or an idoiator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner.' Should any such, then, present himself for admission to the table of the Lord, there is a clear scriptural war- rant for his debarment from this, and all the other privileges of Church membership ; not, however, on the ground of his being a slaveholder., but on the ground of one or other of those vices which exist, it is to be feared, in greatest force and frequency, wherever there exist the habits and the temptations of slaveholding. The magnitude of the temptation can never be held an alleviation of the crime, so as to exempt the slaveholder, who has fallen into it, from the proper and the prescribed discipline, else there is an end of all Christian morality. Far less can the magnitude of the temptation to laxity of discipline, or to pass over the delinquencies of a wealthy and influential slave- holder, exempt any Christian Church from the duty of an impartial, and pure, and righteous government over all its members — else not only may that Chui'ch present a hideous mass of corruption, but every other Church in Christendom, which connives at it, contracts thereby a blemish and a deformity, wiiich must and which ought to injure its otherwise fair reputation. Let every man, be he a slaveholder or not, be cast out from the brotherhood of the Christian ordinances, who falls into any of the vices which are here enumerated ; and let the brother- hood of every church be disowned which is found to tolerate these vices in its members, be they high or low. Nay, should it be found in any instance that the wealthy oppressor meets with an indulgence which is not shown to the humbler delinquents of the congregation — let the church be all the more indignantly denounced as unworthy of fellowship or recognition, and its brotherhood be disowned by the other Churches of Christ. When we have got thus far into the argument, we come within sight of a clear principle — a comfort which we did not enjoy so long as the demand was made upon us for the excom- munication of all slaveholders, or for the wholesale excommunication of all Churches that were found to have the names of slaveholders on 570 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. the roll of their communicants. Our understanding of Chri-stianity is, that it deals not with civil or political institutions, but that it deals with persons and with ecclesiastical institutions, and that the object of these last is to operate directly and proximately with the most wholesome effect on the consciences and the character of persons. In conformity with this view, a purely and rightly administered Church will exclude from the ordinances, not any man as a slaveholder, but every man, whether slaveholder or not, as licentious, as intemperate, as dishonest. Should any single American Church be found to have acted otherwise, let it, while the imputation rests upon it, and it remains unreformed, be treated as an outcast from all other Churches. Nay, should the corrupt proceeding be carried up by appeal to an American Presbytery, and be sanctioned or tolerated there, let all countenance and com- munion with such a Presbytery be suspended. Last of all, let the Supreme Court — The General Assembly of the American Presbyterian Church — be convicted of having passed a corrupt sentence, which carries in it the principle, and brings along with it the practice, of a toleration for undoubted moral delinquencies — and then the only cor- respondence, we trust, which the Free Church of Scotland would con- sent to hold with the Presbyterian body of America, would be that of grave and solemn remonstrance because of the dishonor done by them to our common Lord. "4. We hope that our Free Church will never deviate to the right or the left from the path of undoubted principle. But we hope, on the other hand, that she will not be frightened from her propriety, or forced by clamor of any sort to outrun her own convictions, so as to adopt, at the bidding of other parties, a new and factitious principle of administration, for lohich she can see no authority in Scripture, and of which she can gather no traces in the history or practice of the Churches in Apostolic times. " Would the Abolitionists, then, have their eye on such cases, and hold them forth in authentic exhibition to the world, so that the Churches of distant lands may be made to know w-hat the laxity of discipline is which obtains throughout the Churches and Church Courts of America. Let them verify the instances, and tell us of them in detail — what the particular Churches are where men are recognized as members, and live in the undisturbed possession of church privileges, notwithstanding their concubinage, or their cruelty, or the gross vio- lence and villainy of any sort, which might not only be charged upon, but have been actually made good against them ; and then we shall know, and in the light of clearest scriptural principle, how to guide our pro- ceedinffs, both with the Churches which sanction such enormities by their forbearance, and with Church Courts which, by their corrupt pdicial sentences, may be well said to frame these iniquities by a law. This were a far more likely process whereby to augment the moral APPENDIX. :n 1 force of that opposition to slavery, which, as one of its most determined and implacable enemies, we hope is growing and gathering every day — not hy forcing upon us a new principle, and requiring at our hands an altogether neiv practice, unknown to the Churches of other days — even that slaveholding is in itself that sort of ecclesiastical felony ■which must be visited by a sentence of exile for shorter or longer pei-iods from the ecclesiastical community. There are other felonies of which we have never doubted — vices which ought, by the prece- dents of all ages, to be thus dealt and proceeded with ; and if these vices do follow in the train of slaveholding with greater frequency than in the train of any other occupation, let this, by the exercise of a virtuous Church discipline, be made palpable to all, and another pow- erful blow will thus be inflicted on the system — another telling argu- ment be added to the successive strokes of that catapulta which is at length to bring down this monster evil, with all its horrors and teeming abominations. It is thus that the title of a pamphlet, which I lately saw, might be reversed ; and the American Churches, instead of the props, ' as they are represented, of American slavery, might be the pioneers to undermine its foundations, and bring it to its final over- throw— not by aggression from without, but by the force of sentiment and principles from within — a force which, to the immortal honor of the Free States of America, has alreadly told spontaneously, yet with full eflect, on more than half the provinces of the Union. But I must repeat my conviction, that slavery will not be at all shaken — it will be strengthened and stand its ground — if assailed through the medium of that most questionable and ambiguous principle ivhich the Abolitionists are noic laboring to force upon our acceptance, even that slaveholding is in itself a ground of exclusion from the Christian sacraments — instead of being assailed through the medium of such other and obvious principles as come home to the hearts and the consciences of all men. "6. There is one reformation about w^hich, for ourselves, we feel no difficulty, and that is, how to proceed against slaveholding minis- ters, or ministers who hold slaves, not as the masters of a household, who must have them for domestic servants, but as masters who com- bine this worldly with their sacred or professional occupation. In our own churches we should lay an interdict on our ministers here against their holding any secular trade or employment, lest it should secularize them; and a fortiori, we would lay an interdict on minis- ters there from holding slaves for profit, lest it should brutalize them. We must be forgiven the harshness of this expression. We do not say that this is the invariable effect of slaveholding in America, and therefore it is that we resist the proposed excommunication of all slave- holdei-s. But we say, that if not the universal eflect, it is at least the tendency of the system; and we hold it the bounden duty of every Church to restrain its ministers from all which might put to hazard 572 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. either their characters or reputations, and so to keep all vitiating ten- dencies and temptations away from them. " 7. But. again, not only is there a wrong principle involved in the demand u^hich these Abolitionists now make on the Free Church of Scotland : it is in itself a wrong procedure for hastening forward that object, for the accomplishment of which we are alike desirous with themselves ; or, in other words, it is not only wrong in principle, but hurtful in eflfect. Should we concede to their demands, then, speak- ing in the terms of our opinion, we incur the discredit (and in propor- tion to that discredit we damage our usefulness as a Church) of having given in — and at the bidding