Walker's Life of Chalmers.—II.

His walk, and "stout, thick-set figure," clearly indicated the man—an honest man, who had "a capacity to excel in many things." He was not unlike Luther in personal appearance. On the 25th May, 1809, Chalmers delivered his maiden speech in the General Assembly. Henceforth he became a marked man. He pled for the augmentation of the stipends of the clergy. Worth must be backed up with social importance in order to command esteem. He began to realise the full significance of life, after having been laid up with sickness, and, in 1809, he declared:—"strip human life of its connection with a higher sense of existence, and it is the illusion of an instant, an unceasing farce, a series of visions and projects and convulsive efforts which terminate in nothing." He began to study Pascal's "Thoughts on Religion." This is his estimate of him:—"A man of the richest endowments, and whose youth was signalised by his profound and original speculations in mathematical science, but who could stop short in the brilliant career of discovery, who could resign all the splendours of literary reputation, who could renounce without a sigh all the distinctions which are conferred upon genius, and resolve to devote every talent and every hour to the defence and illustration of the gospel. This is superior to all Greek and all Roman name." Affliction brought on reflection, and this again raised Religion from a secondary to a primary concern in his estimation. Wil-berforce's "Practical View of Christianity" opened his spiritual eye. He saw the futility of the covenant of works, and the all-importance of that of grace. He realised the evil of sin and of ungodliness, and felt that man cannot obtain salvation through his own righteousness, but that it must flow entirely from God's grace. "In the system of Do this and live no peace, and even no true and worthy obedience, can ever be attained. It is Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. When this belief enters the heart, joy and confidence come along with it. The righteousness which we try to work out for ourselves eludes our grasp, and never can a soul arrive at true or permanent rest in the pursuit of this object. The righteousness which, by faith, we put on, secures our acceptance with God, page 64 and secures our interest in his promises, and gives us a part in those sanctifying influences by which we are enabled to do with aid from on high what we never can do without it. We look to God in a new light: we see him as a reconciled Father: that love to him which terror scares away re-enters the heart, and, with a new principle and a new power, we become new creatures in Jesus Christ our Lord." At this time he began to write an introduction to an edition of Baxter's "Call to the Unconverted." He now found ample labours in his own parish, and preached out to sinners salvation as God's free gift, which they ought to accept most promptly and gratefully. In Kilmany manse he composed a series of sermons which subsequently electrified Glasgow, London, and Edinburgh. He also contributed largely to the Encyclopaedia, the Instructor, the Eclectic Review, &c. But he saw the utter incompatibility of the two offices of minister and professor, and denounced such a conjunction in the Church of Scotland. After twelve years spent in the pastoral seclusion of Kilmany, Chalmers removed to Glasgow, where he literally mesmerised the city with his eloquence. His eloquence "was not learning, it was not art; it was the untaught and the unencumbered incantation of genius, the mightiest engine of which the world can boast." His parish had a population of ten thousand souls, for whose welfare he laboured zealously in a variety of ways. He was again translated to a still larger parish. In St. John's parish he practically carried out his theory of Pauperism which "could never be effectually met by means of a poor law or a system of legal assessment. Pauperism hitherto had cost £1400 a year. Chalmers met its real requirements by a voluntary offering of £280. The work was done much more satisfactorily than under legal assessment." He started schools and missions and revolutionised his parish. After nine years of Herculean labours in Glasgow, he accepted the Moral Philosophy Chair in St. Andrew's. He got a public dinner before his departure. Three hundred and forty gentlemen attended the banquet. On the 9th November, 1823, when he was just 43 years of age, he delivered his grand valedictory sermon. Chalmers infused life into the veins of his old alms mater. "Moral philosophy is not theology, but it stands at the entrance of it, and so of all human sciences is the most capable of being turned into an instrument either for guiding right, or for most grievously perverting the minds of those who are to be the religious teachers of the age."

The Otago University is a fresh illustration of this. The Synod stands condemned for its support of a pernicious system of teaching. He dwelt more upon the moral than on the purely metaphysical portion of his subject. In fact morals are not taught in the Scottish universities. It is all metaphysical disquisition—which is supposed to be an answer to the scepticism page 65 of Hume and others. Chalmers clearly pointed to Natural Theology and to Revelation to solve problems which Moral Philosophy could not do. "It suggested doubts which it could not solve." Chalmers, accordingly, "made his chair a direct stepping-stone to the study of Theology." He treated his subject as "the philosophy of duty in its two-fold aspects,—man's ethical relations to man, and the morality which connects heaven and earth." As the light of Nature is insufficient, he directed the soul to Revelation, which points out "an invisible being to whom we owe obedience." Chalmers, also, "opened a supplementary class for Political Economy." In his hands, the subject received a more exhaustive treatment than it ever got before. His career in St. Andrew's was highly honourable, but not lofty; for, he was too noble a man to connive at the dry formalities, and avariciousness of his colleagues. His protest against a notorious misappropriator of certain college funds alienated his brethren from him; but it covered him with glory as a disinterested and honest man. Drones he hated, and he inspired the Divinity-students, in his capacity of president of a missionary society, with religious enthusiasm. St. Andrew's was moved in the same way as Oxford had been "in the days of Hervey and Wesley." Wherever Chalmers went he always "carried the fire with him. In St. Andrews he dealt with the men who were to be the future ministers of Scotland; and, through his students, upon a whole generation of his countrymen."

