Stom t^e feiBrart of g()rofe60or nriffiam (gXiffer (]t)a;rton, ®.®., fc&.®. ^reecnfe^ 6p (^[tre. ^arton fo f^e fetBrarp of (princeton S^eofogicdf ^eminarg •6X / CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. V FEB 261912 ASELECTION \&^7 ..,.., .«»■; THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THE LATE THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D. LL.D. EDITED BY HIS SON-IN-LAW, THE REV. WILLIAM HANNA, LL.D. EDINBURGH: THOMAS CONSTABLE AND CO. HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO., LONDON. MDCCCLIII. BDIKBURGH ; FEINTED BY THOMAS CONSTABLE, PRINTER TO HER MAJESTY. PREFATORY NOTICE. Many of the following Letters were forwarded too late to secure their insertion in the proper order of their dates. The Letter, for instance, addressed to Mrs. Dunlop (p. 131) had passed through the press some weeks before that important series with Avhich the Volume closes, and of Avhich it should have formed a part, came into the Editor's hands. He trusts that this explanation may be accepted as an apology for any Avant of orderly arrangement that the Volume may present. Edixbuhoh, May 1853. CONTENTS. No. 1. Dr. 2. Mr. 3. Mr. 4. Mr. 5. Mr. 6. Dr. 7. Dr. 8. Mr. 9. Dr. 10. Dr. 11. Mr. 12. Dr. 13. Mr. 14. Dr. 15. Mr. 16. Mr. 17. Dr. 18. Mr. 19. Mr. 20. Dr. 21. Mr. 22. Dr. 23. Dr. 24. Mr. 25. Dr. 26. Mr. 27. Dr. 28 Dr. Chalmers to Mr. James Anderson, James Anderson to Dr. Chalmers, .Tames Anderson to Dr. Chalmers, James Anderson to Dr. Chalmers, Thomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers, Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith, Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith, Thomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers, Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith, Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith, Thomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers, Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith, Thomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers, Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith, Thomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers, Thomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers, Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith, Thomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers, Thomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers, Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith, Thomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers, Clialmers to Mr. Thomas Smith, Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith, Thomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers, Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith, Thomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers, Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith, Chalmers to Mrs. Kedie, . Page 1 3 6 9 11 12 15 16 18 19 21 22 23 24 26 27 29 30 32 33 35 37 39 41 43 44 46 49 via CONTENTS. No. 29. Dr. Chalmers to the Misses Kedie, 30. Dr. Chalmers to Mrs. Kedie, 31-36. Dr. Chalmers to Mr. Kedie, 37^1. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Dr. Jones of Edinburgh 42-55. Dr. Chalmers to Mrs. Coiitts, 56-60. Dr. Chalmers to Miss Collier, . 61-70. Dr. Chalmers to William Wilberforce, Esq., M.P., 71-88. Dr. Chalmers to Mrs. Glasgow of Mount greenan, 89. Dr. Chalmers to Mrs. Dunlop, 90-121. Dr. Chalmers to Mrs. Parker, . 122-129. Dr. Chalmers to Mrs. Darroch, 130. Dr. Chalmers to General Darroch, . 131. Dr. Chalmers to General Dan-och, . 132. Dr. Chalmers to Dr. Rainy of Glasgow, 133. Dr. Chalmers to Dr. Rainy of Glasgow, 134. Dr. Chalmers to Mrs. Brown, 135-140. Dr. Chalmers to Mr. Robert Brown, 141_]44. Dr. Chalmers to Mr. Patrick Chalmers 145-208. Dr. Chalmers to Mrs. Morton, 209. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Mr. Watson, 210. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Mr. Watson, 211. Dr. Chalmers to Mr. Fortime, 212-218. Dr. Chalmers to Mrs. Watson, 217. Dr. Chalmers to Mr. William Fortune, 218. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Mr. Honey, 219. Dr. Chalmers to the Secretaries of the Fife and Kinross Bible Society 220-222. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Dr. Charters of Wilton. 223. Dr. Chalmers to W. Roger, Esq. of Glasgow, 224-227. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. J. W. Cunningham of Harrow, London. 228. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Dr. Wright of Stirling, . 229-231. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Dr. Smyth of Glasgow 232-236. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Dr. Macfarlan of Greenock, 237. Dr. Chalmers in reply to a Letter requesting some Directions on the subject of Practical Charity, .... 2.38. Dr. Chalmers to a Friend, ' . 239. Dr. Chalmers on Man's Responsibility for his Belief, 240. Dr. Chalmers's Directions to an Anxious Inquirer, 241. Dr. Chalmers to the Countess of D A Letter of Christian En- couragement, ....•• 242. Dr. Chalmers to Lady Osborne, . . • • • Page 50 53 54-58 59-65 65-85 86-92 93-107 108-130 131 133-156 157-165 166 168 170 171 172 175-181 182-187 188-249 250 251 253 253-260 261 264 267 273-276 277 •279-286 287 288-289 290-294 296 298 299 300 302 304 CONTENTS. No. 243. Dr. Chalmers to his eldest Daughter, on partaking for the first time of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, 244. Dr. Chalmers to Master J. Morton, 245. Dr. Chalmers's Advice to a Young Clergyman 246. Dr. Chalmers to Mrs. Grant of Laggan, 247-249. Dr. Chalmers to T. Erskine, Esq. of Linlathan 250. Dr. Chalmers to the Eev. John Foster, 251. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Dr. Ryland, 252. Dr. Chalmers to Mr. J. E. Ryland, 253. Dr. Chalmers to Mr. J. E. Ryland, 254. Dr. Chalmers to Mrs. Paul, 255. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. C. Bridges, 256. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. C. Bridges, 257. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Horace Bonar, 258-260. Dr. Chalmers to Dr. James Brown, 261. Dr. Chalmers to Mrs. Brown, 262. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Mr. Harvey, 263. Dr. Chalmers to Mr. John Sheppard, 264. Dr. Chalmers to Mr. John Sheppard, 265. Dr. Chalmers to Dr. Symington, 266. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Thomas Bartlett, 267. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller, 268-271. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Thomas Grinfield, Clifton, 272. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Henry Bell, 273. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Henry Bell, 274. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Timothy East, Birmingham, 275. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Ebenezer Brown of Inverkeithing, Fife, 276-278. Dr. Chahners to the Countess of Elgin, 279. Dr. Chalmers to Lady Matilda Maxwell, 280. Dr. Chalmers to Lady Carnegie, 281. Dr. Chalmers to Lady O'Brien, 282. Dr. Chalmers to Lady O'Brien, 283. Dr. Chalmers to Sir Andrew Agnew, Bart., 284. Dr. Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Walker, Flesher, Galashiels, 285. Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. Dr. Strachan, Bishop of Toronto, 286-289. Dr. Chalmers to Professor Duncan, 290. Dr. Easton to Dr. Chalmers, 291. Dr. Chalmers to Dr. Easton, 292. Dr. Easton to Dr. Chalmers, 293. Dr. Chalmers to Dr. Easton, Page 306 308 310 312 313-317 318 320 321 322 323 323 325 326 327-330 331 332 333 334 335 336 339 340-342 342 343 344 345 346-348 349 350 352 3.54 355 359 360 362-364 366 367 369 370 CONTENTS. No. 294. 295. 296- 300. 301. 302. 303- 306. 307. 308. 309- 313. 314. 315. 316. 317. 318. 319. 320. 321. 322. 323. 324. 325. 326- 339. 340- 344. 345. 346. 347. 348- 351. 352. 353. 354. 355. 356. CORRESPONDENCE ON THE CHURCH QUESTION. Page Dr. Chalmers to John Hamilton, Esq., .... 372 Dr. Chalmers to John Hamilton, Esq., .... 374 -299. Dr. Chalmers to Sir George Sinclair, .... 375-379 Dr. Chalmers to the Bishop of Llandaff, .... 380 Dr. Chalmers to the Bishop of Llandaff, .... 381 Dr. Chalmers to the Honourable and Eev. Dr. Wellesley, . . 381 -305. Dr. Chalniers to Lord Lome, ..... 382-396 Dr. Chalmers to Wilham Lamont,jun., Esq., Glasgow, . . 397 Dr. Chalmers to Alexander Campbell, Esq., M.P., . . 399 Dr. Chalmers to John C. Colquhoun, Esq., .... 400 -312. Dr. Chalmers to Alexander Gordon, Esq., London, . . 401-409 Dr. Chalmers to Eev. , ..... 410 Dr. Chalmers to the Same, . . . . . . 412 Dr. Chalmers to Andrew Johnston, Esq., .... 413 Dr. Chalmers to Andrew Johnston, Esq., .... 414 Dr. Chalmers to the Rev. William Findlater, . . . 416 Dr. Chalmers to Professor Sedgwick of Cambridge, . . 417 Dr. Chalmers to D. Maitland Makgill Crichton, Esq., . . 421 Dr. Chalmers to D. Maitland Makgill Crichton, Esq., . . 422 Dr. Chalmers to George Yule, Esq., .... 423 Dr. Chalmers to Captain Burnett of Monboddo, . . . 424 Dr. Chalmers to Captain Burnett of Monboddo, . . . 426 Dr. Chalmers to the Eev. P. Henderson, Pollockshaws, . . 426 Dr. Chalmers to Sir George Sinclair, .... 428 •338. Dr. Chalmers to Mr. Lenox of New York, . . . 429-442 Dr. Chalmers to Dr. D. Stebbins, Northampton, Massachusetts, . 443 ■343. Dr. Chalmers to the Eev. Dr. Merle dAubigne, . . 444-447 Dr. Chalmers to Miss Brewster, ..... 448 Dr. Chalmers to Miss Brewster, ..... 449 Dr. Chalmers to Mrs. Williamson, ..... 449 Dr. Chalmers to Miss Marshall, Glasgow, .... 450 350. Dr. Chalmers to Charles Spence, Esq., . . . 451-453 Dr. Chalmers to M. Descombaa, Lausanne, . . . 455 Dr. Chalmers to Mr. John Crai^j;, ..... 458 Dr. Chalmers to J. Barclay, Esq., Tongue, . . , 459 Dr. Chalmers to , ...... 459 Dr. Chalmers to Eev. Dhanjibhai Nowroji, .... 461 Dr. Chalmers to Miss Mackean, ..... 462 CONTENTS. XI No. 357. Dr. 358. Dr. 359. Dr. 360. Dr. 361. Dr. 362. Dr. 363. Dr. 364. Dr. 365. Dr. 366. Dr. 367. Dr. 368. Dr. 369. Dr. 370. Dr. 371. Dr. 372. Dr. 373. Dr. 374. Dr. 375. Dr. 376. Dr. 377. Dr. 378. Dr. 379. Dr. 380. Dr. 381. Dr. 382. Dr. 383. Dr. 384. Dr. 385. Dr. 386. Dr. 387. Dr. 388 Dr. 389-410. Chalmers to the Eev. Alexander Anderson, Aberdeen, Chalmers to Sir Harry Verney, Chalmers on visiting a Family in which a sudden death had occurred, Chalmers to Mrs. M'Corquodale, Chalmers to Mrs. M'Corquodale, Chalmers to Miss M'Corquodale, Chalmers to Miss M'Corquodale, Chalmers to Mrs. Rutherford of Edgeistone, Chalmers to Mrs. Usher, Chalmers to Mrs. Henry Wood, Edinburgh, Chalmers to William Buchanan, Esq., Glasgow, Chalmers to William Buchanan, Esq., Glasgow, Chalmers to Mrs. Campbell, Chalmers to Miss Young, Burntisland, . Chalmers to Miss Young, Burntisland, . Chalmers to Charles Cowan, Esq., Chalmers to the Eev. Dr. Somerville of Drummelzier, Chalmers to Dr. Somerville, Chalmers to Miss Somerville, Chalmers to Mrs. Charles Nairne, Chalmers to Dr. Begbie, Chalmers to Mrs. M'Clelland, Chalmers to Mrs. Bryce, Aberdour, Chalmers to Miss Burns, Chalmers to Mrs. Elliot, Chalmers to Mrs. Anderson, Chalmers to Miss Ahercrombie, Chalmers to Mrs. Mackay, Chalmers to James Cunningham, Esq., Edinburgh, Chalmers to Frederic Adamson, Esq., . Chalmers to Misses Wallace, . ;. . Chalmers to Miss Wood, , Dr. Chalmers to Mrs. Dunlop, . Page 463 464 464 466 468 469 47U 471 472 474 475 476 478 478 479 481 481 482 483 484 48G 487 488 489 490 491 493 495 497 498 501 502 504-537 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS, [So great an interest has been expressed in Dr. Chalmers's Correspondence with Mr. James Anderson and Mr. Thomas Smith, that we commence this volume by completing that Correspondence. Dr. Chalmers's answers to Mr. Anderson's last letters unfortunately have not been preserved, but these let- ters appeared to have merit enough of their own to warrant their insertion.] No. I. — Dr. Chalmers to Mr. James Anderson. Kilmany Manse, 22rf February 1812. My dear Sir, — It grieves me to disappoint the hopes I had myself raised, but the truth is, that I overrated ray strength when I last wrote you. I was very much fatigued on the night of my arrival, but expected to be quite fresh and active next day ; instead of which I felt myself quite powerless and exhausted, and am still in a very useless state. I am too well aware of the effects of a Sunday's exertions upon me to think, in these circumstances, of attempting Dundee on Monday at all. I regret it the less, that I find you have every prospect of matters going on as they should do. Had I been in possession of the requisite strength, I meant to prepare myself for resist- ing the proposal of a Scottish Bible Society, in case it had been made by Dr. Nichol or others. Be strong, I beseech you, on this head. When I meet you I will go over the mystery of this Society at greater length. In the meantime, it may well be illustrated by the following comparison : — 2 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. Suppose the town of Dundee to be in want of water, and a general subscription proposed for bringing it in pipes from a good and copious spring at a distance. Each individual sub- scription tells for the benefit of the whole. Some inferior spring is discovered in the Seagate, which can only supply half the street, with water of less value than the former, and at a superior expense to the individuals benefited. An association in the Seagate for digging wells would not be more ridiculous than a Scottish Bible Society. It would injure the general subscription, and thereby affect the interest of the whole town. And this unlucky diversion would be found to carry along with it more expense, and less benefit, to the very promoters of it. When I say that a separate Society must produce an inferior article, I am quite correct. The power of capital multiplies beyond its own rate of increase. =£*20,000 a year can effect more than twenty times what dS'lOOO a year can effect. And think of the privilege which the London Society has of working off Bibles at a University press. This explains the cheap rate at which they can afford Bibles. There is one circumstance which should never be forgotten in the administration of your Society. You may overdo the supply of home objects, — this is the great mischief to be appre- hended from the Scottish. To prove its utility, it must do something ; and to manifest its importance, it will make that something as much as possible. The peasants of Scotland purchase Bibles for themselves. This is too fine a habit to be repressed or tampered with. Our people think a Bible worthy of its price. They should be left to make the sacrifice. It endears the Bible more to them. ' And you may conceive the mischief that must accrue from an officious Society substituting its own bounty, and issuing Bibles from their public repository in the same business style that they would distribute soup, or shoes, or greatcoats, or breeches. The auxiliary Societies in England MR. JAMES ANDERSON. 3 often detain one-half for home objects. But remember that in England the habit is yet to form. In Scotland the habit is formed already ; and to do anything which can trench upon this habit would be to do an incalculable mischief. If the man who, at this moment, depends upon himself for a Bible, and actually buys one, is led by the indiscreet administration of your funds to depend upon the Society, what becomes of that man when this dependence fails him ? He has lost the habit of purchasing for himself ; and the security that Bibles shall be read, and possessed, and valued by our people, is transferred from the deeply-seated principles of their own hearts to the precarious exertions of a Society, irregular in its movements and uncertain in its duration. Send as much as possible to the London Society ; avail yourselves as little of your privilege as Auxiliary Societies as is absolutely necessary. — Yours truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. II. — Mr. James Anderson to Dr. Chalmers. Dundee, Wth June 1812. My dear Sir, — I am ashamed I have been so long in ac- knowledging your kindness at Kilmany, and the happiness I enjoyed under your roof. Could I maintain the impressions I there received, I would deem my Christian course rapidly pro- gressive ; but I am here in a widely different scene — little favourable to sober thinking. My mind, distracted with the bustle and cold-heartedness of business, recurs with difficulty to the contemplations of religion ; and the want of a friend with whom I can communicate on these subjects deprives me of that excitement which is the life of every pursuit. I, how- ever, feel myself much more decidedly attached to Christianity, and I hope, by the blessing of God, to attain the stability of a true disciple of Jesus. I every day see more and more the propriety of deriving my religion from the uncommented oracles 4 COKRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. of God, and of forming my system on the connected declarations of the New Testament. I wish to unshackle myself from the vassalage of text-books, summaries, and human systems. I wish to give the Bible a fair trial ; for if it alone is not sufficient to make a Christian, " we are of all men most miserable." I at present therefore confine myself to the perusal of the Bible, and occasionally some book of practical morality. I find many things which I do not understand — many passages indeed totally unintelligible ; but these difficulties are to be got over, not by a religious commentary, but by a classical criticism. I con- ceive every duty of a Christian to be comprehended in the single word, translation — a translation of the Scriptures into Jiis own tongue, and a translation of their truths into his own lieart and conduct. All Ave have to do is to ascertain the doctrines, and to believe them ; to ascertain the duties, and to practise them ; to make the Bible our vade mecum, our book of reference, our book of trust. I will rejoice, after my opinions are settled, to examine those of others ; but I think it is invert- ing the process to begin with the latter. My objections to the school of theological orthodoxy are three : — First, its tenets are not authoritative, and therefore may be wrong. Next, its tenets are not progressive. The New Testament gives you Christianity in its growth ; a system of divinity displays it at some given step of its progress, or at best at its maturity. The latter is a religion of results. It has been formed by a man who has become unconscious of the steps of his own cogitations, and who, from familiarity with demonstrative truths, now re- gards them as axioms. He, from the sublime height of his own conceptions, looks ddwn with contempt on the man who complains that he has removed the ladder by which he first ascended ; and, accustomed to the wide ken of his own exalted region, wonders at those whose views rest within a narrower horizon. How different the svstem of the Bible ! It leads MR. JAMES ANDERSON. 5 you on step by step, and accommodates its lessons to your capacity. While perusing it, one naturally fixes on the truths which are most congenial ; familiarity with these prepares us for others more remote, until we at length embrace the whole scheme of the Gospel. Thus, I may first delight to dwell on the Gospel morality ; a second perusal may show that faith is also necessary ; a third perusal may convince me that morality and faith must be united, and that it is not a vmion of separate acts, but of consequential duties ; and, I may finally come to the conclusion, that our salvation resolves itself into a simple and disencumbered act of acceptance. But if you at once come for- ward with this last proposition, you present me with a system in which I cannot sympathize, and which, however well founded, rests on what must be to me a metaphysical distinction, until I arrive at it by a process of individual experience. My third objection is, that theological orthodoxy is too stimulative. It begets a disrelish for the simple excitement of the Gospel. It urges you by such a multiplicity of motives that you become too passive for a New Testament imj)ulse. It clothes the doctrines in so much metaphysical acumen that you consider their Gospel dress as slovenly, and it anatomizes the precepts so much, that the simple exhibition of a text suggests no ideas of vitality. We revel in a kind of religious epicurism, and lose all taste for sober fare. These and similar considerations have made me resolve to study, in the meantime, only the New Testament. I may not thus so well prepare myself for classing with a particular sect ; but I will have greater security in my own principles, and in my intercourse with others I will be more ready to observe the maxim, " I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now." I will soon write you again. And requesting your prayers for my progress, — I remain, my dear friend, yours, James Anderson. 6 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. No. III. — Mr. James Anderson to Dr. Chalmers. Dundee, 16th Juli/ 1812. My dear Sir, — I have expected a letter from you for two or three weeks past, but have been disappointed. I wish our correspondence could assume a more decided and regular form, and that I might be able to leave the generalities, which have hitherto occupied me, and proceed to the characteristic parts of Christianity. I must, however, once more beg of you to permit me to state the sentiments under which I peruse my Bible, for even on this point I feel perplexed, and I see it occupying so prominent a place in the systems of matured Christians as to disconcert me with regard to the very first steps of my progress. I have resolved then to make the Bible the rule of my opinions and conduct ; not so much from any deep sense of sin or consciousness of my own insufficiency, as from a conviction that the Bible is a revelation from God, and a determination to submit to that revelation whatever it may be. I have divested my mind of that repugnance to the adoption of truths which arises from their disagreement with our prior conceptions ; but I do this in such a state of passivity, that I would adopt without hesitation, if I found it in the Bible, that scheme of salvation a consciousness of the insufficiency of which is believed by many Christians to be a necessary preliminary in any attempts to become a Christian. As I do not allow my prior conceptions of Divine mercy to obstruct my admission of the declaration that sinners will be condemned to everlasting punishment, so I do not permit my prior conceptions of Divine justice to facilitate my admission of the declaration that there is no salvation but in Jesus. I open the Bible to ascertain the will of God, and so conscious of my inability to judge of His counsels that I would, with perfect security, expect salvation from ceremonial observances, had the Bible declared that with these God would MR. JAMES ANDERSON. 7 be satisfied. But I at the same time allow that it is possible that such a procedure may be presumptuous, and that God might have declared that He would not permit the truths of the Gospel to be even investigated until we approached them under a conviction of their necessity. Here, then, I feel embar- rassed. Had I read only the New Testament, I do not think that such embarrassment would have existed ; but I have found, both in books and the conversation of Christians, great stress put on this very question, and I do not know whether to refer it to their being wise above what is written, or to my own imperfect acquaintance with Scripture. There are many topics of a similar nature, concerning which I am reduced to the same state of perplexity. For example : — Lesslie, the bookseller, whom I believe to be a sincere and experienced Christian, asked me a few days ago to write an appendix to a small tract which he is reprinting. I did so ; and, having given a short account of the nature and beneficent exertions of the Religious Tract Societies, I concluded with a few exhortations — among other things recommending to the reader frequent prayer to God. When I carried it to him, he (with a frankness which, in a dependent tradesman, I consider no mean proof of the sin- cerity of his principles) told me that he did not approve of my recommending prayer, " because," to use his own words, " prayer is sinful in the unregenerate." This opinion I heard, at the moment, with extreme disgust ; but a little reflection soon con- vinced me that it is possible his opinion may be true, for the arguments which he used were at least plausible. Although I retain my former opinion, I have a sense of insecurity from these repeated obstacles and difficulties, and I feel a disap- pointment at not finding the scheme of Christianity so well defined as I expected. I would be ashamed to say it to any one else ; but I confess to you, that, at this moment, I have no adequate and well-defined conceptions of the plan of salvation, 8 COP.RESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. or of the economy of that intercourse which subsists betwixt a Christian and the Godhead. I perceive that there is, if I may so express it, much more of business in the unseen realities of the Gospel than I formerly conceived ; and that these realities, whatever they may be, are something as distinct from my simple and generic notions twelve months ago, as the ideas which a clown entertains of the atmosphere are from those of one acquainted with its chemical analysis. What, however, the specific peculiarities of the system are I do not yet perceive in a clear and uniform manner ; and the diversity of opinion, among conscientious, candid, and enlightened men on this sub- ject, is to me the greatest of all discouragements in my pro- gress. One recommends prayer, another says that faith must precede prayer ; and thus I am left in doubt as to the propriety of employing such prayers as I at present am most inclined to use. Do you conceive that this prayer, " 0 God ! so guide me in the investigation of thy Gospel, that I may arrive at a dis- tinct knowledge of that faith which is the source of acceptable prayer,"' — do you conceive that such a prayer, put up to the Deity upon a conviction of His omniscience and omnipotence, would be heard, although not made in the name of Christ, or accompanied by a request for the Spirit's operation ; or would you consider it as an address to the Unknown God ? Or, to take another instance, do you think that the prayer of that man would be sinful, who, upon being presented with a Bible, and told what it professed to be, should pray to God so to direct him in the investigation of its evidences that he might detect its falsehood if it was untrue ? Such prayers I should deem efficacious for the following reasons ; because belief in the existence and superintendence of a Deity I consider to be faith, — and, although not that faith which will secure salvation, yet such a faith as will render a prayer for farther convictions acceptable ; and because Jesus recommended prayer before (if we MR. JAMES AJ^DERSON. 9 may judge from the arrangement of the history) the scheme of saving faith was unfolded, and when His hearers were so far ignorant of His nature as to be astonished that He used a style more authoritative than the Scribes. I have many other subjects to discuss with you ; but I will not abuse your patience at present. Of the need I have of assistance, you have ample proof in the unsettled and contra- dictory nature of my letters. I am still undecided in the veiy fundamentals of religion, and in moments of gloom I often dread I will relapse into a state of obdurate scepticism. — I am, my dear Sir, yours truly, James Anderson. No. IV. — Mr. James Anderson to Dr. Chalmers. Peterhead, 28th September 1812. My dear Sir, — I was never more anxious to be with you than since I came here, for my mind has been distracted by the most violent emotions respecting a subject intimately connected Avith my future happiness, and, perhaps, my eternal salvation — I mean my future profession. . . . My father expresses himself averse to my becoming a clergyman, for many reasons, which he enumerates, and adds, " that a desire to advance the cause of Christianity may be gratified by a well-intentioned and well- informed lajonan as effectually, and, in many cases, with more effect than by a clergyman." I endeavour to bring my mind to this simple decision — in which way shall I most promote the glory of God ? But a thousand other considerations intrude in spite of me, until at last I get bewildered in questions of per- sonal comfort and worldly estimation. Wliat I most dread is, tliat my religious progress would not be so great in the situa- tion of a merchant as that of a clergyman ; for, were I able, amid the distractions of business, to acquire and maintain that Lone of elevated Christianity, to which the pursuits of a clergy- man are so favourable, I believe my exertions in the cause 10 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. would be more useful on account of the greater extent of my means, the absence of professional obligation, and because my influence would be exerted in a sphere to which clergymen have little access, and which of course is little pre-occupied. On all these points I am most desirous to have your opinion. My father farther says, that if arrangements can be made with the Bank of Scotland, whose servant I am at present, he is fully inclined to give me another winter at Edinburgh. " This," he says, " may prove useful whatever your futui'e destination may be, and it will aiford time for us all to consider and im- plore direction for our government in meeting the allotments of Providence." This is my present situation. We return to Dundee on the 6th or 7th of October, and I will then either visit or write you. I have a dependence on your counsel and friendship which Christianity alone could inspire ; and I feel grateful to my God that He has brought us together. The aifairs of time are slowly shrinking into their due dimensions — the realities of an eternal world are gradually expanding before me — I begin to take refuge from the cares and the prospects of life in the bosom of my Saviour, and to realize that period when, through His merits, the faithful shall worship before the throne of God for ever. Since I came here I have read " Edwards on Necessity," and I have read it with rapture. I have as much confidence in his theory as in any mathematical proposition ; and I find that it leads at once to a thorough solution of what appeared to me the greatest difficulties of the Bible. It is the centre pillar of Christianity ; and if there is one subject more than another in which I should like to have my language and con- ceptions modelled to strict propriety it is this. But as yet, al- though I see the gross absurdity of the Arminian system, my new opinions sit uneasily upon me, and it will require some time to assimilate them with the train of my ordinary conceptions. MR. THOMAS SMITH. 11 What is true, however, must ultimately prove familiar. I see, by to-day's paper, that Wilberforce has refused to stand during the approaching- election, and is to retire from public life. This I consider one of the most alarming features of the times. Such a man would not have quitted his post if he had not seen that his exertions were fruitless ; and when worth loses its sway over public opinion, a country is near its down- fal. His memory will ever be cherished ; and, although Britain yield to the fate of nations, his name will emerge from the ruins of her greatness a monument to the heroism and the triumphs of Christian principle. Even at this moment he is known throughout Africa, and his name circulates in their dreary habitations as that of some mysterious being who curbs" the fury of the whites. — I ever am, my dear friend, yours most truly, James Anderson. No. V. — Mr. Thomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers. Glasgoio, I3th November 1815. Dear Sir, — After a week's separation from you, which, to say the least, has been very tedious to me, the slight communi- cation I can produce by writing is very acceptable. The weather, during the last week, has been very bad, and it gives me some comfort to think that only two days have elapsed since you left this, which would have answered for our walk. . . . I have read with great interest the accounts of the Moravian Missionaries, which you were so kind as lend me. These people seem to have more religion and knowledge of their Creator than any I have ever heard of The mild description they give of the inhuman conduct of the captain of a vessel who carried some of them 1000 miles from their place of destination, gives 12 CORKESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. an example of forgiveness which, I dare say, is to be found among no other people but themselves. And surely when we read of an instance of forgiveness, so far above what we would count a prodigy of virtue, we need not be surprised to hear of the spiritual enjoyment they feel, which no doubt is the reward of their Christian conduct. From what I have met with in these journals, I see a very strong inducement to a religious life. Indeed, when I consider that it is a people now living who possess spiritual advantages, which make them superior to the pleasures of this world, I feel this inducement presented with such plainness and truth that it is calculated to make a deeper impression upon me than the most elaborate composi- tion : showing to what extent the Christian duties might be performed, and their rewards experienced, founded on the con- solations of ancient Christians. From the consideration of the advantages these Moravians enjoy, I derive great encouragement to proceed on the good work which, I trnst, is begun within me ; nor do I derive less when I recognise in each temptation, as it presents itself, a device of the powers of darkness, and know the triumi^h it produces to a higher order of beings, when they know tliat their attempts are baffled. — I remain, my dear Sir, with much esteem, yours affectionately, Thomas Smith. No. VI. — Dr. Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith. Eclinhvgh, 15th November 1815. My dear Sir, — I read, with much affection and pleasure, your very interesting communication. I have been thinking much of you ; and I trust that the tenderness I feel will never be wounded by any woful apostasy on your part to the spirit and the practices of an alienated world. As to its grosser pro- fligacies, it is my delight to think that you are purely and nobly superior to them ; but do all you can to strengthen your abhor- MR. THOMAS SMITH. 13 rence of them. Let not the withering example of others so much as harden your feelings against the exhibition of them ; for it is not enough, my clear Sir, that you keep aloof from the practice of external ungodliness, you should also cherish a most delicate recoilment of mind from the intrusion of every gross and unworthy conception, recollecting that it is to the pure in heart that our kind and amiable Saviour has promised the blessedness of seeing God. We read in the Bible of the first love — a phrase which has been much commented upon by theologians, and which is sup- posed to embrace all that' peace, and joy, and ecstatic affections that are felt by the heart, on the first admission of confidence in a God, whom it sees through the medium of the Gospel to be a reconciled Father. I wish you every enjoyment of this kind, which consists with our present state ; and many may be those sacred hours of communion with Heaven, which give you the blessed proof of experience that the way you have chosen is, indeed, a way of pleasantness, a path of peace. I have great hopes of you. I love the spirit which animates your letter. I sympathize most cordially with all your taste and admiration for those Heaven-born men who have long been the light of the world ; and you will put it down to the right cause when you ascribe it to my anxious and tender regard for you that I point your attention to that part of the Bible where certain are charged with leaving their first love. Oh ! do, my much loved friend, cultivate a suspicion of yourself Keep in firm bond of dependence with the Saviour. Pray unceasingly for the pro- gress of His work in your heart ; and while you strive mightily, let it be by His grace working in you mightily. Be assured that there is a call and a significancy in the following direc- tions : — Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. — Work out your salvation with /ear and tremhling. — Mix trem- hling with your mirth. — Pass the time of your sojourning here 14 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. in fear. — Do aspire after a realizing sense of the holy and the heart-searching God. I want you not to be painfully intense in His service ; — you are in earnest, and with God's blessing you will feel your way ; and, I trust, you will come experimentally to know that the way of sanctification, while a way of watchful, unceasing diligence, is also a way of peace, and that in quiet- ness and in confidence you shall have strength. May I crave a remembrance from you in your hours of intercourse with God. Give me a part in your daily prayers as you have in mine ; and let the affection, which 1 believe to be mutual and equally strong and sincere on your part as on mine, be thus kept alive, and receive its constant augmenta- tions on this side of time, till it ripen to the love of a pure and happy eternity. I looked into Watts' "Sermons" the other day. I was much struck with the title of one of them, " The hopeful youth falling short of Heaven." I had not time to read it, but pre- sume it will be excellent. You cannot, my dear Sir, you can- not err on the side of caution and extreme jealousy of yourself. It is not a jealousy which will disturb you, but it will direct you to the right source of strength and influence, and to the diligent use of that strength in eveiy matter that comes before you. I should like you to read that sermon, and to have your opinion of it. . . . Give my kindest compliments to Miss Fortune, when you see her. I intend being at home on Saturday — come and sup with me at night, spending a precious hour with me in my study. Let me know if you can read my letters easily, for, if not, I shall make a mor^ careful exertion afterwards. I beg you will always write me at very great length, as close as you can, and filling up the folded spaces of the last page. Tell Mrs. C. that I have not gotten her promised letter, and am disap- pointed. You say there have only been tv,-o walking days for MR. THOMAS SMITH. 15 a whole week in Glasgow. Every day has been fair in Edin- burgh, and I have walked eveiy day. But what to me is a still more interesting point of comparison — I have lived in a clergyman's house, and he is suffered to remain in a state of the most enviable tranquillity. None of that feasting and clamour- ing about attentions, and petitioning about poor, and drudgery with the work of institutions, and hard-driving at a multiplicity of secular and never-ending affairs ; all of which, unless simpli- fied and abridged, Avould disgust any man with a place where mere spiritual work is undervalued, and the demands of a clergyman for leisure are neither understood nor sympathized with. Be assured of my wannest regard and unceasing prayers for you. — Yours very affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. VII. — Dr. Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith. Blochaim, 2\st December 1815. Mr DEAR Sir, — Lest we should miss each other to-day, it occurs to me to state to you, in reference to our conversation of yesterday, that you should not make it a capital aim to obtain clear and immediate views on the doctrine of election ; and even, though my argument be not thoroughly acquiesced in, I can say, for your comfort, that however luminous my own con- ceptions may be to my own mind, I have repeatedly failed in my attempts to reach the conviction of others who were men of powerful understanding. But what I am mainly in earnest about is, that you do not for a single moment slacken or suspend the practical work of sanctification on the solution of any speculative difficulty what- ever. If to your faith you add the splendid list of accomplish- ments set before you in 2 Peter i. 5-7, you will never fall, but make your calling and election sure. You do not see that election inscribed on the records of Heaven ; but you are told 16 COKRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. in plain language what is the instrument by which you make it sure to' you on earth. That instrument is diligence, (2 Peter i. 5, 10 ;) and I trust you will never let down a diligence of which I trust to see the prints upon your character in time, and to share the rewards along with you in eternity. See 2 Peter iii. 16. I rejoice that you are so impressed with the reality of a powerful and insidious tempter, and I would have you not to be ignorant of his devices. He may turn an anxiety after Christian doctrine into an engine for his purpose ; and I beg that you will be frank enough to let me know, when you judge it for your practical benefit, that our conversation on that particular subject should be suspended. It would furthennore give me great pleasure that you wrote me an occasional note, though you had time only for half-a-dozen lines : you should not, my dear Sir, stand upon difficulties with me, and I have to entreat a little more con- fidence from you in this way than I have yet witnessed. Thomas Chalmers. No. VIII. — Mr. Thomas Smith to Dk. Chalmers. Glasgow, 22d December 1815. My dear Sir, — I read the note you gave me to-day with much interest — this, indeed, has been the case with all I have received from you — but I feel very grateful to discover in your last such a kind and anxious attention to my most substantial welfare. You have placed my desire -^o become acquainted with a particular doctrine of Christianity, in a light in which I think I should myself have viewed it, had I devoted much of my time and thoughts to the subject ; but, as the matter stands at present, I trust I am far from neglecting the very few duties I can perform in obedience to the Divine will, in the pursuit of a subject that must have the same effect on my ultimate salvation, whether I am convinced of the exact manner MB. THOMAS SMITH. 17 of its operation or not. These are my present feelings on tlie subject. I know well, however, that I might become so in- terested in the business as to attend to it in prejudice of more important duties. It is in this view that I see the importance of your warning voice, and that I beg you to lift it often, and oftener than you think there is occasion for it, because I fear very much that you have formed too high an opinion regarding my present state, both as to my religion and morals. It requires a long acquaintance to discover the exact character of any person. Ours, indeed, has been intimate ; but there are circumstances which, I think, may have operated with you too favourably towards discovering the true state of mine ; and I hope you may take this hint and act upon it, faithfully point- ing out what you see amiss, and I in return shall make it my serious business to reform. As to the doctrine of predestination, without much anxiety, I have obtained a view of it which most entirely satisfies my- self; and I only wait for the explanation of what, I must say at pi-esent, ajjpears to me irreconcilable, viz., that under the belief of this doctrine, and its actual operation, it is in the power of a person predestined to be saved, by any misconduct on his part to forfeit his election, or vice versa. This really l^uzzles me a little, and I look to you for assistance. I do not forget, however, that puzzle me as it may, if I act conscien- tiously in the discharge of my duties to God and man, and possess a firm faith on the merits of my Saviour, both to enable me to accomplish this and to save me from my deficiencies, that I have placed myself in as good a situation to deserve reward as I possibly could ; and with this comfort, which I think substantial, I shall quiet my mind, and trusting in my Saviour, I shall not be troubled, though all the questions tlieologians ever started were brouo-ht to bear against me. I am aware you may think this quite unphilosophical, birt B 18 COKRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. I am happy in my ignorance, and have the authority of a sage for saying, that he that increaseth wisdom, increaseth sorrow. My dear Sir, I must now conclude ; and I am happy I can say at present what I should never have said in your presence, that I love you above all my friends on earth. Amid all the changes this world can produce, in this I trust I shall not change, and shall carry it with me to a land beyond the world's- influence. Thomas Smith. No. IX. — Dr. Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith. Blochairn, 23d December 1815. My dear Sir, — Your kind note was highly gratifying to me, and, in addition to every other argument for a frequent interchange of them, I think that one mighty advantage is, that it may reduce to a point many an agitated topic, and facilitate the precise solution of many a question which would not be set at rest by the fading and the desultory conversation of whole weeks. Your question is, " How comes it that a man predestined to salvation has it not in his power to fall away from it ?" I answer that every man may, if he will, commit sin unto perdi- tion ; but the man predestined to salvation wills not, and does not, commit any such sin. God, who decreed His salvation, decreed and foreknew all the steps that went before it. He knew the effect of every one circumstance upon His volitions ; and should the practical effect of our --iews on predestination be that we turn careless and fall away, then God foresaw this, and knew our final destniction from the beginning, and we shall afterwards know from the event that we are not fore- ordained unto life. I trust that a thorough and well-grounded faith in this doctrine will at length be fonned in you ; but, in the meantime, make a vigorous use of all that is clearly and distinctly under- MR. THOMAS SMITH. 19 stood by you. I am much pleased with your humility in think- ing tliat I have overrated your religion and your morals ; but I trust I do not overrate them when I say, that you hunger and thirst after righteousness ; that measuring you by others you stand at a wide distance from all the gross and vulgar profli- gacies of this unhallowed generation ; and while I fearlessly offer this tribute of respect to your character, will you permit me further to say, that the etifect of all your doings would be Imrtful did the consciousness of them go to wean you from dependence on Christ, or turn your eye from Him as all your desire and all your salvation? Go joyfully to God in His name ; follow closely in the path of His example ; feel your need of His Spirit in every enterprise ; have no doubt of your for- giveness through the merits of His blood, coupling with faith in this one testimony, the acceptance of every one saying about the necessity of holiness and self-denial, and the mortification of all that is sinful, and the adornment of the whole man with the graces of the Spirit, and the dedication of the whole life to the will of Him who poured out His soul unto the death for you. My heart is greatly enlarged towards you, my dearest of all earthly acquaintances ; and it is my prayer that God may more and more purify, and exalt, and Christianize, that friend- ship which it has pleased Him to put into our bosoms. — Yours ever, Thomas Chalmees. No. X. — Dr. Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith. Blochairn, 2dth December 1815. My dear Sir, — When I cannot be present with you in per- son, I find that it in some manner fills up the disappointment to sit down to an exercise in which I feel my heart to be altogether present with and alive about you. I have been thinking more of your very valuable contribu- tion to our scriptural conference of yesterday, and the use I 20 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. make of it is to endear me the more to our plan, quite assured til at much will result from it. Let it convince us more and more of the prodigious fertility of the Bible ; how much lies hidden and unobserved, even after many perusals ; and surely, if it be true, that a man may read it an hundred times and find something on his next reading which he missed on all his former ones, a joint-reading bids fair for multiplying our les- sons, and must give a double advantage to each of them who are embarked in it. Do, my dear Sir, feel how various and how animating a field lies before the man who has resolved on being the alto- gether Christian. He may look for indefinite attainments in knowledge, as well as for an ever-increasing lustre of accom- plishments and of character ; and my earnest, and fervent, and often repeated j)rayer for you is, that sanctified wholly by the truth as it is in Jesus we may, after running our destined course as fellow-helpers on earth, mingle with the pure families of Heaven, and be found faultless together in the presence of God with exceeding glory. My lieart is greatly enlarged towards you, and I entreat that you will put up with all my warnings, and all my anxieties, and all my devoted earnestness, in behalf of your best interests. For myself, I have great need of your prayers. May they ascend often, and with affectionate earnestness, to the throne of grace. Be assured that I approve much of your prudence and reserve in the matter of your acquaintances. 1 trust that the conversation of yesterday will not lead to any precipitate mea- sures on your part. And, on the other liand, that a growing experience as to the t)est way of walking to those who are without ; and a growing strength and intrepidity of character ; and last, though not least, a growing affection for others in the Christian and spiritual sense of the term, will at length enable you to be of use to some of those deluded, unhappy young men MK. THOMAS SMITH. 21 — each of whom, let it never be forgotten, has a soul as un- perishable as ours ; and none of whom are beyond the reach of that grace which teaches and enables us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world. — My kindest affection to you, my veiy dear Sir, Thomas Chalmers. No. XI. — Mr. Thomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers. Glasgow, 2d January 18 IG. My dear Sir, — When we are separated it is my most agreeable employment to write to you ; and were I once fairly embarked in the business, I know you would have occasion rather to complain of the frequency of my letters than the want of them. I pursued our yesterday's topic of consideration for a part of the day with some success, but during the greater part of the evening I was employed in a manner contrary to the dis- position in which we should be employed at the beginning of a new period of time, and I was thus unfitted for continuing my beneficial train of thought. At this season of the year I have been always inclining to the desponding tone, when I think of the small progress I have made in the different studies in which I am engaged. But I never, till this time, felt the disappoint- ment at the past, and anxiety for the future, in regard to my religious improvement so strong as at present. I have, indeed, felt something of the kind formerly, and have formed resolu- tions of a good tendency, but this feeling was never very strong, of course it was not permanent ; and the resolutions, I am ashamed to say, were formed chiefly in a dependence on myself to execute them, and thus made, you well know, only to be broken. It is not so with me now, I hope — my resolutions, founded on the experience of the fate of the past, are not so extravagant as not to admit of the probability of these being executed. 22 COKRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. This is well ; but I have learnt also from what I have already attempted, that in my own strength I cannot accomplish my desires ; that the more my dependence is upon myself, the greater the certainty of my failure ; and the more my hope rests on the assistance, promised me from a quarter where there is no deceit or weakness to perform, the more the certainty is of my success. It is on this foundation that I now look forward with joy to the progress of my Christian career, and firmly trust to attain that standard of obedience, and high tone of moral sen- timent, with the description of which you have often delighted me. — Yours very affectionately, Thomas Smith. No. XII. — Dr. Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith. Kilmardinny, 3d January 1816. My dear Sir, — You have not yet arrived at an adequate estimate of the interest I take in you, if you think you can either write me too frequently or at too great length. . . You speak of uncongenial business or society in the even- ing, which broke up in some measure the religious frame of your mind on the preceding part of the day. Now, mark well that there will be no such interruptions in the Millennium ; there are none such in a Moravian village at this moment ; and there would be much fewer than there are in Glasgow had we a more extensive Christian community. The direct road to this is just to make as many Christian individuals and Chris- tian families as we can ; and in the exact proportion of our success shall we be rewarded by a freedom from all these temp- tations which the deadening and secularizing influence of the great majority of companies brings along with it. Let us ever keep by this object then, as our great aim and purpose of our lives here below, combining, at the same time, all that discre- tion and skill which are necessary in the important work. Let us pray for that most desirable wisdom, the wisdom of winning MR. THOMAS SMITH. 23 souls — not forgetting that He who says, keep thyself pure, also says, lay hands on no man suddenly ; and taking care, at the same time, never to convert the latter direction into a shelter for cowardice, or a plea for denying Christ before men. Oh, my dear Sir, you are right to feel your shortcomings, and it is at the same time right to strike the high aim of being perfect even as God is perfect. It is only wrong to conceive such a purpose in a dependence on ourselves — but who shall limit the power of His Spirit ? Who shall question the provisions of the Gospel for the accomplishment of its own avowed object, to redeem us from all iniquity, and to form us again after the image of Him who created us ? Do turn from the contempla- tion of your own worthlessness, to Him for whose sake God will cover as with a cloud all your past sins, and make no more mention of them : and by whose power resting upon you He Avill enable you to wing your ascending w^ay through the career of practical Christianity — He will send a purifying influence into all the services of the inner man — He will bless your soli- tude with a sense of His holy but reconciled presence — He will adorn your walk in society with all that is graceful and honourable — He will keep you in thought as well as in conduct undefiled by the sickening profligacies of this world — He will work you up to a meetness for the inheritance hereafter, and give you a foretaste of its enjoyment even here, by mingling with all your stniggles, and temptations, and difficulties — the smile of an approving God — the radiance of an anticipated Heaven. — Believe me to be, my dear Sir, yours most aflection- ately, Thomas Chalmers. No. XIII. — Mr. Thomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers. Glasgow, Zd January 1816. My dear Sib, — In my note to you of yesterday I men- tioned something of my forming resolutions. I have to-day 24 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. been thinking tliat it is a dangerous matter to form resolutions unless there is a pretty certain prospect of the person who forms being able to accomplish them. The consequence of such reso- lutions as are made without consideration, and soon trespassed against, is to leave the mind imjjressed with the facility of destroying its best intentions, and in a state to overleap its most serious projects. I wish you would say something on this subject when you are at leisure. Foster, in his Essay on " Decision of Character," seems to have neglected this means of destroying the quality he so strongly recommends. — With much esteem and regard, I am, my dear Sir, yours, &c., Thomas Smith. No. XIV.— Dr. Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith. Kihnardinny, 4th January 1816- My dear Sir, — I feel much interested in your letter of yesterday's date, as it touches on a truly important subject — that of resolutions. If you simply mean by a resolution a pur- pose, it should be your purpose at this moment to forsake all sin and to attain all righteousness — a purpose which can only be carried into accomplishment by prayer for the promised aid believingly preferred, and daily persevered in. But if, by a resolution, you understand a purpose accompanied with a vow, this is a matter of very great caution, and postponing the full discussion of it to our personal interviews, I shall just observe, in a hurried way, that there is one set of such resolutions which it ajjjjears to me to be safe and competent for a man to make and to adhere to, and another set which it would be extremely hazardous. I shall illustrate the two sets by examples : — I could, on a deliberate view of all the effects on my moral char- acter produced by attendance on the theatre, resolve to give wp that attendance, and keep by the resolution. I could, on my experience of its effects upon my health, resolve never to sup MR. THOMAS SMITH. 25 out at night, and keep by that resolution. Tliese two cases represent a number of others wliere I might resolve with success, and where the kind of resolution taken might be of the utmost subsemency either to my temporal or eternal interests. But, again, I would not resolve never to be angiy. It is my wish to be delivered from this work of the flesh ; but I think I shall the better bring this about by fearfulness, and Avatchfulness, and humble persevering prayer to God in Christ that He would root this evil thing out of me more and more. I see symptoms of uneasiness in your letter which most powerfully interest me in the state of my dear and much-loved friend. Should the uneasiness be grounded on any failure in the first set of resolutions, which I believe not to be the case, I would construe it into the token of a declension, from which it should be my most strenuous attempt to recover you Should it be grounded on any failure in the second set of resolutions, then this uneasiness is an essential stej) in the progress of a Christian. You are rising in your conceptions of the spiritu- ality and extent of the requirements that lie upon you ; and you are making purposes to fulfil them ; and you are experiencing your own incompetency to the task ; and God is humbling you into a closer dependence on the aids of His grace, and on tlie promises and provisions of His Gospel. Xever let go your aspirings, but know that you must be shut up unto Christ as all your sanctification and strength, ere you shall ever succeed in realizing them. You come short of your aspirings, or, in other words, you come short of duty and contract guilt. A sense of this will lead you daily to Christ for forgiveness ; and going to him on the other errand of obtaining reformation also, (1 John i. 9,) you will make constant progress in the joys of the Chris- tian faith, and in the diligence of the Christian practice. Bo c 26 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. not restlessly or excessively anxious ; and if I have not cleared up your difficulties, look forward to our conversations. — Yours, &c., Thomas Chalmers. No. XV. — Mr. Thomas SsirrH to Dr. Chalmers. Glasgow, 5th January 1816. My DEAR Sir, — I am glad you have said so much of reso- lutions— those which I ever fonned were not attended with enough of solemnity in the making, and thus, perhaps, it is that they have been less binding, and I have more readily found the means of avoiding them. I never made a resolution, or purpose, accompanied with the determination of cariying it into effect, and at the same time sealed it with a solemn vow. My resolutions have been made and noted in my journal ; I have often the reading of them to remind me of them ; I have my prayers to God to enable me to fulfil them ; and I have the attempts which I make to resist the habits which might lead me to forsake them ; and to all these combined, I trust for the accomplishment of my purpose. As to the subjects of these ])urposes, they are such as may be accomplished by persever- ance ; and, by the attention of a few weeks, I have sometimes found myself in a much higher state of obedience to God's will, in so far as one particular transgression Avas concerned. These kind of trials have been my employment for some time past ; but now I have made a general determination to examine my conduct as a whole, composed of those things I have attempted to root out of it, and I find that examining each separately there is a sad want in it — that I have only reached the mere surface of the business, and in many respects have remained satisfied and consoled that I had done as much as I could accomplish. This has caused me uneasiness, which I am not unwilling to suffer ; but like a person who knows his accounts are in confusion, examines them, and finds them ten times MR. THOMAS SMITH. 27 worse than lie expected — so, thougli I knew the examination might be painful to me, yet the extent to which it has been, was never calculated on. And it is in this state of the case that I was induced to give way to my resolution in some degree, although its consequences might have been, and still I hope will be, more productive of good than, any I ever yet made. I do not wish to exculpate myself; but since I have told of the un- easiness which the putting of this resolution into effect as a cause of my in part having relinquished it, I must also mention that a great deal of business, and an anxiety to have it finished, has operated heavily upon me, and withdrawn my mind from its more serious occupation. — Yours most sincerely, Thomas Smith. No. XVI. — Mr. Thomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers. StocJcivell Street, January Sth, 181G. My dear Sir, — This has been a most pleasant day with me, it brought so long a letter from you — the longest I have yet received ;* and to procure another, I shall continue to write to you, trusting in my good fortune to say something which may call forth an answer. When I sit down to write to you, it is not anything I have previously arranged and thought of which forms the subject, but merely the idea which is uppermost at the moment. I write to you generally in the evening, when I have leisure to review the events of the past day, and it is the impression of this review which is generally communicated to you. After a quiet, retired, and pleasant Sabbath, I find its beneficial effects often during the week, but more especially on the day im- mediately following it. This has been my condition to-day, confirmed to me by your letter, which left me in the exact state in which I have found myself after some of our most agreeable con- * For this letter, see Dr. Chalmers's Memoirs, vol. ii. pp. 30-34. 28 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. versations ; and I have enjoyed this under a heavy and gloomy atmosphere such as generally has a depressing effect upon my spirits. I have been successful also to-day in contracting my thoughts and bringing them to bear on the subject I chose from my chapter this morning — " If ye had faith as a grain of mus- tard-seed," &c. ; and when I am successful in confining my thoughts to a good scriptural text, it generally happens that all goes smoothly and successfully along with me ; and the reason of this is obvious. Should a man direct his mind to a state superior and independent of this, it places him high above all the adverse fortune which can beset him, and enables him almost to rejoice in the midst of it, while on the other hand it allows him to enjoy as much as he possibly can the success which may attend him. It will not, indeed, permit him to exult immoderately ; w^ere it to do so, he would feel discon- tented when the novelty and first charm of his prosperity wore off; but when he enjoys' the present happiness subordinately to a greater in store for him, then should his present joy be converted into grief, he still possesses the ulterior prospect, and where his treasure is, there — bursting through the surrounding objects — will his heart be also. This is a temporal reward which is worthy of being purchased at great expense. It is an insurance against losses of all kinds, and there is less danger of failure on the part of the guarantee than in any ever made on earth. Yet this is only a subordinate and one of the most trivial advantages afforded by the Ciiristian religion. It is, indeed, a religion Avhich ought to be highly venerated, and an interest in it is to be desired in preference to everything else. There are several topics in your letter of to-day which I should like to write you about, but it would branch out into a correspondence too extensive to be carried on at present, and must therefore be declined. I anticipate with much pleasure the renewal of our personal interviews, which have appeared v MR. THOMAS SMITH. 29 to me far more valuable since I have experienced tlieir absence. Tliis will be the last opportunity of m}'- writing to you at Kil- mardinny, as I understand you return on Wednesday ; until then, and thenceforth, I remain, my dear Sir, yours very aifectionately, Thomas Smith. No. XVII. — Dk. Chalmers to Mr. Thomas SMrrn. Kilmardinny, ^ih January 1816- My dear Sir, — Your letter received this day forms a most delightful finish to this series of our correspondence. I could have seen in it the happy Christian frame of the writer, though he had not announced it to me. In point of expression it is free and powerful ; in point of spirit it breathes a most serene and tranquil elevation. I am charmed with the growing intel- ligence it discovers on the highest of all subjects ; and, above all, do I inwardly rejoice in observing that my excellent young friend is realizing the peace and the pleasantness which are to be found even here on that way which leads to the felicities and the glories of Paradise. Will you believe that, for the last 24 hours, I have been the victim of a most distempered melancholy, and that you have been the subject of it ? I hesitated for some time whether I should reveal this to you, on grounds which I shall afterwards mention ; but I have now resolved on the clear and simple maxim of keeping back from you nothing ; and I do find that we have got greatly too far on in our intimacy to stop short of the most entire, unbounded, and universal confidence in each other. The ground of my disquietude was an expression in your note of the 5th, probably ill understood by me, and which I shall explain more fully to you at meeting. All I shall say further about it at present is, that your note, received this evening, has chased from my agitated bosom all its fears and all its anxieties ; and it is with tears of gratitude and delight 30 COKKESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. - \ that I acknowledge liow much I have been reassured and com- ) forted by your kind communication. \ My dear Sir, you may think all this extravagant, but it can be accounted for. You are in one sense the child of my anxious efforts to consolidate and Christianize you. I have not the vanity to think that I began the work ; but the work has made progress since I knew you, and I have conceived a deep in- terest in all its steps. I do not know one single dispensation that would more imbitter my heart than that the work should retrograde. I would feel all the grief of a bereaved parent — it would spread a sad desolation over my spirits — it would be the cruellest of all violence to my affections for one, whom I trust I shall long hold sweet counsel with on earth, and rejoice with in Heaven. Such is the state of my feelings towards you ; and I hope that it both explains and apologizes for my extreme watchfulness over you — a watchfulness which, I have some- times feared, you would dislike as obtrusive, and suspicious, and troublesome. 0, my dearest of all earthly associates, had the happiness of our friendship been without alloy, it would have been too much for earth ; but the malignant tempter, whose power you so firmly recognise, has thrown a mixture of bitter- ness into it — he has tried to turn the whole to anguish by rais- ing before my fancy the glowing image of your apostasy. Your kind epistle has cleared it away, and I now enjoy a precious interval of repose. All is hushed and tranquillized within me — and I no^v write from the fulness of a heart which feels no fear and harbours no suspicion, — Yours ever, Thomas Chalmers. No. XVIII.— Mr. Thomas Smith to Dk. Chalmers. Glasgow, dth January 1816. My dear Sir, — I received your letter of yesterday's date, and though I expect to meet you to-morrow, I shall take this MR. THOMAS SMITH. 31 method of answering a question proposed in it, which I see has arisen from a most stupid confused note of mine of the 5th current. I made a general determination at the beginning of this year, strictly to examine the state of my mind. I did so — found it so far below my expectation, that it affected my spirits so much as to make me give up the examination, and thus to transgress my determination or resolution. This, as far as I can make out, is what my note of the 5th would say, but seems ashamed, as no doubt there is reason to be, of the avowal. You may be thinking that I shall thus be diverted from my attempt. But this is not the case, for I have since resumed my review, and am at present going on successfully with it. What I would desire at present is to know, what are the errors which I am most liable to fall into, and to apply myself to the business of their extermination one by one. When this is ac- complished, I shall cultivate the virtues which ought to exist in their stead, and the bringing these virtues to perfection will form the business of a whole life, and at its close, though the comfort of having succeeded in the attempt will not be enjoyed, yet the consolation of having seriously made the trial will supply its stead. There is nothing I so much delight in, as in the idea of a character refined and ennobled by a whole life's attention to the business. Such a character would, in all pro- bability, enjoy more happiness and peace of mind than any attainments in science could aiford. It is a discouraging fact, however, that there is not one in thousands who can boast such a treasure — the road to it is exceedingly unfavourable to those who have only for a short time travelled on it, and to people surrounded by others of different opinions about the reward to be attained, or who pursue a quite contrary course, the tempta- tions to deviate are innumerable. Man, by his own strength, cannot conquer them ; but by dependence on another's, lie 32 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. j undoubtedly can, and may realize a finer and purer mind than ( the ancients ever thought of. From the knowledge of Cowper, which his life and writings give, I think he had attained this character ; but it is not in a man who is well known to the public, and whose writings are made with the view of pleasing them — nor in any public character, whose life is handed down to us — that I would be inclined to expect these virtues ; — but rather in private characters, who are only known to a few around them, and by whose example the Avorld in general are never benefited. But, my dear Sir, I must earnestly beg of you to excuse all the deficiencies of my last week's correspondence. Most of my letters were written in the evening when I was very tired, and all of them hurriedly. It was with a view to obtain answers in return, and in compliance to your request, that they were sent to you. Amid all my faults, I shall always be yours most affectionately, Thomas Smith. No. XIX. — Mr. Thomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers. Glasgow, 20th January 181(3. My DEAR Sir, — I do not intend in this letter to say any- thing either on one side or the other regarding assemblies for dancing — the subject of our late conversations, I think it better that you should begin the subject, and that I attend you as you prosecute it, and unreservedly give you any objections which may remain with me after the perusal of your letters. And of this freedom of remark, I request you will allow me the unlimited use ; for should I be only half-convinced of the danger of attending these parties, if it turns out they are dan- gerous, it might be a matter of afterthought and deliberation whether the restriction had been properly adopted : and on a tempting invitation being presented, more reasons might appear in favour of the restrictions being injudicious. Thus swayed, I MR. THOMAS SMITH. 33 might overturn all my more impartial thoughts on the subject, and commence imperceptibly the business of undermining a proper system of self-denial, which I intend shall be conside- rately and judiciously planned, and as resolutely and persever- ingly adhered to. A few days ago we talked of the frankness which ought to subsist among friends ; and I think you were disposed to blame me for a want of it. If I possess a reserved temper, I am equally insensible of it, as of many of my other faults ; and in our written correspondence, I hope you will soon perceive that all reserve is banished, and that you receive my sentiments upon any subject which comes in our way exactly as they exist, and to the whole extent of their exist- ence. I sometimes am disposed to be very silent in our con- versations, and this most probably has given the appearance of reserve to my conduct ; but this silence is of a very different origin indeed, and I blame you for its existence. Our regular weekly correspondence, I think, will be pro- ductive of much advantage. One thing has just now occuiTed to me, which well demonstrates this : — Should I, when in some unguarded time, be induced to think favourably of any amuse- ment which we have in a proper season examined and con- demned— from the mere circumstance of having your reasons stated in writing to recur to, I shall examine what formerly caused me to renounce the favourite object, and the result of the examination will be to set me right and establish me in the path chalked out. — I am, my dear Sir, yours with much affection, Thomas Smith. No. XX. — Dr. Chalmers to Mr. Thomas Smith. 2Qth January 1816. My dear Sir, — In answer to your much esteemed note of this day, I have to observe, that I do not mean at j^resent to enter into the question of Assemblies for dancing, but shall 34 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. / satisfy myself with a few prefatory remarks. I am quite as-j sured that if you saw it to be against your Christian interest.' you woukl surrender every one inducement you have at present to attend them, and keep studiously and determinedly away from them altogether. I am further assured that could I prove it to be as much your duty to keep away from them, did they expose these interests to the hazard, though not to the certainty of being injured, you would be as obedient to the second demonstration of duty as to the first. In a word, I j^resume (and it is with the most unfeigned pleasure, and a heart filled with affection, that I can declare from all that I have observed in you, how I look on the pre- sumption as one of the surest and strongest I ever conceived on any subject) that should you see it to be your duty, either on the first ground or on the second, to refrain from going to Assemblies, you would not hesitate a single moment to put the principle of forsaking all into effect, and bring your habit of general carefulness to offend in no point whatever to bear on this one point which we have now selected for consideration. And now, my dear Sir, there is even at this stage of the business a way in which this great initiatory principle of the Christian life may be put into exercise. As you would forsake all in the way of shunning what you knew to be sinful, so you may be in readiness to forsake all whenever what is more doubtful shall be proved to be sinful. In this state of readiness, which it is competent for you at this moment to put on, you will, I am persuaded, resolve against, and strive against, and pray against all partiality and all hypocrisy, it will be the lan- guage of your heart — " Lord, teach me thy way that I may walk in it." Cleanse Thou me from the secret fault of all unfair leaning, and all wilful self-deceit. Let me clearly see thy will and hear thy voice ; and here I am in the attitude of a servant to obey thy orders, and be found at the post thou art pleased to assign MR. THOMAS SMITH. 