of another party — to a factitious and new principle, which not only wants, but which contravenes, the authority of Scripture and of Apostolic example, and, indeed, has only been heard of in Christendom within these few" years, as if gotten up for an occasion, instead of being drawn from the repositories of that truth which is immutable and eternal — even the principle that no slave- holder should be admitted to a participation in the Christian sacra- ments. We think, therefore, that it is a demand which ought not, and of which it is our expectation and our wish that it will not be complied with : — a refusal this, however, which, though right and ne- cessary on other grounds, may be conceived of on the ground of our indifference to the evils of slavery; and thus most unwarrantably and unwisely will these Abolitionists have conjured up what the enemies of their righteous cause might construe into a testimony on the side of slavery — when, in fact, we are all most intent on the extinction of it, as one of the greatest moral nuisances that ever infested the face of our earth. To illustrate our meaning still further, let me suppose that ray distinguished friend, than whom none within the circle of my acquaintance is more devoted to the cause of Christ, or more strenuous in his opposition to slavery, and all its abominations, John Joseph Gurney — let me put the case of his being required to denounce slavery right and left, along the whole path of that apostolic journey which he made some years ago in America, when he visited and traveled through it for the main object of declaring the blessed gospel of salva- tion to all, whether bond or free — let me imagine that, in the prosecu- tion of this high errand, some zealous and obtrusive Abolitionist had crossed him in his way,^ and required of him to mix up on all occa- sions with the message of reconciliation to God, the avowals of his de- testation for slavery, and of his opinion that none who were enoraged in it could either possess the character, or be entitled to the privileges 1 Though witliin these few days I have had rpason to know that the Abolitionists acted to Mr. Gurney on ihis occasion with greater wisdom and forbearance than they a-'e now doinc l»y the Free Church of Scotland, I have certainly seen an American piimphJet, full of tlie most outrageous abuse, against tiiis noble-hearted Christian and philanthropist, because he did not come up to the full extent of the requirements and speculatioas of its author, in his dealings with slavery. APPENDIX. 573 of Christians. We appeal to the common sense of all men, whether this be the way by which either the missionary cause on the one hand, or the philanthropic cause on the other hand, would have best been expedited. The truth is, that had the two been implicated and bound together, in the way that some did i-equire of him, it would have proved most injurious to both. And, therefore, did Mr. Gurney act with far greater wisdom than at least certain of his advisers would have had him to do, when he kept clear of the one topic, and so awakened no prejudices or heart-burnings against the gospel of Christ, at the time that he was employed in the enforcement of the other topic. And yet he acquitted himself rightly of, and did full justice to both. For after he had accomplished his purely evangelical tour, and before leaving America, he held a conference which, I believe, lasted for days to- gether, with members of Congress, and many of the most influential men in America, and then gave his public testimony on the evils of the system of slavery — in a style worthy, we have no doubt, of the cause, and worthy of his own connection with those illustrious names — the Frys, and the Gurneys, and the Buxtons, and the Clarksons, and the Wilberforces — who for two generations have held unsparing and uncompromising warfare with this system of foul iniquity and horror. " 8. But whatever the merit or demerit of their proceedings with Mr. Gurney, there is at least one undoubted specimen of that inju- dicious meddling with parties engaged in another good work beside their own, which was fitted only to embarrass the operations, and im- pede the success, both of their own righteous cause, and of that with which they were pleased to interfere. We have before us the Thirty- fifth Report of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- sions, where, among other articles, there is one designated, ' Memo- rials on Slavery.' I would recommend the insertion in full, both of the memorials and of the deliverances thereupon as far as they are given, in 3-our Witness newspaper, as holding out what we deem a most in- structive example for all other Christian bodies, and in particular for the Assembly of our Free Church. We can only state here, that in the preamble to one of these memorials, American slavery is denounced as a sy.stem of oppression most unjust and grievous, and the require- ment founded on this sentence of condemnation — (a sentence in which I believe that both the American Board of Missions and the Free Church of Scotland most cordially acquiesce) — is, that the Board would instruct ' all their missionaries and agents under its patronage to bear a decided testimony, wherever and in whatever form it exists, and, most especially, to declare in the name of the Board, that Ameri- can slavery is a sin against God, and that its existence in a Christian land is nowise chargeable to the Christian religion which they are com- missioned to preach, but is grossly at variance with all its holy doc- trines and precepts.' Besides the memorials, the Board take notice 574 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. of three petitions which have been addressed to them. In the first and second of these, they ' are requested and urged to take measures to prevent receiving into their treasury, any moneys contributed in one way or another by slaveholders, or any of the avails of slave labor.' In the third petition, they are desired to pass resolutions, declaring that ' American slavery is a sin against God and man, and ought to be immediately abolished,' &c. We admire the practical wisdom of the Board in the deliverance which they have come to, and in which they state ' that the Board was established and incorporated for the express purpose of propagating the gospel in heathen lands, by supporting missionaries, and diffusing the knowledge of the Scriptures — that the Board had confined themselves to this one great object; — and that a regard to our sacred trust requires us to pursue the object with undi- vided zeal, and not to turn aside from it, or mix any other concerns with it. And we still think, that the Lord of Missions, and the Sav- iour of the world, will approve of this deliberate purpose of oui's, and this course of action, and would frown upon us if we should depart from it. And we have the comfort to believe also that this is the only purpose and course of action which will give permanent satisfaction to the Christian community who are enlisted in the cause of missions — being fully persuaded that any essential departure from this plan of operations would tend to defeat the great end we are pursuing — the conversion of the heathen.' 'As to the moneys contributed by slave- holders, it is still our opinion, that considering the character of the Board and the nature of its objects, it may fairly be presumed, that the funds contributed to our treasury are obtained in a proper manner, and contributed from right motives ; and it is very manifest that we can not properly examine into the motives of those who sustain our opera- tions, and that the attempt to do this would be marked with absurdity, and would plunge us in difficulties from which we could not possibly be extricated.' ' It will not, we trust, be overlooked, and in reply to previous petitions, the Board has repeatedly and very frankly declared, that they can sustain no relation to slavery which implies approbation of the system, and, as a Board, can have no connection or sympathy with it — plainly intimating that we consider it one of the obvious evils which exist in the community, but the removal of which, though we regard it as an object of fervent desire and prayer, does not fall within our province as a Missionary Board. We know not how any man who maturely considers the subject can desire more than this.' " 9. We regard the example here set before us as eminently fitted to have a wholesome influence on the spirit and counsels of our pend- ing General Assembly. We are convinced that the Supreme Eccle- siastical Court of our Free Church will, with one mind and spirit, join in the fervent desire and prayer of the American Board for the removal of American slavery ; and we are hopeful that they will come to the APPENDIX. 