Chalmers in 1827 was elected Professor of Theology in the University of Edinburgh, and on the 6th of November, 1828, he delivered his inaugural lecture. He was now at the core of Caledonia, enthroned "as a king in the broad realms of theological science." In his hands, "Christianity was not a mere framework of dry bones, but a living force. His own soul was on fire; and whatever he felt himself he made his audiences feel." This was the dawn of religious awakening in pulpits and congregations all over Scotland He was offered a year or two later the West Church, Greenock, "the most lucrative living in the Church." It was worth £1000 a year, just double his professional salary; but he declined the offer, from "a firm conviction of the superior importance of a theological chair to any church whatever, along with the rooted preference for the professional over the ministerial life."

Chalmers, like all men of genius, exercised an enormous sway over the minds of men. He was a king of men, possessed of those "qualities which cause men to be reverenced and followed." He heartily supported the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, and Catholic Emancipation. He put "no trust in artificial props, which do not rest on a foundation of indisputable justice." He held the conviction "that there was no page 66 guarantee for the permanence and prosperity of his own Church but such as was to be found in her honestly and efficiently discharging her proper functions." His speech on Catholic Emancipation elicited the sympathetic admiration of Lord Jeffrey. "Never had eloquence produced a greater effect upon a popular assembly; more had never been done by the oratory of Demosthenes, Cicero, Burke, or Sheridan." The orator said—" Give me the circulation of the Bible, and with this mighty engine I will overthrow the tyranny of Antichrist, and establish the fair and original form of Christianity on its ruins." Never theless, Chalmers opposed the Reform Bill. The mob broke his windows in 1831, because he did not illuminate. He published at this time his "Treatise on Political Economy." His conclusions were not in harmony with popular beliefs. He taught "that the real amelioration of any nation's condition depends not on the possession of political privileges but on the intelligence and moral excellence of its people."

Chalmers had no sympathy with the vagaries of Campbell of Row, Edward Irving, and Principal Scott. Those heretics were expelled from the Church, and allowed to follow their own sweet and wayward ways. In 1832 Chalmers was chosen Moderator of the Scottish Assembly. He became the recognised leader of the evangelical parly, and laboured to modify or sweep away patronage. Dr. Cook, however, headed the Moderates and triumphed. In 1834, Lord Moncrieff carried the veto Law. It was merely a compromise to conservatism. Patronage is now, after years of strife and debate, abolished. Chalmers took the lead in Church extension; and, in 1834, after being repulsed by Government, he appealed to the people, and the result was a sum of £300,000. "Within seven years 220 new churches were added to the Establishment." In 1834 he was elected Fellow and Vice-president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and a corresponding member of the Royal Institute of France. In 1835 Oxford conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. He was greeted with extraordinary enthusiasm in Oxford Theatre, He loved England and the English Church, and visited all its cathedrals; he venerated the universities, and was hospitably entertained by the English literati. In 1836 Chalmers bitterly opposed the elevation of Principal Lee to the Chair of the Assembly. That strife alienated the chiefest friends. Chalmers delivered a course of lectures in London on Church Establishment, and in support of the English Church, against the attacks of dissenters and the advocates of disestablishment. The audience was select, and the impression made was profound. Five hundred of those present were Peers and Members of Parliament. The inspired lecturer put his audience in a state of temporary madness. "Carried away by the impassioned utterance of the speaker, long ere the close of some of his finest page 67 passages was reached, the voice of the lecturer was drowned in the applause, the audience rising from their seats and breaking out into tumultuous approbation." He electrified "the most brilliant audiences that ever assembled in Britain," and they actually raised "a whirlwind of enthusiasm which was probably never exceeded in the history of eloquence." As a consequence London subscribed £5000 in aid of the Scottish Church extension movement. Curious he did not foresee the coming storm, especially as "a month or two before, the Court of Session had pronounced a judgment in the famous Auchterarder case." He was probably of opinion, "that a firm resistance on the part of the Church would prevent any serious attempt being made on its inherent independence." In 1838 he went to Paris and sojourned in Normandy. He visited Guisot, the Institute, the Due de Broglie at whose chateau he met Madame de Stael. Here he was shown Diodati's translation of his sermons. The duchess officiated at family prayers—which wore simple—a chapter of Scripture and the Lord's Prayer. In 1839 he threw his energies into the conflict between Church and State. He would have a Free Church, in a Free State. The Auchterarder case set the flames of discord in a blaze. The Rev. Mr. Young had only two signatures to his call, and yet the Supreme Courts of Edinburgh and London insisted upon his induction! The Veto Act was overridden. The case of Lethendy followed. The Presbytery were beaten, and an obnoxious pastor was ordained. Then came on the notorious case of Marnock, and the servile Presbytery of Strathbogie. The assembly deposed them, and the State hesitated to go to extremities. Chalmers and his party would not concede to the State a control in purely spiritual as well as temporal matters. Reform in the Church he fought for, but stood aloof from aid in the State. No compromise on the question of spiritual independence. In face of the Court of Session, Chalmers went to Strath bogie and preached in the interdicted parishes.