35 to me. — It is my business also to be most careful in this matter : wo be unto me if I wilfully mislead you. It is my prayer, my dearest of all earthly friends, that much comfort and direction may be given to us in this correspondence. It may strike out much of what we are not at present anticipating. It may branch into many a devious but important track of inquiry ; and I trust that, walking together as friends over the field of Divine truth, we shall end our every excursion with some new spoils of heavenly doctrine to enrich, and comfort, and adorn us. May God prosper us in this enterprise ; may He smile propitious on our every attempt to find out His will for our salvation ; and may the great and ultimate results of all our converse here be a common mansion in that country of perfect blessedness, where there is no sorrow and no separation. — Yours most affection- ately, Thomas Chalmers. No. XXI. — Mr. Tuomas Smith to Dr. Chalmers. Glasgow, 23im which I fear is no peace. He is to suffer to-morrow, and I, this night, got a message from him, through the medium of his own clergyman, that he wishes to be attended by him ex- clusively. We have great reason to be thankful that we have got com- fortable lodgings, and all enjoy an average share of health. My dear wife is taking well with her new situation, and Anne is making rapid progress. Miss Pratt and my brother Charles are also with us. I limit myself to a given number of visits, and have had a pretty severe contest to maintain with my friends upon the subject. We dined last week at Mrs. Dinwiddie's with Dr. Balfour's people : her kindness is unbounded. There is one circumstance I cannot but admire in Dr. Balfour. I have found it necessary to take my own way in several tilings which went MRS. COUTTS. 73 contrary to his wish and to liis opinion, and I am sure that my conduct in reference to him has been such as would have im- pressed an ordinary man with the idea of my being a captious, cross-grained, and ti-uly cappernouted personage. Yet there is a Christian kindness about him which survives all this — which remains unquelled in the midst of all annoyance, and which has compelled such a reverence for him on my part, as I trust will last during all the remainder of our earthly pilgrimage. . . . 0 write us soon, for a letter from you is indeed a very great refreshment. Tell me of any good you hnow to be doing in your neighbourhood. I will not say much of the state of things here till I know more about it. I have heard some ser- mons from others since I came here. Dr. Balfour I think the most useful and impressive of them all. Mr. Love preaches in a line which to me is highly interesting. It must be unacceptable to the Independents, those men of simple assent, who make it so very simple that it appears to me to take in only one truth, when in fact the Bible takes in many, and furthermore tells us that he is instructed in the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven who lays up in the treasure of his understanding things new and old. It is true in the most absolute and unconditional sense of the word, that by faith we are saved ; but it is a faith in the whole of God's testimony, and if you give me this, you give me a Christian who feels as much peace as the doctrine of Christ's sufficiency warrants him to do, and aspires after as much repentance as the teaching of Christ lays upon liim, and prays for as much aid from the Spirit as Christ is commissioned to bestow, and aims at all that variety of grace and accom- plishments which the Law and the example of Christ oblige him to. There is a way of dividing Christ so as to make some part of it stand on the foreground, and some in the distant and almost unperceived background of our contemplation ; but G 74 CORRESPONDENCE OF DK. CHALMERS. I fear that many a zealot of orthodoxy will have been found in this way to have in fact rejected Scripture by rejecting the profit which all Scripture is fitted to confer upon the entire believer. — Yours very afi"ectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. XLVI. Glasgow, 28th February. My dear Mrs. Coutts, — Your most refreshing letter I got a few days ago, and what I shall first reply to is your inquiry after my health, which I can assure you never was better than I now feel it to be. I take my own way as to invitations and parties, and when I do go from home, it is generally to some mercantile villa in the neighbourhood, where I spend a few days and am let alone, and am suffered to eat and study and take exercise just as pleases me. I am surrounded with kind- ness, and the only thing I regret is, that I am sure the aspect of determination by which I hold out against its numerous and ever-plying proposals, must carry in it the expression of gruifness to the natives of this dinner-giving city. There is no help for it however ; and I please myself with thinking that, under God, I am indebted to all this regularity for the degree of strength and freedom from all that is physically unpleasant which I now so happily enjoy. . . . The weather has got fine and agreeable, and couiu we only realize more of the presence of God in our souls ; could we carry about with us a more afiecting sense of eternity ; could we live in a more simple reliance on the promises of Christ, and glory more in His eross, and, renouncing every dependence, admit the record of God about His Son as the exclusive and unmingled ground of all our securities and all our hopes ; could, I say, our spiritual interests be in a state of prosperity, we, in every other respect as to health, and circumstances, and kind MRS. COUTTS. 75 friends, and agreeable family tempers and affections amongst us, have great reason to bless God the giver of all comfort, and the God of all consolation. . . . I have very much of what I could call a picturesque me- mory— that is, I retain a vivid impression of all the visible scenery which is spread around a much loved and much regret- ted neighbourhood. I have at this moment a panorama of Dairsie before the eye of my fancy : and the Manse, and Osna- burgh, and the front of your father's house, and Craigfoodie, with the whole mountainous line which defines your northern boundary, pass in bright succession before me. I should not have mentioned this, but to assure you that as the places have taken a ri vetted hold on my memory, so the persons have taken an equally firm and obstinate hold of my affections. I bear on my heart a great degree of tenderness for you all. I think I see a strong mark of nature now in the names that crowd so many of Paul's Epistles. His affection for the people drew him out to name them, and he had a pleasure in so doing. I feel the same pleasure in desiring you to remember me to Dr. M'Culloch and Miss Collier,* whom I love in the Lord ; Misses M'Culloch, Nancy, and Robina ; Mr. Swan, whose spiritual progress I rejoice in ; and last, though not least, Alexander Paterson. Do you know if he received a letter I sent him some weeks ago ? I should have written Miss Collier and Mr. Swan before this, but they shall come next in turn. Will you tell Miss Collier that I met her brother once, and only once, since I came to Glasgow ? I have had a good deal of debate with the ladies about their female societies of late, and they have turned a good deal quieter upon my hand. My business is also simplifying, as I refuse eveiy work that is not strictly ministerial. The load is enough to crush the shoulders of twenty clergymen ; but I think it is their own fault to submit to it. May God * Who frequently resided at Dairsie, with ber friend Mrs. Coutts. 76 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. prosper your soul. Do let me have a letter soon from your quarter. Mrs. Chalmers joins in compliments. — I am, my dear Mrs. Coutts, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. XL VII. Burntisland, 18th December 1817. My dear Mrs. Coutts, — I received yours while at Anster. One of the ingredients in the mortification I felt at the very unexpected recall I got at Kilmany* was, that it completely put an end to my hope of seeing your much loved neighbourhood during this excursion. I left Anster last week with the purpose of preaching at Dunfermline, but have been arrested in my progress by a cold which has hung about me for some weeks, but which I am hopeful is now getting away. I never do leave Glasgow without returning to it with a new experimental lesson on the positive hazard and criminality of involving myself in too many preaching engagements, and I very much fear that, unless an invariable rule be laid down and acted up to, the urgency of people who, in the sliape of kind friends, and zealous lovers of that which is good, and most confi- dent advisers of that which it is duty for me to attempt, will at length compel me to retire, either by death or by resignation, from the work of preaching altogether. Your letter refreshed me greatly ; and I never do get a favour of that kind, cither from you or from Miss Collier, with- out the feeling that it is altogether suited to me. For in truth, my dear Madam, I feel that I have got no farther than to the threshold of those great topics which constitute the life and the aliment of a believer. I long to realize the joys and the exercises and the habits of experimental religion, to love Christ as fer- vently as good Samuel Rutherford — whose letters I am now read- ing— seems to have done, to have more devotedness, and more * See Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 137. MRS. COUTTS. 77 spirituality, and more of the real feeling and desire of one who is crucified to the world, and alive only unto God. But all this I am most wofully short of It comes to me all in word and not in power ; and little do you know what a barren and in every way heartless subject you have to deal with. But the error lies in thinking that I can work my own way to my own enlargement ; in not practically clinging to Christ as my alone sufficiency ; in not simply leaning upon the promises which are yea and amen, and praying in faith to Him from whom every good and perfect gift cometh. I entreat your prayers, and those of your respected father and Miss Collier. I wish you had told me more particularly about her. The wheeling variety of my present situation may diminish my intercourse witli my old acquaintances, but sure I am that it has not abated the regard I feel for the Christian society of your neighbourhood. Will you give my kindest remembrances to your father, Misses Collier, Coutts, and M'Culloch ? Tell Alexander Paterson how much I regretted the shortness of my interview with him, and what a pleasant thing it Avould have been to me to have gone over to Dairsie from Kilmany with him on the Sunday evening that I preached there. — Believe me to be, my dear Mrs. Coutts, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. XL VIII. Trackboat, 26th September 1818. My dear Madam, — I am thus far on my way to Glasgow — looking behind me with most affectionate regret, and before me with a desolate feeling of coldness and apprehension. God has not been pleased to turn my taste and my liking towards my present situation. I am sure I do the people of Glasgow great injustice ; but I have never yet had any homeward associations with that town. Still there is in it a great quantity of Christian worth ; and it is, in truth, a most un- 78 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. seemlj exhibition, that I should receive so much in the way of affection, and render so little back again. But it is the glare, and the publicity, and the continual controvers}'', and the jarring of human faction, and the total want of that kind and familiar intimacy which gave such a charm to all my intercourse with Dairsie and Kilmany, that have withered up the scene of my present duties, and spread something like the aspect of wilderness over the whole extent of it. I have great need of your prayers that I may be more submissive to the will of God — that I may give myself entirely over into His hands, that I may be enabled to do His work, and look not anywhere on this side of time for my pleasant resting-place. Oh, that I could find a readier access to the conscience — that I could manifest the truth more powerfully and more peiTQanently — that I could keep by the simplicity that is in Christ, and beware of making His cross of none effect by the words of man's wisdom ! I think more favourably of Fife, in the Christian sense of the word, than I did on any fomier excursion. There is more seeking than I ever observed before ; but such is the delusion of the human heart, that one may find rest in the consciousness of being a seeker. One may please himself with his earnestness, and, going no farther, may cease to be earnest any longer. One may receive an impulse, and yet stop short of salvation. One may, in fact, be establishing a righteousness of his own, when, like Paul, it should be his supreme desire to win Christ, and to be found in Him, and so submit himself unto the righteous- ness of God. — Believe me, my dear Mrs. Coutts, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. XLIX. January 1817. My dear Mrs. Coutts, — I received your kind letter some time ago, and never receive any letter from you without recog- Mils. COUTTS. 79 nising tlie style and cliaracter of one of the great spiritual famih^ It is a family composed, I believe, of the professing of many different creeds, and tlie members of many different de- nominations ; and yet the difference cannot be such as to impair that oneness which the Great Head of the Church ascribes to all his followers. But I have seen so many examples of late of satisfying evidence, that the root of the matter might be in the mind of a Presbyterian, and an Independent, and a Baptist, and an Episcopalian, and an Arminian Metliodist, and even a Roman Catholic, as disposes me very much to withdraw my attention from the distinctions of man, and fix it on the message of God, as it comes to us in its direct and original form in tlie book of His own counsel. There is danger of resting in the face of such grounds, of being satisfied with names without ideas, of the kingdom of God coming to us in language only, and not in power, of holding converse with an argumentative theologian, while an utter stranger to converse with the Author and the Finisher of Faith. And, therefore, it is that, when satiated and bewildered among human illustrations of the truth, I think it a good escape for the mind to look to the truth as it is in the Bible — to sit down to it just as I was read- ing it for the first time, with the conscious ignorance and docility of a child — to stir myself there, that I may lay hold of God, and lay hold of Christ, just as God has set Him forth to me. I have been greatly refreshed by a visit from a tnily spiritual man, Mr. Erskine of Linlathen. His whole soul is in Christianity — resting all his hope on the basis of Christ's death — and dissolved in tenderness and admiration at the blended love and holiness of God as manifested in that transaction. I know nothing that more realizes Christ to us than when we read Him in one of His own living epistles, than when we see His workmanship before us in the heart and habits of a fellow Christian. 80 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. Mrs. Chalmers was complaining, and so seriously, some weeks ago, that I was much alarmed for her. Appearances, however, are again more ikvourable, and I desire, from this lesson, to learn the prccariousness of all earthly blessings — to build my foundation somewhere else than in this vale of suffer- ing and of change — to cast it deep on the faith of the Gospel, that I may have the Giver of eternal life for my friend, and eternal life itself for my inheritance. I saw lately the observation, that justification was only the means to an end — that the great and ultimate object of Christ's undertaking was to redeem us from all iniquity, and purify us unto Himself a peculiar peoi:)le, zealous of good works. Is there no danger of an inquirer being satisfied with justification as the object in which he terminates ? It certainly is not the object in which Christ terminates, nor will the accomplishment of it be enough to make out that travail of His soul upon us by which He is satisfied. Let us, therefore, while Ave lodge all our security for acceptance on His propitiation, go zealously on in co-operation with Him, as the Lord our strength and our purifier — that He may be magnified in our bodies — and that, by growing in holiness, we may be fit for the only happiness which Heaven has to offer. — I remain, my dear Madam, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. Kg. L. Glasgow, 8th February 1822. My dear Madam, — It grieves me to have deferred writing you so long. I had a very heavy arrear of correspondence upon me, which I have not ypt liquidated wholly. I sympathize most deeply with you all in the result of your application to Lord Elgin.* I am not at all clear that it is right to urge his Lordship in the face of a private engagement. I see nothing * An application to Lord Elgin, as Patron, relative to a ministerial appointment. MRS. COUTTS. 81 for it but quietly to wait that counsel of the Lord, which alone shall stand, after all human desires have been tried and found ineffectual. There is one very open and distinct line of duty for all who feel concerned in the religious prosperity of your most interesting parish, and that is, to multiply as much as in you lies the lay securities for the growth and transmission of a Christian spirit among the families. In this view I hold all your schools to be of capital importance, and I would not have you to underrate the capabilities even of the humblest labourers in the cause. I should not be surprised if Alexander Paterson, in his day and generation, shall be found to have turned more unto righteousness than many of the most esteemed and evan- gelical clergy of our Church.* At the same time it is of prime importance to a pai'ish that there be in it a sound, and scriptural, and, withal, an exemplaiy clergyman. I am delighted with your account of Mr. Simpson, and also with tlie testimony that Alexander Paterson has borne of Mr. Cook in Kilmany. I have been reading Thomas a Kempis lately, on the '' Imi- tation of Jesus Christ," — a very impressive performance. Some would say of it, that it was not enough evangelical. He cer- tainly docs not often affirm, in a direct and ostensible manner, the rigliteousness that is by faith. But he proceeds on this doctrine, and many an incidental recognition does he bestow upon it ; and I am not sure but that this implies a stronger and more habitual settlement of mind respecting it, than when it is thrust forward and repeated, and re-repeated, with a kind of ultra-orthodoxy, as if anxious to vindicate one's soundness, and to acquit oneself of a kind of exacted homage to the form of sound words. I think it of mighty importance to lay down the extent of the required sanctification, and strenuously to * See a ver^- interesting Memoir of Alexander Paterson, entitled " The Missionary of Kilmany, by the Rev. John Baillie " Edinburgh, 1 S53. 82 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. urge it. I have been thinking of the Saviour's expostulation with Nicodemus in this view — " If thou believest not when I tell you of earthly things, how can ye believe when I tell you of heavenly things "? " If we believe not in the change that must take place upon the earthly subject, even man, ere he can be admitted to the Kingdom, we may feign, but we do not really put any belief in the change, from wrath to complacency, that has taken place in tlie mind of the Heavenly Lawgiver towards those who flee for refuge to the great propitiation. The earthly thing which Christ had spoken of was regenera- tion ; the heavenly thing which He proceeded to speak of was the atonement. If we believe not the one, we have no real belief of the other. But nothing can be more pi'ecious than Romaine. His three treatises on "Faith" are all overrun with the flavour of the very essence of the Gospel. I have no news. A perpetual bustle, and, at the same time, a stir and an activity in Cliristian things, which I regard as hopeful in this place. May God bless you and j^ours. I always rejoice in a letter from Dairsie. I ofi"er my most aflectionate regards to the venerable Doctor, Miss Collier, Miss Coutts, Miss Nancy, Mr. Simpson, and last, though not least, Alexander Paterson. Mrs. Chalmers joins me in best compliments. — I am, my dear Madam, yours very aff'ectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. LT. St. Andrews, 2M April 1827. My DEAR Madam, — I /had very great pleasure in the re- ceipt and perusal of your much esteemed letter. But why, my dear Mrs. Coutts, do you talk of intruding upon me ? Our intercourse has of late been rare, and our correspondence far less frequent than it ought to have been. But I never can Mils. COUTTS. 83 forget the Christian kindness and encouragement wliich I enjoyed under tlie roof of your excellent father, and all the friendly converse that I have had both with yourself and Miss Collier. Dairsie is one of the most memorable portions in my retrospect of the past ; and all the feelings which I had then are undiminished by change of scene or distance of time. My mother's was indeed a most triumphant death. Her peace and joy were altogether in believing. Her Christianity was objective, and that of one who looked outwards. She read Owen's " Spiritual-Mindedness" some months ago ; but she remarked that when she looked only to herself, she found that all was corruption, but that all her trust was in the Saviour. She expressed an abundance of peace which flowed through her heart like a mighty river. Mrs. Chalmers and our children are well. Do give my kindest regards to Miss Collier and Mr. vSimpson, in which Mrs. Chalmers joins. — Believe me, my dear Madam, yours most aifectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. LII. Colinswell, hy Burntisland, 2d April ] 834. My dear Mrs. Coutts, — Miss Young is just leaving us ; but I cannot let her go Avithout assuring you both of the grati- fication and the gratitude which I felt in consequence of your kind and liberal offer of Thursday last. It is true that the means for my first enterprise are already provided;* but, should I succeed, I have still a second in reserve — respecting which I may, in the course of months, communicate with my friends, and you among the number — my only anxiety being that you do not make an inconvenient sacrifice. I observe, that in spite of my explanatory letter, there is * See Memoirs, vol. iii. pp. 445, 446. 84 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. still great misrepresentation of our objects. It is a marvellous time ; and though I feel it my duty to labour while it is day, yet I cannot help the presentiment of a dark midway passage that must be described ere the Avorld shall emerge into the peace and righteousness of its latter-day gloiy. Meanwhile, I cannot describe how inexpressibly soothing it is to be sustained by the countenance and affection of one's oldest and best-tried Christian friends. You have had much to exercise you ; and it is my earnest prayer, that in the light of God's reconciled countenance, ever growing into brighter and more cheering manifestations, you may increase day by day in that peace and joy which passeth all understanding. — Ever, believe me, my dear Mrs. Coutts, your most attached and grateful friend, Thomas Chalmers, No. LIII. Penicuik, I2ih July 1834. My DEAR Mrs. Coutts, — May God grant the fulfilment of your wishes in regard to the effect of my own solitude upon my lieart and principles. It gives me a fresh view of my native ungodliness, that even in this deep retreat I cleave so much to the things of sense and of time. I am never better than when I take a simple and objective view of the great propitiation, and look on the sunshine of God's reconciled countenance to be an element I am as free to rejoice in as I am to breathe the air that is around me, or to open my eyes on the light of Nature. I beg you will excuse the brevity of this letter — a poor return for your deej^ly , interesting communication. But the truth is, I am ordered to work as little as possible. The most prominent of my symptoms is an almost perpetual noise in my liead, which is aggravated always by exertion.* * See Memoirs, vol. iii. pp. 433-444. MRS. COUTTS. 85 Give me a place and an interest in your prayers. — Ever believe me, my dear Mrs. Coutts, yours very affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. LIV. Burntisland, 9th July 1841. My very dear Mrs. Coutts, — Be assured that I feel very calm and confident on the Church question — not on the ground of the Parliamentary Returns, or in the assured prospect of any thing- being done in our favour by the j^resent or any future Government, but on the ground that our way of duty is clear, and that if our ways please God, He Avill make our enemies to be at i^eace with us. Should the Establishment be broken up, I think, that if true to our principles, there is a very great field of usefulness before us ; and that we need be at no loss for turning ourselves to such openings for the Christian good of the people, as will amply comjDensate for all the liardships to w^hicli we might in consequence be exposed. — Ever believe me, my dear Mrs. Coutts, yours with the greatest esteem and regard, Thomas Chalmers. No. LV. Morningside, 13th December 1842. My dear Mrs. Coutts, — It gives me great pain to decline your application for myself, though I shall transmit your request to Mr. Hanna ; and it will afford me great pleasure if he can comply with it. I never do preach but with a serious invasion on my press of study, and so a very hurtful encroachment on an object to which I should like, if I were permitted it, to devote all my strength for the remainder of my days, and that is, the com- pletion of my theological lectures for the benefit of my students, 86 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. and as an oifering to the cause of theological education. The troubles of the Church, and mj implication therewith, have deprived me of years of preparation ; and one of the cruellest effects of any public appearance I make is, that it is followed up by a host of applications — some of them from my best and dearest friends, which I feel it most difficult, but, withal, most necessary and incumbent upon me to reject. This distresses, but it must not influence me. I may not be able to justify these refusals to others ; but the constant feeling of exhaustion, wherewith I am at all times haunted and well-nigh overborne, forms to my own mind and conscience a sufficient exoneration. — I ever am, my dear Mrs. Coutts, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. LETTERS TO MISS COLLIER. No. LVI. Kilmaraj, nth December 1814. My dear Miss Collier, — I some days ago sent my letter of acceptance to Glasgow. I know well that there is a disposition to withhold sympathy from that suffering which a man entails upon himself by his own voluntary act. In cases like the pre- sent, however, I am not sure that this is altogether fair ; for, independently of my not being my own master, but the servant of another in the determination of this matter, I could not have escaped suffering by the adoption of either side of the alternative ; for by accepting, I bring down upon myself all the bitterness of regret at ^being torn away from a much-loved parish and neighbourhood ; and, by refusing, I would have brought down upon myself the severest remonstrances from the most eminent Christian friends I have in this world. As it is, I feel myself in a situation altogether unlike any former MISS COLLIER. 87 experience I ever had. And if, to alleviate the pain of my approaching separation, I must sit as loosely as possible to the things and the people around me, I trust I may learn from it the still greater and more salutary lesson of sitting loose to all the interests and concerns of that world which the likeliest of us all must soon take our departure from. This tenderness about leaving my jieople is one thing, and may exist in a breast Avhere there is no serious concern for their souls, which is an- other thing. And 0 that the same God who sent forth His mighty Spirit to convert three thousand souls at the utterance of one sermon, would so arm me with arguments, and so press them home with efficiency upon the hearts of a people made willing and obedient in the day of His power, that the few remaining months of my residence amongst them might wit- ness the accession of many sons and daughters to righteousness. We would have been much the better of a visit from you had your engagements permitted it. My wife regrets your absence on this occasion. Will you let us know when we may have the pleasure of seeing you ? Never forget that a private individual is invested with the care and the keepership of others, as well as a minister of the Gospel ; and it is my prayer, that wherever you are, you may be a leaven for good by your example, and conversation, and prayers. I earnestly crave the benefit of your intercessions in behalf of myself and of my parish. My wife joins in most cordial compliments and wishes. — I am, my dear Madam, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. LVII. Kilmany 3fanse, 20th April 1815. Mr DEAR Miss Collier, — I was greatly concerned to see Mrs. Coutts so poorly on Tuesday, and I send this messenger to you asking to know particularly about her. 88 COKRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. May her spirit be upheld in this the day of her extremity ; may she he enabled to throw herself upon the Saviour. The Bible has taken many ways of stating to us His sufficiency, as if, lest one way of it should not be apprehended, another way may send home the truth with demonstration and power. Thus it sometimes sets Christ before us in the light of the second Adam, and tells us that He is more than able to repair all the mischief done by the first Adam. "Well then, all this guilt, all this misery, all this helplessness, by which I feel myself bur- dened and overdone, was entailed upon me by the Fall ; and the very errand on which Christ came was to sweep the whole calamity, in all its extent and in all its soreness, away from me. Let us cling to Him. Let us do Him the honour to believe that what He came to do. He is able to do. Let us be ready to say " Yea" to His question, " Believest thou that I am able to do this?" — and according to our faith, so shall it be done. It is my prayer, amid the trying circumstances in which our friend now is, she may feel the richness of this truth, that the Great Intercessor liveth ; that He is full of tenderness ; that He is, indeed, a merciful High Priest ; and that He knows well how to succour her, for there is not one of her temptations which He Himself has not struggled with. There is no want of wil- lingness in God ; it is in our own heart that the straitening lies. He calls uj)on us to lay hold of His strength that we may make peace with Him ; and adds, that in so doing, we shall make peace with Him. Wonderful assurance ! It is just say- ing— lean, and you shall be supported ; throw yourself upon me, and I will bear you up ; cast your burden to me, and I will sustain it. Oh that this faith were wrought in us with power, and the precious fruits of faith were getting more dis- cernible eveiy day upon our hearts ; that we were dying unto the world, and unto all its distinctions and pleasures ; that the realities of the spiritual and unseen world were taking a more MISS COLLIER, 89 effectual hold of us ; that we were walking- by faith and not by sight ; and knowing our insufficiency for these things, were drawing by prayer out of the fulness that is in Christ Jesus, all our light, and help, and direction. Do write me by the bearer. — Yours most truly, Thomas Chalmei^s. No. LVIII. Glasgow, 1815. My dear Miss Collier, — I received your letter with much joy, and felt greatl}'- refreshed by the perusal of it. Be assured that you cannot derive a greater satisfaction from our corre- spondence with each other than I do myself; and I look back to our many walks and many conversations as those seasons which memory loves to dwell upon, when I took sweet counsel together with a Christian friend. I have not yet met with anything here that can replace what I feel the want of, though at the same time I feel my heart slowly opening itself to the impression of that kindness, and worth, and sterling Chris- tianity which surrounds me. But I am as yet too much lost, and my attention too much divided among the general society of the place, to have many strong drawings in the way of indi- vidual friendship. This general intercourse, indeed, has the effect of keeping me asunder for some time from my best friends. I cannot see much of Dr. Balfour. Mrs. Dinwiddie arrived a week ago, and I had to resist her kindness, which I the more regret because I know it to be genuine and sincere ; but I shall spend a day with her in about a fortnight. There are some very interesting people among my own hearers, whose acquaintance I mean to cultivate ; but at present the invi- tations come so thick upon me, that I, who have restricted myself to a limited number of teas and dinners, have nothing for it but to put many of these away from me. The following are H 90 CORRESrONPEKCE OF DR. CHALMEKS. the texts I have preached upon since I came to Glasgow : — 1 Thess. V. 25 ; 2 Cor. x. 12 ; Mark xii. 87 ; Romans viii. 7 ; Acts xxvi. 25 ; Phil. iv. 13 ; Matt. iii. 2 ; Job ix. oO-oS ; Psalm Ixxxv. 10 ; Luke i. 74, 75 ; 1 Cor. iii. 1 ; Luke ii. 14. I do find in myself a tendency to speak beyond my strength, but I have great reason to be thankful that I am pretty well in health. Grace and Anne are both well. Miss M. Balfour is with us at present ; Charles came a few days ago, and we have two boarders ; so that with Miss Pratt, our home establish- ment is pretty extensive at present ; and as I refuse callers before twelve, and go out only a certain number of times, I trust I shall have a sufficiency of time for the preparations of the pulpit. I have only been visiting sick persons since I came, but I trust that I shall extend this part of my duty. I have been twice with two men under sentence of death, and mean to visit them occasionally till the day of their execution. One, a Roman Catholic, is very much impressed, and seems to be mainly right in his doctrinal notions. The other is very ignorant, and I thought very hard at my first visit. I think, however, that I have made progress with him since ; but, alas ! appearances are most fallacious, and it is, indeed, a work of great seriousness, and demanding a feeling of dependence on God for wisdom to divide the word of truth rightly on such an occasion. Tell Mrs. Coutts that I mean to write her shortly. I should have written her before I wrote you ; but the truth is, I sat down to this letter under a general impression of debt to your neighbourhood, and as you are my most recent creditor, you were most in my mind at the time of my beginning to write. I cannot describe the soft but mournful tenderness I feel when I think of your neighbourhood, nor will I disguise the ver^^ warm affection I have both for yourself and Mrs. Coutts, and the friendship and veneration I feel for Dr. M'Culloch ; along MISS COLLIER. 91 witli these, will you remember me to Mr. Ewan and Miss Robina ? Your sister, Miss Marv, I desire to be remembered to. Tell Alexander Paterson how much 1 am interested in him, and that I trust he Avill never let 2:0 the beoinninof of his confidence. Give my kindest regards to him ; and let him send me by you, if he does not incline to write himself, all the Christian news of his neighbourhood. Give my best and my friendliest greetings to Mr. and Mrs. Walker, and assure them of my good-will for themselves and family. Oh, how it melts and subdues mc when I write all these names, and think of the dear neighbourhood with which they are associated. — May power from on high ever rest on many of its families ; and may the gnice of the Lord Jesus be poured in rich effusion over your much-loved land. My wife and I both were greatly moved and interested by your kind letter. I hope you will soon see us in Glasgow. Let me know of your movements ; and may the Lord guide and protect them. We live in Charlotte Street, have a garden, and are most eligibly situated. May God prosper you, and give you His peace to rule in your heart. — Yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. LIX. My very dear Miss Collier, — I received jour highly accept- able communication ; and you know how much the kind and Christian remembrance of an old and valued friend acts as a sweetening infusion in that compound of many ingredients w^hich make up the life and history of a city minister. I have much reason, however, for thankfulness, and trust that I am finding my way, through the leadings of a good and a free Spirit, to the habits of a more even and simple reliance upon Him in 92 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. whom I desire to find all mj completeness and all my rest. How precious to know, that it is by keeping in memory the truths which we received at the first — that it is by holding fast the beginning of our confidence, and not casting it away — that it is by cleaving unto Him in whom we ought always to abide, with an utter sense of our emptiness and of Ilis fulness — that it is tliis attitude of quietness which, after all, is our only attitude of strength, and by persevering in wliicli we are made more than conquerors. — My dear Madam, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. LX. Gkisyow, Zd Jane 1816. My DEAR Miss Collier, — I mean, if God will, to go from this in the middle of July, and stay away six weeks. I shall be much of that time in the neighbourhood of Kilmany, and, of course, some days in Dairsie. All this, however, is only ex- pressive of my intentions, and not of my promises, of which I am most fearful ; and as my object is to rest, I trust I shall not have the fatigue of urgency to undergo on the subject of preaching, as I must be veiy sparing of myself during my ab- sence from Glasgow. I still feel the overdoing of too much exertion in the business of Glasgow. The preaching is heavy for me ; and the teasing invitations, pressed Avith a degree of rudeness that is very provoking, I find it difficult to ward off from me. I am sorry to say that Dr. is most egregiously culpable in this respect ; and I have learned from him of how little avail the mere feeling of kindness is towards the happiness of others, unless a consideration and a respect for convenience and liberty go along with it. I wish I could report favourably, either of myself or others, as to the most substantial of our in- terests. I hear sometimes of good done, and I am convinced that to a certain degree there is a reality in the matter. Of MR. WILBERFORCE. 93 one thing I am getting every clay surer — that no human power, cither of argument or of address, can work the progress of a single inch towards the conversion of a human soul. It is of my might and my wisdom, saith the Lord ; and till we feel our dependence upon this I am convinced that He will humble and mortify all our suiRciency. I feel my need of your prayers, both for my personal and ministerial welfare. This is Monday, when I am sadly liable to be driven out of the mildness and en- durance of the Gospel, by the feebleness of yesterday's fatigue, and the annoyances with which a selfish and inconsiderate public beset me. I have this day had to ward off four dinner invitations, and to fight a stout battle about two of them. I trust that this matter will at length find an adjustment in the people's letting me alone. But I must give up this (querulous strain. Give my kindest compliments to Dr. M'Culloch, Mrs. Coutts, Miss Coutts, Mr. Ewan, and the two Misses M'Culloch. I sigh for the repose and pure air of your charming neighbourhood. — I ever am, my dear Miss Collier, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. LETTERS TO WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, ESQ., M.F. No. LXI. * Glasgow, 9th February 1818. My dear Sir, — The concluding paragraph of the Prince Regent's speech* has given great satisfaction to the friends of * Recommending to tlie attention of Parliament the deficiency in the number of places of worship connected -with the Established Church, as compared with tlie increased and increasing population. 9-i CORnp:SPONDENX'E OF DR. CHALMEllS. religion in this quarter. It, at the same time, by suspending measures till the specific proposal of Government be known, has given a temporary check to their operations for adding new churches to the Establishment in Glasgow. My own appre- hension is, that if Government shall oifer to carry this into effect by a pecuniary grant merely, it will do but little for us here in proportion to the needs of our population, and at the same time will do as much as will satisfy and set at rest the lukewarm friends of the cause. What I think would be most desirable in any legal enact- ments on this subject, would be to afford facilities to the enter- prise of individuals who, on their own risk, might combine to build churches in connexion with the Establishment, and thus extend the object of Government, and that without any expense to Government. You know what Mr. Gladstone of Liverpool has done in this way, having added two churches to that town at his own risk. Now, it is my conviction, that a proper en- couragement being held out to individuals, much may be done in the same way in the larger towns of Scotland. For instance, if Government were so far to countenance such speculations, as to vest the individuals Avho came forward with funds for the erection of churches and the maintenance of their clergy with the right of nomination for a hundred years, after which the patronage might fall either to the T-ivvn or to the Magistrates and Council, I have no doubt that in a very few years indeed we should see at least half a dozen of additional churches in this place, and that without any expense to Government at all. A great collateral advantage that I could anticipate for such an arrangement is this — a purer exer- cise of patronage. It is a great security for our getting a good evangelical clergyman when the patron is strongly interested in the popularity of his choice ; and we cannot be too grate- ful wlien we think how wisely and mercifully God can bring MR. WILBERFORCE. 95 about tlie extension of His kingdom among men even out of tlie sordid elements of human interest and human passion. May I submit to you another observation on tliis point. A church without a local district annexed to it in the shape of a corresponding parish, is not the best arrangement for getting it filled with hearers. Give the preacher a superintendence over a certain range of pojoulation, and his week-day attentions amongst them will at length bring them to his Sabbath minis- trations. The habit of church-going has got most wofully into desuetude, and nothing should be overlooked which can help to restore it. I think that I speak what is practically and experimentally true, when I affirm the mighty operation which lies in the mere attaching of a certain portion of town over which the minister has the official right of expatiating through the week to the church where he preaches on the Sabbath. You may remember my former communications on the subject of the Edinburgh Professorship. I wish that no fur- ther application should be made to Government on this sub- ject. I feel as formerly on the suitableness of such an office to my taste ; but I know of nothing which more effectually neutralizes a man's usefulness in this age of party violence and imputations, than the appearance of receiving anything from Government. Even for the sake of the interests of loyalty and good order, I would rather decline any benefit from the patronage of the State, knowing well that the only w&j in which a man's testimony can have weight amongst his citizens on the side of loyalty, is that they be thoroughly convinced of its being a disinterested testimony. Permit me to say, that this conviction of mine stands most intimately associated with all that I liave observed of the conduct of you and your friends in Parliament. From a letter I received some time ago from Lady Grey, 96 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. I was glad to observe that you approve generally of my views on Pauperism. I have another article on the same subject in the next number of the " Edinburgh Review." I cannot conclude without exjoressing the very warm affec- tion that I entertain for you. It is my earnest prayer that your life and your labours may long be preserved to us. I beg my most respectful compliments to Mrs. Wilberforce. — Believe me, my dear Sir, yours with most cordial esteem, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXII. Glasgow, 28fh December 1818. My dear Sir, — I have no one topic connected with busi- ness about which to write to you ; and indeed I always grieve for any necessity of this kind, thinking, as I do, that there ought to be a general combination on the part of all your friends to let you, as much as possible, alone. There is posi- tively nothing which they ought more to study than to abridge the numerous exactions which are perpetually made upon your attention and your time, and to suffer you that undisturbed repose which it would be desirable that you could be permit- ted to enjoy. The chief impulse under which I write is that produced by your last letter — on my review of the various letters I have received during the currency of the year that is departing away from us, and which breathes so kindly and so affectionately towards mc, that I cannot but send you the warmest acknow- ledgments of my gratitude and regard. I further take the opjT'ortunity of stating, in reference to a certain confidential subject on which you did me the honour of addressing me some months ago, that I have introduced the matter into several companies, and in general found that the task of vindication was altogether superfluous. I in particular MR. WILBERFORCE. 97 recollect having started the topic in one of the highest of our circles here, when our then member, Mr. Finlay, was present ; and I had the utmost satisfaction in liearing the cordial testi- mony he bore to the entire consistency and integrity of your Parliamentary conduct. Such is the worthlessness of mere partisanship, that none can stand out with any degree of con- spicuousness to the public eye without becoming the subject of vile and calumnious aspersions. But it is a satisfaction to know, that even in this alienated and accursed world there is often so willing a tribute rendered to principle, even in quar- ters where the natural enmity of the human heart is most apt to be provoked with the exhibition of it. I beg to oiFer my affectionate regards to Mrs. Wilberforce. She will perhaps be interested to know that Mrs. Parker is in my immediate neighbourhood, and that I have the felicity of occasional intercourse Avith her. — Believe me, my dear Sir, yours with the most cordial esteem, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXIII. Glasgow, 25th June 1822. My dear Sir, — I promised to write you on a subject, the interest of which for the time has gone by. I have long looked with a most approving eye to the part you take respecting the Catholics of Ireland ; and I simply wanted to let you know, that the evangelical party in our Church are fast hastening towards the same enlightened spirit of Christian and liberal policy in regard to them. There are still a few sturdy old clergymen amongst us who have not yet got the better, and never will, of the sore recollections of their covenanting fore- fathers. But with the exception of these, and of some others who take the opposite side of the question from political motives, I do think that the Church of Scotland would like I 98 CORllESPONDENCE OK DR. CHALMP]RS. the removal of tlie existing- disabilities. What a piece of kingly munificence would it have been had his Majesty been enabled to carry the deed of emancipation to Ireland along- with him. I have not forgotten the very great exertions you made in behalf of three Canada emigrants about two years ago ; and I really think that it ought to be a principle with all your friends to fomi themselves into a cordon of defence, for the purpose of protecting you from all manner of intrusion. I hope that you received my last, written about a fortnight ago. You honoured me by asking my sentiments on the sub- ject of public afiairs, and I ventured a few affirmations on a matter that I am far from being qualified to pronounce on. I see that the public funds are to be held inviolable, and there is assuredly something noble in the principle of it. I cannot, however, get the better of a principle that I have long held on the subject of taxation, and that is, that all taxes fall ulti- mately on land, the capitalist finding an indemnification for his taxes always in an increase of profit, and the labourer in an increase of wages. I should like to see the whole revenue of the Government raised by a land-tax, equally including stock-holders as the mortgagees or co-proprietors of the soil. The burden would thus appear to fall exclusively upon one class. But in truth they pay all at present directly or indi- rectly ; and were they made to pay all by a direct levy, they M'ould find almost instant indemnification for a measure that would look ver^"- formidable at the outset by a fall of price in all the comforts of human life. We had a visit from Mr. Gray of Sunderland lately, one of the good men of the Church of England. It is truly refresh- ing to have a visit from such ; it always puts me in mind of a saying of Brainerd's, that he has heard hundreds speak about religion, but not above one or two speak religion. We Scotch speak about it — look at the matter intellectually — come MR. WlLBEKFOllCE. 99 forth with oui- didactic and metaphysical si^eculations about the thing ; but the evangelical English, as far as I can observe, possess the thing ; and possessing it, they have by far the most efi'ective ingredient of good preaching, which is the per- sonal piety of the preacher himself It is my prayer that you may long be preserved amongst us. May you taste the comforts of retirement ; and may a foretaste of Heaven mingle with them. It is a sad world surely, wlien one cannot bustle his way through it even in pursuit of what is good, without the danger of being bustled out of all his spirituality. This I feel every day. But Christ did not pray that His disciples should be taken out of the world, but that they should be kept from the evil of it. — "With most affectionate regards to Mrs. Wilberforce, believe me, my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXIV. Glasgow, 8th July 1823. My dear Sir, — I feel obliged by your kind inquiries respect- ing myself I at one time thought of writing you an explana- tory letter on the subject of my departure from Glasgow ; but I was assailed with such a torrent of unexpected abuse because of it on the part of my best friends, that I resolved to wait their attentions ere I should write one word upon the subject. I believe it is now pretty obvious to them all, that a Univer- sity where young men are reared for the public offices of the Church, is a higher station in the field of Ciiristian usefulness than any one of these offices. I was not unmindful of this consideration when I made my choice ; and it was a choice that I embraced more readily, as I had long found that the fatigues of action were encroaching too far on the tastes and habits of a studious life ; and more particularly as the pressure of my fatigue was greatly aggravated by the various and to all 100 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. appearance interminable controversies that had been raised against me. Meanwhile I am much engrossed with the concluding duties of my present office, and preparation for the duties of my new one ; and this engrossment must last till the summer of 1824'. I expect ere I leave Glasgow to have perfected my parochial arrangements, and to leave them on such a footing as to make it obvious to all, that it is not I who have resolved the pro- blem of pauperism for St. John's, but that the human nature of the people has done it for me, and will do it for any other that simply lets the arrangement alone. The difficulty of the problem does not lie with the poor — it lies with the rulers and managers of the poor. The barrier is not in the necessities of the lower orders — it is in the obstinate prejudices of the higher orders ; and I lay my account with a far more formid- able obstacle to the abolition of this great moral evil in the Parliament of England than in the people of England. May I be permitted to say, that I have long regretted the very inconsiderate encroachments which even your friends make upon your time and ease. I should rejoice in a calm and tranquil evening of life for you ; and my prayer is, that you may have many happy days on earth brightened with the hopes and the foretaste of Heaven in the bosom of your family. I feel the utmost gratitude for all your attentions to myself; and shall ever reflect with a pleasure, not perhaps unmixed with some pride, on the intercourse that I have had with yourself and the other distinguished philanthropists of England. We expect Mr. Clarkaon in Glasgow next month. There has been a Committee formed for promoting the abolition of slavery. — With most respectful compliments to Mrs. and Miss Wilberforce, I am, my dear Sir, yours with great regard, Thomas Chalmers. MR. WILBERFORCE. 101 No. LXV. St. Andrews, 28th October 1825. My dear Sir, — Mr. Collins shewed me a letter from you, wherein you made a reference to me on the subject of the Lon- don University. I was then in Glasgow, and in the midst of many engrossments. I now avail myself of a moment's leisure for a few slight remarks on the way in which a Christian edu- cation may be made to keep pace with the general education which such an institution is so fitted to advance. I have no leisure for any publication on the topic, however short. There are many difficulties attendant on the introduction of Theology among the other professorships, and most of which have been already adverted to in the deliberations which have taken place on the subject. And I am not sure that you got rid of these difficulties by generalizing the course into a mere series of lectures, on Natural Theology and the Evidences of Christianity. For my own part, I have now long thought that the most powerful of all those evidences is founded on the adaptation of the gospel to the moral wants and condition of our nature — a subject which might be treated in a way that is quite philosophical, and that would harmonize with the tone and habits of speculation which may have been acquired by the students at the other classes ; but still a subject which cannot be fully expounded without a reference to the peculi- arities of the evangelical system. And if to keep clear of these peculiarities you restricted the professor to certain text-books, as those of Paley and Butler, and others that were specified, this were laying a fetter upon the business of the professor- ship, which no man of genius or of vigorous and excursive powers could with any comfort submit to. How would it do instead of making a regular professorship for this subject, to make a lectureship of it, consisting of a 102 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. course of three months, and in whicl), if the teacher gave satis- faction, he could be invited indefinitely to repeat his course in future years — and whom you get quit of, should he go astray or give oifence, by simply ceasing to invite him any more. By such an appendage to the University, you might perhaps secure a theological infusion without the hazards to which a regular professorship of Theology might expose you. You might at all events, by such a device, feel your way to a right and permanent arrangement of this difficult question. On the whole, I should think it best of all that a separate institution were formed, neither connected with the London University, nor even recognising it, but whose real design was to accommodate the defence and illustration of religion to that higher intellectual state of the public which must be the result of such an institution. You are aware that some of our ablest authorship has proceeded from endowments of this sort, as the Boyle Lectureship, and many others. But I would not give it a preaching, but rather a professorial aspect. The whole expense of it might be limited to the erection of a fabric hav- ing, at least, one ample hall, where a general course on Natural Theology and the Evidences could be delivered once a year, by a lecturer who might be changed or continued at the pleasure of the directors. He should be remunerated chiefly, if not solely, by the fees of attendance, which ought not to be higher than those in the University. In this way you might neutralize the whole apprehended mischief, and even convert the higher scholarship of the Metropolis into a positive good ; for, be assured, that in like manner as a reading Catholic population, though taught in schools whence the Bible has been excluded, is a better subject for a Christianizing process than a non-reading population ; so a highly educated public, even though formed in academies whence Christianity is kept out, is still a more hopeful subject for the formation of Christian philanthropists MR. WILBERFORCE. 103 than a rudely ignorant and unlettered public. In every pos- sible stage of mental cultivation, Christianity may be exposed to an incidental bane ; but she possesses an inherent antidote Avherewith to counteract and to prevail over it, so that, in the long run, I anticipate the greatest good from all those leanings of the public and popular mind towards a higher scholarship. Only let them be followed up by Christians with such ex- pedients as might suit the spirit and philosophy of the times, and more especially in London. I shall be most happy of a further correspondence with you upon this subject. I offer my respectful compliments to Mrs. Wilberforce, and I have the honour to be, my dear Sir, yours with greatest esteem, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXVI. St. Andreti-s, lid Jannary 1828. My dear Sir, — I have been much gratified by the receipt and perusal of your letter, and more especially by your con- gratulations upon the subject of my recent appointment. I do not commence the duties of my new charge till November next ; and, along with the labours of my Professorship here, I fill up the intemiediate time with the still higher labours of a very arduous preparation. I am verv glad to observe that this new arrangement has at length reconciled you to my movement from Glasgow ; though independently of any such ulterior view, I felt the obligation, in point of Christian usefulness, to accept of my present office — and should have continued so to feel, though I had remained here to the end of my days. I am sensible that in this feel- ing there are some of my best friends who do not sympathize with me — overlooking, I think, two considerations which had decisive effect with myself The first is, that a University stands to a sin^jlc church in the relation that a fountain- 104 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. head, wlience many streams issue, does to one only of these streams. The second is, tliat Moral Philosophy stands to Christianity in the relation that Law does to Gospel ; that the preaching of John the Baptist did to the preaching of the Saviour. In reply to your kind inquiries regarding my children, I have to inform you that I am the father of six daughters — the eldest fourteen years, and the youngest one month, and of nearly equi-distant ages. I have lost none of my children, and have much reason to be thankful that Mrs. Chalmers (who begs her most respectful compliments to you) though delicate, on the whole, is remarkably well at present. It is the cordial wish of myself, and, I am sure, the wish and the prayer of all your Christian friends, that you may be spared to spend amongst us a long old age of piety and peace. May you still have many days of rest and of rejoicing on the borders of Heaven ; and may that Book, which spoke power- fully to myself, and has spoken powerfully to thousands, repre- sent you to future generations, and be the instrument of con- verting many who are yet unborn. With my respectful regards to Mrs. and Miss Wilberforce, I have the honour to be, my dear Sir, yours, with greatest esteem, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXVII. St. A.ulreivs, llth June 1828. My dear Sir, — I should have replied sooner to your most welcome communication ; but I have been from home, and I did not receive it till yesterday, when it was too late to reply to it by the post. Mrs. Chalmers and I are both delighted with the prospect of having you for a guest. We remain here till late in October, it being far the best place for the prosecution of those studies MR. WILBERFORCE. 105 whicli arc so indispensable to the arduous office upon wliicli I am so soon to enter We shall have two rooms at your service, and promise you all the gi-atification which a most thorough retirement and the most cordial Avelcome can afford. We both are quite alive to the honour and the enjoyment of such a visit. It is not necessary to write at present on the subject of a Scottish tour, seeing that the movement should be a circular one, and that your coming to St. Andrews, by Edinburgh, is just taking our side of the circle first. Your return should be by the North of Scotland and the West Coast ; but the details of the ulterior journey had far better be discussed in conversation We trust that Mrs. Wilberforce and your daughter will accompany you. — I have the honour to be, my dear Sir, yours with greatest esteem and regard, Thomas Chalmers No. LXVIIT. St. Andrews, \bth July 1828. My dear Sir, — Mrs. Chalmers and I have been made quite happy by your last. It will give us great jjleasure to see your son. We can accommodate him as well as the ladies, who, I think, will enjoy Scotland ; and I fondly trust that you will be much the better of the journey. The house we at present occupy is very commodious, and has some pretensions to the name of classical — it not only having in it the study of George Buchanan, but having lodged Dr. Samuel Johnson when he visited St. Andrev/s. Our autumns are generally drier than our summers, but there is no such great or regular diiference as would lead me to fix on any particular month in the way of preference. On the whole, I would not think it advisable to travel in Scotland after the end of September. We have the greater and the smaller Highland tour — the 106 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. former taking you as far north as Inverness, and farther if you choose ; the hitter a smaller sweep by Perth, Dunkeld, Blair, Killin, Argyleshire. The former would also comprehend Argyle- shire. You commence either from St. Andrews, and terminate what is jjurely Highland in the journey at Glasgow, whence you could make smaller excursions to Stirling and the Trosachs. Abstracting from all detentions on the score of society, you could make the larger sweep from St. Andrews to Glasgow by moderate journeys in a fortnight, and the smaller sweep in nine or ten days. I make allowance for the remarkable scenes on the journey. In fixing your itinerancy my only difficulty relates to the larger tour, because there are three great northern roads, and I know not which of these should be surrendered. I am anxious to secure the middle road, as being the more characteristic across the Grampians. But I would be unwilling to sacrifice the eastern, which takes you b}'- Aberdeen, and carries you to some remarkable objects on the coast. I would very much defer to Mr. Charles Grant's opinion, who, by the way, is extensively acquainted in Inverness-shire. My letters of intro- duction Avill be a few to the aristocracy, but chiefly to the more meritorious clergy along the line of your journey, who will be delighted to show you every attention, and whom you will find to be at once intelligent and congenial. May I request to know your movements when you have fixed them. — "With most respectful compliments to Mrs. and Miss Wilberforcc, in which Mrs. Chalmers joins, I have the honour to be, my dear Sir, yours with greatest esteem, ' Thomas Chalmers. No. LXIX. St. Andretcs, 31s< July 1828. My dear Sir, — Your final determination for this season, on the subject of a Scottish tour, could not fail to disappoint us, MK. WILUERFORCE. 107 though it is impossible not to acquiesce in the reasons of it. The expectation of seeing you had begun to aAvakcn a great competition for the pleasure of your society ; and, among others, Lord Leven, who, with his friend Captain Thornton, honoured me lately with a short visit, was confidently looking forward to a visit from you. We shall be exceeding glad of meeting with you anywhere, though the seclusion of St. Andrews would cer- tainly have afforded greater advantages for intercourse than I can hope to have in Edinburgh. But there, too, we should feel it a gratification and an honour to have you under our roof. I have just returned from Glasgow, where I have been visit- ing the afflicted family of my friend Mr. Parker, who died suddenly within these twelve days. I observe the struggle and opposition that you have had to encounter in the erection of your chapel. Such is the identity of the anti-evangelical spirit all over the world, that I recog- nise the perfect identity of your experience with all that we have had to contend against among ourselves. Our General Assembly, however, is now far better disposed to these erec- tions, and the chapel cause has been making great progress of late in Scotland. Mrs. Chalmers joins in kindest regards to yourself, and with our united respects to Mrs. and Miss Wilberforce, I have the honour to be, my dear Sir, yours with greatest esteem, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXX. Edinburgh, 2ith November 1832. My dear Sir, — I received your letter of the 8d of October, by the hands of Mrs. "Wellman, only two or three days ago ; and it was read, both by myself and Mrs. Chalmers, with great interest and emotion. I receive it as the most unequivocal expression of your friendship which could possibly be given, 108 CORRESPOXDEXCE OF DR. CHALMERS. that you have thus laid open to me the personal and family trials wherewith a mysterious but merciful Providence hath exercised you ; and we particularly rejoice in your own distinct and declared experience, that though clouds and darkness are round about Him, and there is much of the inscrutable in His dealings with the children of men, yet is there wisdom in all His ways, and kindness in all His visitations. "We felt deeply the death of your daughter, whom we saw last in June 1 830. May we all grow in a well-founded hope of that inheritance above, where sorrow and separation are unknown. With our united and respectful compliments to Mrs. Wilber- force, I have the honour to be, my dear Sir, yours Avith greatest esteem and regard, Thomas Chalmers. LETTERS TO MRS. GLASGOW OF MOUNTGREENAN. No. LXXI. Glasgoiv, 2-ith April 1819. Dear Madam, — Your interesting and kind letter reached me at least three weeks after it was written, and when I was in the midst of all that heat and hurry which are unfortunately too much associated with the business of the Sacrament in our large towns. I have since had a small excursion into the countiy, and this is the first day of my return home. I think it necessary to state all this, for it does require explanation that a letter so repdete with vakiable and friendly observations sliould have remained for such a length of time unanswered. The notice that has been excited by my publications is cer- tainly beyond all that I could have ventured to anticipate ; and my attention has been a good deal exercised on the question MRS. GLASGOW. 109 — in liow far this was due to the pure and single ingredient of Christianity, or to certain adventitious ingredients Avhich en- tered into my exposition of it ? and I trust that I si>eak the genuine desire of my heart, when I affirm the feeling of a much truer satisfaction in being made to understand that any hearer has become more reconciled than before to the preaching of those who hold fast the simple and unaccompanied Gospel, or that any reader has acquired either a juster perception or a more approving taste for the doctrine of the Bible. In these circumstances I could not fail perusing your letter with much interest and gratification ; and happy shall I be that, by entering upon the fellowship of confidence and affection with Christ, you experience in your person the fulfilment of all His promises, receiving from Him power to become one of the chil- dren of God, created anew unto good works, and rendered a new creature in Him who died for you. Be assured, dear Madam, that you cannot think too extrava- gantly either of your own native guilt or native helplessness, and that on such a feeling as this you need lay no limitation whatever. And on the other hand, you cannot think too con- fidently either of Christ's power or of Christ's willingness to expiate the one and to perfect His own strength in the other. It is my earnest prayer that neither of us be permitted to stop short with approving of this process intellectually, but that we shall be led by the good Spirit of God to enter upon the process actually and experimentally. I have just room to add, that I do not know a more stimulating kind of reading than the lives of religious persons — Philip Henry, Matthew Henry, Doddridge, Halyburton, Newton, are among the most useful subjects of religious biography that at present occur to me ; but let all our reading be subordinate to the Bible. After the many kind encouragements which you have had the goodness to aiford me, I assure you of my hearty inclination to 110 CORKESrOND£>vCE OF DK. ClIALMEllS. visit Mountgreenan, and will certainly never be in your neigli- bourhood, witli health and any degree of leisure at all, without offering my respects to you. I am greatly engrossed at present however, and from the circumstance of my relations being all situated on the east side of the island, I have it rarely in my power to be in your neighbourhood. — Believe me to be. Madam, yours with great regard and esteem, Thomas Chalmeks. No. LXXII. Anstrutlier, \Zth August 1819. My dear Madam, — I am here upon sea-bathing. You were from home when I was last in your neighbourhood, and I fear that I shall not be able to make out my meditated visit to Mountgreenan for some time. Your last letter interested me greatly, and the question about sin I trust proceeded from a mind more enlightened, both as to its existence and its enormity, than before, and therefore having more of its magnitude in view as residing in her own character, while in respect of its absolute magnitude it is actually becoming less. The topic to which you adverted has puzzled and mortified many an aspiring disciple of Christ. He becomes the sancti- fication as well as the redemption of those who believe in Him, and why, then, is He not now my complete sanctification ? Just because we do not yet completely believe in Him. In proportion to the strength and consistency of our faith is our experience of His faithfulness. He gives power to become the children of God to as many as receive Him. (John i. 12.) But not to keep Him, just brings us back to the condition in which we were when we had not received Him ; and so is it worthy of remark, that unless we keep in memory the truth which we have learned, we have believed in vain, and are not saved. (1 Cor. XV. 2.) The great excellence of the Gospel is, that the same principle which stands connected with our acceptance in MUS. GLASGOW. Ill the sight of God, (Acts xiii. 39,) will also, if admitted and kept ill the heart, niaintaiii within it the principle of all holy and affectionate obedience. (Gal. v. 6 ; 1 John v. 4.) But faith is a progressive j)riiiciple. In its infancy it often fluctuates into feebleness, and appears to fade away altogether. It says no- thing against but for tlie supremacy of its influence that, when away from the mind of man, he relapses into the sin and the vanities of nature, and that it is only when present in the mind that this new and implanted principle ensures the ascendency of the Spirit, and subordinates the flesh to its pure and prevail- ing influence. It is of importance to know, that the privilege of a Christian in the world consists not in an exemption from the motions of the flesh, but in a power of control over them. There is a conflict between nature and grace, even unto the end. (Gal. V. 17.) Paul describes this conflict in his own person. (Rom. vii. 9-25.) Sin was present, but it had not the dominion, when he recurred by faith to Christ as his helper. To feel the instigations of sin is one thing, to walk after these instigations is another. Commit yourself to Jesus as the Lord your sancti- fier, and you will experience the same reason of gratitude that Paul did when he uttered the exclamation, Rom. vii. 24, 25 ; and in Rom. viii. 4, you find that through Christ strengthening him, he, and every true believer after him, walks after the Spirit. I have often thought that " whosoever is born of God com- mitteth not sin" would be more intelligible, and apparently more consistent with experience, were the first word rendered, which I think it might be, " whatsoever," viz., the new principle of regeneration — the love which faith worketh — the radical element of the new man, out of which no sin can possibly emerge, and Avhich, in proportion to its growth in the Christian, will more and more prevail over the old man, and expel sin from the whole man, compound as he is in his present state of the two put together. 112 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. Out of all this observation I would say, in the first place, that the best practical attitude for obedience from one hour to another, is to live in feitli on the Son of God from one hour to another — is to feed the flame of gratitude all the day long, by trusting all the day long — is to commit yourself in good earnest to Him under this one and that other temptation, and then see whether He will not keep that which is so committed — see whether, when the Lord is besought earnestly. He does not in- deed and in truth return the answer, " I will make my grace sufficient for you ; I will perfect my strength in weakness." Let me say, in the second place, that though the existence of sin be comiDatible with a state of safety, (1 John i. 8,) I know not a worse symj)tom than when a professing disciple is willing, on this account, to lay down the armour of hostility against it. It is a war in which no quarter must be given — a war of ex- termination— a war with self, and with temper, and with wil- fulness— a war which is never slackened by the offers of pardon or the hopes of impunity. It is remarkable that after John has brought forward the things stated in chapter i. of his first Epistle and verses 7 and 9, he should say, in chapter ii. verse 1, he wrote these things not that they might securely sin, but that they might sin not, and follows up this with another ample declaration of the grace and forgiveness by which the Gospel is characterized. Did I think that natural talents were enough for an intelli- gent perusal of the Epistle to the Romans, I would recommend this epistle to none more readily than to yourself But in the actual truth of the case, let me recommend the 2:)erusal of this admirable compendium of Christianity with earnest prayer — with sustained and persevering attention — with a constant feeling of dependence on that Spirit who, by the Word as His instrument, can alone eflectually teach you, by taking of the things of Christ and shewing them unto you. MRS. GLASGOW. 