Produced by Al Haines.
[Illustration: Cover]
[Illustration: Title page]
THOMAS
CHALMERS
BY
W. GARDEN
BLAIKIE
FAMOUS
SCOTS
SERIES
PUBLISHED BY
OLIPHANT ANDERSON
FERRIER -- EDINBURGH
AND LONDON
The designs and ornaments of this
volume are by Mr. Joseph Brown,
and the printing from the press of
Messrs. T. and A. Constable, Edinburgh.
PREFACE
I cannot send forth this little sketch of the Life of Chalmers without
expressing anew my admiration of the four-volumed biography by my late
beloved friend, Dr. Hanna. It is not only admirable as a portrait, but
it cannot be read by any sympathetic reader without a sense of
humiliation, and without a great stimulus to higher things. It is much
to be regretted that Dr. Hanna was unable to carry out the purpose which
it is understood that he cherished, of condensing the work into a single
volume.
Other memorials of Dr. Chalmers have been given to the world. Among
these may be noted:--
1. A Biographical Notice of the late Thos. Chalmers, D.D., LL.D. Read
before the Royal Society of Edinburgh. By the Very Rev. E. B. Ramsay,
M.A., 1850.
2. Chalmeriana; or Colloquies with Dr. Chalmers. By Joseph John Gurney,
1853.
3. A Selection from the Correspondence of Thos. Chalmers, D.D., LL.D.
Edited by Rev. W. Hanna, LL.D., 1853.
4. Mr. Isaac Taylor's elaborate articles in the _North British Review_,
1852 and 1856.
5. Thomas Chalmers, a Biographical Study. By James Dodds, 1879.
6. Thomas Chalmers. His Life and its Lessons. By Rev. Norman L.
Walker, 1880.
7. Thomas Chalmers, D.D., LL.D. (Men Worth Remembering). By Donald
Fraser, D.D., 1881.
8. Thomas Chalmers, Preacher, Philosopher, and Statesman. By Mrs.
Oliphant, 1893.
9. Recollections of Dr. Chalmers by Professor David Masson, in _Lowe's
and Macmillan's Magazines_.
10. Recollections by the Rev. Dr. Macaulay in the _Leisure Hour_.
11. Funeral Sermons and Lectures by Rev. Dr. Cunningham, Rev. Dr. Jas.
Buchanan, Rev. John Bruce, Rev. W. K. Tweedie, Rev. John G. Lorimer,
Rev. James Julius Wood, Rev. J. A. Wallace, Rev. John Gemmel, Rev. David
Couper, Rev. W. Tasker, Rev. A. J. Ross, Rev. Dr. W. Lindsay Alexander,
Rev. Dr. Sprague (Albany, New York), Rev. Dr. Sharp (Boston), Rev.
Professor Edwards (Andover), Rev. Dr. Smyth (Charleston), etc. etc.
Among the greatest privileges and honours of his life, the writer will
ever regard his having been for one session a student under Dr. Chalmers
at Edinburgh; for three years a co-presbyter and cordial fellow-worker
on his lines, in forming and building up a territorial congregation; and
for many years the occupant of one of two chairs of theology which were
constituted at the Disruption in New College, in place of the single
chair which Dr. Chalmers had held, and thus in a sense, but most
unworthily, one of his successors.
EDINBURGH, _December_ 1896.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
BIRTH, SCHOOL, AND COLLEGE, 1780-1803
CHAPTER II
KILMANY, 1803-1815
CHAPTER III
GLASGOW, 1815-1823
CHAPTER IV
ST. ANDREWS UNIVERSITY, 1823-1828
CHAPTER V
EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY, 1828-1843
CHAPTER VI
NEW COLLEGE, EDINBURGH, 1843-1847
THOMAS CHALMERS
CHAPTER I
BIRTH, SCHOOL, AND COLLEGE
1780-1803
Thomas Chalmers was born at Anstruther, Fifeshire, on the 17th March
1780, when the flowers were appearing on the earth, and the time of the
singing of birds was come. It seems never to have been noticed that this
was St. Patrick's day, and no one has ever instituted a comparison
between the lives of the two illustrious Scotsmen. But if only we had
authentic materials for the life of Patrick, whose Scottish birth seems
well established, it would probably be found that there was no slight
similarity. Transferring his labours to Ireland, Patrick, with the
Gospel of Jesus Christ as his instrument, laboured for the double object
of bringing individuals within the Kingdom of God, and elevating and
purifying the condition of the country. The same double aim was ever
present to the mind of Chalmers. On the basis of the Gospel, he could
not separate the social from the personal, the general from the
particular, the temporal from the spiritual. He had always an Arcadia,
a Utopia, a new spring-tide for his country in his vista; but a
spring-tide to be realised in one way only--by the coming of the Spirit
from on high.