In 1842 Chalmers urged "the putting forth of a formal and final Claim of Rights," on the question of spiritual independence. Here he drew the line of demarcation of the civil and the ecclesiastical tribunals. Chalmers all along held that "the least violation of spiritual independence in return for a State endowment was enough to convert a Church Establishment into a moral nuisance." Two years before the Disruption, "he addressed himself to the consideration of what steps could be taken to carry on evangelical work without any help from the State. He despaired of a Free Established Church. He wished to spread abroad "that education of principle which would prove the only counteractive, not to irreligion only, but to vice and anarchy and socialism, and the whole tribe of those moral and political disorders which were in busy fermentation all over the land.

In 1843, on the 18th of May, the conflict of ten years culminated in the Disruption. Dr Chalmers headed the exodus of ministers to the Canon Mills. Dr. Cumming of London advised the Government to be firm, and predicted "that less than one hundred will cover the whole secession." Now nearly five hundred ministers vacated their churches, manses, and glebes. In 1853, Sir James Graham openly "regretted his share in bringing about the Disruption. "He regarded it "as the saddest event in his life, that he should have had any hand in that most fatal act." Lord Jeffrey said "I am proud of my country. There is not another country upon earth where such a deed could have been done." The Assembly of a Free Church in a Free State was an imposing spectacle, "with consciences disburdened and casting themselves without care and with all the confidence of children on the providence of that God who never forsakes the families of the faithful." Dr Chalmers was unanimously elected Moderator.

It is recorded that " a sudden burst of sunlight filled the building, and recalled to many present the text from which the Moderator had preached six months before: "Unto the up right light shall arise in the darkness." The genius of Chalmers was equal to the occasion. "There was a financial report ready to be submitted to the Assembly. 687 associations for the collection of funds for the support of the ministry had been already organised. 239 of these had actually sent £17,000 to the general treasury." Chalmers was not a Utopian. There are now—thanks to the sustentation fund of Dr. Chalmers—over one thousand congregations, with annual fund of £176,000. With enthusiasm, Chalmers possessed practical sagacity. In rooms in George Street, the New College was opened in November, under the presiding of Chalmers, assisted by Drs. Welsh, Cunningham, and Black. Divinity, Church history, Apologetics, and Biblical criticism were taught, ab initio. Other chairs soon followed.

Drs Duncan and Fleming were appointed to teach Hebrew and National History. Messrs. Macdougal, Fraser and Miller taught Metaphysics, Moral Philosophy, and Classics. The last four chairs, in due course, were abolished, and two of their occupants were transferred to the University of Edinburgh—Fraset is still alive, in Hamilton's chair. From all quarters of Christendom Chalmers received expressions of sympathy. In the Assembly of 1845, Merle D'Aubigne, Frederic Monod, and Kuntze of Berlin appeared as deputies from their respective churches. D'Aubigne says, that when Chalmers, who introduced the deputies, appeared, "the whole audience rose, shouted, page 69 clapped their hands, and waved hats and handkerchiefs." The result of all this was the formation of the Evangelical Alliance. Chalmers taught that "the surest road to right-thinking was right doing. Let us be one in well-doing; and this, wherever there is real sincerity and right good earnest, will prove the high road to being one in sentiment. How Chalmers himself transformed the West Port is a matter of history. This shows what a good and great man can accomplish in the reclamation of the fallen and degraded masses. In 1879, the West Port Church had a membership of 1100 souls.

On the 7th of May, 1847, he went up to London to give evidence before a Committee of Inquiry regarding the conduct of heritors who refused to grant sites for churches. He became acquainted with Sir Charles Lyell, and the Bishop of Gloucester on this occasion, and visited Carlyle, Carlyle approved of his territorial system, and, pronounced a "eulogy on direct thinking to the utter disparagement of those subjective philosophers who are constantly thinking upon thinking."

On the 30th of May, in his own manse at Morningside, he died. He was clearly an instrument of God "to roll back the tide of irreligion." Like Paul, he was converted to God. What might have been the consequence, had he turned his talents against Christainity? It is fearful to contemplate a Chalmers throwing all his energies, bodily and mental, against the Church of Christ. "We should have seen him taking the lead at congresses, discussing the origin of matter, or fighting, as if the welfare of the world depended on it, for some knotty point connected with the obliquity of the Ecliptic. The relation of a mind like his to Christianity could not be always that of indifference or neutrality. If he had not been moved to come over to its side, he might have been led to lift up his hand against it, and so to the hostile forces of the present day might have been added the element of a soul, which, whether for good or for evil, would be always influential."

So much for Walker's life of Thomas Chalmers.