113 I have road with impression lately Alleine's " Alarm to the Unconverted/' and I am now reading Doddridge's " Rise and Progress of Religion." The former is a very close and vigorous performance. Its occasional coarsenesses of imagery and ex- pression I feel persuaded that you will now overlook ; nor do I know a more pleasing collateral transformation that takes place on an inquirer than when, in spite of accompaniments which at one time would have utterly repelled him, his taste becomes reconciled to the phraseology of evangelical writers from the weight and preciousness of the matter which it conveys. — Believe me, my dear Madam, yours with great esteem and regard. Thomas Chalmers. No. LXXIII. Glasffow, 30th April 1821. My dear Madam, — I send you my book on National Re- sources. I should like your frank and exj^licit avowal respect- ing the merits of my theory, which to me is still as convincing as when I first conceived it. I look back with no common emotions of interest and delight to the hours of enjoyment I had while under your hospitable roof ; and it is indeed my earnest wish and solicitude that your decided tendencies to the best of subjects may end in a blessed consummation. There is no possibility of coming forth with any prescription as to the time that might allowably be given to literature, and elegance, and society ; and it would obliterate the character of Christianity altogether were she made so to deal out her allowances by hours and by quantities. The great object is to keep the heart with all diligence, and if it were right, everything else would find its right and natural adjust- ment in the system of one's concerns, and from a code of restraint the law of the Gospel would rise to the high distinction of being a law of liberty. For the right keeping of the heart, E 114 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. I know not a more summary and thoroughly evangelical ex- pedient than we find in Jude 20, 21. It may however be affirmed, that it is a good discipline to maintain self-denial in reference to all our natural indulgences, and we cannot be too thoroughly aware, that just as it con- stitutes the crime of idolatry, whether the image we fall down to worship be of gold or of baser materials, so it is quite a possible thing to feed the defection of the heart from God by a refined, as effectually as by a coarser species of worldliness. I crave my most respectful regards to Mr. Glasgow, whose kind reception of me I felt to be truly gratifying. — I am, my dear Madam, yours very affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXXIV. My dear Madam, — I have at length perused your paper, and though to me there is no task more fatiguing and more formidable than that of transferring my mind to a new sub- ject, with the view of critically appreciating the argument that has been raised upon it, yet I trust I have been enabled to seize upon the principle of your composition, and on rational and deliberate grounds to acquiesce in it. I have neither Alison nor Jeff'rey by me, and am unable to estimate the whole amount of the difference between your theory and theirs ; yet I can perceive a very important noA'elty in the compromise that you have struck between Socrates and Plato ; in conced- ing to the former his principle of utility, as indeed the inherent or pervading principle ©f all beauty ; and to the latter, that as our impressions of utility vary in different individuals with the accidental circumstances or affections, the character of beautiful which we assign to visible objects will depend on the character of our own emotions. I felt mvself on more MRS. GLASGOW, 115 familiar ground, and wliere I was perhaps better able to esti- mate the value of your argument when I approached towards the conclusion of your essay. It is indeed a most impor- tant truth, that in morals and theology the soundness of the affections stands most intimately linked with the soundness of the understanding ; and I can perceive how this very principle does indeed shed a most beautiful light on the de- partment of Taste, the correctness of which will, according to the views that you have so ably unfolded, depend on the cor- rectness of the heart and feelings. You still, I apprehend, leave as wide though not so extensive an empire as does Alison to the law of association. The physi- cal pleasure that certain sounds or sights confer, from their suitableness to the bodily organ, is no doubt an ingredient of beauty which has its primary and immediate residence in the object itself, though the remembrance of this in time past will influence to a certain degree, too, the present emotion wherewith the object is regarded. But saving on this ground the jDrinciple of utility seems to have no other instrument than association for working its influences upon taste. Mrs. Chalmers and our family are still at Ardincaple, and I do feel the sea-bathing to be of great benefit, and retirement a very great luxury. I took the liberty of recommending a few Christian duodecimos to you when we last met. May I add to the list Romaine's " Life of Faith," and Romaine's " Walk of Faith." I think he unfolds the most j^caceful, and, at the same time, the most powerful way of prosecuting the good work of sanctification. I again beg my most respectful compliments to Mr. Glas- gow, and with every assurance of esteem and attachment to yourself, I entreat you to believe me, my dear Madam, yours verv truly, Thomas Chalmers. UG CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. No. LXXV. Gl'isr/orv, loth November 1821. My dear Madam, — I am glad you liave looked into Edwards ; I think that the great strength of his argument for the agree- ment of his doctrines witli moral distinctions, lies in an Appen- dix that is subjoined to all the later editions of his works. I am quite aware, however, that he has failed to convince some of the ablest and most accomplished understandings. I feel both amused and interested by the lucubrations of Mr. Stewart on this subject in his Preliminary Dissertation. Edwards, though the profoundest of all writers on the more deep and hidden tracks of speculation, is also the plainest and most practical on the more popular topics of Christianity ; nor have I read anything more urgently, and even appallingly im- pressive, than are some of his sermons. His works are now formed into a complete edition ; and I think of them that they should hold a place of supereminence in every theological library. We must have more conversation on the subject of Alison and Jeffrey on Taste. I have still the haunting impression that Alison would concede to you the opinion that you have formed, and at the same time affirm it to be in entire unison with his own theory. If I recollect him right he denies the power of calling forth the emotions of taste to any qualities strictly ma- terial, independent of their association with something else, or that there is nothing either in colour or form to awaken these emotions. There are at the same time inherent qualities in ex- ternal and visible objects which maybe conceived as disjoined from eitlier their colour or shape, as the usefulness of a horse. This usefulness might enter into our impression of the beauty of the animal, or in other words, it may be something inherent in the horse that constitutes part of its beauty ; and yet a something MRS. GLASGOW. 117 reducible into the principle of association, because that some- thing is not addressed immediately either to the eye or the car, or any of the senses. The sight of him suggests his use- fulness, and it is not what is immediately before you, but what the mind is led to conceive from it that is the cause of the emotion in question, I speak rather in the obscure and floundering style of one whose mind is not made up on the sub- ject ; and I am sure you must think me provokingly stupid in regard to it. It delights me to witness the approximations of one who has so much both of literary accomplishment and intellectual vigour, to a doctrine that is still an offence and a derision among the philosophers of our existing generation ; and when I think of the great moral distance that there is between an appreciating taste either for Alison or Stewart upon the one hand, and a relish for the writings of Guthrie or Romaine, or Owen, or John Newton, upon the other, I cannot but rejoice in the infusion of the latter into a mind before strongly impregnated with the former, as the hopeful evidence of one who is under the work- ings of a high and heavenly influence ; and it is indeed my earnest prayer that, through the Word and Spirit of God, you may become every day wiser unto salvation. — With most respectful comj^liments to Mr. Glasgow, believe me, my dear Madam, yours with great esteem and regard, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXXVI. Friday, Uth July 1822. My dear Madam, — In the publishing of your Essay there are two things that must be taken into account: — First, the taste of the public has declined prodigiously of late years for all the topics of pure and abstract speculation. The talent of our land has now forced its way into the channel of periodical litera- 118 COKRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. ture ; and there is certainly a force and spirit in our magazines, and reviews, and even newspapers, wliicli might have done credit to the best of our British classics. But certain it is, that a separate and independent essay on such a topic as you have chosen, is not fitted to meet the present direction which the demand for reading has taken. No merit or power of argu- ment, or of matter, that is of so scientific a character, will countervail the present tendencies of the popular tastes, — and the slow sale of Brown's "Lectures" is a very striking instance of it. The same remark applies, I believe, to Stewart's works ; so that both he and Playfair, to widen the circulation of their views, have thrown them into Encyclopaedias, these great perio- dical eddies of literature in our day. But, secondly, to make a work of abstract speculation notice- able and an object of demand, it should be brought out in the permanent form of a book. It is a heavy additional drawback on the circulation of an argument that is purely philosophical when it is offered to the public in a pamj^hlet. Brown's Essay on " Cause and Effect" appeared at first in this ephemeral form, for it had a temporaiy importance from the Leslie controversy ; but to stamp endurance upon it, it had to be dilated into a volume. The same is true of a most profound metaphysical pamphlet of Edwards, which might have come out still-born, or speedily died away from all general observation, had it not been incorporated with his " Essay on the Will" in an Appendix. The suggestion that I would found upon all this — but with the utmost deference, and in the hope that you will give it no further ^^lace than you really think it entitled to — is, that the Essay should appear, in the first instance, in one of our most distinguished periodicals, (say the " Christian Observer,") where it might call forth a world of observation and argument, and give a direction, perhaps, to other illustrations of the principle on your part ; and when enough of materials have been thus Mils. GLASGOW, 119 digested and accumulated for a volume, let it pass into this state, as Cunninghame's last work did, wliich, in fact, was brought out by a gradual preparation of this very kind. — With most respectful compliments to Mr. Glasgow and Miss Dunlop, I entreat you to believe me, my dear Madam, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXXVII. Glasgow, 'i5th Koremher 1822. My dear Madam, — I do not know whether Mr. Collins has written you in regard to the dedication ; but you must really permit us both to say that there are many serious and weiglity objections against the appearance of it. I have already been made the subject in print of most gross and ungenerous impu- tations, on the score of the interested connexion which is alleged to subsist between myself and that house ; and any- thing so very eulogistical ]irinted by them would, I am sure, give a colour to these imputations, and altogether form such an exhibition as might revolt even many who at present entertain no suspicion of that kind. I fear that this would be an insuperable barrier to the pub- lication of your work hy that house, if the dedication be persisted in ; and I farther entreat your forgiveness when I say, that though published in any circumstances I should be distressed by the appearance of it. It is no doubt most flattering to my- self that I should stand so high in the estimation of one Avhom I myself so highly and so sincerely esteem. But I would in- finitely rather that the world was not admitted as a spectator upon this gratification, which to me were far more precious and satisfying if, undisturbed by the public gaze, it were left in the state of a friendship that none but the parties themselves should know, and Avliich none else could appreciate. I look earnestlv forward to a favourable deliverance from 120 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. you 1113011 tliis point ; after wliicli I shall have occasion to advert to other particulars connected Avitli the publication. With most respectful compliments to Mr. Glasgow, and most affectionate prayers for your own advancement in all that is good, and gracious, and heavenly, I entreat you to believe me, my dear Madam, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXXVIII. 2d April 1823. My dear Madam, — I felt exceedingly grateful for your letter, and much interested by all that you mention on the subject of the Essay. I have read it deliberately since I saw you, and I do think that it will most assuredly work its way. I left a copy with Dr. Charteris of Wilton, in Roxburghshire, about a month ago, who is much pleased and interested ; and it has been read with very intelligent approbation by some cultivated ladies in that neighbourhood. I expect, however, soon a still more solid and profound testimony from Mr. Douglas of Cavers, author of the " Hints on Missions," who has much exercised his talents on the philosophy both of taste and metajDhysics. The subject is such that I should look for a very gradual sale. Mr. Alison's first edition lingered for many years in the market, but I trust that yours will obtain an earlier impulse than his did from the reviews and journals of the day. It grieves me to say that some recent accessions of labour and employment make it quite imperative upon me to husband my time to the uttermost, and more particularly to abridge all my excursions from home. I have on this account declined Mr. Wilson's invitation, /and I really can perceive no outlet from my accumulated urgencies till the summer of 1824. I beg my most respectful compliments to Miss Dunlop and Mr. Glasgow. — I am, my dear Madam, yours with great esteem and regard, Thomas Chalmers. MRS. GLASGOW. 121 No. LXXIX. Glasgow, 2 1st Aiigtist 1823. My dear Madam, — I have to apologize for delaying to ac- knowledge your kind attentions to me. However much I am gratified by your opinion of what you have seen of my coming volume, I cannot but feel assured that your partialities in behalf of its unworthy author have enhanced your estimation of it. I cannot feel too grateful for your expression of friend- ship towards me. You are kind enough to interest yourself in my preparation for the Moral Philosophy. I am far from satisfied, and must just flounder my way througli the new materials of the subject next winter in the best manner that I can. I can, however, see it to be replete with interest ; and that so far from detaching one's regards from the first and greatest of causes, I do not know how one can labour more dir^tly or more importantly in its service than by a right elucidation of all the topics connected with moral science. I trust that I may at length be enabled to find my Avay to your favourite subject — the action and re-action that taste and principle have on each other. I was glad to understand from Mr. Collins that Foster appreciated your views. I hope that you have seen the last " Edinburgh" on newspapers. It gives us a singular view of the present state of the reading public ; and I am more per- suaded than ever, that the readiest way of obtaining public attention to iilmost any subject is through the medium of periodicals. I would strongly advise extracts from your work in some of our monthly publications ; as to them the whole talent of our writers, and the whole attention of our readers, seem to have taken, what I think, a very unfortunate direction. I trust that the good old fashion of entire, and independent, and systematic treatises will again be restored, as there is L 12'2 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS, really nothing- more fitted to superficialize an age than the sketches, however forcible, and the sallies, however lively, that have given such currency to our ephemeral literature. I beg my most respectful compliments to Mr. Glasgow and Miss Dunlop ; and I entreat you to believe me, my dear Madam, yours with much esteem and regard, Thomas Chalmers. No: LXXX. St. Andrews, 2ith August 1824. My dear ^Iadam, — I have never lost sight of my promise to send you a sermon on Colossians iv. 5. I find that it does not by any means exhaust the subject, and, indeed, forms only the part of a projected treatise on the kindred subjects to that of which it treats. It is on this account that I would take the liberty of requesting you to send it back when you are done with it ; at the same time you are most welcome to take a copy, and i*R,ke any use of that copy which you please. But I shall require it, both for the preparation of my treatise, and also, perhaps, for preaching occasionally. After the bustle of Glasgow, there is a peculiar charm in the calmness and tranquillity of St. Andrews. With most respectful compliments to Mr. Glasgow, I have the honour to be, my dear Madam, yours Avith great esteem, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXXXI. St. Andrews, ICth October 1824. My dear Madam, — I received your kind letter of the 7th of October, by the hands of Miss Dunlop, whom I had very great pleasure in meeting when last in Edinburgh. I feel the exceeding justness of your remarks on the subject of my sermon. There is a great want of specification in its advices, and I fairly confess that I should feel it very difficult MRS. GLASGOW. 123 to condescend upon the details of our conversation, as bccometh Christians, with tlie people of the \s'orld, and as yet am really not qualified for more than the very general hearings and land- marks of the subject. But what interested me far more, though very painfully and with deep sympathy for yourself, was, the account that Miss Dunlop gave me of Mr. Glasgow. His illness was subsequent, I observe, to the date of your letter, and I cannot think without emotion of the exercise that your mind and feelings must undergo. We have had experimental proof, on such trying occasions, of the efficacy of prayer ; and sure I am, that how- ever general this direction may be, it is pertinent and particular enough to have been often followed up by a special blessing even in those cases that looked most hopeless. My syllabus of lectures is, indeed, a very imperfect exhibi- tion of the great subject to which I should like to devote much , of my future attention. I must model and remodel many times over ere I can bring it to that state in which I would like to leave it conclusively. Mrs. Clialmers and our children, I have reason to bless God, are in veiy good health. She feels deeply with myself for the situation of Mr. Glasgow, and desires, along with me, her best and kindest regards. — I entreat you to believe me, my dear Madam, yours with the greatest esteem and regard, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXXXII. St. Andreics, 26iJi Fehruarij 1825. My dear Madam, — Your kind letter of 11th December I should have replied to long ago. I enter fully into the diffi- culties of your situation, and am grieved to hear from most recent accounts that Mr. Glasgow's health is not improved ; but surely, if aught should reconcile us to these adverse visita- tions, it must be their undoubted efficacy as the instruments 124 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. often of a great revival to the soul that is exercised by them. There is nothing of which I am more thoroughly aware than the utter difference which there is between a speculative and an experimental conviction of the same truth. I may know that there is peace with God through Christ, without that peace being actually mine : I may have the most orthodox notion of the ground of acceptance, without personally resting on that ground and having the sense of my own acceptance : I may have a just perception of the truth as it is in Jesus, witliout any real part in it ; and this appears to me to be the use of affliction. It loosens us from the earthly dependence, and forces us to feci and to sound as it were for a heavenly one. Instead of merely looking to the solidity of that foundation Avhicli God hath laid in Zion, we are led actually to lean upon it. That which was formerly a thing of contemplation comes to be a thing of personal interest ; and whereas the understanding alone was formerly concerned with the doctrine, the heart and the hopes and all the feelings of our nature come into busy engage- ment with the truths of revelation wliicli the mind now gladly seeks to in the absence of those worldly blessings that wont to be enoiigli for it. It was therefore with no common interest that I read of your spirit of adoption, and your sense of peace in Christ Jesus — most precious exijeriences which I pray you may ever be enabled to retain, and which I can assure you are worthy of whole worlds to be realized. There has left us for Glasgow a very particular friend of mine, Mr. Craik, a student of St. Andrews, and of most extra- ordinary eloquence and' power. He has just delivered a course of lectures here upon English Poetry, and with very great force and felicity, both of imagination and language. He is to de- liver the same lectures in Glasgow, and, though I fear it is out of the question that you should be in Glasgow during any part MRS. GLASGOW, 125 of his stay, yet acquainted as you are with the most literary and cultivated of the mercantile class in that city, I should deem it a kindness if you would simply state to any of them the kind of entertainment which they may expect by attending Mr. Craik. They will find in every one of his lectures a very rich feast, both of intellect and fancy. Mrs. Chalmers and our family are all in good health. — With best wishes and prayers, both in behalf of yourself and Mr. Glasgow, I have the honour to be, my dear Madam, yours most respectfully, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXXXIII. Glasgow, 22d September 1825. My dear Madam, — I have the utmost desire to meet with you, and contemplated writing you, when I should be at Fair- ley next week, upon the subject. I am glad to understand that Mrs. Parker has asked you to be there along with our family. I shall yet be other four Sundays in Glasgow, and have therefore time enough for postponing the consideration of any ulterior arrangement till next week. I am much gratified by being made to understand from you that Mr. Glasgow is in a more comfortable state of health. May the Giver of all grace sanctify the various trials and appre- hensions to which we are exposed in this our earthly pilgrim- age. This is the day on which I preach a sermon at laying the foundation of Knox's Monument, a subject not at all points congenial to me, but which was put upon me by the excessive urgency of some of my friends. — I am, my dear Madam, yours with great esteem and regard, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXXXIV. Glasgow, 12th October 1825. My dear Madam, — I spent all last week with my friend Mr- Wood, and got quit of my sore eyes in a few days. Will you 120 COERESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. have the goodness to say to Dr. Allan that I made use of his prescription with great effect. I found it a very tough and arduous undertaking to deliver myself on the subject of Predestination in one day. However, I am now done with the subject ; and while quite assured of the doctrine, I feel equally assured that it leaves all the incite- ments, and all the obligations, and the whole work of practical Christianity, from its commencement to its consummation, pre- cisely where it found them. It is worthy of all observation, that while the Gentiles are represented as the objects of a previous Predestination, we are made to understand at the conclusion of the chapter, that this was made good by their accej)tance of the free offer of the Gospel ; and that those de- creed reprobates the Jews, only became so through their rejec- tion of that offer ; and that the whole argument closes Avith a " whosoever," a wide and a welcome proclamation to all who will. Our business surely is not with the decrees, whereof we know nothing, but with the instant declai'ations which are sounding in our ears, with the word that is nigh unto us, with God not in the act of ordination millions of centuries back, but with God in the act of urgent, and kind, and honest en- treaty at this moment. Let us therefore leave the secret things which belong unto God, where they ought to be left, and proceed on those revealed things which belong to ourselves and to our children. May I bo permitted to say, that if I may judge from my own feelings, the trials wherewith you have been exercised must greatly enhance the regard and the interest of all your friends. It is a difficult, but to a Christian not an impracticable achieve- ment, to count it all joy when he falls into divers tribulations. A believing view of eternity would absorb all our griefs and all our provocations. May the God and the Giver of all comfort prove a resting-place to your spirit, and may you be enabled to Mils. GLASGOW. 127 hide yourself in the pavilion of His residence till all calamities be overpast.^ — I am, my dear Madam, yours with the greatest esteem and regard, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXXXV. St. Andrews, 13th December 1825. My dear Madam, — I feel myself a good deal goaded at pre- sent with the necessity of having my third volume on the Christian and Civic Economy of Great Towns in readiness for the press by January. It has been got up in a sad hurry, and with none of that leisure and care which I should like to be- stow on all my future literary preparations. But it is my last engagement, and I am glad, by getting quit of it, to be wholly emancipated for the pursuits of my new profession, which are only commencing now in good earnest. I observe by your last, that you have been exercised afresh by the death of relatives. May these visitations lead us to a truer estimate of the worth of things, that we may neither be elated by this world's abundance, nor cast down by its adversi- ties and its crosses. It is remarkable that in the parable of the sower, the cares of this life are enumerated along with its pleasures among the thorns which overbear the good seed of the word of God. I have often thought, too, of the sorrow of this world being adverted to as a counterpart to godly sorrow, and of the property which is ascribed to it — " that it worketh death.'' I am delighted with the justness of your views on the subject of Predestination. In regard to the union of fear and love, I feel the importance of what you say in regard to the former affection as an instrument for the conversion of sinners. It is exceedingly good to mark the gradual operation of this feeling in bringing the inquirer onward from the beginning of wisdom to the state of being perfect in love. I did touch upon this 128 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. matter in a sermon on the text, " Some save with fear, and others with compassion, making a difference." But it would require to be much more fully illustrated. I do not know if you have seen " Leighton on Peter." I am sure that you would rejoice in that book as a very high Chris- tian feast. — I am, my dear Madam, yours with the greatest regard, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXXXVI. St. Andrews, 1th June 1826. My dear Madam, — I fear that my first Sunday at Glasgow must be so late as the first Sunday of August, or August the 6th. I mean to approach it by a very unusual route by East Lothian, Berwickshire, Roxburghshire, Dumfriesshire, Galloway, and Ayrshire. On this line I visit several of my acquaintances, and more especially a sister, married only yesterday to a clergjnnan in Kirkcudbrightshire. If perfectly convenient for you, I would come from Irvine to Mountgreenan on Saturday the 5th of August, and return from Glasgow on the evening of Sunday the 6th, to spend a week there. I trust, however, that you will decline receiving me if either the state of Mr. Glasgow's health or any other circumstance should render it unsuitable. I will not disguise it, that next to the happiness of your own society, I value the quietness and retirement of Mountgreenan, and would gladly avail myself of these advantages for a more intense Avork of Sabbath preparation than I have yet been able to fulfil. The truth is, that I have found the study and society together greatly too much for me on my recent visits to the west ; and I should vastly desiderate that entire command of the forenoon which you have ever had the goodness to allow me, and which, intermingled as it was with recreation and con- verse of the highest order, has inspired me with the pleasantest MRS, GLASGOW. 129 recollections of your place and neighbourhood. — I am, my dear Madam, yours with the greatest esteem and regard, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXXXVII. St. Andretcs, 4th December 1826. My dear Madam, — I am much interested by what you say of Mr. Cunninghamc. When I had the j)leasure of meeting him at Mountgreenan, he interested me much more than I had ever be- fore been in the study of prophecy, by the assertion that he made, both upon his own experience and upon that of others, of its spiritualizing tendency. I have resolved to make a deliberate effort upon that subject, but have scarcely had time to begin. I have, liowcvei', been reading some proof-sheets of a new publi- cation by Mr. Irving — that is, the translation of a prophetic work from the Spanish. It seems veiy able. I believe it will make me a millenarian ; and I can certainly conceive from it that the study of prophecy should have a very powerful effect in strengthening one's practical Christianity. I am glad that your work is speedily to be made the subject of a review, which I sincerely hope will do justice to it. That my mind is not absolutely established on the side of its theory does not affect the question of Avhether or not I think it should have been published. Both Alison's and Jeffrey's books on the same subject are valuable accessions to English Literature, even though their theories do diverge somewhat from each other, and though I cannot say that either has made me a decided proselyte. The same applies to what Brown has written upon this subject. Successive authors might make successive approximations to the truth, and though one is doubtful as to the truth of any of their pro- mulgated systems, yet he may not be at all doubtful of its worth as a contribution to the mass of literature on that subject. I must repeat, however, that I should have preferred your work 130 COEEESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. to have come out, in tlie first instance, tlirougli the medium of some of our best journals, as being far the most noticeable way in the present direction which the public have taken towards periodical literature. I experience this in the dull sale of my own works on Political Economy. — I am, my dear Madam, yours very respectfully, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXXXVIII. St. Andreim, 2\st February 1828. My dear Madam, — Acce])t of my best thanks for your friendly congratulations on the subject of my recent appoint- ment to Edinburgh. The preparation is a work of great labour, and indeed I may say that it is now my main though not my only employment, as I have at present the teaching of two classes besides. In the course of my reading for the Theolo- gical Chair, I have fallen in with a French work of Leibnitz's, entitled " Essais de Theodicee sur la bonte de Dieu, la liberte de I'homme, et I'origine du mal." I am sure it would interest you. He is a Necessitarian ; but though not so close in argu- ment, is far more illustrative and philosophical than Edwards. He has besides a richness and an elegance which the other has no pretensions to. He gives much information about the state of moral and metaphysical science in the Continent at that period ; and though he has not just resolved the question of the origin of evil, yet he has advanced such plausibilities ujion the subject as serve to reconcile us in the meantime to a sus- pension of our judgment till " the day shall declare it," even the " day of the revelation of the mystery of God.'' I do not recommend this work fox its practical piety, but rather for what may be called its philosophical orthodoxy ; and it is most interesting to follow the speculations of one so illustrious in science, on the sublime doctrines and mysteries of our faith. My work of practical piety at present is Boston, one of our MRS. DUiN'LOP. l;U Scottish autliors. I am now reading liis " Fourfold State," and I think his little treatise entitled " The Crook in the Lot" is very precious. I fear that my engagements are such that the composition of a sermon on any special topic at present is out of the ques- tion. The subject that you advert to, however, is one on which there must be some impressive treatises ; and it occurs to me to say that if I remember right there are French tracts which have been published by the Continental Society, and some of which I am confident must bear upon Scriptural reading. I know not a cheaper and more productive benevolence than the distribution of such pamphlets when well chosen. We are all pretty well. May the God of all mercy ever be with you, and in His piecious Bible may you never want for refreshment and consolation. — Believe me, my dear Madam, yours with greatest affection and esteem, Thomas Chalmers. No. LXXXIX. — Letter to Mrs. Dunlop. Sldrlihg Manse, Biygar, 8th June 1842. My dear Mrs. Dunlop, — I was much impressed by your farewell sentence at our parting in the Meadows on Saturday afternoon, and have felt ever since that I could not do ade- quate justice to the common sentiment which I believe actuated us both, without addressing you a few lines upon the subject. In one respect our experience is very much at one. In early life my fellowships, and of course my i)references, were all on the side of that cold and moderate system of Christianity which is sometimes dignified by the appellation of rational. I have heard you complain that you almost never heard any exposition of the evangelical system from the pulpit ; and that when that mode of preaching became more frequent and 132 CORKESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. fashionable, it came upon you with a sense of novelty. With me, again — and here perhaps we differ in our histories — that system was not unknown, but then it was the object of anti- pathy and distaste ; and nothing can be more distinct than my two mental states in reference to Christianity before and after the age of thirty, since which time the peculiar doctrines of the gospel have risen every year in my estimation ; and I have long been persuaded that the only way of salvation is through the knowledge of Christ and of Him crucified. To me the most precious verses in the Bible are those which give a specific and pointed direction to the overtures of recon- ciliation in such terms as warrant the reader to apply tliem to himself individually. For example, " The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin." Why not from my sin 1 — " Come unto me all." Why not I ? — " Whosoever cometh sliall in no wise be cast out." Let me come then, sure of Heaven's welcome and of Heaven's good-will. — " If any man open the door of his heart, I will enter and be at peace with him." Let me take to my- self the encouragement of this blessed saying, " Every one that asketh receiveth." Let me ask till I receive, seek till I find, knock till the door be opened. I have often said that there is not a greater help to the way of peace than a prayerful read- ing of the Bible. The profitable way of reading is to read it with application, and as if God tlirough His word were holding individual converse with me. I was much gratified by your favourable opinion of my daughter Grace. Though I say it myself she is no ordinary person ; and therefore it is, that she has lived beyond the sight and sympathy of ordinary minds. She is with me here at Skirling, as well as Mrs. Chalmers, and I hope that both of them will benefit by the change of air. Mrs. Glasgow* I always regarded as a very intellectual person, and she blended the * Mrs. Dunlop's sister. MRS. PARKER. 133 spiritual with it during" the last years of her life ; and I remem- ber well the pleasure I felt in observing how she congenialized with the homely but substantial writings of the good old puri- tans, and that notwithstanding her refined literary taste. It is this union of the literary with the evangelical v^■hich makes Grace so interesting to me. It is my earnest prayer, my dear Mrs. Dunlop, that the even- ing of your life may be more and more irradiated Avith the hopes of the gospel ; and that you may have great peace and great joy in placing your full reliance on that mercy which in the economy of our redemption stands associated with a truth which never fails. — I am, my dear Madam, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. LETTERS TO MRS. PARKER. No. XC. Glasgow, 7 th May 1823. My DEAR Madam, — Mrs. Chalmers desires me to say, that as soon as Dr. Rainy authorizes the movement, she will most gratefully avail herself of your kind invitation.* Blochairn has often been a most precious and important asylum to me, and it is there that I have been always most jjrotected from all that could interfere with mental exercises. With kindest compliments to Mr. and the Misses Parker, I entreat you to believe me, my dear Madam, yours most gratefully, Thomas Chalmers. No. XCI. Blocliairn, 1st July 1823. My dear Madam, — I feel the utmost gratitude for the very perfect accommodation that I here enjoy, and shall never for- * See Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 472. l?A CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. get the lasting obligations under wliich you have laid both myself and my family. We have a few callers, but nothing oppressive in this Avay. Dr. Lochhart and his lady have paid us a short visit : we feel exceedingly comfortable ; and, I am sure, are greatly better off than we could possibly have been in any situation that had been selected by ourselves. Grace has been thrown somewhat aback by cold, but has certainly made progress upon the whole since she came out to Blochairn. I cannot adequately express the thankfulness I feel for tliat kind Providence which has conducted me to the arrange- ment that I now enjoy. I would have sunk under the accu- mulated weiglit of my prospects and preparations had it not been for this precious season of tranquillity. I have now the likely anticipation of such a readiness for my new office as may warrant the hope of getting over the approaching winter with some degree of comfort. — With kindest compliments to the Misses Parker and Mr. James, I entreat you to believe mo, my dear Madam, yours with gratitude and esteem, Thomas Chalmers. No. XCII. Blochairn, V.lh Juhj 1823. My DEAR Madam, — Mrs. Chalmers was interrupted in her purpose to write this letter, and as she is still in bed, and our messenger with us at present, I have to state from her, that she knows you will be gratified to hear that Grace, in spite of short and temporary fluctuations, from one day to another, is making steady and general progress, and is certainly much stronger and better than when she first came out. I have great satisfaction in adding, tlfat Mrs. Chalmers herself is evidently improved by her country residence ; and there are additional grounds of thankfulness for all the convenience and pleasure enjoyed by myself in this most retired and romantic spot. — Yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. MRS. PARKER. 135 No. XCIII. 0th October 1823. My dear Madam, — Mrs. Chalmers fixes on Friday week, being the l7th of this month, as the one that would suit her intended movement, for your servant being at Blochairn, We had proposed to move on the Saturday, being the 18th, and we think it well that the turmoil of the Synod is over before we enter into Glasgow. The remaining few weeks will no more than suffice for our preparations previous to our departure. There is one point of negligence on which I cannot reflect without compunction. I have not visited those humble neigh- bours whom I should have plied with ministerial advice and attention. I have only seen Mrs. Sibbald once, and Mrs. Smith but for a single moment, when I left a promise that I have not, from bad health, been able to fulfil. Walter's wife I have never visited, and on looking back, I can offer no other explanation than that I have allowed my prospective labours to encroach a great deal too much on my pr-esent duties. We shall always look back on Blochairn with feelings of peculiar interest and delight, and will never fail to join with the recollection that kindness from which our family have de- rived such inestimable benefits. — Yours very affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. XCIV. Blochairn, 20th October 1823. My dear Madam, — We have delayed leaving this delightful neighbourhood for two days longer than we originally purposed, and only take our final departure this morning. We fear that this may have somewhat disturbed and deranged the operations of your servants. Our little Grace, in virtue of a severe toothache, had become quite feverish on Saturday, and 136 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. we were apprehensive of the consequences of a removal. I myself had been laid up, and am now greatly the better of the repose and retirement of one rural Sabbath. We are now in full equipment for moving. There is, indeed, an impressive necessity now for beginning our operations at Windsor Place as soon as possible. But we do leave this interesting mansion with deep emotions of regret. My walks have supplied me with many local associations that will serve to impress with vivacity upon my remembrance an abode wherewith I shall ever connect the most inestimable blessings to my fomily. I shall not trouble you any further with the expression of a gratitude that I am sure, both with Mrs. Chalmers and my- self, will never be effaced, but remain indelible under all the varieties of our future history in the world. — Yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. Xo. XCV. St. Andrews, 5th January 1824. My dear Madam, — I should have written long ere now of Mrs. Chalmers's arrival, and of her excellent health. I have the utmost reason to bless God for the state of my family. We have greatly humanized the appearance of our house since Mr. Parker saw it, and I beg that he will give up his benevolent alarms upon that account. The public rooms are both most comfortable, and, with the exception of our bedroom, they are all in a very fair and habitable state. The truth is, that my Glasgow friends were not in fair circumstances for a right judgment upon the matter, as they saw the house in a wholly dismantled statd, and without furniture. I have Mrs. Chalmers's authority for saying, that it is a much better habi- tation than she had been led to apprehend it. It will, I am sure, give you much pleasure to know, that hitherto I have had great peace and comfort in St. Andrews. MRS. PARKER. 137 Tlie weather has, upon tlie whole, been uncommonly fine, and the walks are delightful. It is not that I have little sensibility towards Glasgow, the place I have left, but that the air, and the tranquillity, and the style of occupation of the place I am in, are all so very congenial to my habits, that I have so much of enjoyment in St. Andrews ; and it gives me the utmost pleasure to connect the facilities of my present condition with my residence in Blochairn. It is to that arrangement that I owe such an amount of preparation for my class as has made an undertaking practicable that otherwise would have been most oppressive. I feel that I have oeen wanting in my duty not to have written you sooner, and greatly wanting in it not to have writ- ten Dr. Rainy, ■•• whose unwearied friendship and assiduous offices of kindness to my family have given him as high a place in my gratitude as he before had in my esteem and regard. Mrs. Chalmers joins in kindest regards to the whole family, and our children — who by the way attend a most excellent school at our very door — send their best wishes to Miss Anno Parker. May the protection of heaven ever be over you ; and may the sense of God, as God in Christ, be ever present, both to cheer and to sanctify the hearts of all in whom you arc interested. — I am, my dear Madam, yours with the utmost gratitude and esteem, Thomas Chalmers. No. XCVI.— Letter to Mr. Parker. St. Andrews, 25th February 1825. My dear Sir, — It gave me the utmost satisfaction to hear from Mrs. Parker of Mr. James'sf academic honours : I had before been apprized of them by the London newspapers. The letter I received some time ago from Mr. Charles took * Mrs. Parker's brother. f The late Vice-Chancellor, Sir James Parker. M 138 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. no notice of his providential escape at Guadaloupe. I was mucli impressed by Mrs. Parker's description of it, and I do sincerely hope that a circumstance so awakening will not be lost on your son who has been delivered in a way that so strikingly announces the hand of an unseen Preserver. Mrs. Chalmers and the family are all in remarkable health. The weather here is quite marvellous for the season. We have had a succession of the finest vernal days — or I might say, weeks — that I ever recollect, though we cannot but have an overcast before the winter has altogether passed away. With kindest and most respectful compliments to Mrs. and the Misses Parker, in which Mrs. Chalmers joins, I am, my dear Sir, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. XCVII. St. Andreirs, 2Dth June 1825. My dear Madam, — As Mrs. Chalmers is somewhat taken up with the children, she has requested me to answer your very kind letter to her. We are both very sensible, and have had much experience of the charms of Blochairn ; and have re- solved, with much gratitude, to avail ourselves of your kind offer of its accommodations. The only condition is, that Mrs. Rainy shall not in the least be put out of her way by our intrusion, which cannot, however, with the arrangements which are before us, last longer tlian a fortnight, as our various excur- sions to Fairley, Mosshousc, &c., will take up the great majority of our time in the west. We had very great pleasure in the visit of Mr. and Mrs. with Miss Babington. There is a life and a refreshment in the con- verse of religious people, of which we here stand eminently in need. Since they left us we have been much gratified with a visit from Mr. Thomas Erskine, author of some most valuable treatises, and a truly spiritual as well as richly-gifted intel- MRS. PARKER. 130 lectual man. He regretted Laving missed the society of tlie venerable Mr. Babington, to wliom, bj- the way, I have written to the care of Mr. Parker. ]\Ir. Erskine sends the kindest inquiries after Dr. Rainy and Mr. R. Brown, whom he had formerly met with in Glas- gow.— Yours with great esteem and regard, Thomas Chalmers. No. XCVUI. Blochairn, \?>th September 1825. My dear Madam, — We have been very happy here in the midst of great quiet and of the most unbounded kindness. The scheme of our future movements is somewhat embarrassed by a public sermon which I have to preach in the middle of next week ; and I find in consequence that it will answer best for us to come down to Fairley on Monday the od of October, being Monday fortnight. But should any other week be more con- venient for you, I beg that you will mention it. I am glad to understand that Mr. Parker is so much better, and that Mr. James purposes to stay with you till the J 0th of October. I am very desirous of some conversation with him, and more especially since I understand that his studies have been directed to Political Economy. Mrs. Chalmers joins me in kindest compliments to you and the Misses Parker. Both the families here are in great health and enjoyment. — I am, my dear Madam, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. XCIX. Glasgow, Zd August 1826. My dear Madam, — Your veiy kind letter I received yes- terday. I can assure vou that it is with no ordinary regret that I 140 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. bereave myself of your society during this excursion. It was my firm purpose to have been a week at Fairley ; but the com- position of a preface for Mr. Russel's " Sermons/' rendered it, in the first instance, necessary that I sliould be in the immediate neighbourhood of Glasgow, and, in the second instance, desirable that I should have the command of six entire days for study in the week — an advantage which I behoved to forfeit by the steamboat passages to and from Fairley. This last advantage I secure at Mountgreenan, for I drive there on Tuesday evening, and back again on the morning of the Monday after. What I desiderate is, a visit to the west, without the en- cumbrance of any duty or task work, when I should enjoy the society of my friends ; and I do sincerely hope that, in a future summer, I shall be able to avail myself of your great kindness, and make Fairley the head-quarters of a little tour along the Firth of Clyde, which I have not yet explored, along its coasts and through its islands. I beg my kindest regards to Mr. Parker, who, I trust, will get fast well ; and to Miss Parker, I go to Blochairn to- morrow.— I am, my dear Madam, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No.C. /St. Andrews, 19ray that, in the desolations of her state, she may experience an upholding confidence in Him who bears respect to the stranger in a strange land. I was much touched and gratified by the last half of your letter, and by the just and striking reflections at the close of it. I feel with you that the world has a sad power of fascination over the heart, and that to wean us therefrom, there are crosses and extremities in life which appear to be indispensable. May your soul prosper more and more under the discipline of God's providential hand ; and let our experience of the vanities of the creature effectually shut us up unto God in Christ as the strength of our heart and our everlasting portion. Give my affectionate condolence to Mrs. Brown. Assure her both of my own sympathy and that of Mrs. Chalmers, and of my prayers for her comfort and spiritual improvement in this the hour of her visitation. We long also to be remembered to your Mrs. Brown ; and I entreat you to believe me, my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CXXXIX. Edinburgh, llth April 1832. My dear Sir, — I can assure you it was not without emotion that I heard of the death of your excellent, steady, consistent, and altogether exemplary mother, whose memory I shall ever cherish as one of the finest specimens I ever knew of cardinal worth, and all those virtues which mark a stedfast and withal a sober-minded Christian, well-grounded in the faith, and MR. BROWN. 181 thoroughly intelligent both in the doctrines and moralities of the Bible. Mrs. Chalmers fully participates in the feelings which I now express, and we unite in offering our sincere condolence and sympath}' on this affecting occasion. May it prove a lesson to us all of the evanescence of the passing world, and the wisdom of being followers of those who through faith and patience are now inheriting the promises. Nothing brings home more experimentally to my heart the lesson of my native carnality than the constant need which there is of having the doctrine of mortality so repeatedly told to me ; and it does shew how prone we are to cleave to the dust of a perishable world, that though told of death over and over again, yet do we persist in living here as if here we were to live for ever. May we at length learn wisdom, and, living a life of faith on the Son of God, may we, when our last change arrives, bo found in readiness for a blessed translation into His presence, where there is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore. "With our kindest regards to Mrs. Brown, I ever am, my dear Sir, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CXL. Edinhurgh, Momingside, Ist June 1845. My very dear Sir, — I should have responded sooner to the melancholy intelligence of a month back, respecting your daughter Isabella. The intimation was a moving one to us all ; and the invariable effect upon myself is, that it makes me feel as if domesticated in the household of mourners by being thus made a partaker in the griefs of so affecting a bereave- ment. I have often reflected upon it as a singular mark of the Di- vine forbearance to myself, that, though now about thirty-three 182 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS years a family man, my household has never yet been visited by death. I feel as if this laid upon me a fearful resj)onsibility ; nor am I ever more powerfully impressed by the languor and weakness of faith, than when I contrast the vivid interest that we feel in the temporal good of our children, with the sad practical insensibility of our hearts to the wellbeing of their unperishable souls. I rejoice to understand that you and your family are at Fairley. I expect to spend a fortnight there soon. It will be to me the scene of many pensive reminiscences ; but I shall feel it a comfort, now that the burden and heat of our day are over with us both, to hold fellowshij) with yourself as one of my old friends and associates through years that have long passed over us. Offer my kindest regards and sympathies to dear Mrs. Brown, and also to the Misses Brown and your sons. May the bereave- ment under which you suifer be sanctified both to you and yours. Let our affections be weaned from a world the dearest and nearest objects of which may be so speedily withdrawn from us ; and seeking the city which hath foundations, let us be followers of them who, through faith and patience, are now inheriting the promises. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. LETTERS TO MR. PATRICK CHALMERS. No. CXLI. ' Kilmanij 3Ianse, 21st May 1812. Dear Patrick, — I have been too long of answering your letter, from the perusal of which I obtained the truest satis- faction. It would give me great pleasure to hear that you had read the books recommended in my last, and how you Mil. PATIUCK CHALMERS. 183 liked them. I look upon Baxter and Doddridge as two most impressive writers ; and from them you are most likely to carry away the impression, that a preparation for eternity should be the main business and anxiety of time. But, after all, the Bible should be the daily exercise of those who have decidedly em- barked in this great business ; and if read with the earnest sense and feeling of its being God's message — if perused with the same awe, and veneration, and confidence, as if the words Avere actually coming out of His mouth — if, while you do read, you read with the prayer and the desire that it might be with understanding and profit, — you are in a far more direct road to "becoming wise unto salvation," than any other that can possibly be recommended to you. There is no subject on which people are readier to form rash opinions than religion. The Bible is the best corrective to these. A man should sit down to it with the determination of taking his lesson just as he finds it ; of founding his creed upon the sole principle of " Thus saith the Lord ;" and deriving his every idea and his every impression of religious truth from the authentic record of his will and of his doctrine. I was at Anster last week, and found them all in tolerable health. There is now a veiy fine appearance on our fields. The good weather was long of setting in, but it has set in at last, and the country is in all its glory. I have purchased a horse lately. I ride about ten miles a-day upon it, and find myself much the better of the exercise. The keep is rather expensive, but health and conifort are worth the purchasing ; nor will T grudge the whole rent of my glebe upon my riding expenses. I let my grass-field again this year at £S, 6d. per acre, and get about forty guineas for my land. This will nearly all go upon the horse-tax, maintenance, and person that takes care of him. My beddel takes care of my horse and garden for 10s. a month. 184 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. People here are all in their usual state of health. Are you to be over soon ? I expect Sandy to be with me a few weeks soon. My Sacrament is to be held on Sunday the 21st of June. Let me hear from you. — I am, yours truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CXLII. Kilmany Mmise, \%th November 1812. My DEAR Patrick, — I have been most negligent in not writ- ing you sooner. I hope you are to be on this side soon, in which case you will of course spend some time at Kilmany. Mrs. Chalmers has neither seen you nor Charles. Will you write me soon, and give me an account of your employments and your prospects ? I am no judge of farming ; nor am I com- petent to offer any observations upon it. I trust that you continue to give satisfaction to Mr. Cowan, and should rejoice to hear that the concern was now a prosjjerous one. 1 hope you have never lost sight of the important subject of your last correspondence. It would give me pleasure to under- stand that, amid all your other pursuits, you kept firmly and per- severingly by the Bible. If we would only think of it as God's message, as a letter from our greatest friend, as a record of His will for our salvation, I know not what apology could be thought adequate to justifying our neglect and inattention to it. I should like to hear from you on this subject. It is the greatest and the happiest event of life, when the mind takes a decided hold of eternity, and when it becomes its first care to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. I liope you have not merely begun, but are a/ivancing in the inquiry ; and I give it as the result of my own experience and my own feelings, that you will never feel the firmness of your ground till you have laid on the foundation of Christ, and put your confidence in that name, than which there is no other given under Heaven MR. PATRICK CHALMERS. l85 whereby men can be saved. A true faitli in Christ works by love, and love aims at obedience. Again, a true faith in Christ is followed by the gift of the Spirit, (John vii. 39 ; Gal. iii. 14 ; Rom. viii. 32 ;) the Spirit gives strength for the execution of the aim, and you actually yield obedience. In this way your faitli will not be dead ; it will abound in fruit, and you will rise from one degree of grace unto another, till you arrive at a meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light. — May such be your progress, and such your destination. Be up and doing ; and let the numerous calls given us, both by the Bible and by experience, have the happy effect to stir you up in the ways of wisdom and of piety. You would hear of Mr. Johnson of Rathillet's death. — Write soon. — Yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CXLIII. Anstruther, ^8th January 1813. My dear Patrick, — I am glad to observe that your society at Pennicuik is fairly set agoing. I however must decline the honour of being a member of it. The whole amount of the advantage would be 4s. 4d. additional to the cause, which I have it in my power to send by nearer and more convenient chan- * nels. The truth is, that I find I have gone too far in the way of connecting myself with other societies, and have frittered away in smalls what would have made a handsome sum at home, where it would have done more good in the way of example and effect among my immediate neighbours. I am besides called upon to preach occasional sermons often, and do not like to pass without a suitable offering to the col- lection. You must see that having a neighbourhood and a parish of my own to attend to, I must resist these foreign ap- plications. I must stop somewhere ; and knowing that from my acquaintance in different parts, I shall probably be exposed Q 186 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. to similar applications afterwards, I think it right to begin with you, in the confidence that you will perceive that in refus- ing your application, I do it on proper and reasonable grounds. I hope that your society will have a hapj^y influence on the minds of its individual supporters. If so much zeal and acti- vity should be employed in the work of sending the Bible to others, it seems quite obvious, that it ought not to be neglected for ourselves, or suftcred to lie beside us unread, unopened, and unattended to. It gives me great pleasure to think that this in all probability is the effect in your case ; and one great sen- timent with us all should be, that we ought not to think that we have yet attained or are already perfect. The career of Christian sanctification is boundless, and it is our duty to press forward ; and when one looks to himself and feels his woful deficiencies in the mildness, the patience, the charity, the holiness of the Gospel, he must perceive how much he has yet to aspire after. We should at the same time never forget in what way the above virtues are formed and have their increase in the soul : they are the fruits of the Spirit, Gal. v. 22. And as the Saviour is the dispenser of the Spirit — as it is through faith in Him that the Spirit is given — as without Him we can do nothing — hence the necessity of laying all upon this foun- dation, of a vital union with Jesus Christ by faith, that He may be our sanctification as well as our redemption. I should have been happy to have heard of your calling on Mr. Anderson. I got a letter from S . but he says nothing of it. Could any prudent or effectual method be devised of bringing S 's mind under the influence of the truth, it were most desirable. Give your attention to this particular. There is a danger sometimes in the imprudent use of means ; but prayer for one another is a resource which is always at hand, and can never be carried to excess. Do write me soon. Tell me of your numbers in the Bible Society of Pen- MR. PATRICK CHALMERS 187 nicuik. Give me all tlie information you have about other parishes. It will be a wonderful sum if the parish system can be realized over the whole country. Grace desires her kind love to you. — Yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CXLIV. Glasgotv, 2d September 1818. My DEAR Patrick, — I received yours some time ago, and yesterday had a visit from Mr. Thomas Thomson, with whose ap- pearance and conversation I was much pleased. I regret that I was so particularly occupied — it being a day of meetings and of parish business with me. He went oiF this morning for Edinburgh. I would not have known how to address you but for him ; and I am glad to think that you have the oppor- tunity of intercourse with such a family as that which he belongs to. I trust that the impression of my excellent father's death will ever remain with us. His meekness, under all the crosses and provocations of life, formed a most memorable trait of his character. Above all, let us labour to emulate him in his exalted piety — a piety founded on the foith of the New Testa- ment in all its peculiarity and in all its power. I hope you will read his favourite authors, Newton and Harvey ; but still more, that the Bible, accompanied with earnest prayer to God, will be with you that daily exercise which shall at length make you wise unto salvation. Anster has now become sadly diiferent to me from what it was. I now feel towards it as if it had sustained a fatal and irrecover- able mutilation. The remembrance of my father's Sabbaths, and of the whole routine of his week-day employments, always stood associated with all my thoughts of the place ; and these associations arc now in-etrievably broken up. There is a tender 188 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. melanclioly in these recollections. There is a sorrow which nature herself prompts and awakens, hut it is grace alone which can Impart the godly sorrow that Avorketh repentance unto salvation never to be repented of. I trust that you will give all your strength to the one thing needful ; and that your zeal, and earnestness, and integrity in the service of your earthly master will, in fact, with you be so many offerings to your Master in Heaven — spiritual sacrifices unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Could the love of God be instated in our hearts in its rightful supremacy, every thing else would find its right place. Enter into reconciliation with Him through the atoning blood and justifying righteous- ness of the Mediator, and render unto Him, as the God of your redemption, the fruits of gratitude in all holy and affectionate obedience. I shall be very glad, indeed, of an occasional letter from you ; and, be assured, that the details of your situation and employ- ment— accounts of the neighbourhood and country — and, above all, the news of your spiritual progress and welfare, Avould be highly interesting to me. — I am, my dear Patrick, yours most trulv, Thomas Chalmers. LETTERS TO MRS. MORTON. No. CXLV. St. Andrews, Gth February 1824. My EVER DEAREST Jane, — I should havo written you long ago ; and, indeed, mean to write you at a rate of much greater frequency than I have been in the habit of doing for some time. I am now in far more favourable circumstances for doing so ; for, MRS. MORTON. 189 even though I do have the labour of an extraordinary preparation for my new office, yet I am in very great ease and tranquillity when compared with the bustle and manifold fatigue of my former occupation. All that I shall require will be a regular exchange of letters with you ; and I shall regard each an-ival from you as the signal for an immediate exercise in the way of writing, that Avill be at all times agreeable to me. I can easily leave this for Anster in a chaise after breakfast, spend some hours and dine there, and then return in the evening. This mahes a very pleasant family — pop-in to my motlier and aunt. I took down Mrs. Chalmers and the two eldest children in this style on New Year's Bay. It rained incessantly, but my aunt, notwithstanding, insisted on our trailing to "W. Anster with her. I made a second excursion of the sort about a week ago. We keep very much aloof from the society of St. Andrews, while, at the same time, we are on perfect good terms with them all. They are very convivial, and Ave want a simple and easy intercourse. Mr. Duncan, whom you may recollect as our occasional visiter at Kilmany, is now Professor of Mathematics, and, in this respect, is quite suited to us. Perhaps there is no town in Scotland more cold, and meagi'e, and moderate in its theology than St. Andrews. I do feel the Sabbaths to be very heartless in regard to the public services ; and Mrs. Chalmers half threatens to be a Seceder upon our hands. I will not hinder her ; but, as to myself, I do feel that bating the deficiency of warm ministerial addresses from the pulpit, I ought to make greater progi-ess here than at Glasgow, where I was cumbered with many things ; while here I may at least wait upon that which is good with far less distraction. I am more persuaded than ever of the nothingness of man, that his wisdom consists in reliance upon God, in closing with 190 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. Ilim as liis reconciled Father in Christ Jesus, and casting the whole burden both of his fears and of his corruptions on that Saviour whose blood should wholly dissipate the one, and wholly cleanse from the other. He permits us at times, as He did His disciples of old, to be overtaken with a storm, and even to have the visitations of terror because of unbelief But His voice is soon heard again — " It is I, be not afraid." Give my kindest compliments to Mr. Morton, Elizabeth, Miss Thomson, Mr. and Mrs. Edkins, Mr., and Mrs., and Miss Bliss. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CXLVI. St. Andrews, 9th Juve 1824. My dearest Jane, — I would have replied to your welcome epistle very soon after its arrival, but it came on the eve of my setting out for Edinburgh to attend the General Assembly, the bustle of whose operations prevented me from attending to any- thing else. Be very sure that I shall punctually exchange all your letters, and that too at pretty short intervals. I now go up to the General Assembly in the capacity of elder for the burgh of Anstruther Easter — an lionour to which, I believe, I shall aspire yearly ; and in virtue of which it may perhaps please God that I should endeavour to serve the interests of His Church upon earth. We lost one question this year in the Assembly, but we gained two more ; and the gain far more than outweighs the loss. I do think that there is a very great improvement in the spirit and temper of that body. I never was more convinced of the benefit of my transition to St. Andrews than on my return to it just now from Edin- burgh, where its tranquillity forms so delightful a contrast with the fatigues of the great metropolis. It was a most severe succession of one pressure after another, when I went from the MRS. MORTON. 191 General Assembly to the anxieties and the manifold distraction of St. John's in Glasgow. I took Anstcr in my way. Poor Isabel is no better ; but I am glad that Helen is with her, who reports most favourably of her state of mind. I feel a most unfortunate barrier in the way of oral communication with certain of my relatives on the topic of religion. But I write her an occasional letter, for which she seems grateful and well pleased. In less than a fortnight I go to Glasgow, and am to spend six weeks there in a course of ministerial duty. I have got a vast deal of labour before me in the composition of my lectures, so that I fear it is utterly out of the question my being in Gloucestershire this summer. I rejoice to hear of Patrick's good fortune, and also of your own preferment to a better house. May you long enjoy health and comfort within its walls. Tell Mr. Morton that I do not envy his trusteeship, and I fear that he will find it land him in a peck of troubles. It is no doubt honourable to be the object of so much confidence as the charge implies ; and I only wish he may not find it at length a very harassing and vexatious one. But let us look beyond the toils and troubles of life to its latter end. I have recently felt some very vivid gleams of delight when thinking of the sacrifice by Christ for our sins, and how the whole guilt of them is removed thereby. Christ crucified is the great comer-stone of the spiritual edifice ; and the more simply that we keep by this truth, the more shall we breathe of that pure element in which joy, and health, and activity are most felt. I need, however, to be saved from constantly relapsing into a carnal and worldly frame of spirit. We need, and we ought, to pray for each other. Our children are all in good health. The weather of St. Andrews, of which we heard sucli foi-midable accounts, agrees 192 CORKESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. remarkably well with the family. Mrs. Chalmers desires her best compliments. "We move into a larger and better house soon. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CXLVIT. St. Andrsivs, 20th August 1824. My dearest Jane, — I should have replied long ago to your letter ; and, indeed, would have done it immediately, had it not come to me in the midst of great and manifold urgencies. I was then in Glasgow, whither I went for six Sundays, and officiated in the chapel of St. John's. I think that I never spent a season of more crowded occupancy between the preparations of Sab- bath and the expected attentions, of which I laboured Avith all my might to acquit myself to my old acquaintances. In returning home I came round by Anstruther, where I saw Isabel somewhat recruited in health, though it were wrong to hold out any intervals of ease that she might enjoy as being more than a temporary respite from a state of disease which, we have every reason to fear, is incurable. It should make us the more thankful that such being her prospect on this side of the grave, her prospect on the other side of it is peculiarly bright and peaceful. You know that she is very close, and with me she has been quite general. But she is communicative Avith Helen, who represents her as in a very happy frame of spirit, which has been growing upon her from the commence- ment of an illness, of which she very early conceived that it was to terminate in death. Since I came to St. Andrews I have been wading through oceans of business that had accumulated during my absence ; and have been furthermore pestered a good deal with another odious plurality that we have done our uttermost to resist and testify against, though, we fear, without any success. During MRS. MORTON. 193 tlie wliole of tills throng, liowever, I have never lost sight of the obligation in which I stood to reply to your last communi- cation, nor have I abated in the least of that regard which I entertain for you. And if the principle of good- will might remain entire in the bosom of a friend, although he does, from circumstances, with- hold for a time the expression, of it, will you refuse the same justice to your Father who is- ux Heaven ? All the sensible comfort that you enjoy may- be I'egarded as some such token or memorial of His graciousness, as the letter of an acquaintance. But, though at times He forbears to send such a token, it is not because He has forgotten to be gracious. He may have other reasons for it. He may wish to exercise you again, as He has often done in the times that are past. Your business, meanwhile, is to be still and know that He is God ; to build the hope of your safety, not upon your own faith, but upon His faithfulness ; to look outwardly to His truth, instead of inwardly to your own deficiencies. You will never mend them by keeping your eye in the direction towards yourself, but towards the mercy-seat, whence grace to help willi descend upon you as well as mercy to pardon. I like that death-bed experience of Dr. Dwlght, who, when asked by his friends how he felt, made no other reply than that there was mercy in Grod through Christ Jesus. You at least have this reply always to make under all the variety of your fears and your feelings ; and you have just as full a warrant as any other sinner has for appropriating to yourself the benefits of the Gospel mercy. Your fluctuations do not affect the truth of Qod ; and if you will stick by that truth under all the clouds and desertions that pass over you, this is a stronger effort of faith than if you only kept it amid the smiles and the brightness of a cheering manifestation. My visit to Glasgow and my attendance on the General Assembly together, consume at once one half of my summer R 194 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. vacation. Both I deem to be very important duties, and tliia year tliey have only left me three months for carrying forward the still very unfinished preparations of my office in St. Andrews. In these circumstances I could not, without most serious in- convenience, attempt Gloucestershire this season ; and this inconvenience so far from being lessened, is in ray mind aggra- vated by a most provoking call that I have recently had to preach a sermon in Stockport. I liad said some civil thing to them two years ago, when last in Manchester, in reply to a deputation who then applied to me, and I was tlien under the imagination that it would quite suit me to be in England at any rate at tlie time of the anniversary. My circumstances now have wholly changed ; but this is not enough for these gentlemen avIio call what I said a promise, and insist on the perfonnance of it. It can at most be but a post-haste expedition within a fortnight of the sitting down of our College, and the few days I shall give it in the month of October I can very ill spare. This letter has been delayed one post in consequence of a visit from a Prussian clergyman who came in upon me just after I had got this lengtli. He is a very pleasant conversable man, but it is with the utmost fatigue that I can apprehend his broken English. Our family are upon the whole very well. It is their school vacation at present ; and Mrs. Tennant with three of her children, who were i)lay or schoolfellows of ours in Glasgow, are now with us. There is a bathing process going on, against which Grace in particular has a most violent antipathy. I think it might be of use both to you and to Isabel were you to write a letter to her. J do this occasionally. It is a curious thing that I should labour under such difficulty in speaking to people whom nevertheless I can address with all fulness in a letter. — With kind love to all your family, believe me, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. ilRS. MORTON. 