575 same conclusion, that this is an object which does not practically or executively come within their province as a Church in a distant land. It is not by thus assailing either Church Courts or Missionary Boards, that these Abolitionists can ever expect to advance their own cause. They have addressed themselves to the wrong parties ; and we can now understand how it is, that by wayward and misguided tactics, they have greatly injured and kept back the object which thousands and thousands more, both in America and elsewhere, have as much and as honestly at heart as they have. It does not seem to us the right way of going to work, that they should labor as they have done to affix a universal stigma on American slaveholders. But through the medium of the public mind, both in their own and other countries, they should bring a direct influence to bear on the American legisla- tors. For this purpose let them make full exposure — but within the limits of truth — of the evils and atrocities of a system which requires only to be known that it may be execrated by all the wise and the good of our civilized world. For the accomplishnient of this result there is no need of exaggeration. The application of a whip to human beings as a stimulus to labor, the cruel separation of relatives — nay. apart from these special enormities, the mere traffic in men, who ai-e flesh of our own flesh, and bone of our own bone — above all, the denial of Christian, or of any education, to the whole of a degraded race, who share alike with ourselves in their mental capabilities, and the immor- tality of their duration — these are topics which can not fail to enlist a daily increasing number of Christians and philanthropists, in opposition to a system so full of abominations and horrors. Nor can we despair of the eflfect that such a reaction, vigorously kept up and never devi- ated from, must have, and that speedily, on the American government; for let us not forget, that this country, throughout many of her prov- inces, took the precedency of all others, even of Britain herself, in put- ting down slavery by law. — I am, my dear Sir, yours, very truly, Thomas Chalmers." APPENDIX, K.— P. 492. "Mr. F. Maule. — It has been stated, with reference to yourself, that you used an expression toward the Establishment, that you de- nominated it as 'a moral nuisance?' — My impression of there having been a great deal of exaggeration, is very much founded upon the manner in which that expression of mine has been exaggerated. So far back as the year 1839, when there was a discussion in the Gen- eral Assembly, I remember very well, that in putting the alternative, between our submitting to the decisions of the civil court, or resisting them. I said that if we submitted to those decisions, our Church would 576 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. become a moral nuisance, and deserve to be swept off from the face of the country ; I said that at a time when there was no idea of a dis- ruption in our heads — it was when I was endeavoring w'ith all my might to prevent a disruption that that expression w^as made use of by me in 1839. " It has been also stated in this Committee, that the points upon which the Free Church difTer from the Established Church are mere points of technicality, and that they have no real substance in them : will you state wMiat you consider to be the distinctive principle between the Free Church and the Established Church? — The distinctive prin- ciple some call 'spiritual independence.' I think that there is a dif- ference of nomenclature between the English and Scotch, and that our cause is a good deal misunderstood in virtue of that. I would say that the final jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts in things sacred is the great princii)le upon which w^e have gone out, that that final jurisdiction has been violated, and that it is not a capricious or unheard of novelty ; it has been held in Scotland for more than two centuries. It was the great question between the Jameses and the Charleses on the one hand, and the Scottish people on the other, who called it the Headship of Christ — the term given to the principle when looked to in a religious light. But when looked to constitutionally, it is termed the final juris- diction of the ecclesiastical courts, or Church courts, in things sacred, as distinct from things civil. Now, it is sometimes expressed in this way by a Scotchman. He speaks of it as the supremacy of the Church over all things ecclesiastical^ which is very apt to mislead the under- standing of Englishmen, because I presume that any question connected with the ministerial office, and which related to the ' civilia' of that office, would in England be called an ecclesiastical cause, and is de- cided by the civil courts. Now, there is a distinction in the very con- stitution of our courts, to every understanding, which makes this mat- ter clear w^th us. There are ecclesiastical courts that are constituted of the Kirk-session, the Presbytery, the Synod, and General Assembly; and there are civil courts. We call matters decided by those courts ecclesiastical matters, because our habit has been all along to refer things sacred to the ecclesiastical courts, and which never passed from the ecclesiastical courts to the civil courts. Those are things sacred ; but our calling them things ecclesiastical is very apt to mislead En- glish people, under the idea that we claim the supremacy over the ' civilia' as well as the ' sacra' of the ministerial office. Now, there is nothing more distinct in a Scotch mind than the proper function of the ecclesiastical court, which is to take up things sacred, and the proper function of the civil court, which is to take up things secular connected with the ministerial office, such as glebe, stipend, church or place of worship, and the manse or parsonage house, and other matters of the same kind, which might be veiy easily enumerated. APPENDIX. 577 I " Is the Committee to understand that the jurisdiction of the Cliurch in things sacred, and the jurisdiction of the State in things secular, has been the principle maintained by the Church of Scotland since the time of the Reformation ? — Yes ; since the time of what has been sometimes called ' The First Reformation.' I think in the course of five minutes I could state what the leading points are, and which will give, I think, a satisfactory answer to the question, and will account for the unanimity, till lately, of the Scottish understanding upon the subject of things sacred belonging exclusively to the ecclesiastical courts, and things civil be- longing exclusively to the civil courts. If you refer to the Act of 1567, chapter 7, it is there stated, ' That the examination and admission of ministers within this realm be only in the power of the Kirk.' And if the Presbytery refuses to admit the person presented by the patron, it shall be lawful for the patron to appeal to the superintendent of the ministers in that province where the benefice lies. That now corre- sponds to the Synod, the next highest court in gradation of our ecclesi- astical courts. Then he applies to the Synod, and desires 'that the person presented be admitted ; and if they refuse, he appeals to the General Assembly of this haill i-ealm ;' (and here are the decisive words) — ' By whom the cause being decided, shall take end as they decern and declare.' There is no such thing spoken of as an appeal from the General Assembly to the Court of Session upon any thing connected with the examination and induction of ministers. Then the Act of 1592, is confirmatory of this. It is entitled, 'Ratification of the Lib- erty of the True Kirk ;' it abrogates other Acts, because there was a perpetual contest between our James VI. and the General Assembly, and a number of advei-^e Acts were passed during the interval from 1567 to 1592. However, this Act of 1592, c. 117, abrogates all those Acts, and confirms the Act of 1 567, and it says, ' In case the Presby- tery refuses to admit any qualified minister presented to them by the patron, it shall be lawful for the patron to retain the whole fruits of the benefice in his own hands.' That we are perfectly reconciled to, for it is a civil matter. Then going rapidly downward about a cen- tury, the Act of 1690, at the time of the Revolution Settlement, annuls all advei-se Acts which were passed under Charles II., and restores the Act of 1592. And again, coming to Queen Anne's Act upon the re- storation of patronage, which transfers the initiative in the appoint- ment of ministers from the heritors and Kirk-sessions to the respective patrons, there is a clause in that Act upon which we conceive that we still have the final jurisdiction in things sacred. It says, ' That the Presbytery shall be bound to receive and admit in the same manner per- sons thus presented, as before the making of this Act they ought to have admitted.' So that even under the Act of Queen Anne — though undoubtedly the change was a very complete one which was intro- duced by the decision of the courts in the case of Auchterarder, as con- VOL. IV. — B B ^ 578 iMEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. firmed by the upper courts, against which we could get no redress in Parliament — even under the Act of Queen Anne the doctrine was, that for the admission of a minister there must be the concurrence of two ingredients — one of these was a valid