Anstruther was not a stirring town, for through the union with England
it had lost no little of the trade, whether legal or contraband, which
in former days, along with the other little towns on the Fife seaboard,
it had carried on with France and England. But an abundant element of
life and activity was supplied within his father's house, where nine
brothers and five sisters, among whom Thomas came fifth, must have
sufficed to make any household lively. The father was in fairly
prosperous business, and provost of the town. He is described as
'dignified and handsome in appearance, highly honourable, courteous, and
kind; and of fervent but not ostentatious piety.' The mother was in
person short, thick, erect, devoted to her household, sharing her
husband's piety, but so self-restrained that a smile was seldom seen on
her face. The family was connected with many members of the
middle-class, some also of the clergy, and a sprinkling of the landed
gentry.
The parish school of Anstruther, to which Chalmers, persecuted by a
scolding nurse, went at the age of three, was taught by a master never
very efficient, and in Chalmers's time old and nearly blind, who made up
for other deficiencies by his great energy in flogging. There was an
assistant teacher who was not much more effective in teaching than his
principal, but who was as mild as the other was severe. This gentleman,
who survived Chalmers, bore a very touching testimony to his kindness.
'No man,' he exclaimed on one occasion, 'knows the amount of kindness
which I have received from him. He has often done me good both as
respects my soul and my body; many a pithy sentence he uttered when he
threw himself in my way; many a pound note has he given me; and he
always did the thing as if he were afraid that any person should see
him.' Of Chalmers as a schoolboy the testimony is that he was 'one of
the idlest, strongest, merriest, and most generous-hearted boys in
Anstruther school.' Had one chanced to come upon the school-children
engaged in their various amusements (says one of his biographers), one
should soon have distinguished 'one boy above the rest, seeming about
ten or twelve years of age, who is the leader in their sports--strong,
active, merry, and boisterous, with big head, matted dark hair, large
plain features, broad shoulders, well-proportioned but brawny limbs, his
laugh always loudest, and his figure always foremost at football and the
other games in which they are contending.'[1]
[1] _Thomas Chalmers: A Biographical Study_. By James Dodds.
The father and mother of Dr. Chalmers, as we have said, were of strong
religious character, hearty followers of the Calvinistic theology, and,
though too busy to bestow much attention on the education of their
family, very desirous that they should all accept their views. Much
though Chalmers respected and honoured them, he did not at first fall in
with their views of life and duty. He grew up with a positive dislike
both of the Calvinistic theology and the evangelical life. It was not
till after he had been some years in the ministry that, under the acute
pressure of personal illness and family bereavements, he came to see as
they did, and to live as they lived. The change to them must have been
like the conversion of Augustine to Monica. And yet, in after years,
their intercourse was not wholly without friction. It is touching to
mark in the son's diary tokens of his humiliation on account of the
crossness with which he sometimes spoke to them. Both were deaf, and an
aunt who lived with them was deafer still, and it annoyed Thomas, with
his naturally impatient temper, to find himself misapprehended, often to
have to repeat his remarks, and always to speak in that louder tone
which the deaf require. We may be sure that when he felt and confessed
thus in secret, he would try to make up for it at other times by double
kindness, for of all things that could vex him, to inflict needless pain
was about the worst. His respect for them was alike sincere and
affectionate; and for his mother's widow hood--lonely, but bright, calm,
and holy, he had such a reverence that it became the very pattern of all
that he desired most earnestly for his own old age.