195 No. CXLVIII. >S'^ Andreivs, 23d December 1824. My dearest Jane, — I am quite ashamed of the date of your letter, but I have been much occupied. However, I should have felt the impulse of poor Isabel's death, and sent you off my first and recent impressions upon the subject. There was much to soothe and gratify in her latter end. Hers was a striking exhibition of the Spirit working silently, yet effectually, on whomsoever He listeth, and doing His own office upon the heart of a chosen one who has made a singularly quiet passage through the world, and of Avhom, I can assure you, my dear Jane, that I have the pleasing belief that she is now in heaven. I know not when I felt so much gratification as last July in Glasgow, on receiving a letter from Mrs. Chalmers, giving an account of a day that she had spent in Anstruther, and stating both what she saw of Isabel herself and what she had learned from Helen respecting her. I hold it most interesting to per- ceive in one who knew nought of the controversies of our faith, yet who manifestly had great peace and great joy in the simple reliance of the faith itself, to perceive how all the blessings of the Gospel might be realized upon such a one. Never was there a more patient sufferer ; and the evident peace, and even joy, that were within, call for our most grateful acknowledgments to that kind Redeemer who suits His grace and His light to the trials of those who are His own children. Since beginning this letter, (for it is now several days since I began it,) I have seen your letter to Helen. I grieve to hear of your ill health, but sincerely hope that Clifton will do you good. Have you met with my friend Dr. Stock there ? Give him my kindest compliments should you see him. We are going to spend the New Year at Anster. Poor Isabel makes a blank in our sadlv reduced familv. Mv mother has 196 COKRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. mucli of the comfort and complacency of a well-experienced Christian. Her physiognomy is most expressive of that abund- ance of peace which Isaiah compares to a deep and mighty river. Never was there a more cardinal person, or one all the elements of whose character were more solidly constituted. She is, I am confident, ripening for heaven ; and it is my desire, though I miserably fail in the execution of it, that I shall con- tribute my uttermost to the peace and enjoyment of her remain- ing days. It was quite necessary, in point of repose, tliat I should leave Glasgow ; but I must not disguise it from you that St. Andrews has its trials. There is a most inveterate hostility to the evangelical spirit, and a sad public corruption, against Avhich I have hitherto remonstrated ineifectually. Over and above all this, our Sabbaths are truly barren and dreary, from the miserable lack of unction in pulpit services. I have taken up a Sabbath-school which somewhat supplies the want to myself and my family, it being held in my own house, and attended by not more than thirty scholars. I was greatly delighted yes- terday by a passage from the excellent Halyburton, Avho bids us suspect ourselves if our zeal runs all to public, to the neglect of private and personal Christianity. My clear line is to give all my force to the latter when my way is so hedged up against doing much in behalf of the former. My classes give me some precious opportunities however. I this year lecture upon both Moral Philosophy and Political Economy, and in both, particu- larly in the former, I can lift many testimonies on the side of the Gospel. My students I have great reason to rejoice in, being both well-educated and, many of them, remarkably well- disposed. I forgot to mention that Mrs. Chalmers, under the destitution of evangelical truth in our established pulpits, goes very often to the Dissenters, and incurs some obloquy on that account, which we care not for. Our dear children are all in MRS. MORTON. 197 good health, and we have the advantage of a first-rate school for their education. And now, my dearest Jane, let us resolve to put our trust in that God who will not refuse His grace and guidance to all who truly seek after Him. Let us linger not in confidence to Him, seeing that He Himself has laid the foundation, and invites us to take our rest thereupon. In the quietness and confidence of His blessed Gospel we shall have strength. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers, No. CXLIX. St. Andrews, 2&th Februanj 1825. My dear Jane, — I trust that we shall get now into a more regular train of correspondence than heretofore ; and nothing, I assure you, would give me greater pleasure than if we could sustain a monthly exchange of letters. I was sorry to understand that a sort of discordant politics had got in amongst the families of the coast-side. But for all such matters, I refer you to Helen, than whom and my wife, when they do meet together, I never witnessed a more exclu- sive brace of conversationists, keeping every other body out of the concern, and sitting apart by themselves to their own dear gossip, to the utter neglect of such poor outcasts as myself or any others that happen to be in the house along with them. Helen will probably come to St. Andrews soon on her way to Glasgow, where she proposes to spend some time with Mrs, Charles. It delights me to observe what you write of Patrick, who is a very cardinal fellow. I rejoice to hear both of his health and prosperity. I have not heard from James these many months. When there are long intervals of correspondence between us, he always takes it into his head that it is I avIio am in fault, I believe that it is very generally himself. 198 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. I am reading just now " Sheppard's Thoughts on Devo- tion/' I understand him to be a banker in Frome, and a great friend of Foster's. It is a very impressive book, and combines two elements which seldom exist in union together — great science and great spirituality. I would recommend it to you ; it is much prized by pious and intelligent Christians in this quarter. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours most truly and affec- tionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CL. St. Andrews, 1 lili June 1825. My dearest Jane, — I have of late had several offers to leave the University and return again to the Church. I had some- time ago the offer of one of the vacant churches in Edinburgh ; and yesterday I was waited upon by a deputation from Dr. Gordon's Kirk-Session, with the proposal that I should succeed him. But it was not upon light grounds that I relinquished the clerical for the professorial life ; and I am more and more confirmed in the belief that a chair in a college is a higher sta- tion on the field of Christian usefulness, than a parish any- where in Scotland. Could one acquit himself rightly of his duties as a professor, it is incalculable the good which might be done to the guides and the clergy of our next generation. I have met with things in St. Andrews which have some- what helped to alienate me from its college, but not from a college life or college occupations. I rejoice to hear from you of the Christiaii good that is doing in your neighbourhood. It is most true what you say, that Christianity has a most refining influence on the general habit and manners of even the J)oorest who embrace it. In the case of Sandy Faterson of Kilmany, it transformed a clodpoll into a perfect gentleman ; and it shews that a delightful society awaits even this passing world, should the millennium ever be established in it. MRS. MORTON. Id'j Mrs. Clialmors and I spent some days in Kirkaldy lately, the occasion that you must have heard of, the loss of Sandy's youngest child. Both he and his wife were in great tender- ness ; and in each of them there is, I trust, a religious feeling mixed with it. What a blessing should they henceforth take this direction ; and what a lamentable delicacy it is, a deli- cacy of Avhich I feel myself the victim, that restrains one near relative from urgently and affectionately, and in season and out of season, being instant with all who arc near and dear to us, that they should bo up and doing for the salvation of their souls. We had a delightful visit two days ago from Mr., Mrs., and Miss Babington. They left us this morning. He was the great friend and coadjutor of Mr. Wilberforce in Parliament, and after himself being a member for thirty years, has lately retired from political life. He is the most decided Christian I know — a man of education, judgment, and of truly engaging- manners. It has given a great impulse to us both. I got acquainted with him while in England about two and a half years ago, and I feel myself much obliged and honoured by this attention. The whole conversation was quite delightfuL We expect shortly a visit from my mother and aunt. They will come up in a chaise and return to Anster in the evening. My mother indeed is a most cardinal person. She is quite well at present. James Duncan's wife is her great protegee just now. You are aware of her manifold trockifications with the poor folk. The part relating to her which is to be most rejoiced in, is her solid and well established confidence in God as her recon- ciled Father — a confidence which ministers the utmost peace to her heart, and difi'uses a calm and a complacency over the whole system of her aifairs. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. 200 COKRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. No. CLI. Glasr/mo, ith October 1825. My DEAREST Jane, — Perhaps I am never in more unfavour- able circumstances for writing at length, than when jjerforming mj six weeks campaign in Glasgow. You know that last year I preached for that number of successive Sundays in St. John's Chapel, founded by myself ere I left the place, and this year I am doing the same. I wish to maintain this habit, both to keep up my intercourse with my old people and the exercise of preaching. But what with the exuberant hospitality of the one, and the necessary preparations for the other, this may well be called the hurricane season of my year. You perhaps know that Mrs. Chalmers and all my family are with me on this occasion. It is rather an unwieldy con- cern ; but I am the better enabled thereby to meet the de- mands of my very kind friends. It was a most severe personal fatigue when singly I had to cope with all the invitations of all my acquaintances ; but now I can divide myself and accept of them by proxy, insomuch that at present I have my wife and a bairn with myself in one place, and a servant and two bairns at a second, and my remaining bairn at a third. I find it a great advantage to spend my mornings in practi- cal reading rather than in study. My present book is " Owen on Spiritual-Mindedness" — a book which, when you have per- fect leisure, I would recommend to your peinisal. May the God of all grace and goodness perfect your recovery, and give you many days of comfort on earth to serve Him and be a blessing to your family. — Believe me, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, ' Thomas Chalmers. No. CLII. St. Andrev-s, loth November 1825. My dearest Jane, — I rejoice to observe that you enjoyed Sheppard so. My own practice is to read a little before MRS. MORTON. 201 breakfast of some practical treatise every morning. I have already told you of several books that have thus fallen in my way. I think that I have already recommended Remain e, and I have now very great pleasure in recommending- " Owen on Spiritual-Mindedness." It is a book which gives palpable directions for the cultivation of this grace ; and I trust that I may derive some important help from it. We arrived here only a fortnight ago, having protracted our stay in Glasgow as long as college terms would admit of it. Our three eldest children are in full attendance on Mrs. Cowan — Anne considerably advanced in her music, and giving us a regular afternoon deave with her practisings — Eliza fag- ging as she can at French and Geography — and Grace learning and losing her spell-book time about. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLITI. St. Andrews, 5th January 1820. My very dear Jane, — I would have written sooner, but your letter expressed a wish for information about Anster, so that I resolved to put off till I had finished my New Year's visit there. The excursion was to me a very interesting one. Mr. Bell's assistant of Crail, came for me in a gig on Friday the SOth, and took me down there. I have long had a reverence and affection for Mr. Bell, and he is the only coastside minister that was in office when I was a school-boy. I spent Saturday and Sunday with him, having preached to a full church in the afternoon. On the Saturday I had a most delightful walk with Mr. Tod the assistant, from Crail harbour along the beach to Fifeness, and onward to Banderston. We returned by Balco- mie, which we visited, and Pittorrie, my grandfather Hall's house, wdiich I recollect to have been in when I was in frocks, and most distinctly recognised the room into which I was ad- 202 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. mitted to see my grandmotlier forty-tliree years ago. There was a dinner given by Mr. Bell on the Friday to all the clergy of the neighbourhood. The most interesting of whom to me was honest cloghering and sniftering Mr. Wilson, who is still cloghering on. I made calls on Miss Coldstream, William Cowan, and Lizzy Hill, a servant of my mother's thirty-six years ago. I left Mr. Bell in his gig early on Monday morning, called at Barnsmuir, where Miss Fortune, now of sixteen, bears a strik- ing resemblance to her mother. Christian Rankine. This whole road was to me full of interest, presenting such Avell-known objects as Keplie Dooket, with the echo, Innergelly avenue, Third-part avenue, Clishmacclash, &c., &c. I breakfasted in Kilrenny Manse, and was most cordially entertained by Mary Forrester, whose little son of nine weeks old formed an in- teresting novelty in the group. Got to Anster early in the forenoon. The chaisefull came down from St. Andrews, con- taining my wife, three eldest bairns, and Miss Hutcheson of Glasgow, now with us. I settled ray trust accounts with my mother and aunt ; they are both at present remarkably well. We had to leave them before tea from the darkness of the weather at present, and boisterous wind that would have blown out the carriage lights. Helen was still at Lathallan, but she has come to us this day and proposes to spend some little time with us. I had great pleasure in hearing from Mrs. Duif, the sister of Dr. Barron of Gloucester, of your visit to him, and of his favourable report of you. I sincerely hope that you continue at least in tolerable health, and that you are enabled as here- tofore to cast your dcpeildence and to feel your delight in our all-kind and merciful Saviour ; so free of access, and so willing as well as able to save, even unto the uttermost, all who come unto God through Him. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. MRS. MORTON. 203 No. CLIV. St Andrews, 22d March 1826. Mr DEAREST Jane, — I liave had an excursion to the coast since I wrote last. My mother in good general health, and a state of mind which is truly admirable. Though quite b}' her- self now, (Helen being at Kirkaldy,) she is never without resources, having always some work on hand, and to use her own language, God is very kind to her in supjilying her with many a comfortable meditation. My object in going down was to preach at Kilrenny, which I did to a ver}-- full audience. I went down to Anster on the Saturday — walked to Kilrenny after breakfast — preached there in the afternoon — dined with Mr. Brown, and walked in tlic evening to Barnsmuir with Mr. Fortune I spent the night there, and he drove me up next morning in his gig to St. An- drews. I felt great interest in being with Mrs. Brown (Mary Forrester) at Kilrenny, where her father was minister. The pleasure was damped, however, by the recollection of poor Anne Rankine, avIio lies with her infant at her side on the east of General Scott's tomb ; and over her, in the churchyard wall, there is a marble tablet with an inscrij^tion to her memory. There is no slight resemblance between Miss Fortune and her mother ; and she is now older than Christian Rankine was when in 1799 I first was introduced to Barnsmuir. You touch on a matter of great importance and great ten- derness, when you advert to the religious training of your children. It is marvellous how obtuse we are on the subject of their eternal interests. How little we persuade them to the things which belong to their eternal peace ; and how little we pray for them. It is a sad evidence of the weakness of our faith Avhen the imperishable souls of those who are dearest to us are not cultivated and not cared for. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. 204 COREESPOOT)ENCE OF DR. CHALMEES. No. CLV. St. Andrews, 12tk Ajyril 1826. My dearest Jane, — I received yours in course, and am truly delighted to observe that you are in such health. May your soul prosper more and more and be in health ; and amid all these intermediate concerns between us and death, that is the interests or cares of a present life, may we forget not that there is a great and enduring interest which overj^asses all and absorbs all. It is out of the question my mother going to England. Mrs. Chalmers has asked her to live with us, and there is the most perfect convenience for it. Still, however, she cleaves to Anster, and will not leave it, she says, as long as Chirsty is her servant. There is a peace and deep serenity about her spirit which is altogether delightful ; and destitute as she is of all teasing curiosity, I am quite sure that whenever she con- sents to come to us, she will be a most delightful inmate. I really hope that such an arrangement may take place soon. My practical author at present is Howe. The book of his which I am now at hand with is his " Redeemer's Tears." I never read a sentence of his works before, and I think I shall like him vastly. He is more lucid than Owen, writes with greater taste, and is often, I think, more striking, if not so profound. He is a very judicious and learned as well as pious author. There is more of tenderness, too, about him than Owen. — I am, my dear Jane, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. , No. CLVI. St. Andrews, 50th October 1826. I cannot be thankful enough for Mrs. Chalmers's excellent recovery. She is now daily a few hours in the dining-room. Her attendant has been one of the Misses M'Clellan, our Helen's MRS. MORTON. 205 sister-in-law, \y1io makes a very agreeable inmate. Besides her, Miss Collier is now upon a visit to us. You may remember her at Dairsie. She is a very decided and cultivated Christian, and has lived for several years with Mrs. Coutts. We are much the better of an influence of that sort under our roof ; nor am I aware of an interest of greater magnitude, or that should come nearer to the heart of a parent, than the Christianity of his children. I hope that I should prize it as the most precious indication of God's friendship and fatherly regard, that He visited any of my household with such demonstrations of their sinfulness on the one hand, and of Christ's sufliciency on the other, as might lead them to that faith by which they are saved. My book at present is Baxter's " Saints' Rest," — very impres- sive. I think him particularly so on the awful and aifecting subject of our responsibility for each other's souls. I should like more of courage and wisdom in the work of dealing with people on the great topic of their eternity. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours very affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLVII. St. Andrev.-s, 10th January 1827. My dearest Jane, — I have lately, connected with the New Year season, made two distinct visits to Crail and Anstruther. On the one occasion I preached at Crail, and on the other at Kilrenny. When at Crail I visited Mrs. . . . . The next or the Anster visit was still more interesting. Mr. Fortune, now at Barnsmuir, sent his gig for me on the last Saturday of the year. I got down to dinner, and met a com- pany of coast-siders, — Mr. Brown of Kilrenny, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson of Anster, Hall Pringle and his sister from Largo, &c, I stopped at Barnsmuir all night. The two eldest daughters are farther advanced than were Kirsty and Susan Rankine when I first knew them, and, indeed, have a very strong resemblance, 206 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. both in mind and appearance, to the Barnsmuir ladies of that generation. ^Miss Fortune is now at Leuchars, waiting on Mrs. Watson, who has had a daughter, and is, I understand, doing very well. On the Sunday morning we walked in a family group from Barnsmuir to Kilrenny — a beautiful day, and most interesting road, all the turns and objects of which you well know. I preached in the afternoon at Kilrenny, and stayed all evening and night in the manse, — interesting from the presence of Mary Forrester, who, in spite of her " twa bairns," is the same giggler as ever. She has a deal of genuine humour, and is, I farther hope, in the way of receiving good impressions from her hus- band, who is a most powerful and evangelical preacher. The monument to Anne Rankine and her infant child in Kilrenny churchyard is a very interesting object : it is upon the north wall, a little way from General Scott's large mausoleum. After breakfast I went to Anster, where I found my mother trocking among wives — the same peaceful and independent person as ever. This narrative has occupied more room than I intended. I shall therefore conclude with a remark of our excellent mother's ; she reads a good deal, and among other books, " Owen on Spiritual-Mindedness." She observed, however, that she had not so much comfort in reading those books which led her to a view of her own heart, for there she saw nought but corruption ; but she found great satisfaction from trusting in God. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. .No. CLVIII. Anstruther, 14th February 1827. My DEAREST Jane, — Our excellent mother died this morning at half-past eight o'clock. She was entire in reason and recol- lection to the last ; and though she lost all power of articulation MRS. MORTON. 207 witliin an hour and a half of her death, yet previous to that she gave forth many tokens of her solid and established trust in the great Redeemer, and, interspersed with these, many wise and judicious directions relative to the disposal of ordinary affairs. You will forgive the brokenness and imperfection of my pre- sent narrative. My dear wife is nursing ; and though she has been down in a chaise four times since the commencement of the illness, yet cannot be away from St. Andrews for a night. She had a deal of precious converse with my mother yesterday, who really was in a state of great ease ; but the symptoms of approaching dissolution came on at eight at night, and became more and more aggravated for upwards of twelve hours, when her suiferings were ended. I am the alone occupant of the house in the meantime, and have all the superintendence. When to this you add that I was up all last night, you will not wonder if in this first letter on the subject of this great bereavement you find me so hurried and so unsatisfactory. But it is an adequate subject for a series of letters ; and I shall be most happy, in my replies to your future communications, to amplify on the interesting topic of our dear mother's last moments. — With kindest regards to Mr. Morton, believe me, my dearest Jane, yours most truly and affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLIX. St. Andrews, 2ith February 1827. My dearest Jane, — Mrs. Chalmers and I were again at Anster to-day. I had gone down by myself yesterday on foot, she came this day in a gig, and we got up together. I am still engaged among the details of business ; but I feel, beside this, an indescribable attraction in the place, softened by the tender and mournful recollection both of years and of people that have gone by. David Barclay took me to the churchyard, where I 208 COERESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. visited the liallowed spot of my mother's fresh and recent grave. I feel strongly inclined to inclose our family burial-ground. It is bounded on the south by a projecting stone that comes out from the middle of the east gate of Anster Church : that stone is the monument of Captain Anderson, a remote progenitor, who brought home in his ship the wood which roofed the kirk of East Anster Avhen it was first built. . . , The Chalmerses liave just been ninety years in Austruther, and after the death of my aunt Jane, there is no further prosjpect of our being con- nected with the place. A day or two after my mother's death I wrote down a few memorabilia of her last illness : this I shall copy over in my next or succeeding letter. I would have done it at present, but my visit of this day has supplied me with topics which I might have omitted had I j)ostponed them. Perhaps my next visit in a week may suj^ply me with some other topics of im- mediate interest, as I mean to rummage her scrutoire, where I know that I shall meet with some records of her deep and de- voted piety. I have already met with a most interesting record of her charity in a small paper book which she appropriated to an account of her various distributions. I prize it as the best of legacies, and should like to j)rosecute her Anster benefactions. There is one half of the book blank, and I mean to begin where she ended. I feel a tender and melancholy pleasure in doing so. — Believe me, my dearest Jane, yours most affectionately. Thomas Chalmers. No. CLX. jSt. Andrews, 17th April 1827. My dearest Jane, — I 'have been again at Anster. The busi- ness I expect to be finally settled by the month of June. The house will be sold by the beginning of May. I like to recall the associations of former years by taking an occasional night in it. My aunt is complaining at present. MRS. MORTON. 209 111 my mother's scrutoire, which I have opened, there are many old manuscripts ; and, among others, the birth-day prayers and dedications of the last years of her life. I had great pleasure in going completely round, about a fortnight ago, among all the people whose names occur in her charity-book. These amounted to eighteen ; and I left with each of them a trifle for her sake. Maggy Hutchison was, perhaps, the most interesting of the cases, who, with her aged bedfast mother, Mrs. Duncan, are breathing the atmosphere of contentment and piety. She was teaching a few children, and there Avas an air of comfort and peace in the dwelling. I have not forgotten a characteristic adage of hers, uttered at Mrs. Wilson's table years ago, that " Nature was easily sufficed." My book at present in the mornings is Serle's " Christian Remembrancer" — a highly spiritual performance. — Believe me, my dearest Jane, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLXI. St. Andrews, 20th October 1827. My dearest Jane, — I enjoyed very much my visit to Ireland, and was certainly treated there with great kindness, and re- ceived many honourable attentions. I w^as in four counties, Donegal, Derry, Antrim, and Down. The marine scenery of Antrim is the finest I ever saw ; and there is nothing which has imjirest me so much in visible Nature as the Giant's Cause- way, with the precipitous beach on both sides of it. I was a good deal pushed by the kindness and attentions of the folks at Belfast. Among others, a person wrote me a letter and transmitted along Avith it his album, requesting an inser- tion from me there, along with the other eminent persons who had honoured it by their hand-writing. I sent it back without any reply ; and just because of my repugnance to an act which s 210 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. carries with it the consciousness that I too must be a very eminent man like the lave of them. It is a most indelicate request ; and I do think, if people are amateurs and collectors of handwriting, the way is, just to get hold of any scrap of a card or letter that he may have written to another upon any familiar occasion, and hatter it upon one of the pages of the portfolio. It is really too much to make the man himself accessory to this sort of vanity. You can accommodate, I have no doubt, your friends with abundance of my hieroglyphical scrawls. Of all the books I have recently read there is none which has delighted, and I hope impressed, me more than Leighton's " Commentary on Peter." What a precious thing it is to get a fresh and powerful impression of religious truth. You are quite right, that in ourselves we neither can do aright, nor feel aright, nor even believe aright. Yet that should not hinder us from looking in the direction whence help cometh. It is a great matter that we are encouraged to persist in the mere attitude of waiting. We would be in the right and desirable state all at once. But it would appear that this is not the way, for we are called upon to seek till we find ; to wait the Lord's time, who in due time will raise us up ; to give earnest Iieed to the Word of His testimony till the day dawn and the day-star arise in our hearts. — May He, who is all grace and good-will, give you great peace and joy in believing, and cause you to abound more and more in the comfort of the Scriptures through the power of the Holy Ghost. — Believe me ever, my dearest Jane, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLXII. 22d November 1827. My ever dearest Jane, — I received yours of the IGth, and am quite grieved to find that you are still the invalid. I know that you are in good hands ; and it is my prayer, tliat He who MRS. MORTON. 211 can cause the peaceable fruit of righteousness to arise from His visitations of distress, may be with you as a comforter and a strengthener on the present occasion. I rejoice, that in the midst of the outward distress, you allege a happiness and a thankfulness to be within. It is certainly a very great matter of gratitude and rejoicing when God is pleased to uphold a tranquil and even happy frame in the midst of outward tribu- lations. But it is right to remember that your safety does not even depend upon this, but on that kind and all-powerful Saviour who never fluctuates, being the same to-day, yesterday, and for ever. Fetch, then, all your supplies from Him — lean upon Him : do not even make a fatiguing work of so leaning, but rest quietly on the assurance that you are in the hands of one able, and as Avilling as He is able, to sustain you. May the blood of sprinkling be upon your conscience ; and as you think of the full and finished work of a Saviour's atonement, may you delight yourself greatly in the abundance of peace secured to you by such a peace-ofFering. All here are well. Compliments to all. — Believe me ever, my dearest Jane, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLXIII. St. Andveics, -ith March 1828. My dear Jane, — I do think it pertinacious in Mr. to keep up this constant annoyance with his album. When it does come I shall simply transmit it with my inscribed compliments ; and he may be thankful that I do not inscribe further my re- probation of the system of albums, and the dread in which I stand of the applications of album-holders. It is still competent for him to batter my line to you about him in the book if he so chooses. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. 21 2 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. No. CLXIV. St. Andreios, 13th March 1828. My dearest Jane, — The album came to me by Glasgow some days ago. I was comforted to find tliat some of the contribu- tors liad written texts, which I have done too. It was not your joking, but their pertinacity, which annoyed me. I am always pleased with the ingredient of humoin- in your letters. I shall have an ojiportunity for sending back their album to Glasgow. The best contributions in it are those of Olinthus Gregory and Hannah More. It is a species of English indeli- cacy which I could never tolerate ; and the ladies of that land are particular nuisances in that way. You perhaps remember a venerable brown-skinned folio that my father used to read upon the Sundays. It was a complete body of Boston's works. I have great pleasure in the perusal of it. It has fomied a morning reading to me for some time ; and I have now got over his " Crook in the Lot" and his " Fourfold State," — both of them very precious, and the latter abounds in very imjjressive j)assages. I, of late, have betaken myself to early rising, getting up every morning at six. This habit will be of great use to me in Edinburgh. My chief anxiety as connected with that place is, on account of Mrs. Chalmers, Avhom I particularly wish to protect from a repeti- tion of that throng and pressure to which Ave were exposed in Glasgow. — Believe me, my dear Jane, yours veiy tnily, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLXV. Edinhurjh, 29fh November 1828. My DEAREST Jane, — I am now in a more amazing bustle than I ever was in my life ; but it being the first month of my resi- dence in Edinburgli, I trust it will subside. I have now a writ- MRS. MORTOX, 213 ten paper in my lobby, shewn by my servant to all and sundry who are making mere calls of attention, which is just telling them, in a civil way, to " gang" about their business. If any- thing will check intrusion, this at length must. I used to have about twelve letters a week in St. Andrews, I have now upwards of fifty, so that I must write you more shortly, though I hope not less frequently than before. Erskine's Essay to Baxter is one of the best things he has written. His last work on " The Freeness of the Gospel" has made a great, and, I trust, a salutary impression on Mrs. Chal- mers. It is exceptionable in regard to the wording of some things ; but altogether, in respect of principle and substance, is unspeakably precious. We have got a governess from St. Andrews for a few months till we know more of Edinburgh ; but our elder girls will take lessons fi'om without by and by. — Believe me, my dear Jane, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLXVI. Penicuick, 11th September 1829. My dearest Jane, — I received yours of the 1st with great tenderness of feeling, in which Mrs. Chalmers abundantly shared. We are both most thankful for the degree of recovery which the Father of mercies has been pleased to confer upon you. He knows your frame, and it is now your part to possess your soul in peace and in patience. Rest in the Saviour. He likes His people to lean upon Him, and to support them when their strength is gone. A day of complete and glorious emancipation is coming, when they who believe in Him shall be loosed from their infirmities, and sin and sorroAv shall be alike unknown. It was, indeed, a severe family visitation that we have been called upon to endure. There is no death that has more sen- sibly moved and aifected me. May the impression be lasting 214 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. and profitable to us all. Tlie poor widow is bearing up wonder- fully, and God will care, I trust, for her and her family. — Believe me, my veiy dear Jane, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLXVII. Edinburgh, 6th October 1832. My dearest Jane, — I have spent a day with the Denbighs. I think much of her ladyship, both in respect of sound intelli- gence and good principles. She evinces great good sense in this, — that while she travels in Scotland, she selects as the appropriate objects of her inquiries, all that is special, and pe- culiar, and characteristic in Scotch theology. She has been in quest of our national and popular authors in this line, and, besides, interests herself with the old points and passages of our ecclesiastical history. I was much pleased with her con- versation as a whole, but with one drawback — felt, I believe, by all parties during more than the first half-hour of our being to- gether : they neither understood readily my Scotch, nor did I understand readily their English. In this respect of mutual understanding I am far better ofi" with the English of London than the English of the provinces ; and accordingly for several hours we got on very ill — I a barbarian to them, and they bar- barians to me. However, it got always the longer the better, especially after we had dined ; and after the whole matter was closed by an act of family worship at their request, I retired from them with the full impression that the barbarous people had treated me with no little kindness. Miss Moreton gave me a sketch which she had made of Mr. Morton — far the most vivid resemblance of a human head and face that I ever saw done with the pencil. Tell mc if you would like to see it, and I shall send it to you on the condition that you return it, as Miss Moreton said she could present you MRS. MORTON. 215 with a similar sketch afterwards. I shewed it to Dr. Welsh, Professor of Church History, and the most enlightened of our jjlircnologists. He pronounced upon it as a very remarkable head, and instanced more especially activity with great shrewd- ness and intellect as among the chief characteristics. If you had any anxiety about it, I could get Dr. Welsh to make a minute study of Mr. Morton's head, with the view of drawing a character. It were a curious experiment as to the soundness of phrenology as a science, besides being interesting in other respects. I observe that Lady Denbigh has some faith in it. — Ever believe me, my dearest Jane, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLXVIII. loth February 1833. My dearest Jane, — These are peaceful times, yet not such as should interfere with that most important of all history, the unseen history of minds re]30sing in the faith of the Saviour, and ripening for heaven under the operation of His sanctifying grace. May such be the prosperous history of you and of yours till we have obtained our secure establishment in the land of everlasting quietness. — Believe me, my dearest Jane, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLXIX. JEdinhurgh, 27th February 1833. My dearest Jane, — I received in due time your sprightly communication, to which I might not have replied so soon, but to express the great interest I feel in your proposed movement to us in summer. Mrs. Chalmers was greatly amused by the new title where- with you have dubbed her. I confess myself to have been re- lieved by the Irish Church Reform Bill, the only flaw in it 216 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. (although that may be one of deadly mischief) being the secu- larization of the sum which they expect from the sale' of Church lands. But you are quite right in possessing your soul in patience and quietness under all the events of Providence, assured always of this, that God reigneth. — Ever believe me, my dearest Jane, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLXX. Edinburgh, 6th June 1833. My dearest Jane, — Since writing you last a letter, which is probably waiting for you at Cupar, I have become wretchedly bilious, and must make another retreat into the countiy. I shall go probably to Kinghorn, and if at all safe or right for me I will venture east for half a day to the hot and confined and dusty town of Kirkaldy. If I am not able for this, you will have, I hope, the candour to put down my non-appearance there to its right cause — even that candour the want of which I fear has incurably distempered the footing on which I stand with some of my nearest relatives and connexions in this world. Oh, when will the system of human intercourse be left to its own free and spontaneous workings, and cease to be a con- strained and hypocritical interchange of jealous exactions and claims of attention upon the one side, of cold, heartless, and formal, but reluctant compliances upon the other ? Give my kindest regards to Catherine, and ever believe me, my dearest Jane, yours most truly and aiFectionately, your bilious and beloved, your stomachic and sentimental, your cholical and cholerical brother, who with sincere good will sub- scribes himself, ever yours, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLXXI. Steamboat between Boston and Lincoln, 29th July 1833. My dearest Jane, — I have been detained a week longer than I expected, and it will be, at least, the middle of August before MRS, MORTON". 217 I reach ScotLand, I beg you will write immediately on receipt of tliis, and let me know your movements. My address, if you write soon enough, is at the Rev. Mr. Gray's of Sunderland. I want particularly to know about what time you purpose to be at Woodhouselee, for it wdll depend upon this whether I shall go first there, or go immediately to Kelton. Few things w^ould give me greater pleasure than some quiet day of converse Avitli you at a distance from bustle, and where w^e could talk over both the prospects of the future and the recollections of other days. I spent yesterday at Boston, where I heard two very cold sermons in the church, but a better one from a clergyman in the evening, also of the Establishment. During the day I was called upon by Mr. Aitken, formerly of Fife, and who tells me that we had met before at a house in Gloucestershire ; he farms in the neighbourhood, and has a visit from Mr. Morton when he comes to Spalding. I had lost my recollection of him — an in- firmity that, I fear, is growing upon me. But we had sufficient points of sympathy in his being a Scotchman, and, withal, brother to George Aitken, an old parishioner of mine. He introduced his son to me, a fine-like lad, who is learning a business at Boston. I hope I am legible in spite of the dinnel of the steamboat. "We are now approaching Lincoln, whose lofty cathedral has a very noble appearance. Our passengers come chiefly from the fens — and amphibious-looking creatures they are, with a dia- lect not very intelligible to me, and a certain degree of shy- ness, which perhaps, however, it is natural for them to observe towards all other land animals. May the God of all comfort stablish you more and more, both in the promises and precepts of the Gospel ; and with kindest regard to Catherine and Mr. and Mrs. M'Clellan, ever believe me, my dearest Jane, yours most truly and affection- ately, TuoMAS Chalmers. T 218 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. No. CLXXII. Norham, 10th August 1833. My dearest Jane, — I have been at Berwick to-day, and I am now at a place eight miles up the Tweed from it. I mean to work my way to Woodhouselee from this by the line of separation between the two countries, and always studying to keep as near to it as I can, with one foot, if possible, in England, and another in Scotland. This will bring me down Liddesdale ; and for night-quarters I mean to chap at every manse-door I can fall in with. I am only soriy that I shall not be able to convoy you homewards, but I will be able I hope to stop with you at Woodhouselee till the 23d. Give my kindest regards to Mr. and Mrs. M'CIellan and Catherine, and ever believe me, my dearest Jane, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLXXIII. Penicuick, 24th June 1834. My dearest Jane, — The doctor prescribes for me one con- tinued holiday all summer, and I mean as much as possible to take his advice. It were well if, in this season of exemption from all strenuous eifort, I could find my rest and refuge in God as the strength of my heart and everlasting portion, having whom all the enjoyments of a world that passeth away might be renounced without a pang. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLXXIV. Penicuick, near Edinhurgh, 25th August 1834. My dearest Jane, — I am grieved to observe by your letter of the 10th that you have suifered so much lately from ill health. Will you let me know in your next which half of your MRS. MORTON. 219 head it was that felt the greatest pain ? Any peculiar symptoms which I feel are on the right of my head and side ; but of late I have become more confident of a full recovery, and do feel that its holiday summer which I have spent, with its exemption from fatigue and ease, has been of great use to me. I am much interested by your aspirations after a nearer conformity to the image of the Saviour, and I desire fully to sympathize with them. It is well to look unto Him as our example, as well as look unto Him as our propitiation. I hold it a remarkable expression, and a remarkable coincidence, that in both of these capacities He is said to be set forth to us, and set forth by God. What a two-fold power of comfort and of direction there is in this ; and if we give earnest heed unto Him in the aspects under which He is set forth unto us, we may rest assured of the promise given to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, even that they shall be filled. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLXXV. Burntiskmd, 21th December 1834. My dearest Jane, — I have come here for a few days during our Christmas vacation, and I gladly avail myself of my first country holiday to answer your affectionate letter of inquiry. I have been engaged in class-Avork for six weeks, and have acquitted myself of it greatly beyond my anticipations. I am much thinner, being now 168 lbs. weight, whereas I at one time was 205 lbs., but muscularly I am as strong as ever ; and as to my head symptoms, noise, hissing, pulsation, accompanied with numbness in my extremities, although they continued with me till within these few days, I am marvellously free of them since I left Edinburgh. On the whole, I think that even my head is knitting with greater strength and soundness again. As to my being a Torj^, I am certainly a Conservative, though 220 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. not in the party, but in the general and ordinaiy sense of the term. I believe that under our late Government the country was drifting fast into a state of anarchy, and I fear that our present administration forms in all human likelihood the last barrier — may it be an effectual one — against a tremendous civil war. But to pass to more satisfactory topics. Have you read Owen on the 130th Psalm ? This is my last great work ; and I would strongly recommend it as eminently conducive to our establishment in that way, which is at once a way of peace and of holiness. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours most truly and affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLXXVI. Burntisland, 20th October 1835. My dearest Jane, — ... In the hope that you will accept of this my contrite acknowledgment, I now proceed to the sub- ject which, whatever the diversity of our tastes or our employ- ments may be in other things, should at all times cement by the feeling of a common interest those who possess as Ave do the doctrines, and I tnist the hopes of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am thankful to say that no reading so occupies and engages me as the biography of those who have made it most their business to prosecute the sanctification of their souls ; and, in particular, let me name the "Life of Sir Matthew Hale," lately published by "Williams, as also Venn's " Memoir and Correspondence." He is the author of the " Complete Duty of Man," which I am now reading, and which, as a practical system of evangelical doctrines and duties, I feel inclined more to re- commend, as a family book for the adult sons and daughters of a family, than any I know. It is now becoming a deep concern with me "to watch over the souls of my children ;" and we both have so strong a common interest in this, that I cannot refrain MRS. MORTON. 221 from mentioning a book which you would do well to encourage tlie perusal of amongst those who are near and dear to you. — I ever am, my dearest Jane, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CLXXVII. Edinlurgh, 18, and Romainc. Their great lesson is, to come unto Christ as we are, instead of waiting for qualifica- tions to come, which, separate from Ilim, we never can arrive at. The proper guard against all abuse of this doctrine is, that when we do come, it should be for a wdiole salvation, for MRS, MORTON. 243 strength as well as pardon, for holiness as well as reconcilia- tion with God. But surely we cannot too soon take up with Him that we may take Him along with us in the prosecution of this lioliness. But the great security for our being right is, that we draw direct from the Bible. May you and yours have the full en- joyment of its exceeding great and precious promises. What a precious chapter the 4tli of Isaiah is ! I feel a growing interest in the Old Testament, where we have the truths of the Christian presented to us in the types of the Jewish dispensation. — I ever am, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. ccni. Edinhurgh, 3d March 1844. My dearest Jane, — I have been sadly remiss in writing you, but such is the number of my students that I am greatly over- driven. I have about three times a greater number of first year's students than I had last year in the University, when l^reparing our young men for the Established Church. I am obliged to teach two classes, and the whole number of my en- rolment is 209. The truth is, that our Free Church has given a great impulse to the ecclesiastical profession ; and young men preparing for business have given it up for the ministry — and these, some of the best I have. Altogether it is the most talented and intellectual, besides, I believe, the most pious and devoted set of students I ever had. Beside the ill health that is annoying you, the transition which you are on the eve of making, away from the situa- tion that Mr. Morton has occupied for thirty years, forms another and a distinct trial. But there is a rich provision both of duties and encouragements in the Bible for all the varieties of human experience. How precious, for example, are the closinsr verses from the 29th to tlie end of the 6th 244 COKRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS, chapter of Matthew. He who says, " I will make all thy bed in thy sickness," says also, in effect, " that as the day comes the provision will come." I believe that never since the day that His promise was uttered, has it failed of accomplishment to a single human creature praying in faith that it might be verified upon him. It is remarkable how our Saviour restricts the period for which He allows us to feel thoughtful within certain limits, and forbids us so to feel for a single hour beyond the next midnight. Matt. vi. 34. But it deserves to be remarked, that the proper translation for " take no thought," is " be not thoughtful ;" the same in the original, as Phil. iv. 6, " be not careful," and it is so translated in Matthew too, in the older English translations of our Scripture. We are allowed to take thought on the subject of a provision for our families ; nay, our not doing so is denounced as a highly cri- minal neglect, 1 Tim. v. 8. Only in so providing and casting our thoughts onward, we must not suffer our minds to be corroded or distracted from God and godliness, by an excessive or distempered care, (1 Cor. vii. 32,) but cast all our care upon God Avho careth for us. The upshot of this whole argument is, that while we have no warrant to pray for a fortune, or for more than what is need- ful for the body, we have every assurance that if we pray for daily bread — for day by day our daily bread — according to the faith of this our prayer, so most certainly shall it be done unto us. My kindest regards to Mr. Morton, Anno^ Catherine, and all the others. I rejoice in the success of John's paper. — I ever am, my dearest Jane, yours most affectionately, ' Thomas Chalmers. No. CCIV. Morningside, Edinburgh, 15th September 1844. My dearest Jane, — My illness arose from over occupation, and I have been forced to give much of it up. Matters were MRS. MORTON, 245 fast hastening to such an attack as I experienced ten years ago, and which laid me aside for a good many months. I am getting greatly better of my retirement and repose, but have quite the feeling, that were I to plunge again among the end- less details and tracasseries which have so engrossed me for a long time, I should just be where I was again. In these circumstances, my clear policy and duty are, to take things easily. Did you ever see one of the Kelso Tracts entitled, " Believe and Live V I have mislaid my copy, else I should have sent it to you. It makes so patent the perfect freeness and simpli- city of the gospel ; it would confirm you much in the habit of which you tell me in your last, when you say you are obliged to " be still." The little work I speak of is eminently fitted to minister great peace and joy in believing. It supplies you with a basis which you may at once lean upon — interpos- ing nothing between the Word of the Creator and the reliance of the creature. As He speaks, so you believe. As His word is, so your faith is ; and when positioned thus, then do we ex- perience that " in quietness and in confidence we shall have strength." Let us keep fast this confidence, and the rejoicing of our hope, even unto the end. — Yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCV. Edinburgh, Morningside, llih Novemher 1844. My very dear Jane, — I am glad you have read the tract " Believe and Live." Some complain of its being too free ; I can only say that nothing short of such gospel freeness as it represents would come up to the exigencies of my own state : nothing short of the appropriating faith which can say that Jesus loved me and gave himself for me ; — a faith which, the stronger and more assured it is, will be all the more fruitful in grateful and devoted obedience. 246 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. My session has commenced. I have somewhat less to do than I had ; but my strength is proportionally less. We have all been labouring too much in the Free Church, but I hope are learning wisdom in this respect. — Yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCVI. Edinburgh, Morningside, 5th Jammry 1845. My dearest Jane, — I have deferred too long my reply to yours of the 22d November. Let me now send you the remem- brances of the season, and the assurance of my earnest desire and prayer for you and yours. We are all in average health at present ; only Mrs. Hanna alarms us somewhat by the ob- stinacy of her cold. She and her son, little Tommy, who is a very fine fellow indeed, spend the winter with us. I was truly concerned to hear of Catherine's illness, and shall be interested to hnow how she is. May the repeated intimations of the precariousness of all earthly comforts lead us to set our affec- tions, and also to labour and pray that the affections of our children may be set on things above. I am reading with great interest a recent work, " Elliot on the Apocalypse." It is a learned, and critical, and, I think, very complete work. I look on prophetical studies as veiy confirming, though I hold as of first importance a Bible read- ing, and practical books that may influence the heart on the side of practical Christianity. — With kindest regards to Mr. Morton, Catherine, Anne, Lucy, John, and Thomas, in which all here join, ever believe me, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCVII. Edinburgh, Morningside, ith 3Iay 1845. My dearest Jane, — This is a very sad and sorrowful bereavement. Death, though long looked for, is always sure MRS. MORTON. 247 to stvike and to solemnize at tlie last ; and what an enhance- ment of affliction when it tears away the object of a long cherished affection, and desolates the heart under the breach of one of the nearest and dearest of all earthly relationships. I was greatly moved by the brief effusions both of your Anne and Lucy on the mournful occasion — different in charac- ter, but the outpourings of such a grief as our blessed Saviour hath sanctioned and exemplified in His own person, both when He wept at the tomb of Lazarus and when by the mouth of His apostle He bade the disciples who were in heaviness from the loss of their friends, to sorrow not even as others which have no hope. And what a precious alleviation to think of the faith and piety of dear Catherine, of whom I am thoroughly per- suaded that she slept in Jesus, and so has added one attrac- tion more to the place of glory and blessedness above. May we who are left behind be followers of them who, through faith and patience, are now inheriting the promises ; and may the sorrow of nature be ripened and transformed into that godly sorrow which worketli repentance unto salvation never to be repented of I have often spoken of it as a signal instance of God's for- bearance and mercy, that though now in the thirty-third year of my family life. He has been pleased to spare me hitherto the pain of a family death — none such having yet occurred in a single instance within the limits of my own household, even indeed since I was the master of a house, which is forty-two years ago, having entered the manse of Kilmany in May 1803. What a fearful reckoning and responsibility does this bring me under. Let me no longer despise the forbearance and long- sufiering of God ; but watching over the souls of those for wdiom I have to account, let us henceforth, both for them and for ourselves, labour to realize an interest in Him who alone hicth the words, and who alone hath the gift of life everlasting. 248 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. This sad event has saddened and solemnized all the relation- ship here. Grace, I know, will be greatly affected by it. She left us a few days ago, along with Fanny ; and they are now at Fairley in Ayrshire. Mrs. Hanna is in that neighbourhood at present, and in the meantime better. But both she and Eliza have had symptoms which make me feel the precariousness of all that is earthly. Indeed, my own personal feelings ought to be sufficient remembrances for me. I am now more than half way from sixty to seventy ; and certain it is, that though free of any specific complaint, there has been a general decay of strength during the last year, which tells me that I should forthwith set my house in order, and be in readiness for the coming of the Lord. But this readiness is a duty which lies upon all of ever}" age and condition ; and may the death over which we have been called to mourn bring the lesson forcibly home to us. May the event be sanctified and blessed to all your family. Though in itself not joyous but grievous, may it yield to you and yours the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Let us stand, my dear Jane, more disengaged than ever from a world that will soon pass away ; and with the feeling that we are strangers and pilgrims here, let our doings plainly declare that we seek a country beyond the grave — that our affections are set on the things which are above — that we are looking forward to a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. — Ever believe me, my very dear Jane, yours most affectionately and truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCVITI. Edinhirgh, \Wh October 1845. My dearest Jane, — I observe from your letter of the 1st, that you still dwell on the thoughts of your dear Catherine, and I would not forbid this ; mellowed and mixed up as these MRS. MORTON, 249 thoughts are with the sustaining hope that you will meet her again. The Gospel does not lay an interdict upon your sorrow, though it would dissuade you against being swallowed up of too much grief. But you have fled to the best refuge ; and He who is touched with the fellow-feeling of our infirmities, knows how to adapt His succour to the necessities of all who trust in Him. It is a shifting world ; and I see more and more of its vanity and precariousness. I can understand the sentiment of Job, that I would not live alway ; that is, alway here. The old patriarch knew that his Redeemer liveth ; and let us com- fort ourselves with the blessed assurance, that because He liveth we shall live also. Let us verify the experience of the apostle who said, that " Christ liveth in me," and then shall Ave live a life of faitli on the Son of God. When you write Mrs. Heskine remember me to her and also to Miss Bliss in the kindest manner. I should like to have a place not only in the recollections but in the prayers of these good people. I get an occasional note from Mrs. Blackwell — the effusion of a spirit breathing the utmost affection for all that is good and aspiring, I have no doubt, Godward and Heavenward. Last month I went to Anster, where, in Mr. Ballardie's house, I married Mr. Couper of Burntisland, one of our Free Churcli ministers, to Miss Williamson. I took up my night-quarters at Barnsmuir for two nights — was loaded with kindness by the two Mr. Fortunes, the sons of Christian Rankine — met witli Mrs. Watson, who came down from Leuchars on purpose to be with me ; and we indulged together in the affecting reminis- cences of forty-five years back. I learned much from her and Miss Menzies (still there) of the deathbed both of Mrs. Fortune and Mrs. Brown, Christian and Anne Rankine. — Kindest re- gards to all, and ever believe me, ray dearest Jane, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. 250 CORRESPONDEN'CE OF DR. CHALMERS, [Captain Rankine of Barnsmuir had three daughters : the eldest, Chrio- tian, married to Mr. Fortune ; the second, Anne, married to the Rev. Mr. Brown of Kilrenny ; the third, Susan, married to the Rev. Mr. Watson, minister of Leuchars, a parish not far from Kilmany. The following series of letters is addressed to different members of this much loved family, — See "Memoirs," vol. iv. p. 441.] No. CCIX.— To THE Rev. Mr, Watson. Kilmany Manse, \Q>tli December 1814. My dear Sie, — Agreeably to a promise I made to Mrs. V/atson, whose interest in the matter I feel myself much in- debted to, I have to inform you that I have at length sent a letter of concurrence in my late appointment to one of the churches of Glasgow. The prospect of my departure gives me a greater tenderness than ever for all my friends, and especially do I feel a very deep interest in all those clergymen who are placed around my much-loved and much-regretted parish. Were I taking leave of the world I would feel myself released from all those delicacies which are so apt to restrain the con- verse of human beings upon their greatest concern. Now I feel something of the same kind of emancipation upon merely leaving the neighbourhood, and you will therefore bear with me when I express the pleasure I have often felt in witnessing the decided tendency of your mind towards pure and Scriptural Christianity. It is my earnest prayer that you may abound more and more ; that you may obtain grace to be found faith- ful ; that you may be enabled manfully to hold forth the "Word of Life in the midst of all the contempt and resistance it may meet with ; and that rising superior to all the disgust which the peculiarities of the Christian faith excites in the unrenewed heart, you may give a single and well-sustained aim to the great work of fitting a people for eternity. May God pour down such a blessing on your parish that there may not be REV. MR. WxVTSON. 251 room to receive it ; but that flowing over into other parishes, it may prove a leaven for good bejond the field of your imme- diate exertions. Give the assurance of my friendship and my prayers to Mrs. Watson. She has been beyond measure kind and indulgent to me, and I have eveiy reason to be thankful for the privilege of her countenance and society. Let her persevere in seeking earnestly after the way of peace, and she will find it. God never said to any " Seek my face in vain \" and if she betake herself to the guidance of His Spirit, and the faithful reading of His Word, she will find all the perplexities which darken the outset of eveiy anxious and inquiring Christian to merge at length in the delightful sunshine of a mind resting upon the promises of God, and running with enlargement and pleasure in the way of all His commandments. — May she long live witli you as a fellow-heir of tlie grace of life ; ma}'' the influence of her example be felt and followed by all her relations ; may her children rise and call her blessed ; may she have a part in the resurrection of the just, and be a bright and shining star in that heavenly region where there is no sorrow and no separa- tion.— Yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. OCX.— To THE Kev. Mr. Watson. Glasgow, 2&th January 1818. My dear Sir, — Though it be long since I received your last letter, and I have since seen you personally, yet I assure you that I have too much value for a friendly connexion with you and your relations to let down our correspondence. I was much pleased and impressed with the contents of your last communication, in as far as they went to exhibit your own earnest desire for a warmer spirit of Christianity in your neigh- bourhood, though I fear that your representation of it in this 252 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. respect is but too just ; that the most satisfactory thing that can he said of it is, that all is comfort and quiet in the enjoy- ment of the good things of this life. How strikingly does this express the prevailing character of all neighbourhoods in our land ; how much does an interest in time predominate every- where over any interest in eternity ; how little, alas ! do the objects of the latter excite a real earnestness and a real seeking after them ; and how faithfully do I describe the heart of every natural man when I say, that it is altogether occupied with the cares, and the interests, and the objects of the world to the exclusion of Him who fonned it. The great problem is, how to set up this in our own souls and in those of our neighbourhood ; and I am sure that no truth comes more forcibly recommended to us by all experienced in the utter powerlessness of man in this business. Our faith stands not in his wisdom, but in the power of God. And this truth, instead of quelling our activity, ought just to give the right direction to it — even that of preach- ing His Gospel, or dealing out as faithful stewards the treasure which He has been pleased to put into earthen vessels ; and praying in faith for a blessing from Him who alone giveth the increase under all the discouragements there of an unpromising soil. Know that your labour in the Lord shall not be in vain, and forget not the maxim which a devoted missionary, Elliot, transmitted to us as the fruit of his own experience, " that prayers and pains can do anything," &c. I cannot express to you how much I feel interested in the best concerns, both of yourself and of dear Mrs. Watson. I spent an evening with much enjoyment lately at Pilmuir. God grant that all of us may so believe and so abound in those fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, that we may be found to praise, and honour, and glory in the day of reckoning. — Yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. MRS. WATSON. 253 No. CCXI.— To Mr. Fortune. Glasgow, 1823. My dear Sir, — I have just received your most distressing- intimation, the more severe as it was wholly unexpected. In Mrs. Fortune I have lost one of the most intimate and most in- teresting associates of my early life, and I received the intelli- gence of her death as a solemn and affecting admonition offered to my own heart of the vanity of all that is below. I beg that you will compose your feelings under the over- whelming dispensation ; and still more do I entreat, that from the tomb of her that is nearest and dearest to you, you will hear that voice of wisdom which bids us cease from time, and give all our hopes and preparations to eternity. It is my earnest prayer that this awful visitation may work a saving and a sanctifying influence, both to your own heart and to the hearts of those related to her and most interesting to myself May this deep sorrow shut us all up unto Him who alone can open for us the gates of that city where sin and suf- fering and separation are unknown. Do remember me in the language of truest sympathy to Mrs. Rankine, Mrs. Watson, and Mrs. Brown. — 1 am, my dear Sir, yours veiy sincerely, Thomas Cualmers. No. CCXII.— To Mrs. Watson. Glasgow, 9th Jane 1823. My dear Madam, — I have recently heard, and with great tenderness and grief, of the increased illness of poor Mrs. Brown. I think much of the dear sufferer, and it is my cry and prayer to God that she may be upheld in the sore struggle through which God is pleased to bring her to Himself ; that grace may prevail over nature, and her affliction — which, after all, is light in the high reckoning of eternity, because but for a moment — 254 COKKESPONDENCE OF DE. CHALMERS. may indeed work out for her an exceeding weiglit of glory. In her and in Mrs. Fortune I feel that two of my most interesting ties with Fife are broken ; and I do feel more solicitous than ever that you should spare yourself as well as you can the agitations of that trying scene where you are now called to watcli and to witness the agonies of one who is in every way so dear to us all. Tliore is a text that perhaps Mrs. Brown might feel a precious- ness in ; it is Deuteronomy xxxii. 36. It uj)lield the peace and patience of one of my old hearers on his deathbed. He had lost the power almost of thinking, and felt that the sickness and the pain made such inroads upon his mind that he could not be satisfied with any of its exercises ; and so he simply laid it all upon God. He ceased even to try a right process of meditation, but lay still in a sort of resigned abeyance, hoping at the same time, that though his powers of thought, and senti- ment, and even prayer, were altogether gone, yet God's power and God's pity were unfailing. There is a song of triumph that awaiteth all those who die in Christ, and have come out of great tribulation ; and even here the rapture and the glory of it may be partially felt ; it is " unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His blood." Oh, there is a charm in the thought of its cleansing and peace-speaking power, and that by it the way of access for the guilty is now a consecrated way — consecrated by the blood of a Divine expiation — and in which if we are found, the jus- tice of God will not overtake us, and His mercy will rejoice over us. I should be sorry to f^itigue the mind of your much-loved sister by too great a variety of topics. One text may perhaps be her aliment for hours together. One precious clause is often enough to uphold a dying Christian, and more might distract and annoy her. When Fletcher died, it was after many hours MRS. WATSOX. 255 of spiritual exultation, tlirougli which he constantly reiterated that " God is love/' Say all that is tender in my name to her on whom the hand of God has been laid. He will at length compass her about with songs of deliverance, and the merciful High-priest, touched with the feeling of her infirmities, saitli unto her, " It is I, be not afraid." — Believe me, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXni.-To Mrs. Watson. Glasgow, dth July 1823. My very dear Madam, — The intimation from Kilrenny Manse reached us on Saturday, and aroused a deep emotion among us all. though we could not but feel relieved by the thought, that so great sufferings had terminated. After all they are but for a moment, and will now be looked back upon by the glorified spirit as the instruments of her present complete purification — as the steps by which she hath reached her present advancement in heaven. I have now only to entreat that you and Mrs Rankine will be calm. Be still, and know- that He who visited you with this sore bereavement is God. It is not the violence of your grief that 1 fear : it is its de- spondency ; and therefore would I have you to bear up — to take such part, as health and strength will enable you to do, in the cares and duties of every-day life ; and instead of giving way to overmuch sorrow, be assured that the calls of family and relative obligation are partly the provisions of a kind and wise Ruler for diverting the mind from that which, if singly and exclusively dwelt upon, might overbear it altogether. And what a season, too, for growth in grace — for the fruits of the spirit — for that righteousness which the chastening hand of God yieldeth unto all those who are exercised thereby. Your hearts are now exceeding soft, and tender, and broken 256 COKRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. under an awful visitation of Divine Providence, and they offer a likely soil for the showers and influences of Divine grace. The sorrow of nature is not godly sorrow, hut it may be turned to it ; and now is the time for deep impressions of the worth- lessness of time, of the vast magnitude of eternal things, of the evil of sin, of the value of the Saviour, of the exceeding urgency of that gospel call whereby we are entreated to seek God now, and to enter into reconciliation with Him through Christ, that we too may be provided against that day when we shall be summoned into His presence, and that other day when we shall stand before his judgment-seat. And what an alleviation to your present sorrows, that you are not called upon to sorrow as others who have no hope ; that, on that deathbed which you have so recently witnessed, there was a brightness and a glory which softened all its agonies ; that, amid the cruel sufierings of the flesh, there was a Spirit that bore up her on whom God was pleased to lay the hand of a refiner ; and that, in her case, death was disarmed of its terrors and its sting, and she was more than conqueror through Him who loved her. We must now give up all thoughts of the world as a resting- place. It will mitigate the evil when it comes, that we lay our account with it. Forewarned, forearmed — we should not think that any strange thing has happened to us ; and I know nothing that more lightens the hardships of life, and more reconciles us to them, than that previous settlement of mind which a faith in this prediction of our Saviour is fitted to in- spire,— " In the world ye shall have tribulation." There are no deaths which could have carried home this lesson with greater energy to my own heart than the two which have occurred in your family. I desire to find that I am sanctified, even as I feel that I am solemnized, by them. May they shut us all up more closely and more tenaciously MRS. WATSON. 257 unto tlie faitli ; and walking softly and tenderly under the im- pression throughout the remainder of our pilgrimage, may Ave retain to the end of our days the attitude of strangers and pilgrims who have not taken up wdth the Avorld as a residence, but use it merely as a road. Give my most affectionate condolence to Mrs. Rankine and poor Mr. Brown. — I remain, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXIV.— To Mes. Watson. Skirling, 2lst September 1845. My very dear Mrs. Watson, — I feel deeply sensible of your goodness in having joined me at Barnsmuir, as it added pro- digiously to the interest and the enjoyment I felt in my visit to the place of my tenderest recollections. . When in Kilrenny churchyard, I was so engrossed with the tablet appropriated to dear Anne, that I have carried away an imperfect remembrance of that which Avas raised for Mr. BroAvn. I saAv enough of it, hoAA'OA'er, to observe that it Avas placed there by the parochial community as a tribute and acknowledgment for the great Avorth of his Christian services in the midst of them. I omitted, in the variety of our other topics, to state the \'ery great satisfaction which I felt in such a testimony to his devotedness as a minister of the gospel. I cannot expect, nor Avould I dare to ask, for a sight of any of Mrs. Fortune's letters, hoAvever intense the feeling might be on my perusal of them. But there is one request Avhich I have the boldness to make, and which I flatter myself that you Avill not deny. You stated that there were certain texts or passages of Scripture to AAdiich Mrs. BroAvn often referred in the course of her last illness. If you have any memorials of them, I cannot adequately express the value I Avould feel for a list of Y 258 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. tliem. You would not need to write tliem out. The chapter and verses will he sufficient. I shall, if God will, have returned to Edinburgh hy the 1st of October, after which a letter from you would be tinily acceptable. Give my love to your daughters,* and kindest regards to Mr. Watson. I entreat a place in your praj^ers. I hope we shall meet in heaven ; but let us never forget, that without holiness no man can see God. I purpose writing to Mr. William Fortune in a week. Since I have retired from public business, and have some leisure for looking back on my chequered existence, the scenes and society of Barnsmuir form those parts of the distant retrospect on which I most love to repose. — My dearest Susan, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXV.— To Mrs. Watson. Edinlmrgh, 23d October 1845. My VERY DEAR Friend, — I must delay no longer to acknow- ledge your very welcome letter with the packet I received from your daughters, and for the contents of which I have the greatest value, both the testimony to one wdiom I never can forget or think of without emotion, and the letter from Kilrenny, with your own precious notes respecting the last illness of her who obviously died in the triumphs of the faith. The jjicture you sent is superior to that at Barnsmuir, and in some respects more impressive ; but there are in it a force, and vivacity, and decision which, though at the distance of a thousand miles from aught that borders on the masculine, yet are not so true to the original as the other, which presents, I think, a more faithful exhibition of that sensitively and ex- * I forget if Christiaa has Rankine also in her name. MRS. WATSOX, 259 quisitcly feminine expression whicli formed the peculiar cliarm and grace of her character. It were well if these tender reminiscences of the distant past led us onward in thought to the much nearer futurity which now awaits us both. My God, do Thou sanctify these strong affec- tions of nature, and raise them to the things which are above, so that we may be prepared for that heaven where our dear and blessed Saviour has gone before us, and where we may both love Him and love our fellows without frailty and without a flaw. I have written William,* and scarcely looked for a reply. He has not written back, and this is very natural : he must not be urged to write, it must be done spontaneously, and this is much better. There is in my heart a derived and descending love from the mother to the children, which I feel a pleasure in cherishing, though you are the only person in the world with whom I could talk about it. I felt a comfort and relief in our recent conversations, and am not without hope that ere another twelvemonth elapse we may have the same opportunity for the same enjoyment. Meanwhile let us pray for the souls of these dear youth. George I look upon as an altogether new acquaintance, and I think him a very likeable person. Give my best regards to Mr. Watson, and also to the Misses Marianne and Christian, whom I had pleasure in meeting and conversing with. If Miss Brown be with you, present to her my kindest remembrances. My winter campaign is on the eve of commencing, and I gladly anticipate its engrossments by these few lines to you. No bustle, however, of other affairs will lessen the interest I shall always feel in your communications, nor I hope prevent my rejilying to them however briefly. I pray for a blessing upon your own soul. Heavenly Father, * Mrs. Fortune's eldest son. See p. 261. 260 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. save me from being deceived by the mere couiiteifeits or sem- blances of Divine grace. May my love for my fellows be genu- ine heaven-born spiritual love — sucli a love to my brethren as is like unto the love of Thyself Let us feel towards each other as fellow-travellers to eternity ; and though, reverting to the dear and long-deiDarted object of my fondest recollections, I have not lived wdth her in one mansion, may I share with her in one blessed resurrection, and join her among the choirs and companies of the celestial above. I like Miss "Watson's idea of getting a copy of the picture ; but before that, I wish to compare it with the one at Barns- muir. I think a compound of the tw^o -would be as perfect as a black profile can be. You are very good to allow me the custody of yours, which I purpose, if God will, to return into your own hand. With earnest prayer for every blessing on the head of my very dear sister and friend, I ever am, yours most affec- tionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXVL— To Mrs. Watson. Burntisland, \st Fehriianj 1846- My very dear Mrs. Watson, — I received yours of two or three weeks back, and read it with much feeling and pleasure. I should have replied sooner, but am at all times much bustled, and therefore I am glad to avail myself of a few leisure mo- ments here, for the purpose of acknowledging your kind favour. It is no ordinary recollection that I have of Barnsmuir, and should rejoice if through grace and w^isdom from above, it could be made to subserve that highest of all good which has fruit in eternity. We are strangely compounded creatures ; and much do I need a sanctifying influence to spiritualize the strong affec- tions of nature, and give a right and holv direction to them. MR. FORTUNE. 261 I feel the powerlessness of all human argument ; and know not if I have made any good impression on the son of her who occupies far the most interesting place in my retrospect of days long gone by. I was favoured with a reply in which I could discern talent and good feeling and intelligence. May the all-powerful Spirit grant what He and He alone can give — the unction which remaineth — the grace which has fruit and holiness, and in the end life everlasting. My best regards to Mr. Watson and your dear daughters. I am quite uncertain of my movements this summer. I had a letter from Jane lately, who says hoAv much she was interested by my accounts of Barnsmuir, and how delighted she would have been to meet you there. I saw Miss Inglis lately, who tells me that Miss Menzies was better. — My dearest Mrs. "Watson, yours very affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXVn.— To Mk. William Fortune. Edinburgh, btli October 1845. My dear Sir, — I meant to have written much sooner and told how greatly I was impressed by my visit to Barnsmuir. You may not be able to enter into all the feelings which are associated in my mind with the tender recollections of half a century. They were powerfully awakened when I stood before the tomb of your aunt in the churchyard of Kilrenny, and have just now been revived with tenfold force by the perusal of cer- tain documents which have been kindly put into my hand, and from which I have gathered particulars new to myself, but most deeply affecting, relative to the death of Mrs. Bi-own, and to that of your dear mother, for whom I have cherished during the long period of fifty-five years, such regards and remem- brances as can never be effaced. You will forgive me, then, if under a near and urgent and 202 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. practical sense of the realities of an eternal tliougli unseen world, I implore both you and your brother whom I love, not to suffer the evanescent objects or interests of time, to shut out from your hearts the solemn considerations of the coming judg- ment and the coming eternity. I have now come to that period of life when I may be said to be hovering on the confines of both worlds. I can attest from experience the vanities and dis- appointments of earth, and tliat truly it is not here wliere the firm footing of our interest lies. The dear brother who, though younger than yourself, has yet gone before you, has left behind the lesson, not only that time is short, but that we know not how short. The two sisters, loveliest of women, who died within a few months of each other, died more than twenty years ago, and yet were both of them my juniors. The lessons of our common mortality, though not yet within the circle of my own immediate family, yet within the circle of a very wide acquaint- anceshiji, have flown thick about me ; and such is my affection for your now long departed relatives — such my affection both for you and your brother for their sakes, that I entreat you not to make a resting-place of that earth which passeth speed- ily away, but to aspire Godward and Heavenward, and be the followers of tliose who through faith and j)atience are now in- heriting the promises. And do not think, my dear Sir, that that knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, which is life everlasting, is something so lofty and mysterious as to be beyond the reach of your attainments. The Bible, if read Avith diligence, and the Spirit given to pour light upon the Bible, if prayed for with sincerity and earnest- ness, these are the greaj: agencies and means by which even the poorest and humblest of men might be made wise unto sal- vation. And there are other helps beside the Scriptures not to be neglected, for by them we might be the better enabled to un- derstand the Scriptures. But tastes and understandings are MR. FORTUNE. 2G3 'various, and the books suited to some are comparatively useless to others. The human author who did me most good was Wil- berforce, by his Avork on the " Christianity of the Higher and Middle Classes." And yet I know some who felt no interest in this book, though some of the following might perhaps prove more impressive and profitable, — Baxter's " Call to the Uncon- verted ;" Alleine's " Alarm ;" Doddridge's " Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul ;" Baxter's " Compassionate Counsel to Young Men ;" Guthrie's " Trial of a Saving Interest in Christ ;" Bradley's " Sermons," &c. But, after all, let me state in a single sentence what the likeliest expedient is for passing out of darkness into the marvellous light of the Gospel. It is the PRAYERFUL READING OF THE BiBLE. " Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think that ye have eternal life, and these are they which testify of Him who is the way, and the truth, and the life ;" and ask for God's enlightening Spirit : " Ask till ye receive, seek till ye find, knock till the door be opened to you," (Matt, vii, 7-11.) Do indulge these overflowings of a heart which feels the strongest interest in one and all of your dearest mother's family. 0 that God would endow me with the wisdom for arousing your souls ; and that His Holy Spirit poured forth upon us from on high would prepare us for an entrance on that exalted region, where the spirits of the just made perfect rejoice for ever in the presence of God. Give my kindest regards to Mr. George and Miss Menzies. Tell her that our interviews and conversations, though brief, w^ere to me very precious, and that the memory of them is sweet. They have left a sorrow behind them, and given me an intense desire for her comfort under the loss of that dear youth to whom she was a second mother. — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours w^ith most cordial and sincere regard, Thomas Chalmers. 264 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. [The Manse of Inchture, \Qth November 1850. — Dear Sir, — On looking over some of my old papers some time ago, among a number of letters from Dr. Chalmers to different members of my family, I found the following to my father, -which I think as interesting as any given in the first volume, and which I am about to co\>j verbatim, leaving you to make any use of it you like. That you may understand it, it is only necessary for me to say, that the occasion of it must have been an application on the part of my father for Dr. Chalmers's influence on his behalf, with the view of obtaining the presentation to the parish of Bendochy, then vacant, and which he ulti- mately succeeded in doing, mainly through the exertions of the late George Kinloch, Esq. of Kinloch, who was a particular friend of my father's. The attachment alluded to was that for my mother, the eldest daughter of Dr. Adamson, first or senior minister of St. Andrews, to whose influence I have heard Dr. Chalmers say he was mainly indebted for his presentation to Kilmany. Indeed, I have a letter before me to my mother, in which the Dr. says, — " seeing it was to your father I stood indebted for the first great preferment of my life." This obligation Dr. Chalmers seems never to have forgotten, as it is again and again alluded to in his letters not only to my father and mother, but also to myself : and I remember his giving fre- quent expression to it in his intercourse with my mother, as well as to his desire that he could in any way return it, so late as in 1831. Among other efforts to carry this desire into effect, there was none which gave a finer or more striking token of its intensity than that attention he paid my mother on her deathbed, when almost every day for six weeks, in the busiest period of, I think, his first session in Edinburgh as Professor of Divinity, he visited and prayed, and did what he could to comfort spiritually our dying parent, and my brother and myself, in the prospect of our bereave- ment. I beg to be kindly remembered to Mrs Hanna. — Yours most faith- fully, John Adamsox Honey. The Rev. W. llannn, LL D., of Free St. John's, Ediuburgli.J No. CCXVIII.— Letter to Eev. Mr. Honey.* Kilmany Manse, 2d May 1812. My dear Sir, — I this day arrived from Dundee, and found your letter waiting me. The wax has effaced the date of it ; * Sec Alonioirs, vol. i. pp. 43G-435. REV. MR. HONEY. 265 but I am sorry tliat a single day should have been lost in so urgent a cause. I guess a letter to be the most impressive form of application to Mr. Morison, and have accordingly written him to write Mr. Kinloch. I have no acquaintance with Mr. Chalmers in Dundee, but propose being there on Monday, when I shall speak to my only two acquaintances there, and shall try to reach him through one or other of these channels. I shall give you an account of the last three years, and leave you to judge whether my conduct is at all palliated by the circumstances. I took ill in May 1809, got so well in July as to spend the summer in Anster a-sea-bathing : took ill again in October, and was thirty-one weeks kept out of my pulpit : spent great part of another summer at Anster, and from November 1810 to September 1811, was confined with a pupil, besides being in such a state of health that every excur- sion I made from my own bed, and from my own regimen, was sure to land me in the confinement of a Aveek or a fort- night. I am now better — greatly better ; and now that I have got something like health, my wish is to keep it, and not to throw it away. I am bilious to a great degree, and nothing but the most scrupulous attention to regimen and exercise can keep it down. Amid all this, I had projected at different times an excur- sion to your house, and still persist in my intention of paying you a visit. I was sorry by the way that I missed your call at Kilmany. I often think of you, have as warm and friendly recollections of you as ever, and rejoice in the prospect of being relieved from one painful contemplation, which I assure you is often present to me, viz., my sitting in a place where you, hitherto unprovided, would most assuredly have been, had your boldness in declaring a certain attachment been equal to the sincerity with which you conceived and the constancy with which you maintained it. z 266 COKRESPONDENCE OF BR. CHALMERS. I am glad, that while you intimate your having lieard of me in the new capacity of a serious man, you offer to keep me in countenance. It is the dread of being laughed at which keeps men from announcing themselves ; and I hope that you will be superior to it. Have you read Foster's " Essays ? " — the best book I have seen for effecting a transition from the school of elegant literature to the school of the New Testament. Read Wilberforce's " View of Religion in the Middling and Higher Classes,'' and Doddridge's " Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul." Embark with energy in this new career, and you will find it the most splendid and animating you have ever tried ; nor can I see upon any principle, even of philosophy, how we can stop till we have found our conclusion and our repose in the peculiar doctrines of the gospel. — Give my kind- est regards to Mrs. Honey ; and believe me, yours with much regard, Thomas Chalmers. Let me add to the above Fuller's " Comparative View of Socinianism and Calvinism." i\r, B. — I kept this letter open till I received Mr. Morison's answer, which I hereby enclose for the purpose of your making any use of it with Mr. Kinloch that may seem right. The Rev. John Honey, Care of Adam Adamson, Esq., Academy, Perth. [Dear Sir, — The letter, a copy of which I enclose, is interesting, not only because of its intrinsic merits, but on account of its exhibiting the germs of those schemes of Christian philanthropy which the writer after- wards developed, and prosecuted with such unwearied zeal and such remarkable success. In his diary he speaks of having brought his pam- phlet on the Bible Society to a close, on the 22d of September. He seems afterwards to have been much occupied with the business of Church Courts, and has several entries which show the mortification he experienced at the FIFE AND KINROSS BIBLE SOCIETY. 267 resolution which the Synod adopted, and the earnestness with which he prayed for grace to direct and sustain him ; but there is no notice taken of his writing this letter. If we had not had the document before us, we might have been led to infer from no entry having been made on the 20th October — that that day had been spent in leisure and recreation. This letter may, therefore, be considered a proof that the account contained in his diary, ample as it is, exhibits only a part of the intellectual labour in which he engaged. — I remain, yours truly, James Brodie. To the Rev. Wm. Hanna.] No. CCXIX. — Letter to the Secretaries of the Fife and Kinross Bible Society. Kilmany Manse, 2()th October 1813. Dear Sirs, — I have been very much to blame in delaying an answer to your last. I was otherwise a good deal occupied. I beg you will not slavishly adhere to every word of the sub- joined. It is perhaps too long, and retrenchments from it to make room for paragraphs of your own or others may be ad- visable. You should all mention at the foot of it, that if any shall wish to form Penny Societies in their neighbourhood, they may obtain the requisite information by corresponding with any person or persons whom you shall fix upon for that purpose. In pleading the cause of any institution, the great question which it lies upon us to answer is, What good will it do ? The object of the Bible Society is to provide Bibles for those who have them not ; and the most effectual answer to the above question is, the assembling together a few facts to shew the good which this has done. 1. Our first fact goes to prove that the Christianity of the Bible gains a readier access into the hearts of the ignorant than the Christianity of sermons, and systems, and human compositions. When missionaries went to Greenland, you may be sure they had the ignorance of a most raw and unfurnished population to contend with. They thought they would go 268 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. systematically to work, and, before laying before them the religion of the Bible, they attempted to give them some ideas of what has been called Natural Religion. They expatiated on the existence, and the unity, and the attributes, and the love of God. The poor Greenlanders did not comprehend them ; and, at the end of many years, the missionaries were mortified to find that they had not gained a single proselyte to the faith. On this they resolved to change their measures, and, as a last desperate experiment, they gave up all their preparatory instruc- tions, and made one great and immediate step to the peculiar doctrines of Christianity, bringing them forward in the language of the Bible. The effect was instantaneous. When told of sin and of the Saviour, the ears of savages were constrained to listen to the message, and their understandings opened to receive it. There was something in the hearts of these unlettered men which responded to the views and tidings of the Gospel. The demonstrations of natural religion fell fruitless and unintel- ligible upon their ears ; but they felt the burdens of sin and of death, and pleasant to their souls was the preacher's voice, when it told that unto them " a Saviour was born." They live in the very outskirts of population, and beyond them there is nothing seen but a wilderness of snow, and nothing heard but the angry howling of the elements. Who will say that the enterprise is chimerical now, when, by the single influence of Bible doctrine, a Christian peoj^le have been formed in a country so unpromising — the limits of the visible church have been pushed forwards to the limits of human existence, and the tidings of good-will to men have been carried with acceptance to the very last and outermost of the species. 2. Our next example shall be taken from the Esquimaux of Labrador — a rude and wandering race, who hunt for furs all summer, and live all winter in caverns under ground. In this case, as in the former, missionaries laboured among them in the FIFE AND KINKOSS BIBLE SOCIETY. 269 first instance. Tliey communicated to tlieir hearts an interest in the subject. They translated portions of Scripture into their language. The Bible Society has presented them with the Gospels of Matthew and John. The arts of reading and writ- ing are fairly introduced among them ; and so great is the excitement which lies in Christianity, that a few of its teachers have achieved a mightier step in the progress of civilisation than with any other subject, or upon any other occasion, the work and the perseverance of many centuries could have accomplished. 3. Philosophers reason upon the influence of climate ; but there is a power in Christian truth which carries it over all these accidental varieties. Christianity is gaining her prose- lytes in every quarter of the globe ; and we now turn your attention from the bleak and dreary regions of the north, to a country lying under the fierceness of a vertical sun. We allude to the Tamul Chi'istians on the coast of Coromandel. They were formed, about a century ago, out of native idolaters by the society in London for propagating Christian knowledge ; and Christianity has been kept up and extended among them by a translation of the Bible and the labours of successive mis- sionaries. New impressions of the Tamul Bible are preparing for them ; and, instead of that obstinate superstition which we are so ready to ascribe to the natives of India, we have beheld Pagans, and the descendants of Pagans, capable of reading the Bible, and in the attitude of eagerness to receive it. 4. But to bring our list of examples to a close. Our last shall be given you from the Records of the Baptist Mission in India — one of the most flourishing missionary concerns now in opera- tion, and which, since the year 1746, has doubled its number of proselytes every three years. The Scriptures have of late been translated into the Bengalee language. The New Testament has reached a third edition, and the Old is now in circulation. By a letter, dated the 26th October 1810, it ajopears that 270 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. nineteen had applied to Dr. Carey for baptism ; and mark the decisive importance of the fact, eighteen of these were indebted under Divine grace to the translation of the Scriptures for their conversion. This is what may be called the turning-point of the whole business, and it is here laid in full and authentic exhibition before you. The Bible is translated into the lan- guage, and put into the hands of an idolater. That Bible is read ; it is brought into contact with his mind, and the faith which Cometh from the Word of God is the consequence. He turns from dumb idols to serve the living and the true God ; and the Scriptures are glorified by their having made him wise unto salvation, through the faith that is in Christ Jesus. Our limits restrain us from expatiating. These are only a few facts out of the many, a few gleanings out of the informa- tion already before the public ; nor can we offer a survey, however general, of the decided aspect toward Christianity among the various peoples on the face of the globe. From the poor African, and his eagerness for the white man's hook, to the learned Arab who is beginning to suspect his Alcoran, and is on the eve of being presented with the Bible of Christians, in his vernacular tongue, we see symptoms full of promise, and call upon all our countrymen to share in the glorious work of carrying the promise forward to accomplishment. We have only spoken of the foreign operations of our Society, and can merely advert to its reviving and purifying influence in the interior of Christendom ; how it recalls the veneration of Christians from modes and vanities to tiie one charter of our faith ; how it recognises the Bible as the great and only di- rectory of religion ; how it spreads the most effectual antidote against the corruptions of human systems ; how it brings the good men of all parties into contact with one another ; and how, in the very act of circulating the Bible, it circulates the infection of its own spirit and its own piety along with it. FIFE AND KINROSS BIBLE SOCIETY. 271 The rich have done much for the cause ; but we invite the men of all ranks to share in it. We address the lower orders of society, and wish to convince them that, though the individual offering may be small, the number of individuals is great, and that the accumulation of their littles will form into a mightier sum than all the united gifts which the rich have yet thrown into the treasury. A penny a week from each householder in Fife amounts to ,£'4000 a year. The same from each house- holder in Britain amounts to half a million in the year ; and this is a sum larger by eight times than any yearly income which the Bible Society has yet received from its wealthy and numerous subscribers. It is true that the Missionary Societj'' has also its claims ; and it is for you to give your OAvn direc- tions to your own benevolence. We trust that societies for such objects will grow and multiply among you. We do not despair of seeing the day when every parish shall have a Christian society — when not a district of the land shall be left uncultivated, but shall yield a produce to the cause of the Savi- our ; when these lesser streams shall form into a mighty torrent to carry richness and fertility into the dry and desolate regions of the world ; and when Britain, high in arms, and in political influence, shall earn a more permanent glory by being the dis- penser of light, and peace, and the message of heaven to the remotest nations. We exercise no other control over you but that of persuasion ; and Sony should we be if a single farthing came in upon us of constraint, and not of a willing mind. What you give, give cheerfully, and let it be no more than you can spare. There are some who depend on charity for their subsistence, and these can never give what they receive from others. There are some who have not jet arrived at this state of dependence, but are on the very verge of it. To them we address a passage from the Bible, — " If any provide not for his own and specially 272 CORKESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel." There are others again, and these, we apprehend, form by far the most numerous class of society, who can maintain themselves in humble but honest independence, who can spare a little and not feel it, who can do what Paul advises them, lay aside their penny a week, as God hath prospered them, who can share that blessedness which the Saviour speaks of when He says, that " it is more blessed to give than to receive," who, though they cannot equal their richer neighbours in the amount of their donations, can bestow their something, and, at all events, carry in their bosoms a heart as warm to the cause, and call down as precious a bless- ing from the God who witnesses it. " What I" say some, " will you take from the poor ?" No : we do not take. It is they who give ; and shew us the man who complains of it ? To him would we say, — " It is you, and not we, who do an injustice to the po6r. It is you who im- pute to them a grossness and a want of generosity which do not belong to them. It is you who have the indelicacy to sit in judgment over their circumstances and feelings. It is you who think of them so unworthily, that you cannot conceive how truth and benevolence should be objects to them, and that after they have got the meat to feed, the house to shelter, and the raiment to cover them, there is nothing else that they will bestow a penny upon." They may not be able to express their feeling at a suspicion so ungenerous, but we shall do it for them. " We have souls as well as you, and precious to our hearts is the Saviour who died for them. It is true we have our distresses ; but the^e have bound us more firmly to our Bibles ; and it is the desire of our hearts that a gift so precious should be sent to the poor of other countries. The Word of God is our hope and our rejoicing. We desire that it may be theirs also ; that the wandering savage may know it and be EEV. DR CHARTERS. 273 glad ; and the poor negro, under the lash of his master, may learn of a Master in heaven, who is full of pity and full of kindness. Do you think that sympathy for such as these is your peculiar attribute ? — know that our hearts are made of the same materials with your own, that we can feel as well as you, and out of the earnings of a hard and honest in- dustry we shall give an offering to the cause ; nor shall we cease our exertions till the message of salvation be carried round the globe, and made know n to the countless millions who live in guilt, and who die in darkness." — Yours truly, Thomas Chalmers. LETTERS TO THE REV. DR. CHARTERS OF V^ILTON. No. CCXX. Kilmany Manse, \Sth November 1812. My dear Sir, — I have been most wanting to the duty and reverence I owe you in not writing sooner. It gives me great concern to hear of Mrs. Charters. I hope that she may recover, and, at all events, it is my prayer that she may be supported in this the day of her visitation, that she may have great peace and joy in believing, and be able to join in the triumphant ex- clamation of the Apostle — " Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord." I have been a good deal hun'ied since man-iage. My wife has read your marriage present, (for which accept our best thanks,) but I am ashamed to say that I have not. I have been inquiring for " Henry on Meekness," but have not found it. Mrs. Chalmers is constitutionally meek, beyond most women of my acquaintance. Constitutional meekness is amiable, and companionable, and pleasing, but I would not say of it, that it was virtuous, till it rested on a religious principle. My article on Christianity is now printing, I believe. I was not able to 274 CORKESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. take it in person to Edinburgh from being confined with rheu- matism. I am now well again. I have received your jDamphlets, and have given some of them away. I shall be most happy to see those on Justice and Old Age. It would delight me to pay you another visit soon, but I cannot risk the exposure of winter, and my travelling next summer will depend on a number of circumstances. I am sure you would be charmed with the eighth Report. Our County Society is doing nothing, and, what is worst of all, it has suspended the far more efficient operation of districts and parishes. My parish has been operating at the rate of iS'SO a year and upwards. There is another forming at Balmerino, a contiguous parish. This system carried over the face of the county of Fife would produce ^PSOOO a year, instead of the paltry ,£'150, which, I understand, is all that they have been able to realize on the m.ore extended scale of a County Society. Would it not be a fine spectacle to see the parish system ex- tended over Scotland, and a whole people combining their energies in a cause, the very supporting of which is an exercise of piety. My prayer to God is, that He may bear up your old ago with His best consolations, that He may bless you in the evening of life, and, when He calls you hence, that He may take you to Himself, and make you for ever happy in His presence. Mrs. Chalmers joins me in compliments, and believe me yours, with great esteem, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXXI. Glasgou\ 26th Decemher 1816. My DEAR Sir, — I at 6ne time thought I should have been able to visit you in the month of November, but I find the en- gagements of my new situation often to thicken upon me in such a way as to disappoint all my wishes and to disarrange all my REV. DR. CHARTERS. 275 plans. It would be a great pleasure to myself to spend some days in your neighbourhood, but at present I really cannot specify any future week in which I am sure that it would be altogether convenient. My health has improved greatly within these few months, partly, I believe, from having betaken myself to horsemanship, and partly from my having shaken away from me that load of secular duties which, in shape of attendance on the various in- stitutions of the place, and of ministering in things temporal to the need of a crowded population, frittered away all the time, and vulgarized all the habits, and put to flight all the literature and all the spirituality of our clergymen. This is what I wrote to you about formerly ; and be assured, my dear Sir, that all my fears, before I entered Glasgow, upon this subject, were fully realized by the facts which met my observation. And I have no doubt that the evident depression which has taken place in the theology and general science of our city ministers is, in a great measure, referable to the vicious system of associa- ting them with so much of the public management of city and Government affairs. Be kind enough to remember me to Miss Hardy and to Mr. and Mrs. Usher. I have no intention at present of publishing my last charity sermon in Edinburgh. I am just now in the press with a thin octavo volume, comprising a series of discourses on the infidel ar- gument of astronomers against the truth of Christianity. Fuller, in " The Gospel its own Witness," gives a chapter to this dis- cussion. I enter more at large into it, and shall send you a copy when it comes out, which I expect to be in the end of January. Mr. Smith, a principal bookseller here, told me some time ago that he had sold more of your sermons and of Blair's, than of any other author's. I pray God to bless and sustain the evening of your days, 276 COREESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. and that whether we meet on this side of the grave, we may be found without spot and blameless on the day of the coming of our Lord. — I am, my dear Sir, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXXII. KirTcaldij, lAth September 1820. My dear Sir, — I can assure you that it is often matter of regret, if not of self-reproach to me, that I have not returned your kind visit, and gratified my own feelings by renewing my old intimacies with a neighbourhood to which I feel very strongly attached. It is all due, I can assure you, to the force of cir- cumstances ; and were it not for the claims of relationship in Fife, I am quite sure that Roxburghshire would be the quarter of a very early excursion. I am fearful of promising, but I cannot think of despairing of seeing you once more on this side of time. My feeble essays to do good can scarcely yet bear to be men- tioned. I have certainly been amply supported in them by the aid of a number of well-principled men in Glasgow, and I am more persuaded than ever that it is only through a vigorous and well-conducted ecclesiastical agency that any decisive in- fluence can be brought to bear on our vicious and rapidly deteriorating population. It is my earnest prayer that you may inherit the blessing promised to those who maintain a patient continuance in well- doing. I have looked lately into Cotton Mather's " Essays to do Good," and thought of you all the while. I only learned so much as the existence of this great American philanthropist a few weeks ago. That, by the way, is one of the miseries of our ffreat town, — I have no time forreadino- and have suffered the whole literature of the country to get before me. Give my kindest compliments to Miss Hardy when you sec her. I ascended the Teirace very lately, in the hopes of meeting with W. ROGEK, ESQ. 277 my old friend there, and learning of you ; but I found a new name upon the door. I beg to be remembered to Mr. and Mrs. Usher of Courthill. May God bless and sustain you. — I beg you to believe me, my dear Sir, yours very affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXXIII.— To W. EoGER, Esq. of Glasgow. Charlotte Street, 18th February 1817. My dear Sir, — I was very much touched and gratified by the address which was read to me in your j^resence, and which you had the kindness to leave in my hands. I consider it as peculiarly valuable on two accounts. First, as an expression of approbation and regard on the part of my hearers ; and, secondly, as a memorial of their deliberate sentiments on a subject which has long engaged and interested my own thoughts. The experience of every month confirms me in the opinion that a minister of religion should be allowed to give all his time and all his strength to such objects as are strictly and sub- stantially religious, and that the violation of this principle not only entails upon him a world of personal vexation and dis- comfort, but that it also goes to impair the effect both of his pulpit and parochial ministrations. Were I called upon to specify the one measure by which the people of a parish could contrive to throw the most inviting- charm over the situation of their clergyman, I should say, by rendering such an homage to the importance of his employment as to shield it from everything that can at all tend to harass or to disturb it, and permitting him to relieve the fatigue of study by varieties of his own choosing — by such varieties as he him- self finds to be most congenial to his own taste, and temijer, and sense of duty, and not by such varieties as custom, or accident, or arbitrary regulations may have accumulated upon his office for years, and perhaps for generations before he had entered it. 278 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. This charm has been lately held out to me, and that, too, for the purpose of drawing me away from a scene of duty which I count to be one of the most important within the limits of our National Establishment ; and I will frankly confess to you that I am not able to compute what might have been the extent of its influence had I not been assured, both by my experience of your past services and by the warmth and sincerity of your present professions, that you were willing to guard the office I now hold from all those intrusions by which its peace or its sanctity might be violated. I feel myself placed on high vantage-ground in declining all those personal services which have for their object the further- ance of civil and secular accommodation among my parishioners. You have empowered me to state — what I am sure, from the reason and liberality which characterize the functionaries of this city, they will find to be most abundantly satisfying — that the public agency which I withhold in my own person I am willing to provide in a tenfold degree in the persons of others who have kindly undertaken to relieve me of every labour that is not strictly professional. I thank you most cordially for your kind recommendation and oifer in respect of ministerial assistance, and only lament the necessity I am under to accept of it. I trust that it will not tempt me to remit my diligence in the business of my pro- fession, and that its whole effect will be to secure, both for my parishioners and my hearers, the benefit of a more entire ministration. With sincere prayers for the comfort and usefulness of our future connexion, and an earnest request that you, and the other gentlemen with whom you are associated, may give me a place in their intercessions at the Throne of Grace, I beg leave to subscribe myself, my dear Sir, your most afiectionate friend, Thomas Chalmers. REV. MR, CUNNINGHAM. 279 LETTERS TO THE REV. J. W. CUNNINGHAM OF HARROW, LONDON. No. CCXXIV. Glasgow, Sth January 1818. My DEAR Sir, — I received your veiy kind letter some time ago, and do count it a very great refreshment to obtain from you an occasional communication. Since writing you last, I have had the good fortune to receive your small work on " Benefit Societies," which I can assure you I read with much interest and satisfaction. These institutions have certainly the advantage over saving banks which you ascribe to them ; and if delivered from the accompaniment of dissipation and excess, which I am sorry to observe go along with them in your part of the country, might have an important effect on the habits and comforts of the lower orders. They generally, however, set out on too liberal a system of allowances, which brings them to their termination in a few years. And such is my conviction of the complete means being with the poor themselves, to be altogether independent of relief from others, that I rejoice to observe any demonstration of this in any way that may induce foresight and economy amongst them ; so that if, in point of fact, savings banks shall present a greater allure- ment to economy than any other institution, I should rejoice in their being encouraged and multiplied throughout our land. You ask me how I liked the review of my " Discourses" in the " Christian Observer." I have lived too long in the rough element of severity and invective not to feel that it treats me with great moderation. There is an evident tone of friendship about it which would have reconciled me to much greater free- doms than it has actually used. And I still retain the same feeling of kindness towards its conductors, and the same opinion of its being by far the first of our religious periodicals in respect both of talent and Christian spirit, that I have long entertained. 280 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. Perliaps I ought not to say to you what I honestly think and feel of the evangelical clergy in the Church of England, that they are the great Christian luminaries of our country at this moment ; nor in all the other denominations of religion put together have I met with a goodlier number of devoted and spiritual men spending their zeal and earnestness and talent on the best of causes. There is one peculiarity with which I feel myself most frequently, and I admit most justly charged, and that is a ple- onastic exhibition of the same idea. And yet when one thinks of the passage where the power of demonstration is likened to a hammer breaking the rock in pieces, who does not feel that in such a process the hammer is often directed to the same point of application ? And be assured that there never yet wa,s any cause carried, or any object practically driven, but by a suc- cession of similar and repeated strokes. This is the case in Parliament. It is so also in the pulpit. And though I have no reason to believe that I shall ever contribute much to the establishment of any right position, and the overthrow of any wrong one, yet I have no doubt that an extensive impression will never be made on the public mind by a bare and didactic exhibition of truth, however rigid and faultless the wliole con- duct of the argument may be ; and that with our nature, con- stituted as it is, there must be reiteration, and variation, and impassioned urgency. I have not had yet the pleasure of seeing your sermon on the funeral of the Princess Charlotte. Hall is eminently beautiful and impressive, and 1 really think it among the fore- most of his productions. My own I am ashamed to speak of, and indeed it can scarcely be intelligible out of Glasgow, where the question of churches was perhaps about the next in interest to the main and overwhelming interest of that period. I feel some little value, however, for the appendix, for which I am altogether responsible on the footing of voluntary authorship. REV. MR. CUNNINGHAM. 281 I long for a more realizing sense of spiritual things. There is a darkness which no light of argument can disperse. There is a light which never can be reached but by knocking at the door of that sanctuary that we cannot open. May God make to each of us the revelation which He maketli unto babes ; and may such be our fellowship with the Father and the Son, as to stamp the recognisable cliaracter of Heaven on our fellowship one witli another. Have you ever attended to the doctrine of the disinterested love of God ? I fear that Edwards, Witherspoon, and the Ame- rican divines have a little darkened the freeness of the Gospel offer by their speculations on the subject. They seem to put all the discredit of selfishness on the love of gratitude, and would suspend the act of acceptance by faith, till somehow or other it could be made contemporaneous with the dawn of love to God on account of His own excellencies. This I do think is a forbidding of those whom God has not forbidden, and I cannot but preach the Gospel without reserve to all men in every state of moral disease. Do let me hear from you soon. May I request you to give my kindest remembrances to Mr. Wilson when you see him. There is no man in the world whom I have a greater love for than Mr. Wilberforce ; but I have such an impression of the Avay in which he is harassed and overdone by extensive calls upon his attendance, that I am fearful to intrude upon him even with compliments. — I am, my dear Sir, yours most affec- tionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXXV. Anstruther, lith August 1819. Mt dear Sir, — I should have acknowledged your kind communication long ago. I am here on a visit to my mother and for sea-bathing, having reduced myself to a state of con- 2 a 282 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. siderable languor, as inimical to mental as to bodily exertion. I observed with the utmost gratitude jour readiness to assist me in the matter of my publications. I feel my thorough need of such assistance ; and have to confess a very uncouth and primeval ignorance of many of the proprieties of our language, aggravated as it is in my case by carelessness and a kind of impatience to arrive at the conclusion of every under- taking. Since I received yours, I have seen the '•' Christian Observer " upon my last "Work ; — very kind, and breathing the partialities of friendship. He speaks of sensibility to the lash of criticism. On this subject I have often admired a couplet in Beattie's " MinstreV^ " ilim, who ne'er listened to the voice of praise, The silence of neglect can ne'er appal." It were untrue to general nature, as well as to my own individual experience, did I profess -to have fulfilled the first of the above lines, and therefore have no title to the jJfivilege expressed in the second. But it is good to know the way of arriving at that privilege, even to love the praise of God and not the praise of men. Nor do I know a more memorable remark of Foster's, than that — of all the propensities of unre- newed nature, the appetite for praise needs to be kept under the severest castigation. By the way, have you seen his "Missionary Sermon?" What a marvellous composition ! — how rich in sentiment, and how rej^lete with matter so weighty and dense, that in my hands it would have been expanded into a large octavo volume ere I could have felt it to be in a rio:ht condition for beino- ad- dressed to the general mind of the countr3\ I underrate, I believe, the capacity of my readers ; and in my anxiety to convey a lucid impression, I nourish a diseased tendency to useless and excessive illustration. UEV. MR. CUNNINGHAM. 283 I saw one of your excellent ones of the Church of England lately, Mr. Stuart of Percy Chapel. I have now seen many of the most distinouishcd of both our Establishments, and without flattery, there is one mighty point of superiority that you have over us. You know that a man may look with an observant eye upon a particular affection, and yet not possess the affec- tion itself To have a just perception of the laws and the phenomena of anger, it is not necessary to have an irritable constitution ; and it is not the most passionate who are worst fitted to acquire the metaphysics of human passion. Now, this is just as true of our good as of our bad feelings. It is just as true of the spiritual as of the sensual part of our nature ; and I do think that while the orthodox of our Church come forth with their didactic expositions of Christianity, and intellectually assign the right place to fiiith, and love, and holiness, the evangelical of yours shew forth all these graces in real and living exemplification. We theorize about the virtues of the new creature : you actually breathe these virtues. I have seen many good epistles written Avith pen and ink, and all about Christ too, by our clergy ; but I have not seen so many living epistles among them. We talk about religion ; you talk religion. And as far as I have remarked, while the matter has come as abundantly to us in word and even in argument, (Xoyft), either verbo or ratione), it has come far more abun- dantly to you in power. When in the same room with ]\Ir. Stuart, I felt as in a i)ure and holy atmosphere, and learned how greatly more efficacious, in the way of especial influence upon others, is the devotion wliich emanates from an actually renewed heart, than the de- monstration which emanates from an able and enlightened understanding. I have seen the tracts of some of your seceders. I would call them able and impressive expositions of one half of the 284 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. truth. Why are tliey more fearful of touching on the personal graces of the believer than the apostles were before them ? Why will they only look to the sun through the open window of a chamber, when the first teachers looked also to the light, and heat, and visibility which were introduced through the open window into the chamber itself? Still it is most true and worthy of all acceptation, that without the sun and without the open window, all would be void, and dark, and cheerless in the apartment. Still it is true that the gospel attitude is that of looking unto Jesus, and beholding with open face the glory of the Lord. But why do Antinomians obliterate the succeeding clause, about being changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord ? — With best wishes and many prayers both for your personal and ministerial com- fort, believe me, my dear sir, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXXVL Glasfjow, 2r)th March 1823. My dear Sir, — I should have replied to your kind letter of the 26th of December long ago, but I was then in sad agitation about my purposed movement to St. Andrews, and am still in a state of great engrossment with duties and preparations of various sorts, I have, however, now the comfortable prospect of at length being unwarped out of a situation, the fatigues and details of which I at length found to be utterly incompa- tible with the attention Avhich I conceive due to such distinct and general objects as have been offered to me. In regard to a topic fpr a missionary sermon, I at one time thought highly of the civilizing influence of Christianity, as an argument fitted to propitiate those who were indifferent to the cause on its higher and more appropriate merits. My experi- ence, however, has led me to distrust the efficacy of all those REV. MR. CUNNINGHAM. 285 attempts whicli are made for the purpose of conciliating- to a Christian enterprise those who are not Christians ; and, after all, I am more disposed to confide the whole hopes of success to the strict and sacred operation of evangelical motives on men of evangelical minds, though I cannot deny, at the same time, that the earth may be, and often has been, made to help the woman. What would you think of the universality of the law written in the heart as an invitation to missionary undertakings ? There is no controverting the existence of a moral sense among the rudest barbarians — the accusings and the excusings of it within them — insomuch that the idea of sin is at once under- stood among- them without a formal or circumlocutory defini- tion. Thus in all countries you have a ground upon which you can at once enter — a John the Baptist in every heart, who has already in some measure prepared the way of the Lord, pre- cursors even in the strangest territories who are there before you, and whose office it is to make your message welcome, or at least intelligible ; as much, in fact, of moral intimation, al- ready given unto all, as will secure, and in a judicial way, their acquittal or their condemnation when we go forth preaching unto all — enough to guide them to the understanding and recep- tion of the Gospel if they follow the light that is already in them, and enough to attach to them the most fearful of penalties if they reject or turn from it. I am aAvare that within the short compass of a letter I cannot qualify enough so as to free the argument of all exceptions ; but you will perceive in the general how an impressive reasoning on the side of the mis- sionary cause might be built on the universal moral light which, however obscurely, is spread over the world — a light at all events that enters into the character and conduct, and so leaves an accusing or restless conscience in every heart ; thus preparing the way for the tidings of a Saviour, and making 286 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. Him precious to some, while to others He is the savour of death unto death, I should be much comforted by a letter from you. I am still hopeful of being ready, on English Pauperism, by the month of May or June. — Believe me to be, my dear Sir, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXXVII. Ediuhurgh, 11 Ih March 1832. My dear Sir, — I have asked Mr. Whittaker to send you a " Letter to the Royal Commissioners for the Visitation of Colleges in Scotland," lately printed by me ; and my precise reason for so doing is, that you might be enabled to estimate the justice of your friend Lord A.'s complaint against me, because of an offensive communication which I had presumed to make to him and his fellow Commissioners. I am in all my principles and feelings a thorough Conserva- tive— none more so. But they are our Tory corruptionists who have brought us into our present helpless situation. There was no rudeness in the manner of my communication that could be alleged as at all offensive. But the substance of it was dis- agreeable to his Lordship, who dislikes honesty and truth when associated with independence. If the Commissioners shall respond to my statements, am I at liberty to notice in any future argument how unpalatable my memorial was to Lord A. ? I have written Mr. Collins to send AVliittaker copies of my '•' Eight Years' Experience in Glasgow," if the pamphlet be yet in print. I should really like you to see it. — I am, my dear Sir, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. I shall be most thankful for any abstract which you may publish of my views on Pauperism. — T. C. REV. DIl. WKIGIIT. 287 No. CCXXVIIL— To Rev. Dk. Wuigiit of Stirling. Glasgmc, l-ith February/ 1823. My dear Sir, — I Avrite under the impulse of lively gratitude to yourself for what you wrote of me to Mr. Muir, who was kind enough to read it to me. I hold it to be a most excellent recommendation that I should write the number of sermons which you suggest, and I sincerely trust that it will not be lost upon me. It is my desire to join in the sentiment of the Psalmist on this subject, " If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning, and let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I do not prefer thee above my chiefest joy." It is satisfactory to myself that I have ever held a pro- fessorship as a higher station, even speaking Christianly, than a church. I never quitted this sentiment even when I had not the most distant hope of a chair ; and now that I have had the offer of one, and accepted of it, I have just acted on the principle which I at all times felt and have at all times avowed. But it is still a matter of great thankfulness to me when I can get any of my brethren among the senior clergy to view the thing even with tolerance, though not with positive approba- tion. I am much comforted by the testimonies of Dr. David- son and Mr. Gordon of Edinburgh. I request a place in your prayers. Should I be spared, I look forward now with great confidence to the occasional enjoyment of your society. Here I was overborne and had no time for general intercourse or general objects. The unbounded leisure and command of sum- mer give me a scope for all sorts of excursion, Avhether of mind or body. — With kindest compliments to Mrs. Wright, and ear- nest request that you would send me a letter, I entreat you to believe me, my dear Sir, yours very aifectionately, Thomas Chalmers. 288 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. LETTERS TO REV. DR. SMYTH OF GLASGOW. No. CCXXIX. Dumfries, 3fZ Sejytemher 1822. My dear Sir, — I reached tins in safety about eiglit o'clock, and liave comfortable prospects of my journey. And I can assure you that it forms no small addition to my comfort when I reflect on the arrangements that I have left behind me, and by which you have kindly consented to keep stedfastly and constantly by my congregation of St. John's till I shall return to Glasgow ; and you will indeed confer upon me a great benefit by resisting all the urgency that might be employed for the purpose of drawing you to preach elsewhere. I esteem it a very fortunate circumstance, that by your services, which are so satisfactory to my people, I feel disburdened of the un- easiness that I might otherwise have when away from them ; and that I am thus set at large for the prosecution of a journey which I deem to be most important, in a way that is satisfac- tory to myself Yet be assured that a single and undivided attention to the peculiar work of a Christian minister is the way of peace and of pleasantness. I envy those who have escaped the distrac- tion of all other pursuits and all other speculations. And yet I cannot blame myself for my hibours on the argument of Pauperism ; and I sincerely hope, that instead of going forth upon it, it has intercepted and laid hold of me, so that I have only followed the call of Providence and duty when I suffered myself to be involved in> it. Tell Mrs. Chalmers that it may yet be three days ere I finish the long folio epistle which I am preparing for her. I have this night nearly completed one page of it. — Do believe me, my dear sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. REV. DR. SMYTH. 289 No. CCXXX. St. Andrews, 20th November 1823. My dear Sir, — I enjoy very much the repose and quietness of my new situation, and promise to get on very comfortably ; but be very sure that all the felicity of the circumstances immediately around me is not unmingled with much regret and tenderness because of those in Glasgow whom I have left behind me. I am not insensible to the force and the value of your friendship in jmrticular ; and have sometimes thought of my own apparently cold and passive exhibition under the many ardent demonstrations that you have given of it. The truth is, that my extreme occupations in Glasgow put me into a state that Avas quite unnatural, and now only have I begun rightly to estimate and to feel the manifold kindnesses that surrounded me there. — Yours most truly and affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXXXI. Burntisland, 2\st Septemher 1832. My very dear Sir, — We have this day received the sad in- timation of Mrs. Smyth's death, and you may well believe that both I and Mrs. Chalmers feel very deeply for you under this afflictive dispensation. It is our earnest prayer that the Heavenly Comforter may be with you in your present trying circumstances, when all earthly comfort and sympathy are so unavailing, and may He who grieves not willingly any of His children pour a healing and a sanctifying medicine into your cup of discipline. That uncertainty of life and awfulness of death which we often preach, we do not often practically or adequately feel. But never, I should imagine, does death make a more realiz- ing demonstration of itself than in circumstances like yours, 2 B 290 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. where it lias made inroads upon your dwelling, and torn asunder the nearest and dearest of all earthly relationships. This is a sore bereavement. May your widowed heart find its solace and relief in the promises of the Gospel. May its faith bear you up amid the agonies of wounded nature, and then shall this visitation, though not joyous but grievous, yield unto you the peaceable fruit of righteousness. My heart bleeds both when I think of yourself and when I think of your motherless children. Cast the whole burden upon the Lord and He will sustain it. What power and pre- ciousness of adaptation do we often meet in short and single clauses of the Bible ; and I doubt not, my dear Sir, that your now exercised and experienced spirit has by this time made fresh discoveries both of the divine wisdom and the divine ten- derness which are stamped upon its pages. Mrs. Chalmers unites with me in deep condolence both for you and your afflicted family, and with the sincerest regards of us both, ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours with utmost sym- pathy and regard, Thomas Chalmers, LETTERS TO THE REV. DR. MACFARLAN OF GREENOCK. No. CCXXXIL St. Andrews, I5th April 1824. My very dear Sir, — I cannot resist the impulse of my pre- sent joy and gratitude on the receipt of a letter from Glasgow this morning, by which I am led to cherish the pleasing and delightful hope that you'may be minister of St. John's. Just now I am in a perfect hurricane of business, preparing for our public examinations, and I shall just therefore say, for your encouragement, that I stake my whole credit on your find- REV. DR. MACFARLAN. 291 ing it the easiest and most manageable city parish in Scotland, and that what many deem the bugbears are indeed the facilities of the parish. I shall be most happy, my dear Sir, to enter with you upon any details that you may require of me, and at pre- sent I can do no more than bless the Providence that has evolved itself in a way so gracious. — Do believe me, my dear Sir, yours most affectionately and truly, Thomas Cualmers. No. ccxxxin. St. Andrews, 9th September 1824. My dear Sir, — I most honestly rejoice at the pleasure you feel in your situation. I think that you will find this much enhanced by your parochial visitations, in which exercise I had always more satisfaction than in any other which belonged to the ofiice. As to my Sacrament examinations, I requested from the pulpit that all who intended to communicate for the first time should meet me in the vestry at one particular hour — say ten P.M. upon a Tuesday. I had previously marked on little slips of paper " half-past ten," " eleven," " half-past eleven," &c., which I dealt out to those assembled individually ; and upon which each came back to me at his own specified time that forenoon — and this afforded me half-an-hour's conversation with each. The length of this exercise to myself depended on the number who came forward ; and if that number was too great, I gave slips of paper for the next day (Wednesday) at " ten," " half- past ten," " eleven," &c., marking Wednesday, however, to separate them from the catechumens of Tuesday. I thus, sometimes in one, and at most in two forenoons, got over the main burden of my Sacramental examinations. If any did not satisfy me, I prescribed chapters of the Bible for their reading, and assigned the time when they should call upon me in my own house for further conversation, I must say, however, and 292 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. I was surprised at the discovery, (for which, however, a satis- factory cause may be assigned,) that I found the candidates for the Lord's Table in Glasgow, generally speaking, to be much better prepared than those in Kilmany. Besides all this, I, on the recommendation, and according to the practice of Dr. M'Gill, convened all whom I resolved to admit as communicants in the vestry at three, p.m., on the Wed- nesday previous to the Fast-day, when I gave them an address in ciimulo, and then distributed to them their tokens and a certificate that I had that day admitted them to be communi- cants. It was generally in the interval between the separate conversations and this meeting that eacli got a testimonial from the proper elder, and shewed it before I gave the token. At the end of each separate conversation I gave to the individual on a slip of paper the day and hour of this general address as a memorandum. Let me entreat that you will neither be over-fatigued by your visitations nor overwhelmed by your sacramental work. I shall be most happy at all times to furnish any details that may be required of me. — I am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXXXIV. Edinburgh, 2lst December 1842. My dear Sir, — I have seen Dr. Abercrombie, and attempted to rectify and imdeceive him as to my desire of hastening or precipitating the crisis. The truth is, that the success of my attempts is directly fitted to avert a crisis if anything will. Will you look at Regulation Seventh of the enclosed ? and I trust you will allow the right middle way is to be provisionally in readiness for the worst. I also send the copy of a subscription paper, which is also provisional. Such an attitude of prepara- tion as I long and labour for would place the Church on right REV. DR. MACFARLAN. 293 vantage-ground for negotiating ^vitll Government on the footing of an independent party. Whether with or without a general meeting of your congregation an association, wliether congre- gational or parochial, could be easily got up anywhere. Our association at Morningside yields already at the rate of ^£"250 a year. Oh, when will men know how to discriminate between what is an imaginative picture, and what a sober and practical reality ! — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXXXV. Edivhurgh, Ath Augiist 1845. Mr dear Sir, — I now sit down to give you my reasons why I cannot attend the Assembly at Inverness. They may be summed up in two : — First, There is something more than personal inclination on my part ; there is a positive feeling of duty that has resolved me henceforth to live the life of a student. For this purpose I have already signified by a formal act, my retirement from the public business of the Church. It were a rescinding of that Act and the exposure of myself again to other and future applications should I go to Inverness. It is not the time taken up with that solitary movement, but it is the struggle that I should have with subsequent applications which I am most anxious to save. And meanwhile I issue these refusals with a clear conscience ; for truly it is a higher department to have to do with the understandings and consciences of my students, than to wear out any more of my life in the outward business of the house of God. But, Secondly, That business is infinitely better done by the timely retirement of the veterans from the stage, and the con- sequent calling up of younger and stronger men. I am forti- fied in this idea by two very recent examples. I was urged to 294 CORKESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. be a member of the last Assembly, and such was the over- weening importance attached to this by some, that they ab- surdly anticipated a decay of interest in the Assembly should I not be there. Now, I put it to yourself — Do you ever recol- lect an Assembly the proceedings of which were conducted in a finer spirit, and with higher ability, and with greater effect upon the public mind ? Again, Mr. Guthrie applied to me to launch the Manse Scheme at the first meeting about it which he held in Glasgow. This also I resisted ; and is not that scheme progressing at a rate most encouraging to all the friends of the Church ? I perfectly agree with you in thinking, that the Assembly of Inverness, now that it is determined on, should be made as impressive as possible, so that the larger the confluence to it from all parts the better. This I am urging upon all my acquaintances who should and can go, whether they are members or not. But for myself, it is out of the question. "Will you forgive me if I state an illustration which has occurred to me in connexion with this subject ? To parade me onward to Inverness appears to me as ludicrous as to parade thitherward a congeries of old bones ; for it strongly reminds me of the delusion under which Cobbett laboured when he brought Tom Paine's bones from America, and car- ried them through England, in the hope that they would ope- rate as a charm in every neighbourhood wherever he presented them. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXXXVI. Edinhurcjli, 7th Augrtst 1845. My DEAR Sir, — Our two last letters crossed each other. In regard to my going to Inverness for the purpose of an address on the Sustentation Fund, I beg to submit the two following considerations : — REV. DR. MACFARLAN. 295 In the first place, it lias been my uniform experience that the Associations have remained as sluggish and lethargic after such an address as previous to its delivery. Witness my As- sembly's address at Glasgow, and my more recent addresses there, since which time the Associations just yield as little as ever. The only way of advancing the Sustentation Fund is by an agency who might severally deal with each of the localities piecemeal and at close quarters. I did no sensible good by a series of at least twenty public addresses in the north of Scot- land. All the good I have done is by correspondence or per- sonal converse, either in my own person or the persons of the agents whom I employed. But ^dly, My feelings and principles on the subject are well known, and more especially my strong dissatisfaction with a number of the Highland ministers and congregations. On the other hand, they do not at all sympathize with me in my sense of the religious importance of this subject. They call it secu- lar, and seem to speak as if my confidence was placed in car- nal weapons. This was the feeling, I afterwards heard, of the men whom I dealt with at Arran, and I believe it to be a pretty general feeling in the north. Now, put these two considera- tions together ; first, my general experience of the uselessness of these addresses ; and secondly, my special experience of the positive dislike to the subject in the north ; and then I ask you to conceive with what utter heartlessness, or rather with what inward recoil of spirit I behoved to go to Inverness, there to obtrude an unpalatable subject upon an unwilling auditory. — I who am not a member and would be felt by many as a most unwelcome interloper, were I to go upon such an errand. Nothing, my dear Sir, could force a way through such a bar- rier but a special invitation from the Assembly where they have met, and this too at the instance of twenty, thirty, or forty Highland ministers themselves ; after which, and when they 296 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALIMERS. had put the censorial staiF into my hand, I should feel at free- dom to wield it with all faithfulness, though at the same time I hope with all delicacy. But be assured that there are para- graphs in your closing address to the last Assembly which will do infinitely more good to the Sustentation Fund than all I could hope to do by going to Inverness. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXXXVII. — In Reply to a Letter requesting some Directions on the Subject of Practical Charity. Glasgoio, 6ih November 1821 . My DEAR Sir, — I received a letter some days ago from the person who signs himself " Christianus," and with which I would have been still more gratified had he subscribed his real name. I think that the best school for benevolence is a limited district, which it is competent for any individual to assume as the field in which he chooses to exercise his i^hilanthropy. I would take one of the poorest vicinities in the wdiole town, and measure off for myself a population of, say fifty or a hundred families, and the topic of introduction I should choose would not be an inquiry into their temporal necessities, (for this might call forth a reaction most appalling to the adventurer, and most cormpting to the people whom he means to benefit,) but rather an inquiry into the state of health and the education of the young ; or the accommodation that there is with respect to schools and churches ; or something, in short, that would begin your acquaintance with the people, without exciting any sordid or mercenary expectation. You will not find it so for- midable an affair to secure a welcome from the families, among DIRECTIONS ON PRACTICAL CHARITY. 297 whom you may reiterate as often as you will on the same topics, but never in the ostensible capacity of an almoner, assuming always the higher capacity of a friend to their chil- dren, and a zealous advocate or promoter of all that can conduce to the improvement of principle and moral habits among the population. In this way they will not obtrude their necessities so readily upon you ; while you, on the other hand, when their necessities in any particular way force themselves upon your observation, may secretly and without the knowledge of others relieve them. You will thus find the work of charity a very quiet and manageable process ; for, in truth, there won't be half a dozen families among the hundred who will stand in real need of your money ; while, perhaps, one-half of the whole would have been the sordid expectants of your generosity had you injudiciously announced yourself as the general almoner of the district that you had assumed. Meanw^hile, ply all the families with kind and moral atten- tions, stimulate education, recommend cleanliness, encourage church-going habits. Be not too obtrusive with your money ; let the people pay for all themselves as much as possible, and, at the same time, shew that you grudge no expense that would serve their best interests by being generous in every case of unquestionable distress ; by setting up, if you will, a little library in the district, to which, however, there ought to be small quarterly payments on the part of the people themselves. Set up a local Savings' Bank if you think it w'ould promote frugality, and study by all possible means to make the people thrive — not so much by any imparted liberality on your part, as thrive by teaching them the power of their own resources and their own capabilities. I have not nearly exhausted this favourite subject ; but I send you to the best school when I send you to the school of your own experience. Blunders, and failures, and discourage- 298 CORRESPOXDEXCE OF DR. CHALMERS. ments are unavoidable ; but you are in the best place for pro- fiting by tliese, when you confine yourself to a local territory', wliere you are ever growing in acquaintanceship and mutual regard M'ith the people, than when you throw yourself at large over a boundless field. Mr. John Campbell, Tertius, "W.S., has done the very same thing that I now recommend to you, and if you are disposed to consult him, he is qualified to supplement the deficiencies of my present communication. — Yours truly, Thomas Chalmers. Xo. CCXXXTIIL— To a Fkiend. St. Andrews, I3th November 1825. My very dear Sir, — I have no peculiar mode of addressing the Grospel to any one class of human creatures. It is a wide and general proclamation of mercy to all, and whatever the age or condition of the sinner, still he is welcome to Christ ; and coming unto Him he shall in no wise be cast out. All are warranted to approach, even with boldness, to that throne of grace where they shall receive both mercy to pardon and grace to help in every time of need. It is a wonderful plea that the Psalmist urges for pardon, " Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great." That greatness of trans- gression, which would preclude the hope of forgiveness from an earthly superior whom we had offended, is the very argument which we are encouraged to make use of in praying for pardon from Him, whose thoughts are not as our thoughts, and whose ways are not as our ways. May you, my dear Sir, and all with whom you are connectejl, have great peace and joy in thus believing ; and. sure I am, that when Gospel peace enters, Gospel holiness will follo'w in its train. Have you read Ro- maine's "Treatises on Faith?'' — they are very precious. — Believe me, my dear Sir, yours truly, Thomas Chalmers. man's responsibility for his belief. 