presentation, and another was the concurrence of the ecclesiastical courts to the appointment of the presentee. He appears before us, we put him on trial, and sit in judg- ment upon the question, ' Is it for the Christian good of the parish that this man should be appointed its minister ?' The concurrence of the ecclesiastical court was in all cases required before effect could be given to the presentation. Therefore we felt that a very great and most pernicious novelty was grafted upon our former ecclesiastical system, by this decision in the case of Auchterarder ; and it may be observed, that during the last century we sometimes made a mistake as to the validity of presentations ; some ministers were inducted and remained upon a wrong presentation. And I think it is quite interesting to ob- serve the direction which the matter then took, for it shows so com- pletely the distinct provinces of the two sets of courts. When we did make a mistake, the patron retained the stipend : the person whom we had inducted lost all the benefit of the temporalities, but he still contin- ued the minister of the parish ; we had ordained him as such, and he officiated as minister there, minus the temporalities. That has hap- pened in about half-a-dozen instances ; and it shows practically how the thing operated. There was one very remarkable case in Dunse, where the patron not only sued for his own right, but in virtue of that right he wanted the Court of Session to restrain the Presbytery from settling any other man in the parish. The case is reported by Lord Monboddo ; and, as taken from his report, his words are, ' The Lords would not meddle with that request, because that was interfering with the power of ordination, with which the Lords thought they had no- thing to do.' So that there was all respect paid to the appropriate function of the ecclesiastical court, as to the settlement and ordination of ministers. I think, in the mass of controversial authorship which has been issued upon this subject, we are apt to lose sight of the few essential sentences which might decide this whole question. There is nothing that appears to me to be more conclusive than a brief passage, which I can read in two minutes, from Lord Kames's Law Tracts. The truth is, that all legal authorities, either past or present, are in favor of the view on which the Free Church has proceeded. Lord Kames, in article 9, in his Law Tracts, says, 'Ecclesiastical courts, besides their censorial powers with relation to manners and religious tenets, have an important jurisdiction in providing parishes with proper ministers and pastors ; and they exercise this jurisdiction, by naming for the minister of a vacant church that person duly qualified who is presented by the patron. Their sentence, however, is ultimate, even where their proceedings are illegal.' (That is, illegal according to APPENDIX. 579 civil law.) ' The person authorized by their sentence, even in opposi- tion to the presentee, is de facto minister of ihe parish, and as such is entitled to perform every ministerial function ;' but then he has no claim to the stipend. ' It would be a great defect,' his Lordship proceeds to say, 'in the constitution of a government, that ecclesiastical courts should have an arbitrary power in providing parishes with ministers. To prevent such arbitrary power, the check provided by law is, that a minister settled illegally shall not be entitled to the stipend. This happily reconciles two things generally opposite. The check is ex- tremely mild, and yet is fully effectual to prevent the abuse.' ' Nor is it inconsistent that two courts should give contrary judgments to differ- ent effects. This produces not a conflict of jurisdictions, for both judg- ments may stand and be effectual.' ' But I see not that there can be in Britain a direct conflict betwixt two courts, both trying the same cause to the same effect.' ' But in this island, matters of jurisdiction are better ordered than to afford place for such an absurdity. An indi- rect conflict may indeed happen, where two courts handling occasion- ally the same point, in different causes, are of different opinions upon that point. Such contrariety of opinion ought, as far as possible, to be avoided for the sake of expediency, as tending to lessen the authority of one of the courts, and perhaps of both. But as such contrary opin- ions are the foundation of judgments calculated for different ends and purposes, these judgments when put to execution, can never interfere.' '• Do you think that the Church of Scotland, as at present established by law, have recognized on the part of the State a jurisdiction in mat- ters spiritual and sacred, and against which the people of Scotland have strongly contended in times past ? — Yes, I think they have completely obliterated that line of demarkation which we ahvays thought divided the civil from the ecclesiastical courts. " In so crossing that line of demarkation, they have adopted the prin- ciples which are generally known in Scotland by the name of Erastian principles ? — Yes. " You use the term ' Erastian' as applied to the principles of the Established Church ; do you use that term in the sense of personal reproach and insult, or do you use it in a general sense, speaking upon a question of religious controversy ? — I use it as characterizing the policy or principle upon which they act, but certainly not with any thing like a personal application to individuals. " And I presume that you consider that the principle of the spiritual independence of the Church is a principle which it is essential to main- tain, in order to make the Church as useful as possible among the com- munity where she exists ? — I have not the slightest doubt of that ; and I think that, both on the ground of principle and on the ground of ex- pediency, we should keep up the power of devising and doing as we think best for the Christian good of the people ; first, because we have 580 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. a directory in the Bible which we are bound to follow ; and second, because unless we do so, the Church would become quite helpless in its endeavor to extend itself and to reclaim the masses of our degenerate population. I can give an instance of this. An English bishop, who has a Welsh diocese, once told me that a presentee was offered him by a patron who could not speak a word of Welsh, and the bishop said there was no help for it, and that he was obliged to admit the presentee. Now, that is a species of helplessness in which we never could acqui- esce. An instance similar to this happened in Scotland in 1825, when I was myself a member of the Assembly. The Crown issued a pre- sentation to a man who could not speak Gaelic, for the parish of Little Dunkeld, where the people can speak English generally, but they can not speak it well enough to profit so much from an English as from a Gaelic sermon. The case came up for our decision, and we, acting upon our undoubted prerogative to decide whether this was the man who should be appointed to that parish, took evidence upon the matter, and by a very small majority in so large a body as the General Assem- bly, rejected the presentee. The Crown never once thought of appealing to the Court of Session, or of doing any thing else but simply acquiescing in the decision of the supreme ecclesiastical court — that court in which the thing has always, until of late years, ' taken end ;' and, accordingly, they withdrew their presentee, and gave us one who could preach in Gaelic. If we, the ecclesiastical courts, are to be bereft of the power of judging upon a subject so exclusively professional, so much ours, and so little within the province of a civil court, namely, upon the question, What is best for the Christian interests of the popula- tion ? I can not imagine any system that is more calculated to bring the population under an influence under which they must very rapidly degenerate. " Are the opinions which you have just expressed those of the great body of the Free Church in Scotland ? — I should think so ; and indeed I have no doubt they are the universal opinions. " If that be so, is there any prospect of a reunion taking place be- tween the Free Church and the Established Church? — I am afraid not, in the way of a reunion. I think that a restoration is possible, but not in the way of a reunion between the two bodies ; that is, between the Free Church and the Established Church. " You say that a restoration is possible ? — Yes, but if I were to state the process, it would appear, I fear, so extravagant, that I have not the slightest hope of its being at present brought about. We must, of course, provide for the perfect integrity of our own ecclesiastical prin- ciples, and I do not see how that can be done, except by the Legislature adopting the Free Church as the Establishment, and then leaving us to deal with the ministers of the Established Church as so many ecclesi- astical delinquents, who have forsaken their original principles. I dare APPENDIX. 