Thomas was not yet twelve, when, with his brother William, he was sent
on to the University of St. Andrews. At such an age, common enough then
in Scotland, boys were incapable of grasping the great aims of a
university; and college to them was but an upper school. But the change
to the university had at first no effect in mending the idle ways of our
student. He was 'volatile, boyish, and idle.' Yet, even from the
first, he was noted for strict integrity and warm affection, and in all
that he did undertake he was enthusiastic and persevering. It was not
till his third session that he became attached to any branch of
learning. The science that captivated him then was mathematics. And so
ardently did he devote himself to it, that long afterwards, about the
time when he left Kilmany, he was familiarly known as 'Mr. Chalmers, the
mathematician.' He might have borne the designation to the very end.
His mind was fashioned on the mathematical model, taking its stand on
realities, the substantial verities of life; striving to explain their
relations and applications, and then pressing them with tremendous
energy on the hearts and consciences of his fellows. For Professor
Brown, his mathematical teacher, he retained through life the warmest
regard; and when he died in 1836, he wrote to his widow, that of all his
public instructors he was the one that impressed him most, and to whom
he owed most in the formation of his tastes and habits, and in the
guidance of his literary life.
As the termination of his curriculum in arts drew near, it became
necessary that he should choose a profession. Strange to say, although
he had no favour either for theology or religion, he had declared from
his boyhood for the ministry. Some of the more picturesque sayings of
the Bible had taken a remarkable hold of his mind. When but three years
old, being missed and sought for, after it had become dark, he was found
alone, pacing up and down in the nursery, repeating to himself the words
of David, 'O my son Absalom, my son Absalom; O Absalom, my son, my son!'
The sister of one of his schoolfellows used to tell of her breaking in
on the two, and finding him on a chair, preaching vigorously to his
single hearer. It was the soul of the orator asserting itself from the
very first.
But when he entered on his theological course, there seemed to be little
or no development of the real spirit of the ministry. He was, indeed,
full of reverence for truth, and so impatient of anything like double
dealing, that when his professor represented that certain doctrines of
Calvinism should not be much spoken of, he could not but ask, Why not,
if they be true? Throughout his whole life he disliked men who were not
above board with everything, and his own regard for truth was
transparent to all. For a time his mind was clouded with scepticism.
The books that were most useful in restoring his faith were Butler's
_Analogy_ and Beattie's _Essay on Truth_. A very remarkable effect was
produced on him when, some time after, he became acquainted with
Jonathan Edwards on _The Freedom of the Will_. For a time he could
neither think nor talk of anything else. What so impressed him was the
idea of the whole series of events in the spiritual as well as the
material world being bound together by unalterable links, and thus
forming one vast scheme--a wonderful tribute to the wisdom, power, and
glory of God. The incident showed how his mind had expanded, and how he
had come to find delight in large, comprehensive views of things. Long
after, he spoke of the year in which this subject occupied him as a time
of mental elysium, so great was his delight. Yet at this time
evangelical truth was positively rejected. We are reminded of the
experience of another, afterwards a colleague of his own in New College,
Edinburgh, the late Dr. John Duncan, who, even when a student of
divinity, wandered for a time in the gloomy mazes of atheism, but when
brought into the light of theism--apart from Christianity
altogether--expressed his emotion in a way of his own: 'I danced on the
brig o' Dee when I came to see there was a God.'
It was of course necessary, when he had advanced somewhat in his
divinity course, that he should practise the art of composition. His
first efforts, we are told, were poor enough. The composition both of
his letters and his college exercises was bald, unrelieved by any gleam
of fancy or sentiment. But in two years he had learned to write with
ease and fluency, and he had formed that remarkable, if somewhat turgid
style which he practised ever after. We know so little of the English
writers who engaged his attention at this time that the natural history
of his style is something of a puzzle. It has somewhat of the swell and
dignity of Johnson, and much of the diffuseness of Burke--two of the
most prominent writers in his youth. But its main quality must have
arisen from the burning fervour of his own mind, and the natural outflow
of his thoughts, shaping his language spontaneously, and moulding it
into characteristic forms of beauty and power.