299 No. CCXXXIX.— On Man's Responsibility for his Belief. St. Andreivs, \bth March 1826. My dear Madam, — Lord Byron's assertion, "that man is not responsible for his belief," — an assertion repeated by Mr. Brougham and others — seems to have proceeded from the imagination that belief is in no cases voluntary. Now, it is very true that we are only responsible for what is voluntary, and it is also true tliat we cannot believe without evidence. But then it is a very possible thing that a doctrine may possess the most abundant evidence, and yet not be believed, just be- cause we choose to shut our eyes against it ; and our unbelief in this case is owing not to the want of evidence, but to the evi- dence not being attended to. Grant that belief is not a volun- tary act, it is quite enough for the refutation of Mr. Brougham's principle, if attention be a voluntary act. One attends to a subject because he so chooses, or he does not attend because he so chooses. It is the fact of the attention being given or with- held Avhich forms the thing that is to be morally reckoned with. And if the attention has been withheld when it ought to have been given, for this we are the subjects of a rightful condemnation. It is enough to make unbelief a thing of choice and a thing of aifection, that we have power over the direction of our noticing and investigating faculties. You are not to blame if you have not found some valuable article that you had lost in an apartment of thickest darkness ; but you are to blame if you might have opened the shutters or lighted a candle, so as to have admitted enough of light for the discovery. Neither are you to blame if you find not the hidden treasure of the Gospel, provided that it is placed beyond the reach of all your strenuousness, and of every expedient that can be used for its discovery ; but you are to blame if you have not gone in quest of it, or if you have wilfully and determinedly shut your eyes 300 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. against it, or if you have not stirred up those powers of your mind over which the mind has a voluntary control to the in- quirj'^ after it. The Discerner of the heart will see where the lurking perversity lies, and make it manifest of all who remain in darkness, that they loved the darkness — of all who have not come to Christ, that they were not willing to come. Christianity lays no unreasonable service on men, and far less that service which were most unreasonable of all — the homage of your belief without offering such evidence as, if at- tended to, will constrain the belief Our religion has its proofs, and it also has its probabilities. Its proofs can only be gotten at by patient and laborious inquiry, and when they are so got- ten at they carry the belief along with them. Its probabilities again may, some of them, be seen at first sight, and though not enough to compel our belief, yet they form a sufficient claim upon our attention. They form that sort of precognition which entitles Christianity, at least, to a fair and full trial, and, if not worthy all at once of a place in our creed, it is worthy of a further hearing. Now, all I want is, that that hearing shall be given, that the evidences of Christianity shall be studied, that the Bible shall be read with patience, and prayer, and moral earnestness, and on the principle that he who seeketh findeth, I have no apprehension of such a course not terminating in a full and stedfast conviction that the Bible is an authentic mes- sage from heaven to earth, and contains in it the record of God's will for man's salvation. — I am, my dear Madam, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXL. — Directions to an anxious Inquirer. St. Andrews, Fehruary 182(3. Dear Madam, — I have been asked by Miss to write you on the subject of certain difficulties to which I believe almost every inquirer into the way of salvation is subjected. It is very THE ANXIOUS INQUIRER DIl.ECTED. SOI possible that aught I can saj may not produce an immediate impression on your mind, for I have often exjjerienced the very great tenacity wlierewith the obstacles to a free and full recep- tion of the Gospel stand their ground in the mind of many a labouring seeker after truth ; but it is a great thing that you are in earnest if you are not at rest ; and in the meanwhile it is the part of every true friend you have to state to his utter- most ability such considerations as might, with the blessing of God, be helpful to your progress. I would first, then, say to you, that you are not to wait till you have mourned enough for sin ere you accept the Saviour. You complain that you have not such deep views of sin as ex- perienced Christians speak of ; but how did they acquire them ? they are the fruits of their experience in Christ, and not of their experience out of Christ. They had them not before their union with the Saviour. It was on more slender conceptions of the evil of sin than they now have that they went to Christ, that they closed with Him, and that they received from His sanctifying hand a more contrite spirit than before — a more tender conscience than before. Do as they did ; wait not till you have gotten their deep sensibilities till you go to the Saviour. Go to Him now ; go to Him with your present in- sensibility ; bring it before Him as part of your disease, and He, the Physician of souls, will minister to this and all other diseases. But, generally, you complain that you are ignorant of how to go — how to believe. Now, this has long been a stum- bling-block to many ; their thoughts are hoiu they are to believe, when their thoughts should be what they should believe. They look inwardly for the work of faitli, when they should look out- wardly for the object of faith. " For every one thought," says Richard Baxter, " that he casts downwardly upon himself, he should cast ten upwardly and outwardly upon Jesus, and upon the glorious truths of the Gospel." You say that you have no 302 COKRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. douL)ts of the freeness of Christ's salvation, and of His willing- ness to save you. Dwell upon this ; persist in this ; stand in the Gospel attitude of looking upon Jesus, and light will at length arise within you. In the act of looking, you may have to wait a longer or a shorter time for your coming enlargement ; but surely it is worth the waiting for. Meanwhile your business is prayer ; a diligent attention in the ordinances of religion ; reading of God's Word ; and, above all, a keeping of the sayings of Christ : " He that keepeth my sayings, to him will I mani- fest myself" Be assured j-ou are in good hands, even in the hands of Him who will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax. — Believe me to be, dear Madam, yours truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXLI. — To THE Countess of D . A Letter of Christian Encouragement.* My dear Countess, — It is my earnest prayer to God that your superintendence of the Sabbath School, established in the very interesting district in which you reside, may be abundantly blessed, and that it may be productive of lasting benefit to its sequestered inhabitants ; that a religious jjopulation may arise around you ; and that God, by His Spirit, may carry home the lessons of His Word to all to whom they are administered. When one thinks of the certainty of approaching death, and the greatness of the coming eternity, one cannot but think that the only important history which is going on in the world is the unseen history of human souls ; nor do I know a more interest- ing event than that of a heart alienated from God, and labouring under a distaste for the method of salvation by the Cross, when it becomes at length reconciled to all the peculiarities of the Gospel, and is called out of darkness into God's marvellous lio;ht. In these institutions of Sabbath Schools there is alwavs, * Communicated by the Rev. T. Grinfield, Clifton. COUNTESS OF D . 303 indeed, a secondary advantage to be derived from tlie acquire- ment of tbose habits of regularity, and subordination, and all those minor accomplishments which conduce to the formation of good subjects and good members of society ; and when education is received in subserviency to those temporal blessings, it is no doubt of considerable temporal advantage, and must be so considered even by those who have no taste for religion, and take no concern for the high matters and interests of eternity. But really when we look to the insignificance of the present scene, and read believingly the Bible, and there learn the lesson of what a wretched being man is by nature ; and when we are made to understand that there is only one Avay of recovery, and to consider how great and how radical a change must take place in our hearts ere we can be admitted into the kingdom of Heaven, and that we must submit with the docility of a little child to these sayings, that " through faith in the blood of Christ we are justified, and through the washing of regene- ration we are sanctified;" — when these views open in their significancy and magnitude upon the understanding, then a mightier object will be seen connected with a Sabbath School. It will be valued chiefly on spiritual and sacred grounds, and the main anxiety will be, that they who repair for Scriptural education shall become wise unto salvation through the faith that is in Christ Jesus. Now, to fulfil this higher object, it is necessary that every higher expedient should be resorted to ; that the children should be spoken to with affectionate concern by their teacher, that he should add to his admonition the force of his example; that parents should warmly co-operate in the great object, and add all the force of their example and admo- nitions ; that unanimity should prevail amongst all connected with it ; and that the prtiyers of intercession should frequently be lifted up for the prosperity of a cause so righteous. It is my earnest and real desire that all the inhabitants of your 304 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. place may experience in ricli and satisfying abundance the comforts of tlie Christian faith, and may grow every day in the graces of Christian obedience. It is, indeed, a wondrous silence which immortal beings observe in their intercourse with each other on the most urgent and greatest of all topics, that of their souls ; and I sometimes think how they will look to each other, and upbraid each other, should they meet on the same common ground of condemnation on the great day of reckoning. Be- lieve me, I feel nothing but the prompting of anxiety and tenderness when I entreat my fellow-Christians to persevere in a course of earnest and laborious striving for the kingdom of Heaven. The Gospel invitation is free, but the Gospel require- ment is strict : there is a change of heart demanded, as well as a change of external conduct. But, oli how delightful that the prayer of faith maketli all things possible, and that, though we begin in darkness, and helplessness, and error, if we follow the Saviour, He will shew unto us the light of life. — Yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. [3d April 1852. — Dear Sir, — My daughter tells me that you wish to know the date of the letter I had the pleasure of receiving from the vener- ated Dr. Chalmers. I cannot say exactly, but I think it was about the year 1834, or 1835, or 1836. It was on the occasion of a discussion I had with some clergymen of the Church of Geneva, about the Divinity of our blessed Saviour. I cited Dr. Chalmers, as the head of the Presbyterian Church, consequently Mr. M.'s chief, as being peculiarly opposed to a heresy which, I think, tends to subvert the foundations of Christianity, and I took the liberty of writing to the great and good man himself, to confirm the truth of the opinion which I had ventured to assert as being his. — I am, my dear Sir, your obedient servant, Catherine Osborne. The Rev. W. Hanna.] No. CCXLII. My dear Lady Osborne, — You must forgive my writing in another hand, as I am very much over-worked. And I hope LADY OSBORNE. 305 to be further excused if I do not go into the subject of your letter at any great length. It ajipears to me that there are two grounds upon which an error in Theology might be fatal : — first, the error might be so opposed to the clearest light of scriptural evidence as to imply the utmost moral unfairness in the examination of holy writ, or a hard rejection of the Divine testimony. With my views of what I hold to be the obvious sense of the Word of God, I could not be an Arian without incurring this delinquency. The second ground on which an error in theology might be fatal is, the great moral and practical importance of the doctrine which is either vitiated or disowned. I could not renounce my opinion of the divinity of Christ, without at the same time renouncing what I at present regard as the most essential and characteristic principle of the gospel. Dilute this article of Christianity, and you in the same proportion dilute other articles of the faith, — no less vital and funda- mental than itself, — as the value of the Atonement, the depth of the enormity of the guilt that calls for Divine expiation, the need of a regenerating influence from on high, the uncliange- ableness and authority of Heaven's law, and the dignity of its moral government. Those are the great elements of the Christian system ; but by detaching the sentiment of Christ's divinity, we should take all the force and the spirit from tlieni. This doctrine strengthens and impregnates the whole of practical Christianity ; and whether it be the trust, or the gratitude, or the obedience of the gospel we are urging, they can only be urged with effect along with the belief that Jesus Christ, the author and the finisher of the faith, is absolutely and from eternity God. Tlie first chapter of Revelation, the beginning of the Gospel of Jolui, Romans ix. o, 1 John v. 20, Philippians ii. 5, 8, and the first chapter to the Hebrews, appear to me the most decisive passages of the New Testament 2c 306 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. in favour of the godliead of Christ : and the Old Testament appears to be the more impressive and convincing the longer I attend to it ; for this let me refer you to the sixth of Isaiah, quoted in John's gospel, and applied by him to the Saviour ; Isaiah viii. 13, 14, quoted in the same manner by Paul in the Epistle to the Romans ; Isaiah ix. 5, 6 ; Jeremiah xxiii. 5, 6, where the Lord our righteousness is Jehovah ; Micah v. 2 ; Zechariah xiii. 7 ; Malachi iii. 1. I entreat you to excuse the brevity and the imperfection of these hurried statements. The subject on which you have called me to express myself is fitted for an elaborate dissertation ; and nothing like adequate justice can be done to it within the compass of a letter, written in great feebleness and amid manifold engagements. — I have the honour to be, &c., Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXLIII. To HIS ELDEST DAUGHTER, ON PARTAKING FOR THE FIRST TIME OF THE SaCRAMENT OF THE LoRD's SupPER. Early Vale, 2Zd October 1832. My dear Annr, — Though I have as yet said little to you about the Sacrament, it is not that I do not feel, and feel deeply, the importance of the step which you are about to take. I have long and earnestly regretted that the solemn urgency of my occupations should have left me so little time and so little strength for attending to my family, and more especially to that highest interest of all, the state of their religion, impressed as I am both by the weight and importance of the obligation, and also by the solemn responsibility which the Apostle lays upon ministers for the souls of their people, though surely not more solemn than the responsibility of parents for their children, who ought therefore to watch for their souls as they who must give account. I hope that I may have much free conversation with you both respecting the Sacrament, on the Fast-day preceding it MISS ANNE CHALMEllS. 307 on Thursday. But meanwliile I should like you to ponder the following considerations bearing upon the subject : — 1. You should not look on your past sinfulness as any bar- rier in the way of approaching the Lord's table ; and you can- not too soon or too confidently overpass this barrier by believing thoughts of that blood which was shed for the sins of the world — of that propitiation to which one and all are invited to look for their acceptance with God. 2. Neither should you look on your own impotency for ac- ceptable obedience as any barrier ; and you cannot too soon or too confidently overpass this barrier by believing thoughts of the all-sufficiency and strength of that Spirit who is freely given to those who ask, and more especially to those who, fleeing for refuge to Jesus Christ the Master of the great solemnity in which you are to join, lift up their supplications for aid and ability to do the will of God in His all-prevailing name. 3. If you have faith in the two great truths which I have now specified, this will encourage you to go forward to the table of the Sacrament ; and yet instead of putting the question to yourself. Have I faith in these truths ? — I would rather that you dwelt on the contemplation of the truths themselves. It is by thinking directly of the truths, and not by thinking re- flexly on what the state of your own mind is in regard to them, that you come to a right decision and establishment of purpose on this subject. 4. But there is one most important subject of self-examina- tion on which I would make the whole question of this sacra- mental observance to turn. I would never stir a doubt as to the eflUcacy of Clirist's blood, or your own welcome to the participation of its benefits ; and neither Avould I stir a doubt as to the readiness of the Spirit to perfect strength in your weakness. But there may be a doubt, and this I would have you to clear up, on the state of your own will and your own 308 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. purjioses. Are you willing to be all and to do all that God would have you ? Is it your purpose, in singleness of heart, to be His only and His altogether ? Are you honestly desirous of making yourself over wholly unto Him, or, in other words, of submitting yourself entirely to God ? These I hold to be the proper questions for putting to your conscience on the present occasion. When thus employed, you are counting the cost of the Cliristian profession ere you enter upon it ; and great, I promise, will be your peace and joy, sure will be your progres- sive holiness, if in good faith and with firm integrity you resolve henceforward, and with reliance on the Divine grace, to be not almost, but altogether a Christian. I bid you both recollect not merely the momentous personal interest which each of you has in this great concern, but the immense benefit of your Cliristian example to the younger children. May this prove, then, a decisive step in the history of your lives — a sure step to that heaven for which it is our highest interest as well as highest duty to prepare. — I ever am, ray dear Anne, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXLIV.— To Master J. Morton.* Edinburgh, 2\st March 1832. My dear John, — I would have given this letter partly to you and partly to your mamma, making it in that way a proper counterpart reply to the communication from Chesterhill of March 8th ; but I feel that I cannot do justice to your very interesting epistle without devoting the whole of this sheet to it. I allude more particularly to your desire that I should tell you something of religi6n — that highest and most important of all subjects. The only advice I shall give you at present will be a general, * Lldest son of his sistei* Mrs. Morton. MR. J. MORTON. 309 but I have no doubt that if followed it will prove a very effective one. The Bible is able to make you wise unto salvation. I do not want to overtask you with the reading of it, but it is right you should read it by little and little, and that frequently. And I would, therefore, first recommend that you should peruse .so much of it every day, and bring to the exercise all the atten- tion and all the understanding you are able to do. But, again, the Bible itself tells us that no man can under- stand or feel it aright by the mere natural and unassisted exercise of his own faculties ; and that it is the office of the Holy Spirit to make the Word of God clear to our judgments, and powerful in its effect upon our hearts and lives ; and it furthermore tells us, that God gives His Holy Spirit to them who ask it. My earnest recommendation therefore is, that as you read, you would also pray that God may open your under- standing to understand. My third and last recommendation is grounded on the saying, that the prayer of the wicked is an abomination to God ; and that if we regard iniquity in our hearts, God will not hear us. Therefore, while obseiwing my first and second directions to read the Bible and to pray, forget not m'y third, to be diligent in keeping God's commandments, doing all which His Word tells you to be right, refraining from all which His Word tells you to be wrong. Thus will you grow in the knowledge of the way of salvation. He who seeketh findeth ; and you seeking to know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, will find the way of righteousness and peace, and have your feet firmly established on that good path which leads to Heaven. Give my kind regard to your father, mother, brothers, and sisters. — I am, my dear John, your affectionate uncle, Thomas Chalmers. 310 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. No. CCXLV. — Advice to a Young Clergyman. Edlnhvnjh, 12th November 1838. My dear Sir, — I shall say nothing- of practical or devotional reading and study, indispensable though they be to the uphold- ing of the best and highest functions of our being, but speak chiefly of intellectual pursuits and professional business. And first, it were of immense value to lay it down as a rule to which you should doggedly and determinedly adhere, that of giving two or three hours daily for at least three days in the week, and, if the calls of immediate business allowed, for more days than this, to some high subject of professional literature. I pressed this on Mr. Douglas, constitutionally one of the most indolent men I know, and the result was his work on the " Advancement of Society," &c. Your " Exegesis on Miracles," and your " Sermon on the Sacrament," convince me that if you would but select your topics and do likewise, you could, by dint of perseverance, furnish products of sounder and still higher quality than those to which I refer. And the same habit of so much time for this elaborate mental exertion might not only issue in superior authorship, but superior sermons, of which it were well that you had a certain and increasing number when called to preach on great public occasions, or to first-rate auditories. My reason for being satisfied with three days in the week for the more transcendental effort which I now recommend is, that I suppose your ordinary pulpit preparations are managed in a difierent way, and might require perhaps two or three days each week, not to be encroached upon b}^ any call on your mind, during these clays, for a more fatiguing exercise. So much for the creative efforts of thought and composition. Additional to these, I would have one or two hours a day for the perusal of the more arduous kind of books, such as might ADVICE TO A YOUNG CLERGYMAN. 311 subserve the preparations which I have now recommended, and store the mind with all that is most profound and philosophi- cal in the themes which you propose to elucidate. If these directions were fully and regularly acted up to, I would willingly allow the remainder of the time for light read- ing, society, and parochial duties. And, in reference to the latter, I would, as I could find the instruments, devolve as much as I profitably could upon others, whether in the capacity of elders or Sabbath-teachers, without, at the same time, precipi- tating these arrangements beyond the real worth of the agents who shall or may cast up one by one, and to those you might rightly commit the management in question. But what is all in all, is a systematic distribution of time. It is not by irregular efforts, however gigantic, that any great practical achievement is overtaken. It is by the constant recurrence and repetition of small efforts directed to a given object, and resolutely sustained and persevered in. In this Avay you will work yourself into a deep and cleaving interest in topics which at first may have been repulsive. Edwards's Works supply a rich assortment of such topics ; marks of con- version, marks of a work of the Spirit, original sin, necessity, sacrament, &c. ; see also Butler's " Sermons," Davison's " Prophecy," and many other authors whom I could mention ; but I would rather the concentration of your strength on a few themes, than that you should be a universalist. I think that there might be a most beneficial expenditure of all your time, and that the interest of eveiy hour of it might be completely filled up between the two objects of, first, a great mental product, and, secondly, a great practical efibrt in your parish. I do not want to shut out hours of ease and re- laxation ; but the fatigue of the other hours will make these last all the more enjoyable. It is a most valuable experience of Brainerd — that the regular distribution of time is essential 312 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. to one's religious prosperity ; and of Elliot — that tlirough faith in Christ Jesus, it is in the power of prayer and of pains to do eveiything. — Yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. [In August 1831, the late Mrs. Grant of Laggan received a letter from a lady then in Italy, describing the character of a young Italian Artist, in whom she was much interested, of remarkable genius, but unfortunately imbued with sceptical opinions on religion, which she had in vain endea- voured to remove. She begged that Mrs. Grant would submit a statement of the case to Dr. Chalmers, and solicit the favour of his benevolent aid in sug- gesting how the erroneous views of the young man might be best combated ; a request which Mrs. Grant with considerable hesitation complied with, by sending her correspondent's letter to Dr. Chalmers. The following answer was returned by Dr. Chalmers to jMrs. Grant.] No. CCXLVI. — Letter to Mrs. Grant of Lagg.\n. Edbiburgh, 2d Septemher 1831. My dear Madam, — I am sure you will excuse me from enter- ing in my own person on an argument with one who, from the account you have sent me of him, has yet to acquire the very first elements of a subject on which he speculates so adventur- ously, and yet with so little information. I must therefore confine myself to the recommendation of certain books, whicli, if not I'ead and studied by him, really makes tlie task which your friend has put into my hand in every way as hopeless as that of teaching optics to the blind, or teaching philosophy to children. Taylor's " Process of Historical Proof ;" Taylor's " Trans- mission of Ancient Books to Modern Times ;" Paley's " Evi- dences of Christianity ;" Lardner's " Credibility ;" "Lardneron Jewish and Heathen T^estimonies to the Truth of the Gos- pel ;" Paley's " Horse Paulinse ;" Butler's " Analogy ;" Leslie's " Short and Easy Method witli the Deists ;" Littleton's " Con- version of St. Paul." T. ERSKINE, ESQ. 313 I hope that the perusal of these may have a favourable effect, though I must confess that the union of so much confidence with so much ignorance tempts me to despair. That there should be no time to read, and withal such trust in the conclusions of his own confessedly uninformed mind, forms a composition which it is truly most difficult to deal with, and makes it an impracticable task to put down the de- termined but withal superficial infidelity of our age. — Ever believe me, my dear Madam, yours most truly and with great esteem, Thomas Chalmers. P.S. — Your friend should continue, however, to treat the person with great tenderness, and to make him the subject of her prayers. — T. C. No. CCXLVII. — To T. Eeskine, Esq. of Linlathen. Anstruther, lOtJi August 1818. My dear Sir, — I was obliged to leave Glasgow on the day of that night in which you were to have visited me, and left a line explanatory of the cause, which was a sudden call to wait on my father during an illness that has since turned out to be his last. He died here on the 26th of last month ; and I pro- pose moving homewards to-morrow. Be assured that there is nothing that could be more agree- able to me than to enter with you into a regular, though it should not be a frequent correspondence. I derived too much advantage from the personal interview I had with you, not to desire a continuance of intercourse in the only other way it can be maintained when at a distance from each other. I shall forbear at present giving a full and deliberate opinion on your " Translations of St. James." The doctrine you educe from them I hold to be undeniable and highly important ; and I feel benefit from the view you give of holiness, in that you 2d 314 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. rescue it from the humble office of evidencing our judicial state, and would raise it to an importance that were absolute and teraiinating. I see that many of our divines lay something like an exclusive stress on the object of making our title clear by our Avorks ; whereas the character of being zealous of good works is a character the formation of which is stated as an object in itself of Christ's coming to this world, and is essential to our preparation for the next. It just occurs tome that in James ii. 18, the contrast between the two temis is of a wider description than between faith in dormancy and faith in action — it is between faith viewed as one distinct object, and works viewed as another. But I trust I shall look over the whole Epistle with greater care, and be able to express myself more fully and decisively respecting it. My father, I have reason to rejoice, was a thorough Chris- tian. His faA'Ourite treatise was the " Theron and Aspasio " of Hervey, where the forensic benefit we have derived from Christ is the main topic of his argument. But does not the principle of self-preservation direct our primary attention to this matter, and should we actually conceive a trust in the Saviour for righteousness, who can say that a transition so much fitted to change and to brighten the prospects of man shall not also bring along with it new affections, new desires, new principle, and all the elements, in short, of regeneration. The Spirit cometh by the hearing of faith. They who trust in Christ are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. — Believe me, my dear sir, yours with great esteem and regard, Tnor.iAS Chalmers. No. CCXLYIII.— To T. Ekskixe, Esq. Eirhaldy, loth Octjher 1818. My dear Sir, — I am here on an excursion from Glaso-ow, for the purpose of taking back Mrs. Clialmers who has been spend- T. ERSKINEj ESQ. 315 ing the whole summer in Fife. You may not yet liavc heard of the matter which chiefly engrosses the interest and the feel- ings of the people of Glasgow at this moment : — poor Dr. Balfour was seized with apoplexy on Monday upon George Street, and taken into the nearest house, where he still lies, and is not expected to live another day. I received your manuscript a few weeks ago, and have read it, I assure you, with great satisfaction. To pronounce upon it critically would require a more elaborate examination than I can possibly afford ; but I can at least say, that I never read James with a more entire impression of the unity of what at one time appeared disjointed, of the significancy of what at one time appeared dark, of the pertinency of what at one time ap- peared irrelevant, than I have done through the medium of your translation. There is a light, and a power, and a moral impres- sion about your performance, that there is not about the version of the Apostle in our authorized Scriptures ; and if you can sub- stantiate on good philosophical grounds all the reformations that you propose, you will indeed offer a very valuable, as well, I am persuaded, as a very acceptable contribution to Biblical literature. If you have confidence in the soundness of your various render- ings, I regard the work as altogether worthy of publication. You have certainly succeeded in sustaining a mo^re continu- ous process of argument and reflection by your version than one can discover to be in the common one. You will confer a great favour upon me by an occasional letter. What I feel the need of is, that power of faith which must ever accompany the reality of faith, and which, if want- ing, may well lead us to suspect the reality. What I have long experienced of my own mind is, that it is quite possible to describe the whole range of Christian doctrine in the terms of a consistent and satisfying argumentation — to make use of all the temis in theology, and bring them into good logical arrange- 316 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS, ment, just as you make use of the symbols of an algebraical process, and conduct that process in a Avay that is unexception- able, Avhile the quantities rejiresented by the symbols are not at all present to the mind throughout the whole process of the investio-ation. I lono;^ for more of the life and freshness of an actual contact with these things — for the kingdom of God as abundantly in power as it is in word — in short, for such mani- festations of the first and elementary ideas, as I am persuaded, no play or performance of natural talent can ever conduct me to. It is here that I feel my helplessness — it is here I believe where the accomplished philosopher is on a footing with the most untaught and illiterate of the peasantry — it is here, I am persuaded, where light must be created and sent into our hearts by the immediate hand of God, instead of being excogitated by the labouring of the human faculties. I am awake to a sense of necessity and dependence ; and I await the perform- ance of the promise, " Awake, 0 sinner, and Christ shall give thee light." It is given to prayer while it is withheld from pre- sumption— it is given often to the intercessions of others, while it is Avithheld from all that a man can ask or do for himself ; and believing as I do that when a man goes in quest of Chris- tian truth in proud dependence upon himself, he gives an un- godliness to the very outset of his inquiries ; that God must be acknowledged in this way, as well as in every other, ere He direct our path. I have too high an opinion of prayer as an engine of mighty operation, not to feel a desire that I may have a part and an interest in your prayers, that God may visit me with such communications of light and of love, as to give me a distaste for the world, and a spiritual relish of Him as the strength of my heart and my satisfying portion. I am in the press just now with a volume of congregational sermons. I feel the poorness and the barrenness of them all ; and yet somehow or other I have prevailed upon myself tlius to T. EllSKINE, ESQ. 317 come forward with them. I see a mighty and untrodden interval between the state of my own mind and the spirituality of other Christians ; but I have the hope of being the more confirmed by all this in the attitude of the Apostle who had no confidence in himself, but rejoicing in the Lord Jesus was enabled to serve God in the Spirit. I shall return your manuscript to Mr. Stirling. I hope I have not done wrong in showing it to a neighbour who takes an interest in these things, but who, I am persuaded, will read it with a simple view to his own edification. It is my prayer that you may be useful, and eminently so, in the Church of Christ. What we want is labourers, with or without ordina- tion : either may wield the instrument of God's Word, and in the hands of neither will it return void. Have you seen Ed- wards's " Treatise on Prayer V A season of revival in the Church is generally preceded by a season of prayer. I stand sadly in need of your devotional frame all the day long — of the religion of feeling — of a real sensibility towards Him who is both a just God and a Saviour — who has so wondrously blended in one demonstration the infinity of His love with the infinity of His holiness. — Believe me, my dear Sir, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXLIX.— To T. Erskine, Esq. Edinhirgh, 2'illi December 184.3. My dear Sir, — I read both your letter and that of Madame de Stael with much interest and afiection. These are trying and sifting times, but I have the confident hope that good will come out of them. In particular I am most happy to observe that our Free Church ministers are manifesting a vigour and a spirituality which I never before Avitnessed, even in them, and which, under God, I can only ascribe to their being actuated by the feeling and the conscious freedom of now emancipated 318 COKRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. men. Meanwhile things are evidently converging to a crisis which I trust will usher in a brighter day both of Christian love and Christian liberty. I most cordially agree with you in thinking that our journey through Normandy should never be forgotten. In good earnest I assure you that I often look back upon it as the most brilliant and interesting passage of my bygone life, though the death of the poor Duchess casts a deep shade over it. I should rejoice if we met eye to eye. I feel convinced of a radical and essential unity betwixt us, however diverse and distorting the media might be between our respective visions and certain of those questions on which we may chance to differ. My fatigues compel me now to Avrite by my daughter Grace, who with Mrs. Chalmers desires kindest regards. — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCL. — To Rev. John Foster. Glasjoiv, StJi November 1821. My dear Sir, — I lately saw Mr. Jeffrey, the editor of the " Edinburgh Review," and spoke to him at some length about the conduct and character of that widely-spread journal. I told him how much it would add to its usefulness, did he not prohibit all his general contributors from ever touching on the subject of Christianity, and, making room for a theological department, admit an occasional article on that subject from one who was soundly acquainted with it, and able to render it impressively to his readers. My time is so much occupied that I have abandoned that sort of literature entirely. But I took the liberty of suggestino- you as one whose occasional contribu- tions would be of eminent service to the work ; and to yourself I add, that through the influence and diffusion of that work, such a direction may be given to your labours as to be of the first consequence to the best of causes. Mr. Jeffrey requested me to REV. JOHN FOSTER. 319 write you, and express tlie pleasure it would give him could you be prevailed upon to send him an article ; and I may here suggest to you, that from the very general character of that work hitherto, it were greatly better, instead of advocating one species of Christian partisanship against another, to advocate revelation in general against infidelity, or to expatiate in those more Catholic tracts of thought and sentiment, where one might keep from that sort of controversy which is so often confounded by a superficial public with the narrowness of sectarianism. , Do let me know what you think of this. I shall only say, that I would prefer to see your lucubrations in the " Edinburgh" rather than in the " Eclectic Review," because of the greater publicity and influence that they would thus attain ; while I still persist in another opinion that I have long expressed on the subject of your literary labours, and that is, that I regret you do not give more of your strength to the rearing of such works as may come out ostensibly and independently from your pen — being thoroughly persuaded that you can publish nothing in this way which will not prove a permanent accession to the Christian literature of our country. I can truly say for myself that I read no compositions with greater excitement than your own. I perused both your "Missionary Sermon'' and your book on " Popular Ignorance" with unmeasured delight ; and one passage more especially, of the latter, has kept a very tenacious hold of me, that in which you adventured, and with marvellous success, to pourtray the popular imagination of God — a description that came home so much to my own consciousness as to assure me how idolatrous and mean were all my conceptions of the Deity. There is one thing more that I beg to proj)Ose to you ere I am done. I am aware of your taste for landscape, and of the full gratification it would find in the scenery of our Highlands. I have myself gone a very little way into that sublime and 320 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. interesting region, and I would most willingly give up three weeks to the enterprise of penetrating right through to the most northerly point of Scotland, were it in the capacity of a guide and companion to you. I heg that you would think of coming to Glasgow next summer, and taking up your abode with me till we set out on this expedition. Meanwhile you will oblige me greatly by as speedy an answer as you can afford to this communication. Mrs. Chalmers joins in kindest regards to you. — I am, my dear Sir, yours very affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. Xo. CCLI.— To Rev. Dr. Rylaxd. Glasgow, \9>th February 1818. My dear Sir, — I return you many thanks for the kind pre- sent of " Fuller's Life," and also for your very excellent j^amphlet on " Antinomianism," — both of which I received from the hands of your son. I can assure you that I read the latter witli much interest and pleasure. It revived all my recollections of the excellent Jonathan Edwards, to wliose principles on the subject of Free- will I have long been a decided convert. You have given a very clear and judicious exposition indeed, of the perfect con- sistency which obtains between the absolute sovereignty of God on the one hand, and the fitness of bringing forward the urgency of Gospel calls and Gospel invitations on the other. I trust that your performance will do much good. It reminds me of j^our conversation when I had the pleasure of meeting you at Bristol, and which I shall not soon forget. I feel greatly indebted to you for the question you proposed to put to him Avho said, " I have come unto Christ," — " What have you gotten from Him ?" I rejoiced in recognising it as a very prevalent feature in your connexion, your horror at Antinomianism ; — and it is my prayer that, both by doctrine and example, you may succeed MR. J. E. RYI-AND. 321 more and more in vindicating tlie trutli as it is in Jesus, as being, indeed, altogether according to godliness. I have read nothing with greater excitement for a very long time than Hall's " Sermon" on the late lamented death. It is, indeed, a veiy rich and wonderful composition, and I think more impregnated with theology than any of his former works. It whets the appetite more than ever for a volume of congrega- tional sermons from him. Do wrestle this point with him till you have prevailed. I read lately his and your excellent pre- faces to his father's work. Mr. Foster is now in your neighbourhood. I know nothing that would more interest me than a communication from him. I carried away with me a very great affection for him, and I retain it. There appeared a vile unchristian attack on him lately in one of our Magazines ; and I heard nothing around me but indignation against it. He has many admirers in this part of the country. Your son I see occasionally. I entreat a part in your prayers. Oh, that we felt more and more a child- like dependence on the teachings of the Holy Spirit ! May God prosper your abundant labours, and cause you to rejoice in the fruit of them. — I am, my dear Sir, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLII.— Mr. J. E. Kyland.* Edhibiirgh, Id March 1831. My dear Sir, — I received your melancholy intimation of Mr. Hall's death with the greatest emotion, and consider it as a severe blow to the Church universal — as an event to be de- plored not by his own flock and family alone, but by all the friends of our common Christianity. I felt a particular interest in your narrative of his death ; and was struck with the coincidence between his dying testi- * Author of the " Life of Foster," &c. 322 COREESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. monies and tliose of Fuller, Dwiglit, and others of our best established Christians. The " humble hope " of his last moments deserves to be enshrined among the most precious of those memorabilia which he has given to the world. Will you tell Mrs. Hall (to whom I expect to write shortly) that I do feel a melancholy satisfaction in her having selected me, as one of those friends of her venerable and illustrious husband, who should be especially apprized of the sad event that afflicts and solemnizes us all. — Believe me, my dear sir, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLIII.— Mr. J. E. Ryland. Edinhurgh, nth November 18-i3. My dear Sir, — I should have acknowledged long ago your letter of the l7th of October, announcing the death of John Foster — a man of gigantic intellect, and whose writings have earned for him an imperishable name ; but who I trust is now enjoying a better and a higher immortality. I ever had the greatest veneration both for him and Mr. Hall, who, along with Dr. Ryland, Andrew Fuller, Drs. Carey, Marshman, and Ward, made up altogether a very bright constellation, and which serves to signalize the Baptists of England more than any other denomination which I at present recollect. I forget whether Mr. Sheppard of Frome is a Baptist. I am much interested by this renewal of our corresjDondence. It is now twenty-one years since we mot at Bristol, and I am now made to understand by your letter that you are settled at Northampton. Mrs. Chalmers unites with me in kindest remembrances, and I entreat you to believe me, my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. REV. C, BRIDGES. 323 Xo. CCLIY.— To Mrs. Paul. St. Andrews, 20th October 1827. My dear Mrs. Paul, — I have read the MS. on Prophecy Avhich you kindly prit into my hand, and I can assure you ■svith a strong conviction of its soundness. I perfectly agree with the writer in thinking that there has been a very culpable negligence of this important department of that Scripture whereof it has been said, that all is profitable. I myself am in for a full share of the blame, and I do hope that I shall not merely feel the obligation of giving more earnest heed unto prophecy, but that I shall henceforth act upon it. The perusal of your paper has freshened the impulse which I received some months ago from reading the work by Irving, and I certainly have of late attained a growing sense of the duty which attaches to this branch of sacred study. I am now reading in ordinary the Book of Isaiah, and derive occasional aid from M'Culloch's " Lectures ;" he is not a millenarian, which I am now very much inclined to be ; and the other day read with great pleasure the 26th chapter, the latter verses of which appear to describe the impotency of human and ordinary efforts to Christianize the world, (verse 18,) and then (verse 19) the commencement of the great era which is ushered in by the first resurrection. — Believe me, my dear madam, yours very affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLV.— To Eev. C. Bkidges. Edinburgh, 2d January 1834. My dear Sir, — I gladly avail myself of the opportunity which the Christmas holidays afford me of acknowledging your most esteemed letter of October last, as when engaged in teaching my classes I find both my strength and time very much en- grossed, having two distinct courses of lectures and upwards of 200 students to deal with. 324 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. I feel the greatest value for your kind and instructive com- munication, and more particularly for those parts of it which I can turn to a useful purpose, whether in the way of suggestion or of warning, as to the special business of my own profession. I deeply feel my need of effort and prayer, that my whole course may be more and more spiritualized, assured as I am of the possibility of delivering all the lessons of theology in the strictest form of sound words, and with the fullest adherence to the letter of the ti-uth as it is in Jesus, while the real unction and vitality of the Gospel spirit may be altogether wanting. I shall feel the utmost value in connexion with this all-important object both for your advices and your prayers. It is only by a manifestation from Him who is the Sun of Righteousness that the demonstrations of a professor can be brightened from the moonlight to the sunshine, of which you have so impressively told me, and have not only the greater light, but also the heat of the higher luminary imparted to them. I have a distinct lectureship this winter on the methods and the machinery of Christian education, which subject leads me not only to the vindication of religious establishments, but also to what may be termed the spiritual tactics of a parish ; and I can assure you that there is not one sentiment which you have either written or spoken in my hearing which I more thoroughly sympathize with than the mighty importance of maintain- ing unbroken the conjunction between the ministerial and the pastoral. I think myself prepared to shew that it is the dissolution of this sacred union that, instrumentally sj^eaking, has so weakened the influence of the Christian ministry all over the land, and more especially in our large towns. When on this subject I shall have occasion to make extracts from your ad- mirable work on the various official and j^rofessional duties of clergymen. I often think of your parish, which, as a hallowed abode of IlEV. C. BRIDGES. 325 peace and piety, supplies me Avitli far more interesting recollec- tions than anything I have seen in England. May the Giver of all grace continue to bless, and that abundantly, your minis- trations among the dear cottage families around you, and jjour down such a blessing that there may be no room to receive it. I beg that you will offer my best regards to Mrs. Bridges, and to Miss Wakefield, if still with you. In their work and labour of love amongst the young, and particularly among your own dear children, may the pleasure of the Lord prosper in their hands. — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours with greatest esteem and attachment, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLVI.— To Eev. C. Bridges. Burntisland, 12tJi April 1836. My dear Sir, — I take great blame to myself in having deferred so long to write to you. It is true that I am much en- grossed, and not so able for fatigue as I have been ; but nothing can justify the remissness of my correspondence with one wdiose communications, and, above all, whose prayers, I so highly value. I have seen Mr. Druramond since I last received your letter. I highly approve of your proposal to publish Fox's " Martyr- ology," though, I fear, I can do little to promote its success in Edinburgh. I am completely over-done, and am obliged to take flight into the retirement of the country. I hope you see Mr. Bickersteth occasionally — for I should like that, the first time you met him, you would deliver this message from me. When I Avrote him last I had only entered on the perusal of his w^ork on " Prophecy," and not proceeded far in it ; and certainly, from the beginning of his volume, I understood that he was doubtful on the subject of Christ's per- sonal reign — in wliicli sentiment I stated that I agreed with him. I now find, however, that he is decidedly for that opinion ; and I am very far from being decidedly against it. But I have 326 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. not yet got beyond Mede upon this question, wlio certainly left it indeterminate, tliougli I am now far more confident than I wont to be, that there is to be a coming of Christ which precedes the millennium — a millennium to be ushered into the world by a series of dreadful visitations, for which, I fear, we are fast ripening — in the train of which all our present structures, whether civil or ecclesiastical, Avill give way, that room might be made for a universal empire of truth and righteousness, I beg my most grateful regards to Mrs. Bridges ; and if Miss Wakefield be still with you, I would offer her, too, my best acknowledgments. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours most cordially, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLYII. — Letter to the Eev. Horace Boxae. Ediriburcili, 9th January 1847. My DEAR Sir, — "Would you allow me to suggest " Alexander on Isaiah " as an admirable book for your review. As far as I have looked into it, it seems a work of extraordinary merit. The author is an American professor at Princeton. I feel quite assured that your brother, were he to address him- self to the work, would go through it con amove. I cannot close this communication without expressing my entire satisfaction with the doctrines and the progress of what I call your South Country School, of whom I hold yourself, Mr. Purves of Jed- burgh, and Mr. Campbell of Melrose, to be the trio of its rej)re- sentatives. It is not of your prophetical, but of your theolo- gical views that I now speak, though to the former also I approximate much nearer than I did in my younger days.* * Ps. L. 1-6. — " This is a remarkable psalm, and the subject of it seems to lie ■within the domain of unfuWlled prophecy. There has been no appearance yet from Mount Zion at all corresponding \<\t\i that made from Mount Sinai. And I am for more inclined to the literal interpretation of this psalm, than to that which would restrict it to the mere preaching of the Gospel in the days of the apostles. It looks far more like tlie descent of the Son of Man on the Mount of Olives, with DR. JAMES BROWN. 327 But speaking of the latter, nothing can be more precious than the manner in wliich you expound the things that are freely given to us of God. I feel assured that no other doctrine will regenerate the world. — Give my kindest regards to Mrs. Bonar, and ever believe me, my dear sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers, LETTERS TO DR. JAMES BROWN. No. CCLVIII. Edinburgh, BOth August 1833. My dear Sir, — It is owing entirely to my having been so long from home, that I have not till now requested your ac- all the accompaniments of a Jewish conversion, and a first resurrection, and a de- struction of the assembled hosts of Antichrist." — (Posth. JVorJcs, vol. iii. p. 51.) Ps. Lxviu. 18-35. — " Mixed up with all the literalities of the typical, the great antitype shines forth in this high, sacred composition. We have positive evidence for Christ in this psalm, in Eph. iv. 8, — after which we need be at no loss for objects in the future triumph and victory of His cause adequate to the loftiest ex- pressions which we here meet with. . . . There is every likelihood of allusions here to the great contest of the Book of Revelation. . . . But God has in reserve for His people still another restoration. He will bring them again as of old, from Bashan and the Red Sea to their own land. His people will ' see Sim v-hom they have pierced,' perhaps when his feet stand on the Mount of Olives, and Jerusalem will again become the great central sanctuary by becoming the metro- polis of the Christian world." — {Ibid. p. 6&.) IsA. Lxv. 17-25. — " It is delightful to mark how an expression so general as that of the now heavens and the new earth, and therefore of the great and general renova- tion, should be blended with the expression of God's special kindness to his ancient people — proving that the Jews are to bear a prominent part in the establishment of the next economy. We are greatly wanting in the details of the millennium ; and perhaps from the want of Scriptural data for the determination of them. We can- not think of those who bear part in the first resurrection that they will again die ; but will none of the righteous die ? And if not, what is meant by the child dying a hundred years old? And in contrast with him, the sinner, who, though he should live a hundred years, will be accursed. We doubt not that there will be two contemporaneous societies at that p/eriod — the righteous and the wicked, who are without, and will not be permitted to hurt or to destroy in all God's holy mountain. Again, will there be a change in the laws of animal nature — that the carnivorous shall cease being so ; or are these things only figurative ? The earth, with its curse fully removed, will be greatly more productive, and so as that men shall not laboui* in vain, as now." — [Ibid. p. 339.) 328 CORRESPONDEXCE OF DR. CHALMERS. ceptance of my last work ; and I feel very mucli flattered by your favourable opinion of it. This is but tlie second day of my return from England. I agree in all you say on the subject of Mr. Duncan's work, with the exception of your single remark upon its dedication, than which he could have done nothing more rightly and ap- propriately'. It is the common feeling of us both, that Avhat- ever of the academic sj^irit, or of the purely academic en- thusiasm, either of us may possess, we are far more indebted for it to you, than to all other teachers put together. Of all my living instructors, I have ever reckoned first yourself, then Professor E,obison of Edinburgh, and, lastly. Dr. Hunter of St. Andrews, as far the most influential in the formation both of my taste and intellectual habits. I have read the Preface, and I think the book promises vastly well My two eldest daughters, who have mastered the first four books of Euclid, are to attempt the perusal of it ; and I mean to accomimny them. Such is my confidence in Mr. Duncan's powers of lucid convey- ance, while he at the same time sustains the purity and dignity of the science, that I have no doubt of their fully understand- ing him. I shall do all I can for the volume, but that is little. A re- view from your pen in the images of the " Edinburgh " would make its fortune. — With best regards to Mrs. and Miss Brown, I am, my dear sir, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers, No. CCLIX. Edinhur(jh, Wh February 1834. My dear Sir, — I agree with you in thinking that the ap- pointment of Ivory would shed very great eclat on our Uni- versity. Whether he would make a good working professor, I know not ; but I shall take every fair opportunity of stating what I do know of him as an illustrious savant. DR. JAMES BROWN. 320 On the subject of your second note, whicli I presume to be yours though subscribed only with your initials, I agree with you in deprecating the universality of popular preaching throughout tlie Church, if by this is meant flimsy, or vulgar, or untasteful, or irrational preaching. But there is one in- gredient of popularity which I should like to see in all sermons, grounded as it is on the adaptation of the peculiar doctrines of Christianity to the felt wants and exigencies of our moral nature, and to the workings and aspirations of which nature the peasant is as feelingly alive as the philosopher. For example, his con- science tells him, often more powerfully and just as intelligently, that he is under the condemnation of a violated law ; and so it falls with all the greater acceptance upon his ear, that unto him a Saviour is born. The doctrine of the atonement, in fact, urged affectionately on the acceptance of tlie people, and held forth as the great stepping-stone, by which one and all are welcome to enter into reconciliation and a neio life, (for a fully declared gospel is the very reverse of Antinomianism,) I hold to form the main staple of all good and efficient pulpit-work. I need not say how much my recent ilhiess has endeared to me the propitiated forgiveness of the New Testament — a forgive- ness to which we cannot resort too early, and on which we cannot, if honestly desirous of conforming ourselves to the whole word and will of God, cast too confidently the whole burden of our reliance. The interest you have taken in me inclines me to mention, that on Saturday week I received the notification from Paris of my appointment as a Corresponding Member of the Roj'al Institute of France. The place which they have assigned to me is in the Academy or Department of the Moral and Political Sciences. — I am, my dear sir, yours most gratefully^ TuoMAS Chalmers. 2 E 330 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. No. CCLX. Burntisland, 30fh August 183G. My dear Sir, — It is with no common interest and satisfaction that I received your kind note ; and am much gratified with your remembrance of me, who have fallen so much short of my own desires, and what, had it been possible, I should have re- garded as one of my most incumbent duties, that of testifying, both by my frequent calls and frequent inquiries, how deep the respect, and how cordial is the attachment, I have ever felt for you. I need not say how much I am gratified by the approval you have given to my last published sermon. I have long thought that great injustice has been done to the theology of the New Testament, by the inadequate representations of Or- thodoxy in regard to its practical character ; and that if these were more insisted on, it might serve to recommend its precious overtures of welcome and good-will ; its proclamation of for- giveness ; its full and free amnesty, even to the chief of sinners ; its grand disclosure of pardon to all who will, through the medium of an atonement, by which the law is magnified, while the transgressors of the law are taken into full reconciliation ; and so a fairer exhibition of the righteousness of the Christian system might gain the acquiescence of many in these doctrines of salvation and grace, by which so many are nauseated, because they do not perceive the goodness and the virtue with which the acceptance of these doctrines is inseparably associated. I cannot express the earnestness I feel that you, my dear Sir, may enjoy the comforts here, and be admitted to all the triumphs hereafter of a firmer faith in the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. With kindest regards to Mrs. and Miss Brown, ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours most cordially and with great esteem, Thomas Chalmers. MRS. BROWN. 331 No. CCLXI.— To Mrs. Brown. Burntisland, UtJi Novemher 1836. My dear Mrs. Brown, — I cannot adequately express the deep emotion wliicli I felt on receiving the melancholy intel- ligence of Dr. Brown's death — one of my most respected and earliest friends, and of whom I have often said, that of all the professors and instructors with whom I ever had to do, he is the one who most powerfully impressed me ; and to the ascen- dency of whose mind over me, along with that of Professor Robison's of Edinburgh, I owe more in the formation of my tastes and habits, and in the guidance and government of my literary life, than to that of all the other academic men whose classes I ever attended. But, in addition to his public lessons, I had the privilege of being admitted to a long intimacy with your departed husband, and of enjoying the benefits, as well as the charms, of his most rich and eloquent conversation ; besides receiving from him many written communications, which I have kept by themselves, and prize as a great literary treasure. Of these, the most interesting is the last, received from him not many weeks ago, and on the most momentous of all subjects. You may be well assured that, when such a master-mind as his thought fit to disclose itself on the high themes of religion, I could not but feel alive to the manifestation of a sensibility on this greatest of all concerns, the knowledge of which I now feel to be inexpressibly precious. It is my earnest prayer that you and your daughter may be supported on this trying occasion by Him who is the Giver of all comfort, and who alone can sanctify and bless His own visi- tation. May we all be led to the wise and right consideration of our latter end ; and laying hold of the oiFered atonement of the Gospel, may we henceforth sit at the feet of Him, who alone hath the gift, and who alone hath the words of life everlasting. 332 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. I exceedingly regret that I was altogether disabled by cir- cumstances from attending the funeral. Either to-morrow or Tuesday I hope to call upon you at Beaumont Place. With my best regards to Miss Brown, I entreat you to be- lieve me, my dear Madam, yours with deepest sympathy and respect, Thomas Chalmers. {^Rector}/, Hornsey, \Qth August 1852. — My dear Sir, — A discussion took place at tiie close of 1837 at the monthly meetings of the Society for the Promoting Christian Knowledge, in the course of which the proper designa- tion of the Episcopal Church in Scotland came to he considered. Some members, who sympathized with the very High Church party, desired to describe the Scottish bishops as bishops of the Church in Scotland, or of Scotland, thereby ignoring the Established Church. Eventually it was de- termined, by the recommendation of the bishop of London, to make use of the designation which the bishops claimed to themselves — "Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church," by which no offence could be given to any one. Thinking that some incorrect rumour might reach Dr. Chalmers of the dis- cussion, I wrote to acquaint him with the true state of the case. The accompanying letter is his answer. — With kind compliments, I am, yours truly obliged, Richard Hakvet. The Rev. Dr. Hanna.] No. CCLXII. — Letter to Kev. Mr. Harvey. JiJdinhurgh, Gth Fehruary 1838. My dear Sir, — I owe you many apologies for my delay in replying to your letter ; but I am really borne down by arrears of correspondence, and business of various sorts. I regret that anything should have occurred which might mar the cordiality that ought to subsist between the two Establishments. There are several here who will feel the dis- ownal of us far more deeply than I can at all sympathize with. I feel confident that the exclusive principle which was mani- fested at your meeting must wear out of credit with the minis- ters of the Church of England ; and that a notion so utterlv MR, JOHN SHEPPARD. 333 senseless and fantastic will at Icngtli be entertained by so very- few, as that we shall at length afford to look on them with the most benignant complacency. The epithet " Episcopalian " would have saved the credit of the meeting, and, I should imagine, have satisfied all parties. " The Episcopal Church either of or in Scotland." When you write Mr. Le Bas, ofier him my kindest regards. I rejoice to hear of his preferment ; and I hope that I shall meet him in my visit to London, which, if God will, I propose shall be towards the end of April. I have not forgotten my last delightful visit to Hornsey ; and I look forward with the greatest pleasure to the renewal of it. — With most respect- ful acknowledgments to Mrs. Harvey, I ever am, my dear Sir, yours most gratefully, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXIII.— To Mr. John Sheppaed. Edinburgh, 25th April 1833. My dear Sir, — I should have acknowledged long ago the kind gift of your acceptable volume,* which I have been per- using with very great interest and pleasure ; and which, highly as I esteemed your " Thoughts on Devotion," I regard as a far richer production, abounding as it does in the views of a deeper experience, and having in it much greater fulness, as a reposi- tory of pearls and precious things. I have taken the liberty of referring to it in my " Bridgewater Essay," now in the press ; and I know that a review of it has appeared in our " Scottish Presbyterian," favourable, though not equal to my own impres- sion of its merits. My habit in reading a book is to mark witli approbation, or the contrary, as I move along. I find that I have given my most intense approval to the following passages: — page 18; bottom of page 20; top of page 157. These I single out as * " Essays on Christian Encouragement," &c. 334 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. being double marks. The single marks are innumerable, and yet represent, but feebly, the delight I have felt in the perusal of your volume. I have not, though quite honest in the marks I affix to all my readings, jotted down a single passage as questionable or that I differ from. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours most respectfully and with greatest regard, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXIV.— To Mr. John Sheppard. Edinhuryh, ICi/t November 1833. My VERT DEAR SiR, — Your very kind letter of the 30th of July I should have acknowledged long ago ; but I have been a great wanderer this season, and for a good many months have been marvellously little at home. I need not say how much I have been gratified by your remarks of approbation and kindness on my last work — an abundant compensation, I assure you, for the hostility which I have been doomed to experience so abundantly at the hands of the English reviewers, who, with the exception, as far as I have yet seen them, of the " British Critic," seem bent on running me down. One ought not to be sensitive about a matter of this sort, and it would argue a particularly morbid constitution not to be abundantly comforted under all their severities by the approval of the wise and the good. I have received your Sermon on the death of Mr. Hughes, whom I had the pleasure of knowing. I am much delighted with it ; and as I have only room for one remark, I was greatly struck with your felicitous illustration in page 25, on the hos- tility by which the British and Foreign Bible Society was assailed, and where you have so justly and forcibly characterized, in particular, the attacks that were brought to bear against it from this pugnacious quarter of the island. I cannot express the tenderness I feel in being made to DR. SYMINGTON, 335 understand from your letter that you have been labouring under dej^ression ; I wish I could prevail upon you, my dear Sir, to look more objectively, and less subjectively, than you appear to do — more to the outer truths, if I may so express it, of Christianity, and less to the inner lineaments which these may have impressed on the tablet of your own character, I should not feel myself justified in oifering this advice, did I not feel assured that, after all, it is by the direct exercise of faith, that all these virtues of the new obedience are engendered within us which furnish the materials of a reflex self-examina- tion, I have derived great comfort from a little tract, entitled " Brief Thoughts on the Gospel, and the Hindrances to Be- lieve it." With the greatest esteem and regard, I ever am, my dear Sir, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXV. — Letter to Dr, Symington. Edinburgh, 9th Octoher 1838. My dear Sir, — I should have replied sooner to your kind letter of some weeks past, but I Avas unwilling to sit down till I had begun the perusal of your work on the Atonement, I am now reading it witli great interest, and, I trust, with a practical and good impression. It is indeed that doctrine of great price, the very name of which is as ointment poured forth. I hope I shall be able to write you at greater length on the subject after I have completed the perusal of your substantial and masterly volume. Indeed, I believe I shall have to write you at any rate early in November, Meanwhile, I am marking- all the passages as I go along, and will furnish you with a list of them either in writing or when we meet. My preference in the treatment of a subject is for an exhi- bition of the direct proofs first ; after -which, I do not object that other arguments, after being brought forward as preliminary 33G CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALJIERS. considerations, should be exhibited in the form of collateral or subsidiary arguments. For example, I agree with Paley in the first sentence of his " Evidences," where he pleads for an immediate entry on the strongest credentials of revelation, and that anterior to any consideration of its necessity. But this question of arrangement is too unwieldy for discussion in a single letter ; and I think the chief objection to the usual arrangement is done away when the prefatory views which you exhibit are held forth more in the light of presumptions than as the initial steps of a logical process, which last method has the effect of placing the less obvious probabilities at the basis of the argument, and so of making the whole weak throughout, because weak radically. On the whole, I feel quite assured, and the assurance will gather in strength as I advance in my reading of your work, that it forms a most sound and valuable contribution to our professional literature. — With best regards to Mrs. Symington and your family, I am, my dear Sir, yours most respectfully and truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXVI. — Letter to Rev. Thomas Bartlett. Edinhurgh, 25th January 1839. My dear Sir, — Your " Life of Butler " came to me about a week ago ; and I suspended all other reading till I should achieve the perusal of it. My engagements leave me very little time for this indulgence ; but I have now finished the Narrative, and cannot forbear writing you now, though I have not yet entered on the Abridgment which you make of the " Analogy.'' I mean, however, to look over this also ; and should anything occur to me, in respect of its execution, I will send you a second letter. But recurring to the Memoir, I have pemsed it with great eagerness, and a very intense feeling of satisfaction and in- REV. THOMAS BARTLETT. 337 terest. My veneration for Butler gives a magnitude even to the minutest traits which are recorded of him, insomuch that I feel as if I had made a real acquisition by knowing of his fast riding on a black horse, and his habit of stopping and turning to his companion with whom he was engaged in talk. Allow me to say that I look on what is peculiarly your own part as done with great taste and great talent ; and it is not with the spirit of flatteiy, but of justice, that I tell you, labour- ing as you did under the disadvantage of scanty materials, that the work is greatly indebted to your OAvn reflections, that you have imparted to it a strong literary interest, and have managed to infuse into it as great a biographical charm as the fewness of the known incidents would allow. Page 222. — I shall here transcribe an extract from my class- book on Butler's " Analogy." Dr. Ryland, in his edition of " Andrew Fuller's Works," says in a note, — " I heard Mr. Venn of Yelling give an account, however, to Mr. Beveridge, who re- lated his conversation with one of his chaplains, to whom the bishop remarked, 'that it was an awful thing to appear before the Moral Governor of the world ;' when the chaplain, whose views were more clearly evangelical, referred him to the obedience of Christ by which many are made righteous ; and the dying bishop exclaimed, ' 0, this is comfortable,' and so expired." What I now give brings Butler's expression still nearer to that at page 226. Even if you had done no more than collect the scattered remains of such references as were made to Butler by various Authors during his life and after his death, that of itself would have justified the volume ; for though these references are taken from printed books or pamphlets, they, even at this time of day, are as little known as if they had been extracted by you from manuscripts and letters. I shall only add, that nothing can be more agreeable than 2 F 338 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. your kind notice of myself. Pages 335, 336, brought back to me a very vivid and most interesting recollection.