581 say that we should be very mild and indulgent in dealing with them, so far as was consistent with our principles. I state this in answer to your question ; but, at the same lime, I have not the slightest hope that it is a measure which will soon be carried out ; though we would certainly treat those ministers in a way that would be attended with less severity upon them personally than our sufferings have amounted to. If there was such a resolution of the Legislature come to, I would ventui'e to say that there should be no such thing as an instant depriva- tion of the emoluments of office of any individual, but they should be left to die out ; and when a parish was vacant, it should be filled up by a licentiate of the Free Church ; and in that way there would be a sub- stitution of a Church with its original principles for a Church with its ahered principles. That of itself, however, would not, I think, satisfy the Free Church now. When a negotiation formerly went on between the parties, as between Lord Aberdeen and myself, we attempted then to ne- gotiate for the minimum on which it was possible to remain in the Estab- lished Church, that minimum being what we called a liberum arbitrium, leaving every thing to remain as regards the initiative and patronage as before ; and the Church having the full power of sitting in judgment upon the question and deciding it, ' Is it a right thing that this presentee shall be appointed to this parish ? is this presentee a fit person for this parish ?' so that we could either lay an arrest upon the presentation or sustain it, and proceed upon it. But now that we have left the Estab- lished Church, I do not think that the same terms that would have kept us in the Church would bring us back again ; for my own part, I would say, that if ever there should be a negotiation opened again, it should be a negotiation, as regards the Free Church, not for the minimum, but for the optimism. We could have made a sacrifice then upon some points, in order to prevent a disruption ; but now that a disruption has occurred, we would make a strong attempt to get the best possible system that we could before we would adopt it ; and I am very glad that 1 can quote upon the subject of the optimism, if not in the very words, at least the substance of a sentence which I wrote in one of my letters to Lord Aberdeen, that I conceived the best ecclesiastical system that could be established for Scotland, was a Church where the minis- ters were paid by the State, and chosen by the people ; so that I do not think that even if patronage were modified to the degree which would have kept us in, if patronage were to remain in any degree, they would bring us back again. Mr. W. Patten. — Did I understand you to say, that now the Free Church would not consent to any right on the part of the patron to presentation ? — I do not think that the Free Church would consent to become the Establishment, except on the condition of the abolition of patronage. "Mr, F. Maule. — I believe we may genei-ally say, that during all 582 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. your life you have been a strong friend of the maintenance of the insti- tutions of this country. In your opinion, do you look upon the Free Church as safe and salutary with respect to the political and established institutions of this country, or do you consider that any danger may be apprehended in reference to those institutions, from the Free Church being allowed, by granting sites and other legitimate indulgences, to follow the course which the consciences of the people feel to be the right one ? — I think that all the doctrines and all the doings of the Free Church are on the side of social order and the well-being of society 5 and I can not imagine that the existence of the Free Chui'ch can have any thing like a hostile influence upon the established institutions of the country. And I may observe, that is not exclusively ours, for I believe it belongs to the English Methodists as well as to us, and also to the older Dissenting denominations in Scotland. We of the Free Church are not Voluntaries, and I confess to you that I should look with a sigh to the demolition of the framework either of the Scotch or of the English Establishment. Grant an Establishment upon right prin- ciples, and if well worked, it is the most efficient of all machinery for pervading the people with religion ; and it marks the exceeding strength of our principle, that we have dissented from the Establishment in Scot- land, not quasi an Establishment, but from such an Establishment — a vitiating flaw having been inserted into it, which we think fatal to its character, and fatal also to the efficacy of its ministrations ; so that I believe there is not a body in Christendom which gives such a strong testimony in favor of the principle of an Establishment as the Free Church of Scotland. Here we are incurring the utmost dislike fi-om the Voluntaries on the one hand, and from the actual friends of the Estab- lishment on the other, and yet we will not let go the principle that it is the duty of the Government to provide for the religious education of the people ; and it is thus, too, that best effect is given to the territorial principle by which to reclaim the masses. I do not know any system better than the territorial system, if well worked, provided it be based upon the proper principle, and the ministers of the Establishment have the same freedom which we enjoyed in the Church of Scotland in its original state. " Sir J. Graham. — On principle, you are a great friend to the Establishment in connection with the State? — I am. " I think I had the pleasure of attending a course of lectures that was given by you at the Hanover Square Rooms, in defense of the English Church Establishment, at a time when you thought it was assailed ? — It was not in defense of the English Church Establishment, it was in defense of Establishments generally. " But I believe you stood forward, in those lectures, in defense of the English Church Establishment? — There is a great difTerence be- tween two Churches, one of which is moving upward, and upon the APPENDIX. 583 advance to a better position than it now occupies, and the other of which is falling down or declining, from a higher point than the En- glish Establishment ever occupied ; I should therefore feel more hope for the English Establishment than I do for our present Scotch Estab- lishment. There is all the difference that we have in morals and re- ligion, between a backslider and an aspiring penitent, who is just shak- ing off his old profligate habits. I will not speak so confidently now of the English Establishment as I did then ; but I spoke of Establish- ments in the abstract ; I did not come to any reckoning with the En- glish Establishment in regard to its deficiencies, and I should say that I could not, with the same confidence, advocate the cause of the En- glish Establishment now as I did then, because of what I hear with regard to the inroads of Puseyism in the Church of England, which I consider to be a very great corruption. '• In what year was it that I had the pleasure of attending your lec- tures?— It was in the year 1838. " The Queen is the head of the Church of England, and lay patron- age exists in the Church of England to a very great extent ; and still, notwithstanding those imperfections in your Presbyterian eye, you strongly advocated, at that time, the maintenance of the Church of England such as it was? — I advocated the Church of England as a good machine, but which required to be mended ; and indeed I ven- tured to say so, and suggested that they should rid themselves of the figment of apostolical succession — which was the expression that I used. There is another passage in those lectures (I am glad that they are printed, because they can be appealed to) regarding the distinc- tion between the Church of England and the Church of Scotland, with reference to spiritual independence. As against the Voluntaries, I advocated an Establishment in the abstract, as a piece of effectual mechanism which the Voluntaries could never replace, if the Establish- ment were abolished. Had my subject led me to take cognizance of the defects of the Church of England, which it did not lead me to do, it would have been different : but indeed I should have felt it a little obtrusive, a little presumptuous, for me to come to England for the purpose of lecturing the people here on the defects of their own Estab- lishment ; I came to lecture on the Establishment principle as opposed to Voluntaryism ; but I do not know any stronger passages in these lectures than those in which I denounced the notion of apostolical suc- cession, and also the dependence of the Church upon the State in things sacred. " I can not forget what falls from you ; I think I recollect that in those lectures you advocated even the maintenance of what some have called ecclesiastical sinecures, upon the ground that dignitaries o- learned persons were thereby enabled to apply themselves to learning, and to come out as powerful champions in defense of the Establish- 584 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. merit