When in 1842, on the eve of the Disruption, Chalmers met four or five
hundred of his brethren in what was known as the Convocation, and
endeavoured to reconcile them to the prospect of an unendowed church,
the task was one that demanded the highest efforts of his eloquence. It
was his aim to rouse them to an attitude worthy of the occasion, and,
with that view, he concluded an appeal of transcendent power with a
eulogy of enthusiasm which awakened thunders of applause. Never had he
seemed more eloquent. Yet the passage that had so thrilled his audience
was found after his death to be an exact transcript from one of his
student discourses. 'Enthusiasm is a virtue rarely produced in a state
of calm and unruffled repose. It flourishes in adversity. It kindles
in the hour of danger and rises to deeds of renown. The terrors of
persecution only serve to awaken the energy of its purposes. It swells
in the pride of integrity, and great in the purity of its cause, it can
scatter defiance amid a host of enemies.'--Already, '_fervet,
immensusque ruit_.'
In those days it was the practice of the members of the university to
meet morning and evening in the public hall for worship, the prayers
being led by the students of divinity. In his first theological
session, Mr. Chalmers's prayer was an amplification of the Lord's
Prayer, so eloquent and original as to awaken the wonder of all. One
who remembered his prayers on these occasions said: 'The wonderful flow
of eloquent, vivid, ardent description of the attributes and works of
God, and still more, perhaps, the astonishingly harrowing delineation of
the miseries, the horrid cruelties, immoralities, and abominations
inseparable from war, which always came in more or less in connection
with the bloody warfare in which we were engaged with France, called
forth the wonderment of his hearers. He was then only sixteen years of
age, yet he showed a taste and capacity for composition of the most
glowing and eloquent kind. Even then his style was very much the same as
at the period when he attracted so much notice, and made such powerful
impression in the pulpit and by the press.'
Thus already, in his student days, that great outline of character had
begun to shape itself, which, modified afterwards by new and powerful
forces, made him the great man he was. The intensity of his nature, the
redundant energy that hardly knew fatigue, the largeness of his view,
the warmth of his affection, the independence of his judgment, and the
gushing impetuosity of his style were manifest from these college days.
Whatever he may have derived from his parents, or from the masters that
taught him, or the books he read, a fearless, sturdy independence was
the ruling feature--he was a genuine Scot.
On finishing his theological studies he accepted a situation as tutor in
a family, under the feeling that, as his knowledge of mankind had
hitherto been limited to his own family and his fellow-students, it was
desirable for him to know a little more of the world. But his
experience was not happy. It was not merely that his hours of teaching
were so arranged as to leave him hardly any time for reading, but that
his treatment was not what he considered due to a gentleman. Of such
treatment he was sensitive to the last degree, nor was he restrained by
any bashfulness or timidity from expressing his opinion of it. His
employer wished to throw the blame on himself, and told him he had too
much pride. He could not deny the charge, but showed a ready wit in
hurling it back on his accuser. 'Sir,' was his undaunted reply, 'there
are two kinds of pride: there is the pride which lords it over
inferiors, and there is the pride which rejoices in repressing the
insolence of superiors. The first I have none of--the second I glory
in.' This, to say the least, was tolerably smart for a lad of eighteen.
But it showed not only his independence but his intolerance of
opposition. Soon after, he gave up the situation.
He had not completed his nineteenth year when he applied to his
presbytery to be licensed as a probationer. He was under the legal age,
but probably his precocity had made a considerable impression, for the
law was evaded under a traditional exception in favour of youths 'of
pregnant parts,' and on the 21st July 1799 he became a licentiate. But
he did not show much interest in the work of his new calling.
Immediately after, he paid a visit to friends in England, in the course
of which he preached his first sermon, at Wigan, on 25th August 1799.
His eldest brother wrote to his father: 'His mode of delivery is
expressive, his language beautiful, and his arguments very forcible and
strong.... It is the opinion of those who pretend to be judges that he
will shine in the pulpit, but as yet he is rather awkward in his
appearance. We, however, are at some pains in adjusting his dress,
manner, etc., but he does not seem to pay any great regard to it
himself. His mathematical studies appear to occupy more of his time than
his religious.'
Returning from England, he spent the next two winters at Edinburgh
attending classes at the university. Mathematics, chemistry, natural
and moral philosophy, and political economy were the subjects that
occupied his attention. To Dr. Robison, Professor of Natural Philosophy,
he felt himself under very deep obligations. He had been perplexed by
the views which he found in the _Systeme de la Nature_, published under
the pseudonym of Mirabeau, but really the work of the Baron von Holbach.
That rigid uniformity of natural law which it enforced seemed to point
ominously to materialism and atheism. Under Professor Robison's
instructions he was led to ponder the remarkable harmony between the
human mind and the processes of nature--the wonderful adaptation of the
one to the other; and the conclusion was irresistible that this must be
due to an intelligent Divine Being who had framed these adaptations. In
after years this was the theme of his Bridgewater treatise, and it was
one of the corner-stones of his Natural Theology. As to preaching
during these Edinburgh studies, it seems to have been almost entirely
neglected.
A new situation, however, opened up to him, as assistant to the Rev. Mr.
Elliot, minister of Cavers, in Roxburghshire. The duties of this office
he discharged for about a year with fair regularity and diligence, but
without hard work, and without his showing any lively interest in the
objects of the ministry. In the course of his residence there, he
learned that when the parish of Kilmany, in Fife, should fall vacant (as
it was likely to do, but not just immediately, by the appointment of the
incumbent to a chair), he would get the presentation from the University
of St. Andrews.
But what interested him much more was his appointment as assistant, for
the ensuing session, to the professor of mathematics there. All that
concerned the ministry excited but a languid interest, but his literary
and scientific ambition was irrepressible. Already it had begun to look
towards a mathematical chair. As Mrs. Oliphant remarks, 'The life and
energy of a robust young man, full of ambition, eager for achievement,
was in all his veins.' As a teacher he kindled the enthusiasm of his
students for mathematical science. To himself the demonstrations of
geometry were alike complete and beautiful. But he had also a way of
associating mathematics with other pursuits, of bringing all manner of
side-lights to bear on the study, of finding analogies in this quarter
and in that, that greatly increased his popularity as a teacher. As one
of his students remarked afterwards, 'Under his extraordinary management
the study of mathematics was felt to be hardly less a play of the fancy
than a labour of the intellect--the lessons of the day being continually
interspersed with applications and illustrations of the most lively
nature, so that he secured in a singular manner the confidence and
attachment of his pupils.'
But such popularity among the students was apt to beget a different
feeling among the professors; it especially roused Mr. Vilant, the
gentleman as whose substitute Chalmers had been acting. Mr. Vilant, it
appeared, had been granting certificates without communication with his
assistant--a grievous offence in his eyes. Accordingly, at the public
examination of his classes at the end of the session, Chalmers broke out
into a severe invective against him, and delivered a long, sarcastic
speech in condemnation of his conduct. The professors knew not how to
look, but at last the Principal brought the speech of Chalmers to an
end, and he proceeded with his examination as if nothing had happened.
His capacity of combining strong feeling in one direction with perfect
self-control in every other was very remarkable. Many years afterwards,
when expressing his views with extraordinary energy in the General
Assembly on the question that led to the Disruption, he was interrupted
by a layman, who remarked that they were all pleased to hear him,
excited though he was, but that there were limits, etc., etc.
'Excited!' exclaimed Chalmers, in great astonishment; 'does the
gentleman say that I am excited? I am as cool as an algebraic problem.'
His head was in no degree disturbed by the vehemence of his heart.
A short time had to elapse between the close of the session and his
ordination as minister of Kilmany, which Mr. Chalmers devoted to a visit
to Edinburgh. His father was disappointed and mortified that on the eve
of entering on so solemn a profession, he did not put the interval to
use at home in the way of earnest meditation and prayer. For that,
however, the son did not see the slightest necessity. He deemed himself
already sufficiently prepared for his duties, with the nature of which
he was well acquainted. In this strain he wrote to his father, adhering
to his plan. A few years later he would have felt most differently,
and, ashamed of his carelessness, he would have most cordially fallen in
with all that his father had written.