of which they were members ? — To such a degree am I in favor of ecclesiastical sinecures, that I should be glad to have them in our Church. At that time it struck me that there was a vulgarizing pro- cess going on, by the alienation of cathedral property, and I endeavored to point out what I thought a better direction for this property, and that was, turning each cathedral institute into a theological seminary or college. I am very friendly to what may be called ecclesiastical sinecures, not that I mean that they should be sinecures, but that there should be a certain number of persons of learning maintained at leis- ure, and endowed for the purpose of contributing to theological liter- ature. " Notwithstanding the headship of the sovereign and lay patronage existing to a great extent in the Church of England, and ecclesiastical sinecures existing in the Church of England, you stood forvi-ard to defend it against the Voluntary system ? — I am in favor of the Church of England as against the Voluntary system. I should have felt the weakness of my ground if I had attempted to defend the Church of England in itself; and I should have been leaving unnecessarily the safe ground of argument in favor of the Establishment principle, and the undoubted duty of Government to concern themselves with the religious education of the people, and also the great efficiency of the mechanism of an Establishment, for the Voluntary principle does not overtake the masses. Upon those grounds I did advocate the Church of England as an Establishment, but I certainly did not stand there as an advocate for the corruptions of the Church of England. " Your objection to the Church of Scotland is, that it is so Erastian an Establishment, that, with all your objections to Voluntaryism, you think on the whole it has been a duty to secede from it? — Yes, I think so. " Apart from the question of payment there remains the more im- portant point of the minister being chosen by the people; what is that choice to which you refer ? — I know that in England a system of popu- lar election may appear to be a very monstrous one, under the idea that we conceive the people to be the seat-holders, so that any man that can afford to pay for a seat is one of the people to vote, and to exercise what may be called 'the spiritual franchise.' What I mean by the people is the body of communicants, which communicants are admitted to the table of the sacrament upon a strict examination of their religious knowledge and of their religious character ; and I should think that the election by people of that class is in very safe hands. " But still, though you would allow the initiative to the people, you would never part with a power of veto on the choice, to be exercised by the ecclesiastical court, and without appeal, except to other ec- clesiastical authorities? — I would say that it were a great defect in a APPENDIX. 585 Church if the popular power were the only power concerned in the appointment of the minister ; and that it adds very much to the per- fection of the Church to have a body of men competent to sit in judg- ment upon the literature and the other qualifications of the minister, to concur with the people in their appointment. " When you say ' the choice of the people,' are you of opinion that all communicants have an equal right to a voice ? — The practice is for all male communicants to vote. "Why should female communicants be excluded? — I have always looked upon this as a very paltry and distasteful question ; and I think that it is revolting to the collective mind of the Free Church. Of course you can not, among 600 ministers, say that some strange pro- position may not be advanced by this or that individual ; but I do look upon it as a question which generally they would not entertain. " Is there any thing in the pi'ocess which you think would be incon- sistent with female modesty and propriety, and would prevent females taking a part in it ? — I do not think that there is any thing in the process which would be inconsistent with female modesty and pro- priety. "Is there any coming forward in the presence of the congregation to sign the call, or any thing else which would be disagreeable to females ? — When I was a minister in Glasgow I remember being pres- ent at taking the concurrence or call of the people, but I really can not say at present how the matter proceeds. " Will you be kind enough to explain a point which is difficult to my apprehension ; you contend that the call of the people is a Chris- tian principle, and that the nomination of the patron is anti-Christian and Erastian ; will you explain what you consider to be the Christian character of the one, and the anti-Christian character of the other ? — I do not think that the terms ' Christian' and ' anti-Christian,' should be applied to this question. I think that the term ' Erastianism' has no relation to this point. I would say that it is anti-Christian if you in- fringe upon the spiritual independence of the Church, for it is a Chris- tian principle that the spiritual independence of the Church should be maintained But with regard to the nomination by an individual patron on the one hand, as compared with popular election on the other, I would scarcely view it in the same religious light. I think that there is great scriptural authority for popular election, and I would say great authority in the history of the Church during the three first cen- turies ; but the thing that operates most strongly with me is the re- spect I have for the collective mind and views of a well-trained con- gregation. I think that the people collectively are better qualified to choose a right minister than an individual patron is. " It would touch the relative qualification of the congregation on the one hand, and of the lav patron on the other ; but in principle, whv is 086 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. the one Christian, or pre-eminently Christian and right, and the other, I will not term it anti-Christian, but in your opinion, pre-eminently wrong? — I think that theological authorities are in favor of popular election, looking to the examples that we have in the New Testament of popular election on the part of the Christian Church : and for three, if not four centuries, and indeed continued down to the fifth or sixth century, there ai"e vestiges of popular election, which would seem to show that that was the original system of the Church. " Did I rightly understand you to say that the only mode of merging the unhappy differences now existing would be an inversion of the past policy ; that patronage must be abolished, and that if that matter were conceded, the Free Church would be as mild as they could be toward the members of the Establishment consistently with theii principles ? — Yes ; that is the substance of the answer I gave to the question. " And that your mode of reconciling the Free Church to the State would be, not to fill up the vacancies as they occurred in the livings of various parishes in Scotland with members of the EstaV>lishment, but that licentiates of the Free Church should be appointed to fill up the vacancies ? — Surely that would be the way of it. But this answer was drawn out from me by the question that was put, and I gave my ex- planation of the right restorative process under the complete impression that it would be looked upon by the generality of the public as being at present completely chimerical and hopeless. I do not expect it soon. In order to give an adequate impression of the difficulty that stands in the way of re-union, I stated the only process by which I think, con- sistently with our principles, the Church of Scotland, could be re- stored to its original state ; and I am afraid that, in the actual state of opinion among various classes, such an adjustment is not to be looked for. " The refusal to give sites is the exception, not the rule ; and a very rare exception, is it not ? — Yes ; but I would say, that in the worst times of persecution, the cruelties that were inflicted were the excep- tion, and not the rule ; that is to say, there was no such thing, at least very seldom, as the extermination of a whole people. There were a great many martyrdoms — still those martyrdoms generally constituted the exception, not the rule ; and the refusal of sites, though it consti- tutes the exception, may become the rule. It implies the power, on the part of the landed proprietors, to refuse sites, and it may become general ; I think it is very likely to be so. I have every indulgence to make for the state of feeling which has existed during the last few years ; I believe that the upper classes very honestly thought very ill of us. They looked upon us as so many radicals and revolutionaries ; and I have heard some of the higher classes, for whom I have the greatest respect, associate with the Disruption the idea of a coming APPENDIX. 587 revolution. I have myself heard them speak so ; but I believe that the experience of our being a far more harmless generation than they had any conception of previously, has gone a considerable way to miti- gate that feeling ; and I trust that the mitigation will go on. " Is not the opinion which you have just expressed confirmed by the progressive diminution of refusals, year by year, up to the present time ? — I am very glad of that diminution, certainly ; but I think it is a great blot upon the system of the country, if even a single exception should be tolerated. " But with respect to legislation, legislation does not proceed upon cases of exception, but upon flagrant cases of wide-spread abuse. Is not that so ? — Yes ; but legislation may be very properly resorted to, for the purpose of extinguishing a power that might be abused, and that might spread ; not confined to the Free Church, but extending also to other denominations. " Does not legislation generally proceed with a view to the correc- tion of growing abuses, not dealing with diminishing abuses small in amount? — I do not feel myself very competent to instruct legislators in their duty. Wex-e I a legislator myself, I should cei'tainly feel as if it were a great deficiency in the statute-book not to provide against such a flagrant abuse of the rights of property. " You have very much deprecated, in your letter, which you have quoted to-day, the use of violent language. You have said, that it is not for the members of the Free Church ' to lift the tongue of abuse against the characters, whether of individuals or of bodies of men ;' and you have said, that you are of opinion that they are not called upon ' to sit in judgment upon others.' In the heat of this unhappy contro- versy, do you think that that rule has been observed ? — I should say that never, I dare say, was a great change effected in a country with less violence on the part of those who suffered by the change ; and, speaking generally, I think that there has been, upon the whole, a very noble exemplification on the part of the Free Church, and of its friends, of the charity which endureth all things. I think that there has been great exaggeration upon the subject of our violent language. " In that very letter of which you read an extract, you give an ex- planation of the sentiments to which you gave utterance in the General Assembly, in 1839, four years before the Disruption, and which you admit you have repeated since ; and though you explain it, was not the expression one that was certainly susceptible of misapprehension : ' That an Erastian Establishment should be swept off' from the face of the country ? — When I first gave utterance to that expression there was no such idea in our own heads as a Disruption. We certainly had no other object in contemplation than that we should remain in the Establishment. If the 470 who have sijrnalized themselves so much 58a MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. by their opposition to the encroachments of the civil courts, when the thing began to look upon them in good earnest, had turned round upon their own principles, when they saw that their emoluments were threat- ened— I say that a Church with 470 recusants in it, who had so glar- ingly trampled upon their profession for years back — such a Church would have scandalized the whole community ; it would have been a nuisance. I do not think ' a nuisance' would be too strong an expres- sion. In like manner, had we done what it was alleged we would do; had we returned to the Church, the expression of ' nuisance' would have been alike applicable. I do not say that it is equally applicable now. I am not very fond of substituting one name for another ; I do not like to give names unless there is a call for it. I do not consider that it is an appropriate designation now, that of 'nuisance.' A nuisance im- plies a certain power and virulence of positive mischief, which I do not think the Established Church of Scotland possesses. I think that the Established Church of Scotland has become, comparatively speaking, effete and impotent, either as to good or evil ; and I would rather de- nominate it a nullity than a nuisance. I do so without any desire to stigmatize the Church ; but I do it under the impulse of a deep con- viction, that if this vitiating flaw be suffered to adhere to the Estab- lished Church of Scotland, it never will be an efficient Church in our country. " Do you agree to this definition of schism, that is * an uncharitable distance, division, or alienation of affection among those who are called Christians, and agree in the fundamentals of religion, occasioned by their different apprehensions about little things ?' — I think that the schism is chargeable upon those who are in the wrong ; in the case of our Scottish Church, a stable thing, a thing that has been in existence in Scotland since the days of the first Reformation — this Church being independent of the State in spiritual matters, I think the guilt of the schism was incurred by those who deviated from that standard. I do not think that a deviation from a State Church quasi a State Church incurs the guilt of schism ; a deviation from a Church of certain prin- ciples infers the guilt of schism, not a deviation from a Church quasi a State Church. " The definition I have just read to you is Matthew Henry's defini- tion of schism. Upon reflection, is it sound, in your opinion, or un- sound ? — I think it is a very fair definition, when it says, ' An unchari- table distance, occasioned by their different apprehensions about little things.' Ours is not a little thing ; and neither, I hope, are we un- charitable. " You would call the question of the supremacy of the ecclesiastical courts in ecclesiastical matters a fundamental of religion, and not a little thing as compared with the great truths of Christianity? — I would call it not a little thing. APPENDIX. 589 " Although the authorized version of the Scriptures is received in common by the Free Church and the Established Church, although the Catechism is common, although the Confession of Faith is com- mon, yet this disputed question about the supremacy of ecclesiastical courts in ecclesiastical matters would be held by you to be funda- mental, and not a little thing ? — I hold it to be a very material thing. I think that the character of the Church and its ministers is very ma- terially affected by the difference between those two systems, " Mr. F. Maule. — Is not it a principle for which, during the reign of Charles the Second, 18,000 of our countrymen, great and small, gen- tle and simple, laid down their lives ? — Yes : that is understood to be the computation of the number who laid down their lives for the main- tenance of the very principle which, in fact, has occasioned the Dis- ruption. " Sir J. Graham. — For what did they lay down their lives? — They laid down their lives for what they called the headship of Christ, in denial of the doctrine that the king was the head of the Church. '' The following question was put to Mr. Graham Speirs : — ' Do yon or do you not know that a great number of the Free Church hold the opinion, that no communion or connection is to be maintained between the Free Church and the Established Church ?' To which his answer was as follows : — ' No, certainly, I am not aware of that ; on the con- trary, I know that a great number of the leading members of the Free Church of Scotland, and Dr. Candlish among others, are members of what is called the Evangelical Alliance, which comprehends members of the Establishment as well as others, who are united for a common object.' In your opinion, does the being joint members of the Evan- gelical Alliance at all admit even the Christianity of the Established Church of Scotland? — I think that the Christianity of the Established Church is one thing, looking at its system and looking at its policy, and that the Christianity of the ministers or members of the Church is al- together a different thing. I would say that the Church as a Church is very corrupt and very deficient, and if I had not thought so I might have been a member of the Establishment still : but that does not imply that all its ministers or members are unchristian, any more than it im- plies that all Roman Catholics are unchristian. I will not question the Christianity of Pascal or the Christianity of Archbishop Fenelon; although, as a system, I certainly dissent altogether from the Roman Catholic Church. And in like manner I would make a distinction between the character of the Scottish Established Church as a Church, and the character of its individual ministers and members. "I need hardly ask you whether the heat and anger of this contro- versy have not given you great pain ? — I have not seen much of that heat and anger. I must say that the prevalent impression which my converse with my brethren has left upon me is, that there has been a rm MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. marvelous degree of charity and forbearance. I will not justify hard sayings; those hard sayings were all very natural, as far as 1 under- stand, but not justifiable. Charity has not had its perfect work ; there have been violent sayings, but 1 am quite sure that there is a most exaggerated impression about this. "If this matter in dispute were yielded, and sites were generally granted, if this violence of language were abated, and the cause of anger removed with regard to sites, would you still have the hope of seeing religious peace re-established in Scotland before you die ? — I think that if things were put upon the footing I have stated, I might cherish the hope of religious peace. I do not think it is impossible by any means; but I must think, that looking at the present state of sentiment among various classes. Legislators on the one hand, and Churchmen on the other, it is very unlikely that the process which I have referred to will be immediately entered upon." APPENDIX, L.— P. 506. When the sudden and solemn event was announced to it, the General Assembly of the Free Church unanimously resolved to adjourn all busi- ness ; but to remain convened till, as an Assembly, it had the melan- choly satisfaction of rendering the last office of friendship to the departed. The funeral took place on Friday, the 4th June, and we extract from the Witness the following account of it : " The General Assembly of the Free Church met in Free St. An- drew's Church at twelve o'clock, together with the members of deputations to the Assembly from the Presbyterian Churches of England and Ireland, and also the ministers from foreign parts attending the Assembly; the Moderator, Dr. Keith, and Dr. Clason, conducted the devotional exercises. The ministers and elders not members of As- sembly, and deacons, assembled in Free St. George's Church at the same hour ; the devotional exercises here were conducted by Dr. Henry Grey and Dr. Buchanan of Glasgow. The probationers and students met in the hall of the New College, also at twelve, where Dr. Cunning- ham conducted the devotions. A little before one, a large body of citizens, desirous of testifying respect to the memory of the deceased, by joining in the procession, assembled on the south side of Charlotte Square ; as did also the Magistrates and Town Council of the city, in St. George's Church, in the same square. At one o'clock, the General Assembly left Free St. Andrew's Church, the Moderator and Office- bearers in front, in gowns and bands, preceded by the two officers of Assembly, dressed in deep mourning, with hanging crapes, and white rods in their hands, and walking four abreast, proceeded to the Lothian Road, where they halted at about a hundred yards in advance of Free APPENDIX. 591 St. George's Church. The members of Assembly were followed by the Professors in the New College, in their gowns and bands. The minis- ters and elders, not members of Assembly, now left Free St. George's Church, walking four abreast, preceded by four beadles, two and two, dressed in deep mourning, and with black rods in their hands, and took their place in the procession immediately behind the Professors. Next came the ministers of other denominations. These were followed by the probationers and students, walking also four abreast, and preceded by two officers, dressed in the manner last described. Next in the procession came the Rector and Masters of the High School in their gowns, and preceded by the Janitor in his official costume ; and follow- ing in their rear were the Rector, Teachers, and Students of the Edinburgh Normal School, with other Free Church teachers in Edin- burgh and neighborhood. Forming the rear of the procession came the large body of citizens, who had assembled in Charlotte Square, walking four abreast. Thus formed, the procession moved along the Lothian Road, headed by the Magistrates and Town-Council in their robes — the pavement being occupied with solemnized spectators, and every window being crowded with faces. At the Main Point, the Committee and congregation of the Territorial Church, West Port, were drawn up, and, as the procession passed, they fell into the rear. The procession moved on by the Links to Church hill ; and having arrived within fifty yards of the gate leading to the house of the deceased, it halted. Here the membei's of the Presbytery of Edinburgh, and the Professors, fell out of their places, and repaired to the house, where the private friends of the deceased were already assembled, and where devo- tional exercises were conducted by the Rev. Mr. Addis, minister of Morningside Free Church. At Morningside the procession was joined by the office-beai-ers and congregation of Morningside Free Church, and by the pupils of Merchiston Academy. After an interval of about half an hour, the heai'se containing the body of the lamented dead, drawn by four horses, attended by grooms, was led up to the proces- sion, which now began to move slowly off toward the place of interment in the New Cemetery at Grange. " Dust to dust ; the grave now holds all that was mortal of Thomas Chalmers. Never before did we witness such a funeral ; nay, never before, in at least the memory of man, did Scotland witness such a funeral. Greatness of the mere extrinsic type can always command a showy pageant ; but mere extrinsic greatness never yet succeeded in purchasing the tears of a people ; and the spectacle of yesterday — in which the trappings of grief, worn not as idle signs, but as the repre- sentatives of a real sorrow, were borne by well-nigh half the population of the metropolis, and blackened the public ways for furlong after fur- long, and mile after mile — was such as Scotland has rarely witnessed, and which mere rank or wealth, when at the highest or the fullest, 592 MEMOIRS OF DR. CHALMERS. were never yet able to buy. It was a solemn tribute, spontaneously paid to departed goodness and greatness by the public mind. " The day was one of those gloomy days, not unfrequent in early summer, which steeps the landscape in a sombre neutral tint of gray — a sort of diluted gloom — and volumes of mist, unvariegated, blank, and difflise of outline, flew low athwart the hills or lay folded on the distant horizon. A chill breeze from the east murmured drearily through the trees that line the cemetery on the south and west, and rustled amid the low ornamental shrubs that vary and adorn its surface. We felt as if the garish sunshine would have associated ill with the occasion. A continuous range of burial vaults, elevated some twenty feet over the level, with a screen of Gothic architecture in front, fenced by a parapet, and laid out into a broad roadway atop, runs along the cemetery from side to side, and was covered at an early hour by many thousand spectators, mostly well-dressed females. All the neighboring roads, with the various streets through which the procession passed, from Morningside on to Lauriston, and from Lauriston to the burying ground — a distance, by this circuitous route, of considerably more than two miles — were lined thick with people. We are confident we rather under-estimate than exaggerate their numbers, when we state that the spectators of the funeral must have rather exceeded than fallen short of a hundred thousand persons. As the procession approached, the shops on both sides, with scarce any exceptions, were shut up, and business suspended. There was no part of the street or road through which it passed sufficiently open, or nearly so, to give a view of the whole. The spectator merely saw file after file pass by in what seemed endless succession. In the cemetery, which is of great extent, the whole was at once seen for the first time, and the appearance was that of an army. The figures dwindled in the distance, in receding toward the open grave along the long winding walk, as in those magnificent pictures of Martin, in which even the littleness of men is made to en- hance the greatness of their works and the array of their aggregated numbers. And still the open gateway continued to give ingress to the dingy, living tide, that seemed to flow unceasingly inward, like some perennial stream that disembogues its waters into a lake. The party- colored thousands on the eminence above, all in silence, and many of them in tears — the far-stretching lines of the moui-ners below — the effect, amid the general black, of the scarlet cloaks of the magistracy — for the Magistrates of Edinburgh, with much good taste and feeling, had come in their robes of office, and attended by its officials and in- signia, to manifest their spontaneous respect for the memory of the greatest of their countrymen — the slow, measured ti-amp, that, with the rustle of the breeze, formed the only sounds audible in so vast an assemblage — all conspired to compose a scene solemn and impressive in the highest degree, and of which the recollection will long survive ArPEiNDlX. 593 in the memory of the spectators. There was a moral sublimity in the spectacle. It spoke more emphatically than by words, of the dignity of intrinsic excellence, and of the height to which a true man may attain. It was the dust of a Presbyterian minister which the coffin contained ; and yet they were burying him amid the tears of a nation, and with more than kingly honors." END OF VOLUME FOURTH. ^ 1 1012 01082 4011 Date Due ^>ar^ '^ r 28 :t>^iB» %.} c ^m Cccc CCCC «r CSCs CC ^^ ^s C¥* lEi^S mi CT^C^ rccccc « cr c« f