* — With my best regards to Mrs Bartlett, believe me ever, my dear sir, yours most respectfully and cordially, Thomas Chalmers, \_Princeton, 10th March 1848. — Reverend and dear Sir, — Having learned from the public journals that you were engaged in preparing a Memoir of the late great and good Dr. Chalmers, and that you desired to have letters which he had written transmitted to you, it occurred to me to doubt whether I had not a duty to discharge in reference to this request. Though I enjoyed the precious privilege of corresponding with him, yet but few letters passed between us. We were both too busy, and especially he in the great concerns in which he was called to act, to devote much time to letter-writing. I think the letters which I received from him were not more than three. Of one of them, and the longest, I enclose herewith a copy. The others have, I scarcely know how, passed out of my possession ; for, as the handwriting of such a man could not fail of being the object of intense curiosity and of deep interest with the multitudes on this side of the Atlan- tic, who admired his talents, and venerated his name, I found it difficult to retain in my possession any scrap that bore the impress of his hand. In one of my letters to this beloved and illustrious man, I begged him, with an importunity never addressed by me to any other person, to favour the American Churches with a visit. I know not that I ever had so ar- dent a desire to behold the face and to hear the voice of any other human being : and now, painfully aware, of course, that I can never enjoy this privilege, I feel a kind of solicitude that I never felt before, for the accom- plishment of the great biographical trust committed to your hands. I rejoice to have seen all the works of this venerable servant of Christ, that have been placed within my reach ; but I must say, that those from which I have received the deepest impression of the real glory of his charac- ter, have been his posthumous writings. Of the vigour and elevation of his mind, I had enjoyed proof enough from the many volumes which had long since fallen under my notice. But from some of his most unstudied writ- ings which have lately m§t my eye, I have received impressions of his moral and heavenly grandeur of soul, greatly beyond those which I had received from the multiplied and rich productions of his genius. I thank his God and my God that I have been permitted to see these last effusions * See Memoirs, vol. iii. pp. 388, 389. EEV. SAMUEL MILLER. 339 of his heart and his pen. They have much enlarged my views of his Chris- tian greatness, and, I hope, have not been without benefit to my own soul. But among all those who will take such a deep and tender interest in your work, there are, perhaps, few less likely than myself to enjoy the pleasure of seeing it completed. Being far advanced in my 79th year, and daily admonished by many infirmities that I must soon " put off this tabernacle," it is not very probable that I shall survive the publication of your precious Memoir. But be it so : this will be of small importance to any one. Many in both hemispheres will read it, enjoy it, and be, I trust, "the better for it ; and in the meanwhile I shall be, I hope, so happy as to join the great and beloved man himself, whom all have for a time lost, and to see him face to face in a more enlightened and happy world, and to unite with him in the endless praise and enjoyment of that precious Saviour, whose atoning sacrifice and perfect righteousness are " all my salvation and all my desire." — I am, Reverend and dear Sir, most respectfully, your friend and brother in Christian bonds, Samuel Miller. To the Rev. Wm. Hanna.] No. CCLXVII.— To Rev. Dr. Samuel Miller. Edinhurgh, 28t?i December 1840. My dear Sir, — I owe you many apologies for not having replied sooner to your letter of the 28th of January of last year. The truth is, that my whole attention has been absorbed by the questions and the difficulties of our own Church ; and I, posi- tively, have had no remaining strength or time for the American controversy, of which you have sent me so full and interesting an account in your kind communication. It is well, however, that there was no immediate practical necessity for giving one's mind to the subject, seeing that, so far as I know, there was no application made by your seceding party for a recognition of their views by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. I hope you received a former letter of mine on the subject of your book respecting the " Eldership," which I have ever re- commended to my classes as the best I know on its own especial topic, beside being an admirable general vindication of 340 CORRESrONDEXCE OF DR. CHALMERS. the Presbyterian polity. I am much interested by your argu- ment for the separation of the two orders of elders and deacons, tlie conjunction of which I have ever deprecated as the most inconginious of all pluralities. With earnest prayer for your continued public usefulness and personal comfort, and in humble hope that we shall meet in heaven, I entreat yovi to believe me, my dear Sir, yours most respectfully and cordially, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXVIII.— To Rev. Thomas Grinfield, Clifton. BurnMand, 28th April 1841. Mt DEAR Sir, — It is impossible not to be highly gratified by your letter of the 20th, in which you speak so favourably of my " Treatise on Natural Theology." I labour under the discountenance of one principal Review, and the positive hos- tility of another. First, the " Edinburgh,'' chiefly (I believe) from a difference in our politics : secondly, the " Quarterly," whose editor, a Scotchman, has been my unrelenting adversary for more than twenty years. It is therefore all the more pleas- ing when a literary and professional man like yourself gives his attention to my various theses, and records a favourable impression of them. — Believe me ever, my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXIX. — To Rev. Thomas Grinfield, Clifton. Burntisland, 16th June 1841. My dear Sir, — I should have much sooner acknowledged your last of May 1st ; but I have been in feeble health, and much and painfully engrossed with the troubles of our Church. I got an interdict sferved on me this day which I mean to disregard ; and on the identical principle which would de- cide an English Bishop to disregard the mandate of a civil court, either to admit or exclude a man from holy orders. REV. THOMAS GRINFIELD. 341 I read your panij)lilet* witli great interest a few days after its arrival, and cannot but augur great good from the establishment in your important city, of such an Association as that before which it was read. I was much pleased with the " Lecture ;" and while I thank you most cordially for your most kind mention of myself, I must also express my satisfaction at the testimony you give, and which you have so well established, to the har- mony of the two faculties of reason and imagination ; an im- portant principle, truly, and sadly overlooked by those heart- less Statists and Utilitarians, who think that nothing can be true which is beautiful, and nothing beautiful which is true. You have succeeded, though against the authority of Samuel Johnson, in demonstrating that sacred subjects admit of being- represented in the style and with all the eifect of the highest poetry. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours most gratefully and cordially, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXX. — To Kev. Thomas Grinfield, Clifton. Burntisland, \st September 1841. My dear Sir, — Your letter has been too long unanswered ; but we are still in the thick of our Church contests, with a ma- jority (I hope and believe) of our Establishment in readiness to give up their connexion with it, rather than submit our ecclesiastical affairs to the Erastian control of the civil power. I gave orders to my bookseller to send for your acceptance each volume of the series as it comes out. I expect vol. xxi. to be published on the 1st of October. It consists of altogether new matter, and on a subject which I should like to be well understood in England, that of Pauperism — a question far from being either j)ractically or doctrinally settled in either of the two countries. * " Lecture on Imagination and Poetry, with a Special Reference to the Poetry of the Bible," delivered before the Bristol Book Association. 342 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. Tlie manifold distractions of our Churcli controversy have interrupted the forthcoming of my works, which will now be resumed. I feel that any vigour I ever had, whether in litera- ture or in public life, is rapidly abating. There is a higher and more satisfying pursuit than either, and in which I pray that God by His grace might advance and perfect us both. May our souls prosper and be in health ; and for this greatest and best of all communications, I would seek more and more unto Him who alone hath the words and alone hath the gift of life everlasting. — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXXI.— To Kev. Thomas Grinfield, Clifton. Wth December 1841. My dear Sir, — I received your " Syllabus of Lectures on Milton,'' and feel quite sure that your converse in this mode with the citizens of Bristol must have a refining and elevating influence on the public mind of your city. I take your friendly advice as very kind, prompted, as I am sure it is, by the breathings of a real wish for my safety and wellbeing. I am always delighted by a letter from you, being ever, my dear Sir, yours most affectionately and with great esteem, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXXIL— To Kev. Henry Bell. Edinhurgh, \ 6th January 1836. My dear Sir, — I have just time to request your acceptance of a copy of the fourth edition of my " Bridgewater Treatise." I look back with great pleasure and much thankfulness to our Matlock visit, and to all the kindness we received from you — a pleasure only marred by the recollection of my own im- patience of feeling at the delay in our getting off, from some mistake of the coachman. What a bright and beautiful world REV. HENRY BELL. 343 we live in, and how abundant in all the means of enjoyment, but for the sad perversity of our own distempered spirits ! Mrs. Chalmers, who has been long an invalid, joins me with Eliza in kindest remembrances both to yourself and Mrs. Bell. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours very affectionately and truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXXIII.— To Eev. Henry Bell. Eclinhurgli, 2Sth October 1846. My dear Sir, — I have read so much of your volume, and like it exceedingly. I think there is great beauty in its com- position, and that its literary merits stand very high. But I was still more struck with the amount of thought in it, and more especially with the instruction deduced from the passages, or rather from the clauses that you comment upon. I have marked particularly what suggests a new argument for the plenary and universal insj)iration of the Bible. I rather regret the anti-Calvinism that you have discovered ; but let that pass. I have finished lecture second, and am only sorry that at the commencement of my winter duties, my perusal of your work must go on very slowly. I have no doubt of its favour- able reception. I am much interested by what you state of Professor Lee's " New Theory of Hebrew Tenses." I should like that you made known that your views for the application of the pluper- fect to the 1st and 2d verses of the 1st chaj)ter of Genesis would bring philology and geology at one. My own sense of the meaning was made known to the world in 1814, and shewn to Professor Buckland in 1835, who adopted it in his " Bridge- water Treatise," but without acknowledgment. Have you seen Elliott's " Horse Apocalypticse ?" He makes a very unwarranted attack on our Free Church, and has been 344 CORRESPONDENX'E OF DR. CHALMERS. ably replied to by Dr. Candlish, in a pami)lilet of wliicli I will send you a copy. Mrs. Chalmers joins me in the kindest regards to you and Mrs. Bell. I clierish a most pleasant recollection of our last visit to you. If the venerable Mrs. Fox be still alive, offer her my most affectionate remembrances, and the same to Dr. Douglas Fox and all the family. — I am yours, &c. Thomas Chalmers. No, CCLXXIV.— To THE Eev. Timothy East, Birmingham. Edinburgh, 23fZ January 1847. My dear Sir, — I shall have great pleasure in recommending your volume to my students. I would liave applied myself more closely to the whole subject some time ago ; but the truth is, my theological course is one of three years' duration, and I do not get at the subject of the divinity of our Saviour till next month, when I shall have occasion to state my favourable im- pression of the merits of your work ; after which you will hear what the result is to be, I am much pleased with the new lights into which the argument has been cast by you, and I think it of great advantage to the students that they should, after studying the critical and scientific arguments, be thrown abroad as it were on a general work like yours, which takes its own independent and very intelligent view of the doctrine. I shall probably read out to my students those pas- ages Avhich I have marked, as having in them the characters of originality along with great weight. Forgive me for saying that I think you have expanded too much in the latter part of the volume, which admits, in my opinion, of a good deal of compression, without any sacrifice of the sterling quality of the argument. I did not congenialize with the instance which you gave of the Bishop of Exeter, which, whether correct in itself or not. REV. EBENEZER BROWN. 345 had better have been avoided. I have not yet finished the perusal of it, having about 150 pages more to read. I am not aware of any work on the subject so well adapted for general and family reading ; and I have often regretted, that beside having works on each of the great doctrines of Christianity, altogether of a critical and controversial character, Ave should not have works made up of those kind and impressive appeals, which form the main staple of your volume, and which may be read and recognised of all men. — With many apologies for my long delay, I am, my dear Sir, yours very respectfully and truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXXV. — To THE Eev. Ebenezer Brown OF Inverkeithing, Fife. Glasgow, 15th December 1821. My dear Sir, — I received your much esteemed note yester- day. I am quite aware that its suggestions are not only very kind, but very necessary ; for I am sure that both in language and in spirit we lie under many temptations to depart from the simplicity that is in Christ. I can truly say that I have the utmost relish for those evangelical authors whose style is that of great homeliness, while clearly and forcibly expressive of the great truths of the Gospel ; and, lastly, I have read with great satisfaction your work of " Romaine on Faith," whose ever pervading idea is just that of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The constant presentation of this tiiith, so far from being offensive to a spiritual man because he heard it before so often, is like the constant presentation of the same food, agreeable and welcome to him because he is hungiy ; and it is indeed a tremendous thought that by the wisdom of words the cross of Christ may be made of no effect. There is one thing, however, that ought to be adverted to ; the difference of styles is somewhat like the difference of 346 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. dialects. You would not have a plain Yorkshire minister when he comes to your neighbourhood attempt to preach in the dialect of Fife. His own dialect is the best for his own people. And in like manner there is a stjdc proper to every one, whether it be natural or acquired, which perhaps is the best for one class of ministers, though unsuitable to another. God inter- posed with a miracle of tongues that the Gospel might be preached to every man in his own language ; and it is perhaps in unison with this jninciple of His administration that He rears a diversity of authors who may speak to the people each in his own style or dialect the wonderful works of God. I have much more to say upon this subject, but I must postpone the subject till we meet and talk about it. May I entreat your prayers, for which, I assure you, I shall have the same value that I would for the prayers of a vener- able and much loved father. May the God of all comfort rejoice your heart with the tokens and demonstrations of your usefulness ; and let it be our united supplication to Him, that He would pour down of that Sj^irit upon our land, without which all human exertion is powerless as infancy. Give my best compliments to your brother when you Avrite him or see him, with Avliom, as Avith yourself, I have had some very congenial and much valued fellowshiiJ. — I am, my dear Sir, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXXVI. — To THE Countess of Elgin. Edinburgh, Ut June 1826. My Lady, — Your Ladyship's very kind letter was long of reaching me, partly from Mr. Whyte's ignorance of the place where I first resided when I came to Edinburgh, and partly from the change of place which I have undergone during my stay in the metropolis. I feel myself greatly flattered and obliged by your Ladyship's COUNTESS OF ELGIN. 347 goodness in liaving again tendered me so pressing an invitation to come to Broomhall ; and there is nothing which could aiford me greater enjoyment than to renew the Christian and intel- lectual gratifications which I have had the happiness so often to experience there. This is an object which I shall study to achieve in the course of my present college vacation. Just now there is a very .particular avocation which makes it impossible for me to go anywhere but the east of Fife, and that is, the marriage of a sister, which takes place early next week. I shall be much occupied both before and after that event with home matters ; but I am not without hopes of being able through the summer to realize that converse which, I crave your Ladyship's forgiveness for saying, has left a fragrance behind it, and the remembrance of which is sweet. We have lost groimd numericalli/ this year on the plurality question, but Ave have not lost heart ; and it is my feeling that bating this and another distressing division, this Assembly has, on the whole, had a very promising aspect, and the spirit of our Church is unequivocally improving. I beg my most resj)ectful compliments to the Ladies Bruce, and to Lords Elgin and Bmce, who I know are at present from home. — I have the honour to be, my Lady, your Ladyship's most obliged and obedient servant, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXXVII.— To THE Countess of Elgin. Edinburgh, 6th March 1830. My Lady, — I received your deeply interesting letter — the penisal of which, I can assure your Ladyship, has given me unfeigned satisfaction. I hold the faith and the feelings therein expressed to be altogether legitimate — warranted as they are by the terms in which the Gospel overtures are framed, and Avhich direct us to look for the primary object of 348 COKRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. our confidence, not inwardly upon ourselves, but outwardly to the Saviour. I have repeatedly expressed my regret that the admirable general lesson of Mr. Erskine's book should have had the burden of one questionable and obnoxious expression laid upon it ; and Avhich I foresaw would frustrate and overbear the good of his publication by the interminable controversy that would arise from it. All men are not pardoned — but all men have the pardon laid down for their acceptance ; and the latter is just as effective an exhibition of the Divine character as the former, without the heavy exception of being unscriptural, and liable to be abused to Antinomianism. I feel that I could talk on this subject far better than write ; and therefore I look forward with great interest to my purposed visit to Broomhall, so soon as we are fairly settled in our new house, which I expect will take place in the middle of A^iriL With most respectful compliments to Lord Elgin, I have the honour to be, my Lady, your Ladyship's most obliged and obedient servant, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXXVIII.— To TUE Countess of Elgin. Edinhurgh, 2d June 183L My Lady, — I beg to send your Ladyship the pamphlet on the Poor Laws, along with Sir John Sinclair's and two tracts of my own. The one on the National Debt may not be very in- teresting, yet if sound, and I cannot find out a flaw in the reasoning, leads to a conclusion of great j^ractical importance. I regret that I cannot lay my hands on Mr. Drummond's or Mr. Irving's letter on the subject of Miss Mowbray, and I suspect they are still in her father's hands. I have, however, the satisfaction of sending Mr. Camjjbell's. I returned in time to be present at the discussion of Mr. S.'s and Mr. Irving's cases. Mr. S.'s very appearance at the bar LADY MATILDA MAXWELL. 349 of the Assembly involved in it a practical bull, and the de- cision was inevitable. Of all the motions that were fiibricated on Mr. Irving's question, I think the one adopted was the best. I grieve for poor Campbell. He was probably right in idea, but if he obstinately persist in couching that right idea in a wrong phraseology, he may not be the less dangerous as an expounder of truth. The man whose sound views may save himself, might still, by abandoning the form of sound words, mislead others. Yet I cannot help being in great heaviness on his account. It is ominous that Spencer Drummond, wdio is now in Edin- burgh, should at this moment have seceded from the Church of England because of its tenet of universal redemption, when our own tenet of particular redemption has driven Mr. Campbell beyond the pale of the Scottish Establishment. I never leave Broomhall without the feeling of its being the most congenial moral atmosphere I breathe anywhere. My regret at parting from it at this time was aggravated greatly by what I perceived were the sufferings of Lord Elgin. It is our duty earnestly to pray for their alleviation. — I have the honour to be, my Lady, your Ladyship's most obliged and obedient servant, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXXIX.— To Lady Matilda Maxwell. 22d October 1843. Dear Lady Matilda, — I very sincerely regret that I cannot avail myself of your kind invitation — obliged to leave on Wed- nesday, and engrossed every moment before it. I must confess myself to have been greatly touched by your allusions, both to your dear father and to poor Lady Elgin, whose tragical death moved and affected me greatly. I should have rejoiced if I had had it in my power to have taken refuge for a few days in the asylum of peace and friend- 350 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. sliip which your goodness has proposed for me ; there to have renewed the associations of former days, and to have had a brief but happy breathing time from the fatigues and anxieties of this stormy period. I beg that you will offer my most respectful acknowledgments to Mr. Maxwell ; and with earnest prayer that w^e may all meet in that Heaven where separation is unknown, and charity ever reigneth, I always am, my dear Lady Matilda, yours with greatest esteem and regard, Tpiomas Chalmers. No. CCLXXX.— To Lady Carnegie. Glasgoiv, 3d February 1823. My dear Lady Carnegie, — I have looked over the papers which relate to Ireland, and shall give them over to Mr. M'Gregor as your Ladyship directed me. I feel the weight and magnitude of the object to be such that I would not venture on any deliverance without the actual sur- vey of an Irish district in person, and the leisurely attention of many weeks to the topic in all its bearings. I shall therefore satisfy myself at present with a few remarks that have occurred to me during the perusal of those interesting documents which have been put into my hand. 1. I rejoice to observe a progress towards that subdivision of effort which is so requisite. In proportion as this is carried forward will there be a relief felt from that unwieldiness which has hitherto stamped such an impotency on all the plans of a very ambitious and extended benevolence. 2. So much am I impressed with the truth of the above remark, that I should have greater comfort in the meantime did I contribute my subscription to one complete and concen- trated operation on a single parish than to a thin and evanescent sprinkling of good over a whole country. I feel quite assured that the exhibition of a model in philanthropy will do more for LADY CARNEGIE. 351 the cause than a magnificent aim with an execution that lags at a most hopeless distance behind it. The success of a process upon an experimental farm would give a far more beneficial impulse to agriculture than a large grant from the Exchequer, to be divided equally among all the parishes of the empire. 8. I feel the more comfort in advancing this suggestion that I do not thereby suj)ercede or discourage any extended opera- tion which may be going on at present in the county of Clare. I simply recommend as an addition to the whole that there shall be the singling out of one manageable parish in which there may be immediately established a full system of the means of moral and economical amelioration devised on the soundest principles, and which shall not be suffered to labour under the want or the shortcoming of any one instrument that is fitted to give efficacy to the experiment. 4. I liked the small pamphlet very much, and chiefly because of the intercourse which its plans would necessarily produce between females of the higher and lower orders. All my ex- perience has convinced me that from no human influence does a more rapid civilisation ensue than from the personal attention of ladies to the children of the poor. 5. I liked the simplicity of its objects, viz., the cleanliness and personal habits of the peasantry, and to which I would superadd, as far as practicable, their education, comprehensive of reading to all, and sewing to the girls. 6. It is a mistake to think that there is no limit to profitable work ; we can no more provide work for the employment of all in a well-peopled country than food for the subsistence of all. I should like to see every j)lan delivered from errors in political economy ; and be assured that there is no permanent ameliora- tion to be looked for but in such an elevation of mind and man- ners throughout the general mass of the natives as that, under the impulse of their own improved taste, they shall at length 352 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. become the willing agents in raising and improving their own condition. You will always find that, in the absence of poor- rates, the average style of comfort among the people determines their habits, whether of prudence or of precipitation as to mar- riage. Should a higher demand for comfort be at length intro- duced among the peasantry of Ireland, this would restrain these improvident connexions which I hold to be a jmlpable and im- mediate cause of wretchedness in every population. Noav, this is not to be done in a day ; let us be thankful if it should be done in a century, and meanwhile let each of us suit his move- ments to the mediocrity of his powers, more satisfied with doing a small thing thoroughly well, than with the short-lived glory of a splendid enterprise that vanishes in smoke. — I am, &c.j Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXXXI.— To Lady O'Brien. My dear Lady O'Brien, — 1. I should even think Ennis to be too wide a field, and I should prefer a district of the town with a population of three thousand, and this district the poorest in the place. 2. A chapel to be built in it, with a minister who had the zeal and spirit of a most devoted missionary, but Avho at the same time, totally free of all partisanship, could so manage his addresses, both from the pulpit and in private houses, as never once to advert to such a distinction as that which obtains be- tween Catholics and Protestants. This I think he may do under the single impulse of a desire for the spiritual and ever- lasting good of all, and without any dereliction of that faith- fulness which is incumbent upon him as an expounder of God's will for man's salvation. 3. The way to mark that more special reference which the chapel has to the district than to the general town is, first, by holding out the preference for seats to those wdio reside within LADY O BllIEN. 353 tlic limits of the district ; and secondly, by the minister's assiduous cultivation of it as the peculiar vineyard of his house- hold and week-day attentions. 4. Let not the sittings be gratuitous. If the people are poor, let the seat-rent be the smaller on that account ; but let there be a rent however trifling, that the people may have a feeling of property in their assigned pews, and more especially that there may be a distinct and tangible right by which to fence the local congregation from the intrusions of the town at large. 5. The demand for seats may at first be small, but the un- wearied ministrations of the clergyman from house to house will make it great. Whatever vacant room is over after the local demand has been met and satisfied, should then be ex- posed to the whole population. 6. The minister will soon obtain such an ascendency over the families of his district as would render him the efficient in- strument for stimulating all those economic and educational processes that might be judged expedient. 7. He should be a man Avho, standing between the rich and the poor, could as fearlessly tell the latter of their duty in re- spect of industry, independence, cleanliness, &c., as he could tell the former of their duty as the stewards and almoners of Heaven's bounty. 8. And he should know that it is utterly impossible to achieve one valuable object of philanthropy by letting forth all the streams of affluence on the relief of indigence, that this last duty should be performed unseen, and without the publicity which combination is sure to give it ; and that the onl}' visible movement in behalf of the poor, (in ordinary times,) should be for the purpose of moralizing and enlightening them ; it being always understood that every scheme, even for their temporal comfort, will fail, which is not founded on the basis of their own improved hearts and habits. 2 G 354 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. 9. The minister will be greatly the better of a band of asso- ciates, with each having the management of his own sub-dis- trict, and being thoroughly impressed with kindred principles to his own, both in regard to the economics of the people and their higher interests. I am aware of many difficulties which might be felt in the perusal of the above sketch ; but I shall not anticipate them, and rather leave them to be started ere I attempt to do them away, R.B. — The effect of repeated domiciliary visits, when con- ducted with kindness and judgment, is altogether unknown, and even the obstinacy of Catholic prejudices is not able to withstand it. — Yours, &c., Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXXXII. Glasgow, 12th May 1823. My dear Madam, — I have perused with great interest the letters of Lady O'Brien, and have transmitted them to Mr. M'Gregor. I still think, that instead of taking any other part in the more extended movements which are going on for Ireland than subscribing for them as others do, her Ladyship would serve the cause more effectually by concentrating her strength upon a third part of the town of Ennis. The regeneration of a country is never to be accomplished in any other Avay than by a piecemeal operation — by each indivi- dual philanthropist doing his part within a sphere that is com- mensurate to his influence and to his powers. When the Spirit of God writes in many hearts the sacrjd law, then the owner of each individual heart will go forth upon that portion of the field wliich is within his reach, and do with all his might that which his hand findeth to do. It is not the local system that Avill regenerate our land, but a host of spiritual men must go forth in the day of God's j)ower, and calculating aright on the most effective way of distributing their forces. I think that SIR ANDREW AGNEW, BART. 355 the result of this concentration would be the adoption of the local system with a busy operation of separate and parochial activities over the face of our kingdom. Still it is the Spirit of God that is the prime mover ; still the helplessness of man and the need of prayer must ever obtrude themselves on the notice of Him that looks to the whole question, and attentively regards all the parts and all the bearings of it. Without the descent of living water from above, the local system does not more for a country than the best apparatus of aqueducts for irrigation could fertilize it without rain — as little for it as the agricultural processes of Egypt could avail without the annual overflow of their great river. — I am yours, &c., Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXXXIII.— To Sir Andrew Agnew, Bart. Locliryan, Zlst Aiigust 1838. My dear Sir Andrew, — The inclosed paper is very well drawn u-p, nor am I aware of any amendment that can be made upon it. Allow me, however, earnestly to suggest, that before the managers of the new church at Leswalt attempt distant places they would make a thorough operation on their own neighbourhood. It is not, as you well know, large individual subscriptions that I am contending for, but a general and difiused application by which all who are willing might have the opportunity of making their contributions, however small. I would fain hope that if this were done, the adequate funds might be obtained without the necessity of going beyond the confines of Wigtonshire. The reason why I do not add my own name to those of the gentlemen who have subscribed this paper is, that from the position I hold I should be exposed to similar applications from all quarters, and so be placed under the necessity either of giving my name in every instance, or of giving ofience by re- 356 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. fusing it in those cases where I judge it were better that tlie most strenuous attempts were made to realize the wliole sum necessary in home produce rather than foreign aid. Before I close, I cannot adequately express the deep sense I have of your great kindness and liberality to myself. It is a great contribution you have made to our cause, that from the moment of my touching Strani'aer to the moment of my leaving it, you have franked and taken charge of tlie whole intermedi- ate locomotion, comprising two Presbyteries.* After you had * "Saturday, A ugust 18//i. — Left Fairley at ten. Looked with gi'cat interest to the coast all the way from Girvan to Lochryan ; it being quite new to me, and main- taining throughout the character of a simple, remote, and solitary glen. Got to Stranraer about nine. The town looked impressive as we approached it — it form- ing a crescent, and its twinkling lights spi-cad before us in this form. Sir Andrew Agnew waiting our arrival. He introduced us to Colonel iNI'Dowal ; and took us (me and Mr. CoUms) in his carriage to Lochnaw Castle, six miles off. " Tuesday, 2\st. — Went to the Presbytery at twelve. Spoke at great length on Church Extension in a meeting-house, to an audience more limited than it would have been, had not the public misunderstood the intimations. I\Iadc the acquaint- ance of Mr. Symington, Camcronian minister here, for whom I have great value. " Wednesday, 22'/. — The work of this day has been two-fold ; first, the forming a Parish Association for Leswalt, which was done iu Sir Andrew's house — the parish minister, and several elders, farmers, and others, having met and adopted our regulations. Went at two, in Sir Andrew's carriage, to Portpatrick, where I held another meeting with the minister in his manse, and cldei's, and farmers, and others ; and where also Colonel Hunter Blair, Colonel Vans Agnew, Mr. Blair, M.P. and Captain Little, attended. Had a good deal of talk hero ; and after hav- ing settled this business, went forth to the harbour, and enjoyed exceedingly the bold rocky beach. Then scrambled along the beach in another direction from Dunskey Castle. Got at length into a den beautifully wooded, and watered with a noble fall, which conducted us to Dunskey House, belonging to Colonel Hunter Blair, who had many visitors. " Thursday, 2Zd. — I rose about seven. Walked out to a bcaiitiful den, which terminates in the beach. Then laved my hands in the Irish Sea, and returned again through the den, beautifully wooded, and furnished with chairs and wooden bridges ; and I thought that had Helen and Fanny been with me, how objectively they would have gazed at the rushing cascade, and the airy seats placed at different pouits for the best views. Spoke to a crowded audience in Mr. Symington's church on Church Extension, to my own and the people's satisfaction. Went off to Lochnaw Castle. "Friday 2Ath. — Sir Andrew's carriage took us to a most beautiful bathing- cottage on the sea-side, where the family reside often for many weeks together. It is situated most romantically in a secluded recess on the beach, with braes, and SIR ANDREW AGNEW, BART, 357 done so much, I did not object to your settling with the driver at Glenluce, so as that there might be no exception to the munifi- cence of such a help to me through so large a tract of country ; but after you had done so much you should have done no more ; and, allow me to say, it was ultra or beyond all that ought to have been done that you should propose to bear any part of my rocks, and famous scrambling heights, on each side of it, and before it the sea, with an expanse of fine yellow sand at low water. Mrs. Chalmers and I arc in- vited to take up our residence there, en famUle, for as many weeks in summer as ■we like ; and well do I know how the explorations, and the climbings, and the shell-gatlicrings, and the bathings, would be enjoyed by Helen and Fanny in this deep and peaceful solitude. " Sundai/, 2Qth. — Another day of complete rest. Enjoyed the quietness of the sacred Sabbath morn. Had ftxmily worship and exposition in the evening ; and as Sir Andrew and I were next day to take leave early, I bade a gi-ateful and affectionate adieu to the rest of the family. " Monday, 27th Instead of taking the direct road to Wigton, Sir Andrew was kind enough to take me round by the coast, for the sake of its interesting scenery. A plain, pristine, russet-looking country, poor in produce, but not of unpleasing aspect, with rocks peering forth of the verdure everywhere, and a beach which pi'esents a number of fantastic and impressive forms. Had the kindest possible reception from Colonel Vans Agnew. " Tuesday, 2Sth. — A general movement to Wigton, four miles off, at one. Seve- ral carriages put into requisition. We landed at Mr. Young's, the clergyman of Wigton — a most beautiful village, both in respect of its site and its interior, placed on a gentle eminence, where it commands a noble view of Wigton Bay. The church quite full, as indeed I had been led to expect from seeing at least twenty carriages on the street when we entered the town. I delivered my address from the precentor's desk ; and it went off apparently with the entire and cordial ap- probation of the audience. Sir Andrew took me out in his carriage to Cumloden, not the seat but the cottage of Lord Galloway. It was a ride in the dark of about nine miles, through, I was told, a very beautiful country, chiefly along the Cree. Passed through Newton Stewart, and about a mile on reached Cumloden, where Lord and Lady Galloway (their visitors having all retired to bed) gave us r. very flattering reception. " Wednesday, 2dth. — Cumloden is a most enchanting place ; a large cottage spread over a great extent of floor, with but one good story of numerous apart- ments and attics above it. A highly-decorated lawn of shrubbery and clumps of trees, and at one place a bushy flower garden ; a brawling river, tributary to the Cree, of rapid descent, and which a shower swells into a torrent ; a noble Alpine backgi-ound of northern hills, on the confines of Galloway and Ayrshire, with beaiitiful glimpses of nearer objects, as the tower of Mitiigaff Church, &c. Walked with Sir Andrew to MinigafF, about a mile off. Every step disclosed new charms of landscape. MinigafF itself has a manse like a rectory, with a most gentleman- like approach ; and the view from its front door, comprehending the banks of the 358 CORRESrOXDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. expenses after leaving Stranraer. When Mr. Symington told me tliat you insisted on settling for the chaise-hire to Cairnryan, I felt doubly ashamed of all your goodness to me, though doubly grateful for your kind feelings both to myself and to the great object of Church Extension in Scotland. Will you forgive me if I entreat that you will not exceed in ■wooded Cree, rolling past and before it its dark moss-coloured waters, is one of the most exquisite I eyer saw. Walked to the church, at whose door there was a number of carriages. A large meeting of people whom I addressed on Church Extension. Mr. Blair took me in his carriage to Penningham House, his mansion. " TImrsdcnj, August 31st — Went in cavalcade with a riding horse and two open carriages six miles up the Cree, to a small church now building for a simple and upland population. Delighted with the scenery on the banks of this river, more especially when the Minwick enters it, which one might trace upward through a most romantic and remote glen, but at the entry of which into the Cree, also, we are presented with a truly interesting panorama of level cultivation, skii-ted by rocky eminences, and expanding upward into ascents of a bolder character, whicli terminate at length in a noble Alpine boundary projected upon the sky. After our upland survey of this new parochial locality, with its rising church and now completed school, was driven forward by Mr. Gordon to Newton Stewart, and then took leave of my numerous conductors. The views over the Cree from this to the parish of Minigaff are truly glorious. Went alone into Sir Andrew's carriage. Kode sixteen miles in it by myself over a plain, pristine, peat country, not without its charms, however, and which kept my interest perpetually alive, fi'ora my hav- ing with me a map of Wigtonshire, by which I could verify the hills, rivers, and places. Passed the Church of Kirkcowan half a mile on my left. Got to Glenluce about three. Sir Andrew joined me there, and we got on six miles farther to Dunragget, the seat of Sir James Hay. The Misses Hay, and particularly Susan, greatly interested in my movement here. It seems two Glasgow voluntaries — the Rev. Messrs. King and Anderson — are now hanging upon my rear, and held a meeting after me at Stranraer, which has turned out a failure. They tried to evade the hissing by stating that they would understand every hiss to be directed against the doctrine which thej' were opposing ; and then Mr. Anderson fell foul of me, and they, unmindful of his interpretation, began lustily to hiss ; he, as un- mindful of his own position, felt greatly annoyed, saying, AVhat, will you hiss the great Dr. Chalmers ? Left Dimragget about seven. Landed in Mr. Symington's, where I took leave of Sir Andrew, and who undertook to order a post-chaise for me to Cairnryan, the place of General Sir Alexander Wallace, whither Mr. Sym- ington and I went, and where we landed about ten, and got a warm welcome, a warm room, and warm and dbmfortable bed. " Friday, August 31s?. — Lady Wallace and Sir Alexander both very cordial Took leave at ten, greatly rested and refreshed by this quiet family visit. Got into the mail for Ayr. Entered inside ; but was so delighted with the scenery, that I soon got outside. Reached Ayr at ten." — E.itracted/rom Dr. Chalmerses Journal. — See Memoirs, vol. iv. p. 166. MR. TIIO.AIAS WALKER. 359 your public liberalities, for my impression is, and I state it frankly, that your disposition is to encroacli on the duty wliicli a man owes to those of his own household. Do indulge me in the freedom I use. You have done more for our cause by your testimony and personal countenance than you could have done by any pecuniary contribution. It is to the multitude of sub- scribers, and not to the enlargement of subscriptions that I look for the increase of our means. With best regards to Lady and Miss Harriet Agnew, and to one and all of your dear family, I have the honour to be, dear Sir Andrew, yours most gratefully and respectfully, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXXXIV.— To Mk. Thomas Walker, FLEsncR, Galashiels. Burntisland, 1st July LS40. My dear Sir, — I received your letter of the 22d, and read it with the greatest interest — admiring as I do greatly both the sentiments which it expresses and the spirit which it breathes. The excellence of that composition, as well as the account I have received of you from your worthy and esteemed clergy- man Mr. Veitch, has encouraged me to address you as an ac- quaintance and a friend. Next to the approbation of my own conscience do I value such a testimony as yours, and more especially as coming from one in your class of society ; and I feel it to be an ample com- pensation for all the discouragements which I have experienced in my attempts to extend the means of a pure Christian education for the people of our land. I can truly say, that after the salvation of the working- classes there is no object which I have more at heart than their elevation in the scale of comfort — only to be attained I think, however, through the medium of their own worth and their own intellio'ence. And I am therefore all the more cheered ?.C0 CORRESPONDEXCE OF DK. CHALMERS. and gratified in eveiy new instance I meet ^Yitll of tlieir liigli capabilities for mental and moral improvement. I do hojDe that tlie influence of your example and your exertions will tell powerfully in the diffusion of a spirit and principles like your own throughout the mass of our population. I spend the winter months in Edinburgh. Should you ever visit the capital at that season, I beg you will call on me and let me make your personal acquaintance. — With many thanks for your kind and encouraging communication, I am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. ISTo. CCLXXXV. — To Rev. Dr. Strachan, Bishop of Toronto. Burnt island, 1st May 18-11. My dear Sir, — I received your letter a few days ago, and have read it with the greatest interest. I spent ten days lately ■^vith Professor Duncan, and both he and I put it down to the account of your honest, we have the vanity to think, your in- tense, and cordial friendship for us that you have given us so kind and affectionate an invitation. Though older, he is stronger and healthier than I ; and I must acknowledge that, apart from engagements altogetlier, I should, on the consciousness of my infirm and irregular health alone, shrink from a voyage and then a journey of such magnitude. I fear that with me it must ever remain a speculation ; but I am not the less grateful on that account for the effusion of so much regard to one of your earliest companions. Besides the great kindness of your letter, I was much in- terested by its subject-matter. I had before read your letter in the Times, and tliinjv that you Jiave made out a complete case. I can also well believe that no injustice against you either in the public papers or by public men will ever counter- vail the substantial good-will which your official and personal REV, DR. STRACHAN. 301 attentions arc sure to gain from all the classes of your extensive diocese amongst whom you expatiate. It is here that the real strength of clergymen lies, and I have no doubt that the know- ledge and experience of this go far to explain the passionate hostility felt towards every conscientious and well-principled ecclesiastic on the part of chartists, radicals, and all those Avho have leagued themselves against social order and the stability of our existing institutions. I rejoice in your willingness to entrust with so much power every man above twenty-one, " provided his religious principles are sound, and that he felt it matter of conscience to exercise it aright. Give a man a strong feeling of moral responsibility, &c." — Your strictures on De Tocqueville are admirably just, in that he would confide power to a people merely on the score of their secular education. But, on the other hand, our High Church conservatives are as wide of the truth as he who appre- hends danger in confiding any ecclesiastical franchise to a people whatever their religious knowledge and character might be, and though they should pass through the ordeal of the most strict and conscientious examination previous to their entry on the roll of our communicants : in other words, nothing can be more blind or ignorant than the prejudice of those hard and impracticable Tories amongst us who spy democracy in the present doings of our Kirk — the most distinguished for loyalty and love of order of any corporation in the known world. We are steering on the middle path between Puseyism on the one hand and Voluntaryism on the other. I do not say that Ave will succeed, but it is my firm belief that if we do not. National Establishments of Christianity will and ought to be put down, not for a perpetuity, but till that period when the kingdoms of the earth shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Give my best regards to your son whom I met at Pennicuik, 2 H 362 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. and of whom I entertain a ver}^ pleasant recollection. — I am, my very dear Sir, yours most cordially, Thomas Chalmers. What weighs with Mr. Duncan against the proposed voyage is the apprehended loss of the " President." — T. C. No. CCLXXXVL— To Professor Duncan. Edinburgli, 29th December 1842. My vert dear Sir, — I am just now at holiday time trying to work my way through unanswered letters, among which I find two bearing the subscription of your much-loved name — the one dated the 12th of November, the other, ingrate that I am, the 12th of October. On the subject of the first I share in the horror you exjjress at the cruelty of slaughtering animals for amusement. I think that their being even slaughtered for food is one of the greatest enigmas of our present mysterious world. The day is coming, however, when " the mystery of God will be finished," (Rev. x.,) and this, with all other difficulties, will be solved. — Ever be- lieve me, my dear Sir, yours very affectionately and truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXXXVII.— To Professor Duncan. Morningside, 1th Septemher 184-i. My dear Sir, — Can you tell me of any author who treats of the properties and progression of prime numbers ? The follow- ing is a curious order, observed for some time, in the proportion which the composite numbers bear to all others, and from which I had hoped that the absolute proportions of the composites to the primes throughout the whole infinity of numbers might have been ascertained within an indefinitely near approxi- mation : — PROFESSOR DUNCAN. 363 The numbers in wliich 2 does not enter as an aliquot part are to number at large as 1 to 2, or ^. The numbers in which 2 and 3 do not enter as aliquot parts are as 1 to 3, or §. The numbers in which 2, 3, and 5 do not enter, as 4 to 15, or -,s. The numbers in which 2, 3, 5, 7, do not enter, as 8 to 35, or s-'s. The numbers in which 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, do not enter, as 16 to 77, or H. See the promise then I had on entering this investigation, that, if you take the primes in order, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, &c., you would arrive at the general proportion that the composites formed of them successively would so run as to leave remain- ders, which bore to all numbers proportions expressed by frac- tions, whose numerators each double its predecessor, as 2, 4, 8, 1 6, &c., and whose denominators were the products of the two last prime numbers that had been taken up in the progress of the investigation, as, 2 = 1 x 2, 6 = 2 x 3, 15 = 3x5, 35 = 5 x 7, and 77= 11 X 7. Judge of my disappointment then, when proceeding to the next prime number 13, and expecting the result 1V3. I found it very difficult, and thus has my goodly progression been most cruelly put an end to. — Yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXXXVIIL— To Professor Duncan. HJdinhurf/h, lith December 1845. My dear Sir, — I should not have wi-itten you on Sabbath, but for the subject on which I mean to address you, and to wliich I shall confine myself I have long had the utmost re- gard for you. There is not a human being whom, without the circle of my relationship, I like nearly so well. But, though affectionate towards you, I have not been fiilthful. Consider 364 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. how soon both you and I will be mouldering in our coffins. Heaven grant that we may both share in a blessed resurrection, through our common interest in Him who hath said, " I am the resurrection and the life," &c. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours very affectionately and truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCLXXXIX.— To Professor Duncan. 3Iorningside, lith September 1846. My dear Sir, — It has come at last. This death falls upon your heart as if it were a new lesson which you had still to learn. Oh, that this sorrow of nature were ripened and trans- formed by divine grace into that godly sorrow which worketh rei^entance unto salvation never to be repented of Eternal life is not a thing to be got anyhow. There is a precise, definite, and let me add, only and exclusive wiiy laid down for the attain- ment of it — a way authoritatively pointed out and prescribed by Heaven. He who hath the Son hath life ; he who hath not the Son hath not life. Christ says of Himself, " I am the way, the truth, and the life — by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved;" and, "No man cometh unto the Father but by the Son." Let us not quarrel with this way, more especially as it is open to all of us : " Whosoever cometh unto me shall not be cast out ;" " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." It is for God, the offended party, and not for us, the offenders, to dictate the terms and the treaty of recon- ciliation. Heaven grant that you may be led henceforth to bestow an earnest hee^ on the Word of His testimony till the day dawn and the day-star arise in your heart. Read the Epistle to the Romans ; and if you furthermore read my j^rinted Lectures upon them, you will have at least my views on the method and way of salvation grounded on my understanding of PROFESSOR DUNCAN, 365 this portion of the Divine record. May our Father in Heaven bless this exercise to your soul, and so open your understanding to understand His Scriptures that you shall become thereby wise unto salvation. It is to me a striking coincidence that, on the day before I received the intimation of your brother's death, I attended the funeral of Daniel Ramsay,* an inmate of Gillespie's Hospital, in my vicinity here. I go to perform family worship there this evening, when it will be my duty to improve this event to the survivors — all old persons above sixty. The reminiscences of more than half a century have been powerfully and feelingly awakened by both these events. May they tell efficiently and abidingly upon us both ; for the time is fast approaching when we too shall be laid on the bed of our last agonies. I shall not close this letter till I have returned from the evening service at the Hospital. I have returned from my household sermon to the old people. The text was, "The time is short;" but, in addition to this argument, I endeavoured to press home the growing callousness of the heart to the invitations of the Gospel ; yet, nevertheless, the perfect freeness of that G-ospel, the benefits and immunities of which are theirs if they will ; and on their acceptance of these, they will receive a new heart here, and the joys of an unfading inheritance hereafter. It is my earnest prayer that God may thus dispose and en- able you to receive that truth which is to be found in His Word, and which, if gifted by the Spirit to understand it, you will find to be the power and wisdom of God unto salvation. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours most aifectionately and truly, Thomas Chalmers. * See Memoirs, vol. i. p. 6. 36G CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. [Copy of Correspondence between the Rev. Dr. Thomas Chalmerp, Pro- fessor of Moral Philosophy, St. Andrews, and Dr. Thomas Easton, Minister of Kirriemuir, in reference to the Pauperism of that parish.] No. CCXC. — Dr. Easton to Dr. Chalmers. Kirriemuir, 2&th January 1827. Rev. Sir, — My parishioner, Mr. James Aitken "Wylie,* hav- ing incidentally mentioned that you had been pleased to speak kindly in your class of my statements relative to the pauperism of Kirriemuir, I happened to say to him that I was extremely desirous to obtain your opinion on a question of importance connected with the subject of pauperism. I then stated to him the question to which I referred ; and having the utmost confidence to place in the prudence and discretion of the young man, whom I have known from his childhood, I took the liberty of stating to him, that if a suit;ible opportunity pre- sented itself, he would oblige me by laying it before you. His answer, Avritten on his return to St. Andrews, has been re- ceived, in which he states your willingness to hear from me on the subject. The case is this: — It has been my object to meet the pau- perism of this large and populous parish chiefly by collections made by my congregation in the church ; and hitherto they have been such as nearly to answer the demands made on ug. Now, my difficulty is this. The population of the parish is rapidly increasing, and it may be expected that pauperism will increase in a like ratio ; but as the church accommodates a part only of the population, being seated for 1 240, there is no hope that the collections of ray church will be sufiicient long to meet the pau- perism, that I cannot but foresee is coming upon us. In point * Then a talented young man of great promise, and now the Reverend Mr. Wylie, the respected author of many learned works, and more especially of the '• Papacy, its History, Dogmas, Genius, and Prospects." DR. EASTON, 367 of fact, the collections are at present, as I ever expect tliem to be, averaging from £135 to i?140 per annum, in halfpence and penny pieces. How then am I to meet the pauperism which must necessarily arise from an increased population ? We may expect more cases of insanity, more widows and orphans. Perhaps one or other of three schemes may be adopted. The first is, let the parish be divided into sections, and let every district provide for its own poor. I fear we are not all Christian enough to trust to this scheme. There are also more poor in one district than in another. Several of our paupers reside in Dundee, and in other towns and parishes. The second is, let the people add to the amount of their collections. If every individual would contribute a penny weekly in place of a halfpenny, the amount would be doubled. But the far greater part of my numerous congregation is com- paratively in moderate circumstances, the heritors and most of the wealthiest of the people being Episcopalians. The third is, let the church be enlarged, or a chapel of ease be erected. I have had the church examined by an architect of eminence, but his opinion is, that the roof is of a construc- tion so peculiar that it cannot be interfered with. A chapel of ease would be an efiectual remedy ; but though I have urged the erection of one, I have as yet failed in persuading the people to undertake it. I am afraid, therefore, that unless you can suggest a way of escape, we must at last yield to ne- cessity, and submit to assessments ; the many evils of which have often been shewn, but by none so well as yourself — I ever am. Rev. Sir, your most obedient servant, Thomas Easton. No. CCXCT. — Dr. Chalmers to Dr. Easton. St. Andrews, 6(h February 1827. My dear Sir, — I should have replied to your interesting letter sooner. I fear you will think my advice somewhat too 368 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. general, though I deem it founded on an experience that is quite universal, and which I feel confident that you also will verify should you attempt to enlarge your fund by assessment. The experience is this, that you really do not, by an assess- ment, make your escape from the difficulties which bring it on. You do not even lighten these difficulties. You may for a time ; but you will most assuredly aggravate them in the long run, and will be sure to find that, after all, you have less of comfort, and more of clamour and comjDlaint among your popu- lation than at the outset of your compulsory system. Admit- ting, therefore, fully the existence of the difficulties which you allege, I hold it, on the above consideration alone, to be your true wisdom, rather to acquiesce in them, and manage with your humbler means as you can, than by a forced augmenta- tion of these means, strengthen those evils, which in their pre- sent less degree you will find to be far more tolerable. You state the small accommodation that you have in church for your populous parish, and how from this cause, what would have gone to swell your collection, now goes to the collections of your meeting-houses. On ecclesiastical or Christian grounds, I hold it very desirable that your accommodation should be widened ; but I confess that I should not be very anxious about it for the economic object of a more liberal public pro- vision for the poor. My own confidence all along in Glasgow was not upon means, but upon management ; and not so much on the positive activity and strenuousness of that management, as on the co-operation of men who thought with myself, that the best way of disposing of every application, was by strict investigation into all the resources of the applicant, to devolve him as much as possible on his own industry, or on the duty of his relatives, or on the sympathy of his neighbours, or lastly, (though we very rarely indeed had recourse to such an expe- dient,) on the private liberalities of the more affluent. But we DR. EASTON. 369 were quite sure, that just in proportion to the regularity, and certainty, and largeness of our sessional ministrations, would all these better securities for the relief of distress be slachened in the parisli, — and so, proclaiming the insignificance of all that we could do, we devolved the burden on those upon whom Nature and Christianity had devolved it before us, and felt that the indefinitely nearer we came to a cheap and moderate, and withal gratuitous economy on the part of the public body, the more plentifully did relief flow from all those private sources of industry and sympathy which I have now enumer- ated. It was not my presence which achieved this. The thing goes on more prosperously since I left it ; and our chapel dis- trict, with a population of 5000, is upheld by a collection of less than dS'lOO in the year. Try gradually, and get hold of men who think right upon this object ; and though you cannot fill the parish all at once 'with them, give each a district as he casts up, and let him fully understand, that that man does his duty best to the Session who gives the Session least to do. You will find that each new elder might nearly relieve you of his own district altogether. I have just room to assure you, that, with some few modifi- cations, I thought exceedingly well of your book, and hailed it as an accession to a good cause. I should express my obliga- tions for your very handsome treatment of myself in that volume. — I am, my dear Sir, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCXCII. — Dr. Easton to Dr. Chalmers. Kirrieimdr, IGtk February 1827. Rev. Sir,- — Your letter of the 6th current I received in course, and I beg leave to return joii my warmest thanks for the trouble you have been at in answering my letter of 26tli January last. You have indeed bestowed a great deal of at- '670 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. tention on tlie subject to which it refers. What you say is ex- ceedingly satisfactory, and you may be assured that I am grateful for the recommendations jou suggest. The only addition, practically speaking, which I would venture to make — improvement I cannot take it upon me to call it — is to classify the cases of poor, and, if we are driven to the expedient, to allow the heritors to provide for the insane, the fatuous, the blind, and to relieve the others from the church collection. There is an analogical objection that may be urged against the voluntary relief of the poor, Avhich has often occurred to me, and to which I am desirous to draw your attention, — one which I have never seen alluded to by any one. It is an argument founded on what you yourself have said respecting religious education. You object to the leaving of religious education to the principle of supply and demand, because, you say, that, owing to the corruption of human nature, men are naturally averse to spiritual truth, and it is necessary, there- fore, that, by means of endowment, it should be brought to every man's door. But may it not be said that, owing to the same cause, men do not naturally love their neighbours as they ought, and therefore it is necessary that human laws should compel them to relieve the wants of the needy. As I am aware how very valuable your time is, I do not ex- pect an answer to this letter. — I am, dear Sir, most respect- fully yours, Thomas Easton. No. CCXCIII.— Dr. Chalmers to Dr. Easton. St. Andrews, 22d February 1827. My dear Sir, — Your letter is too interesting not to be re- plied to. You are quite right in your views of the distinction which obtains between the cases of general indigence and the cases of special and involuntary distress, such as lunacy, dumbness, DR. EASTON. 371 blindness, &c. There would not be the mischief in assessing for these that there is in assessing- for poverty at large, because such an assessment would not multiply its objects, and not go beyond a certain definite amount. Still, however, it is greatly better not to have even this more innocent assessment, for the one is extremely apt to run into the other, and I would far rather struggle to overtake the more special visitations by the collections and purely voluntary subscriptions, than attempt aught so dangerous as the admission of the compulsory into the business of charity in any of its parts. Your analogical argument in favour of assessments is inge- nious, and to myself new. Yet, on a narrower view of the actual similarities and dissimilarities between the course of instruction on the one hand, and the course of the ordinary relief of poverty on the other, I am persuaded it will not be found tenable. When the course of poverty is left to itself, then in proportion to the aggravation of its distress is the strength and efficiency of these counteractives by which it is mitigated, if not done away. Men are more goaded to industry and thrift, their relatives more excited to duty, their neigh- bours more awakened to compassion, and the rich more alive to voluntary exertion. When the course of ignorance is left to itself, then in proportion to the aggravation of that ignorance is the growing apathy to the evils of it, and an apathy which extends from the uneducated man to his neighbours, just be- cause they too live in a land unblest by education. The insti- tutions for knowledge, besides, can accomplish their object purely and without adulteration. The institutions for general relief, in as far as they may be said to accomplish their object at all, do so at the fearful expense of every virtue concerned in the administration of charity, putting to flight the gratitude of the recipients, and the spontaneous generosity of the dispensers. — I am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. 372 COKRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. CORRESPONDENCE ON THE CHURCH QUESTION. No. CCXCIV.— To John Hamilton, Esq. Edl7ibur and gives birth, and movement, and countenance to all things. It is my fondest hope and prayer tha,t both of us shall have an interest and a part in the yet undeveloped blessedness of that high and holy administration. With kindest regards to Sir David and Lady Brewster, ever believe me, my dear Madam, yours affectionately and truly, Thomas Chalmers. una. WILLIAMSON. 449 No. CCCXLY.— To Miss Brewster. 19, YorJc Place, 2Sth May 1845. My dear Miss Biiewstek, — I can imagine nothing more mon- strous than the stupidity into wliich I fear I must have fallen, if it was really you who sat near the moderator s chair this even- ing, and on whom I speculated in my own mind for hours as one whom I ought to have known. It is far the most mortify- ing instance, though very many such have occurred, of my utter Avant of the organ of individuality ; but I never could have fancied it possible that it ever could have happened in the case of one, in whom (forgive me for saying it) I feel so much interest. It would comfort me effectually if you would have the good- ness to let me know where and when it is that I may have the pleasure of waiting upon you. — Ever believe me, my very dear Madam, yours most affectionately and truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCXLVL— To Mits. Williamson. JSdinhurgh, 21st May 1845. My dear Mrs. Williamson, — I must not suffer myself to plunge into other scenes and occujoations without making the grateful acknowledgment of all your kindness to me during the happy days I spent under your hospitable roof. Mr. Mackenzie most cordially joins me in this feeling ; and we both agree in this, that we never spent a week where, both within doors and without, there was so much to regale and to gratify, and that without so much as one taint or particle of alloy from the beginning to the end of it. I cannot adequately express the enjoyment I felt both in the revival of the images and re- collections of other days, and in the unexcepted cordiality and good-will of my fellow-citizens. 2 P 450 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. I have had particular satisfaction in Mr. Ferrie. I think that all his appearances, both in public and private, were in the highest degree creditable ; and I no longer wonder at the general good liking felt for him by the families of Anster. We have been reading his account of our Fife excursion, and there is a great deal of good feeling in it, as well as lively descrij)tion. Will you tell him how much we were all amused at the reference which he made to the palmy days of my boyhood ? He has misnamed, however, my old friend Lizzy Geens. I had forgot that she was adverted to by Mr. Tennant. I trust that we may see Dr. Williamson on our side of the water before he leaves Burntisland ; and it is my earnest hope and prayer that he may be long spared to you. May the Giver of all grace pour the richest spiritual blessings on you and yours. I was much delighted with the manifest improve- ment that has taken place in the spirits of the people, and in the relish felt by so many of them for sacred things. May there be a descent of living water from above on all the house- holds of the town and neighbourhood. — Ever believe me, my dear Madam, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCXLVII.— To Miss Marshall, Glasgow. Fairley, nth June 1845. My dear Miss Marshall, — It is a precious effect of a few days' domestication in a house that it draws so much closer one's intimacy with all its inmates ; and I have a very great value for the revival that has thus taken place of our old acquaintanceship with your household, as well as the formation of a new acquaintanceship with the younger members of the family. Every additional opportunity I have of observing Mr. Buchanan and his doings, enhances all the more the esteem I have ever felt for his Christian worth and patriotism. Should you see Miss Watson, will you have the goodness to CHARLES SPENCE, ESQ. 43! let her know that I am quite ashamed of having had so imperfect a recollection of her so long as we were together in your house ? But Mrs. Chalmers has refreshed my decaying memory ; and I can now recognise her as the daughter of that kind, cordial, and most respectable old lady, who, though a Dissenter, looked most benignantly on the good Churchmen who differed from her. But what is still more interesting to me, she is the sister of George Watson, whom I visited on his death-bed, and whose case I have often quoted as one of the most delightful I had ever witnessed, of one who, on the stepping-stone of a simple faith, attained to a clear and confident sense of a reconciled God, and the assured prospect, through Christ, of a blessed immortality. With best regards to Mr. and Miss Buchanan and your two nephews, ever believe me, my dear Madam, yours very affec- tionately and truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCXLVIIL— To Charles Spence, Esq. 3Iorningside, 26th January 1846-. My dear Sir, — Though I am not able to attend your public meeting on the SOth, you know that I feel no want of interest in its object. The truth is, that I look on the Christianiza- tion, I will not say of the poor only, but of the genenil popu- lation, as the highest cause of our day — the enterprise which, with the aid and countenance of Divine grace from above, Avill be prolific of the greatest blessings to the gi'eatest number of our fellow-men. I do hope that your labours will have the eftect of laying more open to the public observation, the fearful destitution which prevails of all adequate means and adequate methods for the religious instruction, and so for the social, the moral, and the spiritual wellbeing of countless thousands, I should even say of the great mass of our city families. May the minds 452 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. of men be made more alive to the urg'cnt necessity of some- thing being done far more effectiuil than has ever yet been attempted, at least on a large scale, or than has yet been scarcely thought of. And be assured that I shall rejoice in it as of one of the best results attendant on your present effort, should it have the effect of uniting in one common work of Christian charity the wise and the good of all denominations. I have particularl}^ to thank you for your kind expressions and good wishes in reference to my own more limited doings in the "West Port. You know my partialities for the local sys- tem, and have been made aware of my belief that, for a thoroughly pervading operation, the whole territory should be broken up into districts, each small enough to be undertaken by a distinct and separate agency of its own — a system of operation this which I think should be encouraged to the uttermost. I am therefore glad to find, that in the operations of the City Mission this principle has been so far proceeded on, and should rejoice if, by the extension of your resources, you were enabled to carry it forward, even till you have reached the desirable consummation. Meanwhile, if, by the assump- tion of successive districts on the part of myself and others, your present field shall be so encroached upon as to leave a continually decreasing remainder in your hands, I am sure you will find that the diminution of extent will be amply repaired by the comfort and the efficacy of a more intense concentra- tion. It is thus that the local and the general might be made to Avork most beautifully into each other's hands : and there is nothing which I more desiderate than a combination of that union and authority which are secured by the latter, with the activity and busy interest, and thorough operation that can only be secured by means of the former. While I have thankfully to express my acknowledgment for the friendly countenance and repeated civilities of the City CHARLES SPENCE, ESQ. 453 Mission from the very commencement on the West Port, allow me again to tliank you for your present friendly ^illusion to it. — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours with great regard, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCXLIX.— To Charles Spence, Esq. Morningside, 26th Jani(anj 1846. My DEAR Sir, — My letter to you was prepared before I re- ceived your note requesting that I should address it to the Lord Provost. On this and on other grounds I greatly prefer addressing it to yourself Of course the whole of it will be read, as I wish my testimony in favour of the Local System to be made as distinct and as public as my testimony in favour of the City Mission. It is well to have begun with the one, but I hope it will end with the other, — yours being the way in which you have nobly taken the lead, and ours being the ulti- mate landing-place. — I am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCL. — To Charles Spence, Esq. Morningside, 2Sth Fehruary 1846. IMy dear Sir, — My experience hitherto of general bodies of superintendence makes me afraid of them, lest, in the first in- stance, they should be satisfied with a superficial instead of a thorough operation, which, I believe, can only be effected b}^ distinct district agencies ; and lest, in the second instance, they should, by a system of rules and forms, with the view of harmonizing all, lay an incubus upon each. I could not join in such a combination but on the principle, that the poorest of the poor should be as much looked after, and be as fully pro- vided with the means of Gospel instruction as the middle and upper classes in society. And therefore I hold, that a system 454 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. wliicli would stop short and be satisfied with any provision beneath schools for all and churches for all, is but an ajDology for the thing, and not the thing itself. At the same time, I am not insensible to the good of some sort of genera] surveillance, if it did not too much interfere with the independence and sovereignty that each district management should have over its own processes. For example, would they attempt only to aid and encourage, without aught like jurisdiction or control, I should think that great good might be effected by such an overseership as this. Suppose they were to collect a general fund for the jjurpose of aiding and supplementing the local funds raised in behalf of those districts whose management and whose objects they apjjroved of, this would stimulate and extend the system of local culti- vation without any of those hamperments and complications which I have hitherto so abundantly experienced as the fruit of my connexion with general directorships. Were such a sys- tem adopted, I think we should all hand in the reports of our proceedings and progress to you, and if we needed money, should apply to you, which of course you would only give if you approved of our doings. I can imagine too, that in course of time we might thus feel our way to a greater harmony of action than we ought to attempt laying down at the outset hy authoritative rules. Be assured that I am utterly misunderstood, if these views are conceived to have in them the least of sectarianism. It is with me a pure question of what may be called spiritual tactics, or the most effectual method of pervading our plebeian families with the lessons and influences of the Gospel. So little of a sectarian am I, that I look on the distinction between Presby- terianism and Independency, or even between your Adult and our Psedo-baptism, as a downright bagatelle when compared with the moral and Christian good of the population. My ex- M, DESCOMBAZ, LAUSANNE. 455 pcrimental feeling is, that it is impossible to act with any degree of comfort or efficacy when overborne by the restraints of a cumbrous and unwieldy committeeship. You mistake me if you think I do not want some such general supervision as I have now described, I fear, very imperfectly. I should rejoice if, under its canopy, but without being subject to its control, all the evangelical denominations of Edinburgh could be brought out to this great and good work. I believe that no- thing would tend more rapidly and surely to the formation of a real union amongst us, than our being thus engaged in similar works ; jet meeting together upon the occasion of your gene- ral meetings, and there provoking each other to love and to all that is good. — I am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCLI. — Letter to M. Descombaz, Lausanne. Edinburgh, 28th February 1846. My dear Sir, — I can assure you it is from no want of sympathy in your great cause that I have not written sooner, but from extreme occupation, — and occupation, let me add, greatly beyond my strength and time satisfactorily to overtake. Though I should not write much, then, or should not write often, I beg you will put the right interpretation upon it, and ascribe it to anything rather than an indifference either to the magnitude of your wrongs or the nobleness of those pure and high principles by which you are actuated. The same reasons which have compelled me to retire from the public business of our own Church, have also made it necessary for me greatly to limit the work of correspondence. Everything, in fact, which involves in it additional effort, or the withdrawment of my mind from more immediate duties and cares, I must now devolve on abler and younger men. But while I have thus to state, and I do it with extreme 456 CORRESPONUEXCE OF DR. CHALMERS. regret and reluctance, tlie utter impossibility of complying with your wishes for a regular or frequent correspondence, I can- not, even within the limits of this necessarily brief communi- cation, refrain from adverting to the difficult, as well as high and honourable distinction of the position in which you now stand ; and it is my earnest prayer, that by grace and guidance from above, you might be enabled to maintain it. It were well if all Christians but knew how to combine the utmost dependence on God with the utmost diligence in the busy use and employment of means, and so as to reconcile the wisdom of piety with the wisdom of experience. Otherwise, under the guise of trusting in God there might be a tempting of God ; and therefore let me urge with all earnestness upon your con- sideration the necessity of speedily adopting such methods as might best conduce, with the Divine blessing, to the stability and extension of your Free Church. You may have heard the sajnng of our missionary Elliot, who laboured for years, and M-ith such marvellous success, among the American Indians : He did not trust to prayer without performance, neither did he trust to performance without prayer — he was super-eminent in both ; and as the fruit of the experience of a whole life- time, he left behind him the memorable lesson — that it was in the jiower of prayer and of pains, through faith in Christ Jesus, to do anything. What I should regard then as the first and firmest guarantee for the prosperity and strength of your Free Church, were the growth and effusion of serious, spiritual religion and vital godliness among your ministers and congregations. This is the object which, of all others, is mightily to be laboured and mightily /to be prayed for. No organization, how- ever skilfully devised, will supply the want of this. The best of all machineiy requires to be worked ; for the attainment of its end, to be rightly and well worked. Behold then the limits of human ingenuity and power. We can set up the framework M. DESCOMBAZ, LAUSANNE. 457 and mechanism of a church, but we are wholly dependent on the Spirit of God for the men, and should therefore pray with- out ceasing to the Lord of the harvest, that He might send forth unto His harvest labourers, according to His own heart, who might feed his people with knowledge and spiritual understanding. But both are best. We must not neglect the rearing of a right terrestrial apparatus below ; because without a celestial influence from above, it were the mere barren archi- tecture of a church with none of that living spirit which should actuate, and which can alone give efficacy to all its services. It is most true that, except the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build it ; but this should not dischai'ge the builders from their work — a work to which they should put forth their hands with all diligence while looking for the in- dispensable grace from on high, without which all the wisdom of man is but foolishness, and all the work of man is but as labour in the fire, and for very nought. March 7th. — I had got thus far when I was obliged to suspend this whole communication for a whole week by the pressure of other business, and that pressure still continues ; nor have I any hope of being relieved from it for an indefinite time. I am unwilling, however, to delay any longer the answering of your letter, and can only now assure you of my readiness to obtain all the information which our experience might enable us to collect, and which might be of use for the support or ex- tension of your Free Church. In particular, let any advice or opinion be required of us on the subject of church economics, let your wish be specifically stated, and I think I might help you to a specific answer in regard to it. My earnest prayer is for the maintenance and spread of vital godliness amongst you — a spirituality unalloyed by any political or worldly ingredient — a real desire for the moral and Christian good of the people under your charge ; so that your 2 Q 458 COKRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. interesting section of the great vineyard might, with tlie descent of the indispensable grace from on high, become like a well -watered garden, abounding with the fair and pleasant fruits of righteousness. — I ever am, my very dear sir, yours with the greatest esteem and regard, Thomas Chalmers. [23, Bain's Place, Renfrew Street, Glasgow, Wth May 1846. — Revekend AND DEAR SiR, — I would take the liberty of shortly expressing to you my desire that you would use your influence in the ensuing General Assembly for the foundation of a Free Church College in this city, which, I think, is immediately called for, in order to the advancement of the Free Church of Scotland in the west of Scotland. — I am more and more convinced that the magistrate should be a keeper of both tables of the law, and is bound to endow and protect the Church of Christ. May the Lord hasten this in his time. With God nothing shall be impossible. — I am, yours with much esteem, John Craig. The Rev. Thomas Chalmers, Edinburgh.] No. CCCLII.— To Mk. John €raig. Burntisland, Uth Maij 1846. Dear Sir, — Accej)t of my grateful regards for your expres- sions of kindness to myself. I am very glad to observe what your opinion is in regard to tjie duty of the magistrate, to endow and protect the Church of Christ. I have all along said, that once our Church were sufficiently extended by means of adequate funds, that I saw no reason why we should not have as many collegiate institutions as ever the Establishment had. — I am, dear Sir, yours truly, Thomas Chalmers. [The following letter was in an answer to a very interesting communica- tion from Mr. Barclay, in which he proposed that, instead of annual pay- ments into the Sustentation Fund, an endowment of £100 per annum should at once be secured for every Minister of the Free Church. Tables and calculations were oiTered for Dr. Chalmers's consideration, from which J. BARCLAY, ESQ. 459 it appeared, that if all the members of the Free Church were to give a tithe of their income for a single year, a capital sum would be realized sufficient to yield such an endowment.] No. CCCLIII.--T0 J. Barclay, Esq., Toxgue. Edinhiinjh, Gth June 1846. Dear Sir, — I received your valuable packet from Mr. Mac- kenzie of Farr. I appreciate very liiglily the zeal, intelligence, and labour in behalf of the Free Church, of which tliese docu- ments give such abundant evidence. I shall lodge them with the Convener of our Sustentation Committee, to be kept by him in retentis till it shall be judged expedient to act upon them. Meanwhile, our great effort is to bring up the Associa- tions ; and we are fearful of every new subscription for a new object, lest it should distract the attention of the Free Church public from the necessary means for upholding and augment- ing the Sustentation Fund. After the habit of supporting it is sufficiently established and elevated, then, I think, will be the time for giving effect to your magnificent proposal. I have no doubt of the capabilities of our people. They are equal to a tenfold greater achievement than all that has yet been done by them. Allow me to say, that I doubt the expediency of ministers being employed in the work of estimating the resources of their people. I liave again to thank you for your noble suggestions, which I trust you in good time will find are not to be thrown away upon us. — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCLIV. Edinburgh, nth September 1846. Sir, — I received both your letters. The first I laid aside, because of my great aversion to any direct application for my 4G0 CORRESPONDEXCE OF DR. CHALMERS. autograph ; and in virtue of wliicli it is my general practice to leave all sucli requests unanswered. Your second letter of May 6th, I placed among the letters to which I might reply ; Lecause I felt a wish at the time to let you know the grounds of my antipathy to a practice which I think is not in accordance with good taste. I find, however, that I have not time for the full statement of these grounds ; and shall only say in the general, that I feel as if, on the one side, the making of such a request implies a certain degree of indelicacy ; and on the other side, that in the granting of it there must be a certain sense of awkwardness, as the very act involves at least the semblance of vanity. And yet the desire of having autographs is legitimate and natural ; but the right way to go about the formation of a col- lection is to seek, and not from the person himself, but from an}^ of his correspondents, such letters or fragments of his handwriting as can anywhere be found. I should imagine that to every man who feels as he ought, a naked request for his autograph must be extremely distasteful. In sending you this autograph, it is a relief that I should liave something to write about ; and all the more so, that along with the autograph you have my testimony against the method in which they are some- times sought after both by individuals and by such public bodies as you represent. — With best wishes for the prosperity of your museum, I have the honour to be, Sir, yours truly, Thomas Chalmers. [Bombai/, 25th June 18^0. — Dear Dr. Hanna, — I have just finished the perusal of the first volume of the " Memoirs of Dr. Chalmers," which, like his " Posthumous Works," not only maintains, but elevates the high position which his name and character occupy in the admiration and veneration of Christendom. It has suggested the propriety of sending to you a copy of a very touching and affectionate letter addressed by him to my young friend REV. DHANJIBHAI NOWEOJI. 461 Dhanjibhai on his leaving Scotland on his return to India, and also of a copy of an introductory note to M. F. Monod, which he had intended him to de- liver had he taken Paris on his way. Dr. Chalmers took a very special interest in the wellbeing of Dhanjibhai from the time of their first interview, and he was greatly attached to him. At the conclusion of the session of 1843-4, he addressed to me a note of the following tenor : — " My dear Sir, I must do myself the pleasure of informing you that I have been greatly pleased with the interesting pupil whom you have brought to me from the far East. His appearances in his examinations and exercises have been of a first-rate character throughout the session." I felt much his kindness to me in voluntarily tendering to me this testimonial which he knew would be very gratifying to my heart. With much sympathy with all the family of Dr. Chalmers from Dhan- jibhai and myself, I am, my dear Dr. Hanna, yours very truly, John Wilson.] No. CCCLV. — To Rev. Dhanjibhai Nowroji. Morningside, lUh December 1846. My dear Sir, — The three enclosed letters are to friends in Paris, wjiich you may deliver or not, just as you find convenient. If you have not the opportunity of these being useful to you in Paris, I beg that you will keep and open them, and an occasion may cast up when you might shew these as the testimonials of my friendship and esteem for you. I wish I could recollect any of my acquaintances in Bombay to whom I might write aught that could be of service ; but you Avill, at all events, oiFer my best regards to Mr. Nesbit and Mr. Hislop when you meet witli them. And now, my very dear Sir, let me commend you to the providence and grace of our common Father in heaven. May He be your guide and guardian amid all the perils and per- plexities of your great enterjjrise. He has promised that He will not suffer His faithful servants to be tried beyond what they are able to bear, but will provide a way of escape that they might be able to bear it. May the aids of His Spirit never 4G2 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CIIALMEKR. be wanting to comfort, and strengtlien, and sustain you, and richly may you experience the truth of our blessed Saviour's declaration, that though in the world you shall have tribulation, in Him you shall have 2:)eace ; and may you abundantly prosper in that M'ork and labour of love upon which you have entered. May you have many souls for your hire, and the precious fore- tastes of that bright and happy period when the Sun of Righteousness shall arise over the face of a regenerated world. It is my earnest prayer for you, that after a life of great Christian usefulness here you may be admitted to the city that hath foundations, and obtain a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Let me enti'eat a part and interest in your prayers ; I have great need of them, and beg that you will remember me in 3'our intercessions at the Throne of Grace. " The Lord bless thee and keej) thee : the Lord make His face shine ui:)on thee and be gracious unto thee : the Lord lift up His countenance u23on thee and give thee peace." With the heartfelt regards and wishes both of myself and family, ever believe me, my very dear Sir, yours most tenderly and truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCLVI.— To Miss Mackean. Edinhurcjh, 2d January 1847. My very dear Miss Mackean, — I return you my most cordial thanks for your donation in behalf of the West Port. I have great reason to bless God for the liberality which He has put into the hearts of His people in behalf of that great object, of which I am most thankful to say that hitherto it has prospered and is promis^ing. I had received copies of Dr. Edgar's tract, which expresses what I have long thought the only hopeful method of dealing with Ireland. What an incubus is their Popery on the terri- torial system and everything that is good ! REV. ALEXANDER ANDERSON, 463 But what fearfully liari-owing- accounts there are of want and extreme agony in that unhappy land to be yet aggravated tenfold ere the seasons come round again, and not even then, unless the Lord of the seasons shall open His liberal and ever giving hand. — Ever believe me, my dear Madam, yours most gratefully and truly, Thomas Chalmers No. CCCLVII. — To Eev. Alexander Anderson, Aberdeen. Edinhurfjli, 20th March 1847. My dear Sir, — I shall be at all times happy to see you on the subject of your proposed gymnasium. But do come to breakfast, for it is only then that I can answ^er for being dis- engaged. Do persevere in your good work. The greatest amount of philanthropic service is secured by leaving each man to ride his own hobby. Your object is one of vital mag- nitude ; and I would much rather that you concentrated your wdiole energies upon it than that you should become a man of all works — the tendency to which I look upon as a very great failing. There is little good done by your mere universalists. Do therefore persevere, and may God prosper you. — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. [Claydon House, Bucks, 2Sth April 1847. — My deau Sir, — Am I taking too great a liberty with you, and presuming too much on my former ac- quaintance with you, if I request some information as to your views on the Government Education Scheme ? I have read with much interest the speeches of Dr. Candlish and Mr. Begg in the Free Presbytery of Edinburgh, on the 7th inst., as reported iu the " Scottish Guardian" of the 13th, and especially your letter of the 3d, read at that meeting. In paragraph No. 1, you say, — " I believe that there are modifications upon their scheme which might be made, and which would give no other character to the movement on the part of the State, than a desire for the 464 CORKESPONDENCE OF DE. CHALMERS. elevation of the people in general intelligence and scholarship ; an object which we should no more resist," &c. &c. Am I trespassing too much on you, if I ask you to tell me what those modifications are ? I desire to know whether any suggestions could be made to the Government which, if adopted, would render their plan unob- jectionable in your opinion. — I am, my dear Sir, yours very faithfully and truly, Harry Verney. To Uev. Dr. Chalmers.] No. CCCLVIII. -To Sir Harry Verney. Edinburgh, 4th May 1847. My DEAR Sir Harry, — I have read your letter with the greatest interest, and regret that, on the eve of setting out upon a distant journey, I cannot reply to it at any length. Tlie modifications that I should like, would be that the Govern- ment were to drop the requisition of any certificate from the managers of the school, that they were satisfied with the reli- gious progress of the scholars ; and I should furtlier like that there was no jwwer granted either to the Church of Eng- land, or to any other denomination, to force their peculiar Catechism upon scholars against the will of their parents, and still less to force attendance against that will on their own places of worship. — I am, my dear Sir Harry, with the greatest esteem, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCLIX. On visiting a Family in which a Sudden Death had occurred. My dear Sir, — I am, so particularly taken up by previous arrangements to-day, and, I fear, also to-morrow, that I shall not be able to sec you again so soon personally as I could Avish. But the scene of last niglit makes me very desirous of com- municating with you some way or other. I was very thankful ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF AFFLICTION. 465 you invited me to witness it, for it was a truly impressive one, and eminently fitted to stir up in the heart of every be- holder a salutary feeling of the vain and transient character of our present pilgrimage ; and I trust I felt that it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, for that is indeed the end of all men, and that the living may lay it to heart. In a disaster so big, and at the same time so sudden and unlooked for as that which has come upon yourself and family, it is impossible to minister any effectual consola- tion without you go to the root of the matter — everj^thing short of that argument which embraces the great elements of religion, and eternity, and the soul, and its meetness for the enjoyment of God in Heaven, is but superficial and vain. The healing influence of time will bring round the mind of an afflicted man even without Christianity to its wonted tone ; but how desir- able that our comfort should be secured on a better foundation, that it should come to a place in the heart not by the mere wearing away of sorrow, but by the firm suggestions of an understanding exercising itself on the realities of faith, and fetching from the Divine Word such considerations as will bring peace and the peaceable fruits of righteousness along with them. You feel now what you never felt so nearly and so experimentally before, that the world ought never to be counted a place of rest. It is indeed a great delusion ever to feel otherwise ; but still it is a delusion which is always liang- ing about us, and that attaches to the fallen and estranged state of our natures from God. At this moment the delusion is in your case for a time broken up. I prophesy that it will again return if there be no visitation of grace from on high — no anointing which remaineth — no favourable and abiding de- monstration of the Spirit of God to advance your present feel- ing into a practical habit and principle of the soul. You are at this moment made most intimately and effectually to under- 466 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. stand, that to lean uj^on the Avorld is to lean upon a foundation of dust ; that to build your tabernacle here, is to build your house upon the sand ; and that nothing will fill and satisfy the soul and enable it to stand all the cliaugcs and vicissi- tudes of this eventful pilgrimage, but a renouncing of the Avorld as our home, and taking the inheritance that endureth for ever as our portion. I know nothing that more effectually hinders a man from venturing his alL on Christ than that divided state of affections in either of which he Avould like to reserve a portion to himself. " You will not come unto me that you may have life." You never, my dear Sir, were in more favourable circumstances for an unqualified resignation of all into His hands than at this moment ; to whom else, alas, can you go ? you never got so buried to the world as now when the dearest of all its objects has been torn away from you — when the desire of jour heart has been cut down by a stroke — • when your family are all in sad grief, desponding under the pressure of a great unlooked for and overwhelming visitation. Do improve the favourable season with all your might to be a new creature in Christ Jesus ; let all old things be done away, and all things become new ; the very retirement will animate and bear you up under the heaviness of your present circumstances, and present calamity will indeed be a blessing in disguise if it lead you to a close alliance with Him who, though a God, is also a Saviour. — I am, &c., Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCLX.— To Mrs. M'Corquodale. Glasgow, 6th October- 18] 7. Dear Madam, — I sljould have replied long ago to your kind letter, but I have of late been a good deal occupied. It gives me sincere pleasure to be informed of your earnest desire after that which is right, and more particularly of your high sense of the necessity of religiously training your young family. I MRS. M CORQUODALE. 4^7 pray that you may be directed by Him who is the Father of Light, and Avill give wisdom to all who believingly ask it. There is a very leading and prominent doctrine of the Bible, without the belief of which, and influence of which, I fear that all our lono-ino-s after excellence will turn out to be vain and impotent aspirations, — I mean the doctrine of salvation by a crucified Saviour. To think of obtaining this favour of God by mere unaccompanied exertion, and that too in the face of God's own declaration, that without Christ we can do nothing, is in fact to insult Him by a vain and polluted offering. Let us accept of forgiveness on the footing that is held out to us — even that Christ died for our offences ; and let us render obedience in the strength of that Spirit which is ever in readi- ness to be given to the prayer of believers, and we shall serve God with a holiness, and a love, and a spirituality that do not enter as ingredients at all into the tasteful morality of the world ; and the whole course, and motive, and char- acter of our virtue will be so different from what it was before, that all old things -will be done away, and all things will be- come new. I beg your indulgence for these observations ; they come from one who is deeply sensible of his shortcomings from what is right. But I trust that through earnest attention to the Bible, and prayer for that Spirit who alone can enlighten us in the discernment of its doctrine, and above all, steadfast con- fidence in Him who casteth out none who come unto Him, we shall each of us be enabled to maintain that walk of faith and of holiness which leads to the Jerusalem above. Give my best compliments to Mr. M'Corquodale, in which Mrs. Chalmers joins ; and with best wishes for yourself and family, believe me, my dear madam, yours most truly, Thomas Chalmeks. 468 CORRESPOXDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. No. CCCLXI.— To Mrs. M'Corquodale. St. Andreu-s, nth October 1827. My dear Madam, — I very sincerely condole with you on the heavy bereavement which you have been called upon to suffer, the first loss I understand in your family, and which, in the absence yet of all personal experience myself upon the subject, I should regard as far more trying to nature than the dis- solution of any other relationship. Affection points more strongly downwards — as from a parent to children — than in any other direction ; and when I think of the suddenness of your daughter s death, her interesting age, and the many cares and attentions which the delicacy of her health has required from you, and which all go to strengthen affection and add to its tenderness — the shock you have experienced must be of no common severity. And what other comfort has one liable to the same visitations to offer, but those considerations which are familiar to all, though practically felt by few, even the evanescence of our present world, and the bliss and brightness of that invisible Heaven, where sorrow and separation are un- known. We hear on these occasions of melancholy of the healing in- fluence of time, and refuge is often taken in such expedients, as business, variety, and entertainments. These may soothe, but they do not sanctify. They drown the painful recollection ; whereas the recollection should be kept alive and made the instrument of weaning our desires and expectations from a scene so transitory. The worldly would stifle the thought — the Christian softens it by pointing his eye upwards to God and forwai'ds to eternity. — I am, yours, &c., Thomas Chalmers. MISS M CORQUODALE. 469 No. CCCLXIL— To Miss M'Corquodale. Morningside, 24at are beneath to those which are above. How delightful to believe that this change in the bent of your aflTections may take efiect upon you all, and this without losing sight of their wonted object, but by following it upward to the place which he now occupies, thus causing you to feel as it MRS. IIACKAY. 495 were another tie to Heaven, an augmented interest in that eternal home which should henceforth be the grand object of all our aims and all our aspirations. Give my most affectionate regards to your sisters, who one and all of them are the objects of ray sympathies and prayers. I might have addressed this broken and imperfect effusion to Miss Abercrombie ; but on her, as the eldest of the family, the main burden will fall of this sad and trying dispensation. For- give me, my dear Miss Barbara, for having singled out you as my correspondent for the expression of feelings which I can- not restrain, yet am unable to utter but in a way the most in- adequate and feeble. — Ever yours, most affectionately and truly, TuoMAS Chalmers. [Ilidmills, 'near Inverness, ^th January 1850. — Rev. Sir, — I cauuot deny myself the satisfaction of saying how much I felt gratified at finding, in the first volume of Dr. Chalmers's Memoirs, my husband's name so remem- bered in connexion with a family he so greatly esteemed.* I have often heard him, in after years, refer to the warm kindness of Cap- tain George Chalmers, who even tried to find amusement for him when re- turning strength fitted him for a little exertion. A bottle would be slung at the yard-arm to serve for a mark at which the invalid subaltern might fire ; and having been fortunate enough to hit the object several times. Captain Chalmers accounted him so expert a marksman, that he declared, should they encounter a hostile ship, he would station him " to pick off the man at the helm." — I am. Rev. Sir, your obedient servant, Maugauet M.vckay. The Rev. Dr. Hanna, Morningside.] No. CCCLXXXIV.— To Mrs. Mackay. Edinhurgh, 16eace and sanctification. There is a way of combining and harmonizing both. — I ever am, my dear Madam, yours very truly and Avitli much regard, Thomas Chalmers. [Larffs, I2th June 1844. — My deak Sir, — The last day I was ia your house, a trifle occurred that gave rise to feelings I would in vain attempt to express. I noticed two beautiful salvers on the table, and said some- thing about them to one of the little girls, who said, — " Yes, papa got them in remembrance of somebody near Glasgow," and turning one up she read, — " Mrs. Glasgow of Mountgreenan." What delight would it have given my dearest earthly friend to have known she was so affectionately remem- bered by one she looked up to as the means of her present peace, her hopes MRS. DUXLOr. 507 for eternity ! I have ever since determined to tell you a circumstance that occurred two days before her death. She said to those attending her, — " Let my situation be a warning to you ; you see that the moment the agony of pain is relieved, I am so exhausted that sleep overpowers me — had I now my peace to make, what would be my situation ? But I know in whom I have trusted, and my heart is at ease." Oh ! my dear Sir, how often have I wept with gratitude to you on thinking over this scene ! Before her knowledge of you her mind was quite at sea, and domestic affliction quite unhinged her ; you brought her peace and fortitude to turn to other objects ; and I have often wished to tell you what I was sure would give you pleasure, but I could not without a degree of emotion one does not like to exhibit. I got, however, a message two days ago, to be ready to go home at a moment's warning, being deprived, not of my conscious- ness, but of my physical power at once. The Doctor was with me almost immediately, and I am now nearly well, but put on very short allowance of meat or drink for some time ; yet I have little doubt I shall soon be well again, and only wish that I may retain the still, solemn, confidential feeling of immediate dependence that at present soothes every emotion of my mind, and diffuses over it something deeper than the tranquillity of a summer even- ing,— I could almost say something holy. Think of me, dear Sir, where the prayers of a good man avail much, and believe me, under every circumstance, with the most grateful respect and affection, yours, Keitu Dunlop.] No. CCCXCI. Edinhurrih, Morningsicle, lith June 18-44. My dear Mrs. Dunlop, — I received your deeply interesting letter this morning. I have long cherished the recollection of dear Mrs. Glasgow, as being indeed among the kindest and truest friends I ever had in this world ; and rejoiced in her growing congeniality with all that is most spiritual and sul)stantial in the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is nothing which I have oftener recurred to in looking back upon the past, than the delight wherewith one of her elegant and cultivated literature could peruse the homeliest authorship of the good old Puritanic writers, whom she at one time would have recoiled from as utterly distasteful. Her dying testimony to the faith is indeed most precious. It is 508 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. new to me ; and I feel peculiarly grateful for your .statement of it, which I shall reserve as one of the most valued memora- bilia in my possession. We are all greatly concerned to hear of your illness ; and shall be most interested to hear, by liowever short a notice, of 3'our state of health ; only do not make any exertion beyond your strength. I rejoice to hear from you of your mental and spiritual state — that of still and confidential dependence. Be assured that the stronger and simpler your reliance is, the more acceptable to God. He likes to be trusted. Witliout faith it is impossible to please Ilim ; but, on the other hand, the more unfaltering our faith, or the more like it is to the unstaggering faith of Abraham, the better is He pleased. In other words, our comfort and His glory are at one. In quietness and confi- dence then may you have strength. " Be still, and know that He is God." (Ps. xlvi. 10.) " May the God of hope fill you with all peace and joy in believing." (Rom. xv. 13.) " Ac- quaint thyself wdtli Him, and be at peace." (Job xxi. 21.) I have often thought of a verse in Deuteronomy as peculiarly applicable to the case of one who is physically helpless, but still in that condition is thus encouraged to trust in God : " The Lord will repent himself for His servants, ivhen He seeth that their j)ower is gone, and that there is none shut up or left." (Deut. xxxii. 36.) It is my earnest prayer that whatever may befall in the wise and merciful providence of God, you may be upheld in the gospel attitude of looking unto Jesus. One apostle tells us of the meekness and gentleness of Christ ; another tells us that God is love. Surely in the face of such declarations it were wrong to refuse that confidence for which so deep and solid a foundation has been laid. " Rejoice in the Lord always : and again I say, Rejoice." (Pliil. iv. 4.) May the 6tli and 7th verses also be abundantly realized upon you ; as also Romans MRS. DUNLOP. 509 V. 11 — "joying in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom you have received the atonement." Our whole family, including Mrs. Hanna, who is with us, unite in kindest and most aiFectionate remembrance. " The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." — I ever am, my very dear Madam, yours with the utmost regard, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCXCIl. Edhihurgh, Morningside, 23d further, that the joy of the Lord is your strength. His very promulgation of the law that we should love Him, and His assigning to this law the highest l^lace in His code, making it the first and greatest of His com- mandments, is evidence in itself that He has presented us with MRS. DUNLOP. 517 adequate grounds and objects for that faith without wliich it were impossible to love, as without wliich it is impossible to please Him. May your faith grow exceedingly, working more and more by love, and abounding more and more in all the fruits of righteousness. — I ever am, my dear Madam, yours with great esteem and regard, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCXCVII. Edinhitrgh, Morningskle, \Oth Noveinber 1844. My dear Mrs. Dunlop, — I cannot adequately express the amount of reflex and secondary pleasure which I feel in the re- cital you have given me of those manifestations that contribute so much of true, and solid, and most warrantable enjoyment to your own heart. If I have in any way been an organ of con- veyance for those Scripture and scriptural views which so evi- dently have told upon you, and in a way so legitimate and so desirable, I sincerely rejoice in it. But it is not an unfrequent thing, that one should be the minister of a peace and an en- largement to others, of which he himself is very far short ; and therefore convinced, as I am, of the sovereign efficacy which lies in the praA^ers of a believer, I would cast myself on the in- tercession of all my Christian friends, and of you in particular, that God would bestow upon me in fuller measure than I have ever yet experienced, the spirit of love, and of power, and of a sound mind ; and cause His Gospel to enter my soul in the demonstration of the Spirit, and with much assurance. The kingdom of God may come to the mere theologian in word only and not in power, so as to make it a possible thing that he should deal but in the vocables of orthodoxy, and have no part in the life or substance of it. Our resort, when visited by any anxious suspicion of this kind, is in the faithfulness of God — He will not put us off with a semblance or a counterfeit of the pearl of great price, if the pearl itself be what we honestly and 518 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. earnestly pray for. On this subject I have often felt that there is great comfort in Matt. vii. 9, 10. When we ask a loaf, He will not put us off with a stone, or with a serpent if we ask a fish, or with a scorpion if we ask an egg. He will not impose upon us or mock us with a vain similitude of the thing, if we in good faith ask the very thing itself; and I very heartily rejoice in the assurance, that the good work which God has begun, and is carrying on within you, is the sacred pledge of your coming inheritance — the preparative and the precursor of heaven in your soul. But let us never forget, that the way to be kept right in- wardly is to look right outwardly. Let us ever be looking unto Jesus, that we may hold fast our confidence in Him ; and that we may realize the continued fulfilment of His gracious promise, that if we abide in Him, He will abide in us, and cause us to abound in much fruit. I feel greatly obliged by your most generous proposal in re- gard to the "West Port. Forgive me if I do not avail myself of it, at least now. Should we be in difficulties I will let you know ; but I have the comfortable expectation of being pro- vided with the requisite supplies for this great object. There are two things connected with this operation, each of which will give you pleasure : — 1. I anticipate as much benefit from Mr. Hanna's proposed monthly week, as I could have had, had he settled in Edinburgh. 2. Miss Maria Vans Agnew jDromises to be a most useful auxiliary in the West Port — efficient and wise. All here are in about a medium state as to health. I am tolerably well. — I ever km, my dear Mrs. Dunloi), yours with the greatest regard, Thomas Chalmers. P.S. — All unite in cordial regards. Tommy goes to school, and is well enough at present for it. 3IUS. DUNLOP. 519 111 regard to the apprehension you express of your ever learning and never being able to come to the knowledge of the truth — this I should apply to such as are carried about with every wind of doctrine, but not to such as are fixed, as I trust you are, upon Christ as their all in all. Such will have new views and larger views of the truth as tlicy grow in the Chris- tian life ; but this is not to be confounded with the vacillations of those who are unstable and unsettled in the faith. Progress is not fluctuation ; and that progress forms a part of Christian experience is indicated by the following verses: — Col. i. 10; John xiv. 21 ; 2 Pet. iii. 16 ; 1 Pet. ii. 2 ; Heb. v. 13, 14. The variety of Scripture is exhaustless ; and you must not wonder at the brighter complexional manifestations you may be privi- leged to enjoy of its single truths at one time than another, as well as the new relations which you discover betwixt these truths, with their new applications to the desires and wants of the now awakened spirit. — T. C. No. CCCXCVIII. Ediiiburdh, Morningside, 5th January 1845. My dear Mrs. Dunlop, — T cannot suffer the holidays to pass without sending you the compliments of the season ; not formally, I can assure you, but feelingly ; for I do feel the sincerest joy in believing that the unction of the Holy One is upon you — the anointing which remaineth, (1 John ii. 22, 27,) — the earnest of your future inheritance, (Eph. i. 14,) — that better part which shall not be taken away, (John X. 14.) What a precious writer John is, both in gospel and epistle. I feel nothing better fitted to soothe and to comfort one than the gentleness and sensibility, and deep as well as tender piety of this Apostle. The whole of his First Epistle is instinct with spirituality, and in most beautiful keeping with the last dis- 520 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. course and prayer (the most solemn and elevating passage in the Bible) which He Himself has recorded. I both rejoice in your experience, and have the utmost value for your prayers. I stand greatly in need of them, and there- fore entreat a continued part in your intercessions. Every day convinces me more that the Spirit in the Word is the only source of light and comfort, and of all saving influences both on the understanding and on the heart. But the Spirit is given to prayer, and given too most freely and willingly ; for the very ground on which God requires intercessions to be made for all men, is that He willeth all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the trutli. "We have had a second West Port visit from Mr. Hanna of nearly a fortnight. He is of the greatest use to me ; and there is distinct progress making in our enterprise. But here too we are made experimentally to feel our need of grace from on high ; for ti'uly when it comes to an attempt upon human souls, we are made to feel our own helplessness, and to find that man is nothing, and God is all in all. Mrs. Hannahs cold still lingers ; and I begin to dislike it. Tommy is expanding rapidly ; he has got a set of carpenter's tools, and among other things has made a most respectable wooden stool. He has the organ of constructiveness. All the rest of the family are in their average health, and join in best regards. — Ever believe me, my dear Madam, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. P.S. — Miss Maria Vans Agnew is a most efficient member of our West Port agencV. Mrs. Mowat, a very generous friend to the work, died a few days ago, to the very great grief of my- self and of all who knew her. — T. C. MRS. DUNLOP. 521 No. CCCXCIX. Edinburgh, Morningside, 9th February 1845. My dear Mrs. Dunlop, — There is notliing to be regretted in the felt uusatisfactoriiiess of human authorship on any topic of religion, if light and comfort break in upon it directly from Scripture. I could desire no better result from any embarrass- ment into which you were thrown by reading Dwight, than that it was all cleared away by the l7th chapter of John. Theologians often do perplex their readers, and more particu- larly in the handling of objections ; all of which, however, might be overborne by the self-evidencing power of the Bible, when we sit down to its lessons with the docility of little children. There is a sufficiency in the Spirit and the Word which might well make us independent of all uninspired writers ; and yet in their written statements from the press, just as in their spoken statements from the pulpit, there is often a very powerful influence. The reflection of inspired truths from other minds than our own, has in it a peculiar virtue, derived, I am apt to think, from the force of sympathy with the experiences and the impressions and the felt wants or comforts of fellow- sinners like ourselves. Certain it is that God has been pleased to annex a great power to human agency in the business of christianization. The four short epistles from Galatians to Colossians are among the most precious compositions in the New Testament. I have been dwelling on them with great interest. — I am, my dear Madam, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCC. Edinburgh, Churchhill, 23(7 November 1845. My dear Mrs. Dunlop, — The case you mention is not un- common— that of a good man of society trenched in self-suffici- 2 X 522 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. ency, and inaccessible to every argument for convincing liim of sin. The only way in which it can be logically treated, so as if possible to gain over his understanding, is to reason with him on the two distinct standards of morality, the terrestrial and the celestial. He will scarcely refuse that surely some- thing is due from the creature to the Creator ; and then he may be closed with on the question, whether that something has been really given or really withheld. The more we can convince him how much is due, and the more we can lay bare to him his deficiency therefrom, the greater is tlie likelihood of our carrying at least the intellect, if not the conscience and the heart. The Bible uniformly regards the world in the light of its being Grod's world ; and it treats the question between God and man as hinging upon this, — What has he done unto God ? It views God as the Being with whom we have to do ; and it resolves the controversy between the parties into this, — that throughout the vast multiplicity of our doings, little or nothing is done unto God. The charge or the complaint against us is, that it is not His will, but our own will that we follow — not His way, but our own way (Isaiah liii. 6) that we walk in. These ways are exceeding viirious — a way of profligacy, or busi- ness, or amusement, or science, or even philanthroj)y and patriotism. Some of these therefore estimable, useful, lovely, and of good report ; yet what Luther would rather coarsely, and revoltingly it may be, but in substance truly, denominate courses of splendid sin, because one and all of them destitute of godliness. It is thus that a man may rank very high on the terrestrial standard of morality, and on the celestial may be at the bottom of the scale*; so that, when met on the awful day of reckoning with the question. What have you done unto me ? he may be left without a speech and without an argument. This is the sort of reasoning wherewith a good man of the world might be plied ; and it is right that he should be so MRS. DUNLOP. 523 dealt with. But sensible as I am of tlic need of a liigher illumination, he should not only be pleaded with, but prayed for, that the Spirit may convince him of sin, and cause him so to feel his need of a Saviour, as that Christ shall no longer be lightly esteemed by him, nor tlic preaching of His cross sound any longer as foolishness in his ears. When looking upon ungodliness as tlie great master sin of humanity, reaching deep into the heart of man, and pervading the whole system of his habits and desires, I have often gathered from the contemplation a fresh argument for the completeness and sufficiency of the gospel ; and this I w^ould fain address to yourself for the purpose of comfort and confir- mation. For, though this ungodliness be the very acme or extremity of human guilt, I am told of a far reacliing power in the gospel-remedy that overtakes as it were and goes beyond it. In this view I hold the phrase in Romans iv. 5, to be of special importance — "justifieth the ungodly." Here, then, is a justification that overmatches the deepest and deadliest of our crimes. And of kindred encouragement to this is Romans xi. 26 — " He will turn ungodliness from Jacob." Here there is a sanctification which does aw^ay the most virulent of these moral and spiritual maladies under whicli we labour. Thus there is that in the gospel which makes head against both the guilt and the power of our deadliest transgression, and is com- mensurate to the salvation of the chief of sinners from the chief of sins. It is my prayer and hope that you may more and more ex- perience of Christ that He is the power of God unto salvation from all your distempers, erasing your name from the book of condemnation, and making you alive to the sense and the en- joyment of God as your reconciled Father. May He shed abroad in our hearts the love of Himself by the Holy Gliost ; and what a precious assurance for us to pray over, that as He has already 524 COERESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. given for us His own Son, much more will He with Him freely give us all things. I shall be most happy at all times to hear from you. Our family here are a good deal colded, and I myself am slightly. Grace will be delighted to receive a letter from you. The college enrolments are going on faster this year than they did last ; and there is the promise of a larger attendance at the Hall than we have ever yet had. — I ever am, my dear Mrs. Dunlop, yours most affectionately and with great esteem, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCCI. JSdinburgh, 3lorningside, Ath January 1846. My dear Mrs. Dunlop, — I beg that you will not scruple to write me at all times. The labours of my correspondence have been greatly lightened by the employment of an amanuensis whom the Free Church kindly allows to me ; so that I have far more leisure and liberty than I formerly enjoyed for writing with my own hand to my own more special and personal cor- respondents. I feel greatly obliged by the kind invitation of your nephew, though I do not purpose being at Liverpool. I have the great- est desire for the object of the meetings there ; but I cannot undertake any distant locomotion in its behalf All my extra attentions are now confined to my local enterprise in the West Port — in which, if I succeed, and am followed up by the imita- tions of other philanthropists, I believe I shall do more good than by distracting and dividing myself between this and other objects however excellent. From the interest which Mr. Dunlop takes in the moral and religious state of the people in Liverpool, it occurs to me that he may perhaps like to see what progress we have made in our Edinburgh attempt. I therefore beg to enclose for him the MRS. DUNLOP. 526 "Witness" report, although it be an imperfect one, of the speech I delivered the other day upon the subject. I most thoroughly accord with your aspirations for greater love and enlargement than you feel you have yet attained ; and you have, indeed, singled out the best expedient for the accom- plishment of your wishes — which is prayer, whether it be our own prayers or the intercession of others. I believe that the most advanced and cultivated Christian upon earth will perse- vere to the end in the very attitude which your letter evinces — not of satisfaction with present graces, but of longing expec- tancy for more. It was quite so with Paul. So little did he think of having yet attained, or being already perfect, that he counted all that was behind as nothing, and so pressed onward. The very progress of one's discipleship makes him more alive than before to his yet remaining corruptions and deficiencies. And it is my belief, that Paul to the last half-hour of his his- tory would have complained of his vile body, and said, " that in me, that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing ;" and exclaimed, "0 wretched man, who shall deliver me?" And yet he could follow up this sad and desponding utterance re- garding himself with an expression of the most grateful confi- dence in the Saviour : " I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord.'' It is the experience of all Christians. When looking to ourselves, there may be great discomfort and disquietude — to make our escape from which, we should look unto Jesus. This was the constant habit and exercise of the Apostle. (See Phil. iii. 3 ; 2 Cor. xii. 8-10.) It is in the maintenance of this habit, that in spite of all our fears and all our short-comings, we are enabled to make progress — more advanced than before, and yet more humbled than before, under a sense of manifold infirmities now more clearly seen, and now more painfully felt, in virtue of the very additions which have been made to our knowledge and to our growth in grace. The summit of creature- 526 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALJIERS. perfection, says good old Riccalton, " lies in bringing our ou'n emptiness to the fulness that is in Christ Jesus." With best and most grateful acknowledgments to Mr. Dunlop, I ever am, my dear Madam, yours most affectionately and truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCCII. Edlnhmjh, I5th March 1846. My very dear Madam, — I should have replied sooner, but the last month of the Session is always a busy one. I can, however, assure you that your letters are always most welcome, insomuch that I do hope you will often write, irrespective of my replies, which, at the same time, I feel the greatest pleasure in making. Your statement of the benefit derived from what I write, and similar statements from others, is to me an experimental proof of the reality of the Spirit's operations. I have long felt this to be a striking evidence ; and many are the clergymen who depone to the same thing, when told, and most credibly told, of the good that has been done to hearers by their ser- mons, and to correspondents by their letters, and a good that often outruns and goes far beyond the influence which the things said or written have had on the preachers or writers them- selves. It may be all true, and most importantly true, what we give forth ; yet with us it may only be the wisdom of the letter, while with those whom we address it may be the wisdom of the Spirit — as if He had taken up our utterance by the way, and given it an impression on the minds of others to which those from whom it came are altogether strangers. This has been the frequent experience of clergymen ; and perhaps it is well that it should be so, to keep them humble and prayerful, under the sense of as great dependence on illumination from on high as the veriest babes in learning or intellect. I know not if you are acquainted with the works of John MRS. DUNLOP. 527 Newton. I think tluat jou would thoroughly congcnializc with them. I am reminded of him bj a passage in your letter re- garding your deeper conviction of the sin of ungodliness now than you ever had prior to your experience of the comforts of the Gospel. Newton was consulted by an inquirer, who thought that ere he was warranted to lay hold of Clnist, he should have a more tender sense and fuller view of the evil of sin than he had yet attained to. Newton told him he was wrong, bade him repair to the Saviour immediately ; and stated to him what had been his own prayer — " Reveal to me Thy Son, and after that what Thou pleasest." It is said of Jonathan Edwards, that long after his conver- sion he had prayed for a more adequate sense of the malignity of sin, and got such a view of it as was like to overwhelm and unhinge him altogether, that he would never repeat such a course of prayer over again. God knows how to temper and proportion His various mani- festations in the way that is best for us, so as that we shall not be tried beyond what we are able to bear, but with the trial will provide a way to escape, that we may be able to bear. It is well that your mind was pre-occupied with the doctrine of Christ's atonement ere getting such a view of the evils of sin. I rejoice in your felt comforts, and pray that they may more and more abound. I perfectly share in your dislike of narrow sectarianism, and do hope that the cause of union will prosper and prevail over it. There are certain points, however, of direction and management — a line of procedure which still re- quires to be laid down ; and I do not think that it has yet been fallen upon. — I ever am, my dear Mrs. Dunlop, yours very cordially and truly, Thomas Chalmers. P.S. — All join in affectionate regards, and Tommy, who is here, among the rest. 528 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. No. CCCCIIT. Morningside, Wth September 1846. My dear Mrs. Dunlop, — I am reading tlie Diary with deep- est interest ; but it will require a day or two ere I can finish the perusal of it. It is all most impressive, and some of its passages are to myself peculiarly affecting. As a record of the breathings of a mind in earnest, it is one of the most touching I ever read. — I ever am, my dear Madam, yours with great regard, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCCIV. Morningside, 15th /September 1846. My dear Mrs. Ddnlop, — I send back the Journal. I feel it a great privilege that I have been permitted to read it. It en- dears the writer* more than ever to my heart, and places her very high in my estimation both for her intellectual powers and spiritual attainments. Permit me to say, that it has given me a livelier interest in all her surviving friends ; and now that I have identified the niece to whom she makes such repeated and affecting allusions with the present Mrs. Robertson, I can- not but feel for her all the regards which are due to a relative and friend. May the providence of God go along with you. May His grace operate powerfully and savingly within you. Do write and let me know your address, that I may have the pleasure of converse with you when replying to your letters. — I ever am, my very dear Madam, yours most cordially, ' Thomas Chalmers. * Mrs. Glasgow of Mountgreenan. MRS. DUNLOP, 529 No. CCCCV. Edinhurcjh, 22d October 1846. My dear Mrs. Dunlop, — I earnestly hope that my reply to your most interesting letter of October 6, is not so late, but that it may reach you by the London address. I perfectly enter into your pleasurable feelings amid the glories of such a landscape as you have described, and still more into the senti- ments which you experienced on your visit to Cambridge — a place which I have now visited three times, and at each time with a more intense gratification than before, associated as it is with the highest names of English philosophy and literature ; and over and above this, rich in that architecture which with me is the most impressive of the fine arts. I have gone over King's College with old Simeon, and expatiated in moonlight both with fellows and under-graduates through Trinity and St. John's, and what to me is a perfect gem, though but a minia- ture, Caius College. Its walks and academic groves, and all the relics and memorials of Newton, are every one of them most dear and precious to my heart. It rejoices me to find that however dissatisfied with your own personal Christianity, you keep a firm hold of the atone- ment. Let nothing dislodge you from this ; and I speak not merely for the sake of your peace, but for the sake of your pro- gressive meetness in mind and heart for that inheritance which Christ hath purchased for all who believe on Him. Sure I am that it is looking unto Him, and keeping fast and firm hold upon Him, which constitutes the right attitude for receiving from Him all the needful supplies both of light and grace from the upper sanctuary. And I would not measure my own state by another man's experience. The Spirit is exceeding various in His methods of dealing with believers ; so that, instead of looking to others and measuring myself by others, I would 2 Y 530 COEKESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMEIiS. recommend a simple yet steadfast regard towards Him who is not only tlie Saviour, but the Sanctifier of men, alike able to prepare a place for us, (John xiv. 2,) and to prepare us for the place. I know not if I ever spoke to you of " Marshall on Sancti- fication." He is at present my daily companion ; nor do I know an author who sets forth the gospel in a way so suited to promote the conjoint interests of peace and holiness. I need not say how much I am gratified by your account of the English parson. You may well believe that such in- stances are most genial to my feelings. I would almost wish to make him more specially acquainted with our objects and views. But I perceive from your statements that he is abundantly in- telligent as well as zealous ; and I can perfectly understand how both he and his fiimily should be in that state of happy enjoy- ment which you have so impressively described in your letter. I forget whether you received a copy of the accompanying lithograph, which you ought to have gotten long ago, as it was prepared for my West Port subscribers. Perhaps it is well fitted to give any English philanthropist whom you may meet with some general idea of our objects and proceedings. "We often hear of the delays of law ; they are not more pro- voking than the delays of architecture. We shall not get into our new church till January. The masonry, however, is com- pleted ; and it really makes a fine appearance. The services of Miss Anna Maria Vans are invaluable, and above all praise. I do hope to see Mrs. Robertson occasionally this winter. The Hannas are now* with us ; and little Tommy, I am glad to say, goes forthwith to Merchiston. Do, my dear Mrs. Ihinlop, allovv^ me to hear from you fre- quently. Your letter, as I go over it again, is a mighty solace to me ; for, amid discoumgements and a thousand moral dis- MRS, DUNLOP. 531 comforts, it is an immense emollient to know of truth and friendship in this world. All join in warmest regards ; and I entreat that you will ever believe me, my dear Mrs. Dunlop, yours most cordially and with the greatest regard, Thomas Chalmers. P.S. — Pray, what is the name of the French town nearest to the place where Mrs. Glasgow was buried ? No. CCCCVI. Edinburgh^ 22d November 1846. My dear Mrs. Dunlop, — I should have replied sooner to your very interesting letter of the 6th. I beg that you will not think it too much for me to meet your letters with an early answer to each, as I have real pleasure in keeping up this correspondence, and felt an especial interest in your last com- munication. But I have first to thank you for a small note of still later arrival than yours of the 6th, and from which I have obtained a very distinct idea of the site and geography of dear Mrs. Glasgow's burial-place — a document highly prized by me, and which I shall place in my personal and family scnitoire beside the former memorandum that you gave me of your beloved sister. You ask me if it is superstitious to feel the lesser movements of one's life as if coming from on high ? I think not. There is a charm altogether natural, and I am sure altogether fitted to tranquillize and reconcile us to whatever may cast up in the minutest applications of the doctrine of a special Providence. It is well to recognise God in everything ; and I know not a more memorable or precious verse in the Bible than where it is said that there is a diversity of operations, but it is God who worketh all in all. 532 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. I wish that, along with Elliot's book on the Apocalypse, you would get Dr. Candlish's reply to his very rash and ignorant attack on the Free Church. Altogether I hold his work to be the best and ablest exposition of the Book of Revelation I have met with. But he went sadly out of his way when he made his onslaught upon us. Dr. Candlish's pamphlet may be com- missioned from London, I should think, by your nearest book- seller ; and I should be well pleased if it could be made known in your present neighbourhood. But I am most interested of all by the expression of your self-dissatisfaction towards the close of your letter. I will not promise to relieve you of this feeling so long as you are in the body ; but I think that the Gospel is very clear as to the direc- tion which this feeling should impress on all who experience it — a lesson that has been made all the clearer of late to my mind by my perusal of a book which I think I recommended to you, " Marshall on Sanctification." The Apostle Paul was liaunted through life by the very feeling of which you complain. He called out in agony, "0 wretched man I" He counted all as nothing. He spoke of his vile body ; and Avould, I believe, have so spoken of it to the last hour of his history. Nay, let us look onward to the judgment-day, and we then find the un- conscious disciples on Christ's right hand, asking what good thing they had ever done for Him. They forgot or made no reckoning of aught which they had rendered Him in the way of service. But He did not forget — He reckoned in their favour, not unrighteous to forget their work and labour of love. The upshot of all is, that under a sense of our own nothingness in ourselves we should cas^ our case upon Him as the Lord our Strength and Sanctifier. We should subordinate our holiness as much as our pardon to faith in Him who has undertaken for both, to work in us as well as to do for us. "We should put the one case, the one necessity, as much into His hand as the other, MRS. DUNLOP. 533 saying, " Lord, take me such as I am, make me such as I should be." I think it was because of this attitude liabitually kejjt up that Paul said of himself, " I am dead — nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Let us do the like, laying no confidence in ourselves, but rejoicing in tlie Lord Jesus ; and as the sure result of tliis, He will put forth upon us the hand of a Sanctifier — He wall perfect His own work in our souls, and see in us of the travail of His own soul and be satisfied, even as He will be on the day of judgment with those on His right hand. Let us, therefore, at all times bring our own emptiness to Christ's fulness. Henceforth let the life which we live in the flesh be a life of faith on the Son of God ; and thus will our peace and our holiness keep pace the one with the other. In quietness and confidence Ave shall have strength ; and the very God of peace will sanctify us wholly. Should Mr. Pope be still at Torquay, give him my best re- gards. I made his acquaintance at Leamington in 1835. — I ever am, my dear Mrs. Dunlop, yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCCVIL Edinhurgli, Mth December 1846- My DEAR Mrs. Dunlop, — Our Free Church Committee have, by an advertisement in the " Witness," and I should think in other papers, given forth an invitation to all who might choose to co-operate in their work of charity, and also their willing- ness to merge their collections in a general fund, to Ije admi- nistered by a general and all-comprehensive Committee. Mean- while all remittances ought to be sent to Arcliibald Bonar, Esq., of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Bank, Edinburgh. What an awful state Ireland is in ! They are now dying in dozens of hunger, and in a little while I believe they will be dying in hundreds. It Avill be i\\Q same thing in our High- 584 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. lands soon, unless a far greater effort be made on their behalf than jDeople have yet thought or felt to be necessary. I am truly glad that you have caught the spirit and design of Marshall, and not less thankful that it has come home of late to the heart and ffood likino- of Mrs. Chalmers. She has been very low, and though better for the present, yet I would say that hers is a frail and precarious condition. I do not wonder, for it is by no means rare, that you should have received Christ more for pardon than for sanctification. All do so at Rrst ; and it is often much later that they recognise Him, and still later that they make habitual use of Him, as the Lord their strength. I look on 1 Cor. i. 30 as a very precious verse, in that it gives a full Auew of Christ's salvation in the various parts of it. I have great value, too, for Phil. iii. 8. The order in which Paul enumerates the three habits of the believer is reverse, I think, to the order in which they take place in his spiritual history. He first has no confidence in his own strength, feeling all that he does in the way of new obe- dience to be so miserably abortive. He then rejoices in the Lord Jesus, (Phil. iv. 13 ; John xv. 4,) on perceiving that His office is to sanctify as well as to justify men. And lastly, as the effect of this compound attitude, if it may be so termed, that of distrust in ourselves and confidence in Christ, are we enabled to serve God in the Spirit, " striving mightily according to His grace that worketh in us mightily." (Col. i. 29.) I quite agree with you in thinking that all other collections should be postponed at present, I'ather than the collection for famine should suffer. They are acting practically uj)on this in many places. With earnest prayers for your continued peace and joy in believing, I ever am, my dear Mrs. Dunlop, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. MRS. DUNLOP. 535 No. CCCCVIII. Edinhurgh, lOth January 1847. My dear Mrs. Duis^lop, — I am much gratified by your approval of my brief letter on the Sabbath. I can have no objections, but the contrary, to your tlirowing off copies of it. I doubt very much, however, if your sentiments in regard to it will be very much sympathized with, however much I agree with you in thinking that a great and vital interest for Scot- land hinges on the right determination of this question. I rejoice in your exertions for our suffering Highlanders. The public are beginning to arouse ; but they are yet veiy far from an adequate view of liow great the destitution will be ere harvest comes round, and what the extent of our liberalities, unless we can make up our minds to thousands and thousands more dying of starvation both in Ireland and at home. May He who hath said, they who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, fulfil in you all the good pleasures of His goodness, and cause you abundantly to experience that in quietness and in confidence ye shall have strength. — With the kind regards of all here, ever believe me, my dear Madam, yours most affectionately, Thomas Chalmers. No. CCCCIX. Edinburgh, SlstJumiarg 1847. My dear Mrs. Dunlop, — Be assured that there is nothing in the mere intensity and elevation of your religious feel- ings, and nothing in the strength of your convictions, though amounting to assurance, which of themselves bespeak aught like illusion. For such manifestations and impressions as you now seem to experience have been often realized, and on the most solid grounds, by the most advanced and enlightened Christians of whom we have ever read in the history of the 536 CORRESrONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. Cliurch. Witness the religious experiences of Doddridge and Halyburton, and Boston, and Jonathan Edwards ; and, better than all, let us only bethink ourselves of the declarations of Scripture which inform us of such enlargements as are perfectly genuine, and which are occasionally vouchsafed by the Giver of all grace as the foretastes and the glimpses of our coming heaven. If we but put their inspired meaning on such verses as the following we shall not have any doubt of these spiritual illuminations: — Ps. cxix. 18 ; Isaiah Iviii. 18 ; John xiv. 21 ; 1 Cor. ii. 10 ; 2 Cor. iii. 18 ; iv. 4 ; Eph. i. 17, 18 ; iii. 18, 19 ; Phil. iv. 7 ; 1 Thess. i. 5 ; 1 Peter i. 8 ; 2 Peter i. 19 ; 1 John ii. 27; Rom. viii. 16; xv. 13. There can be no doubt of such enlightenments and enhance- ments of spiritual feeling, given in greater and less degree to Christians in various stages of their discipleship. Many who have the faith, and are therefore in a state of safety, are desti- tute of the sensible comfort which is sometimes given to others, and springs from tlie bright and exhilarating views that they obtain of Divine truth. They are greatly to be prized and longed after ; but it were a mighty discouragement on many, of whom I believe that they are the real children of God, to represent them as indispensable, or to set them forth as indis- pensable. I cannot perceive any delusion in the mental state of which you have written me. The ultimate and decisive test is Scrip- ture ; and so long as the ideas which fill and elevate your mind are scriptural truths, now seen by you more largely and lumi- nously than heretofore by the Spirit shining still more brightly than He wont to your 'eyes upon the Word, you have every reason to bless God and to rejoice. Certain it is, that without going forth of the Bible there is ample material within it for sustaining and justifying all the high emotions which you have expressed — nothing more being necessary than to deepen our MKS. DUNLOP. 537 convictions of Bible doctrine, and to brighten our assurance of Bible prospects, in order to bring the mind to a state of eleva- tion, nay even of ecstasy. And still the Bible is the test- book, the grand touchstone by which the spirits are to be tried ; for, " to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not accord- ing to this word, it is because there is no light in them." (Isaiah viii. 20.) My judgment is, that you sj)eak altogether according to this Word. But my observations and even re- ferences are perhaps too general for your case ; and let me therefore conclude with a few more specific references, serving to prove that Jesus Christ does, by His Spirit, dwell in man, and presides over his movements, actuating, and strengthening, and directing ; and in virtue of the close and intimate union which takes place between him and the believer, revives him and makes him faithful, even as the vine communicates life and fertility to all its branches. John XV. 1-8 ; Rom. viii. 9-31 ; 1 Cor. vi. 19 ; Gal. ii. 20 ; Rom. viii. 3 ; Eph. iv. 16 ; Heb. viii. 10, 11 ; Jer. xxxi. 33. Observe that God dwelling in you is as much part of the i^ro- mise or covenant under the economy of the gospel, as is the forgiveness of your sins. Pray for all in whose spiritual state you take an interest, that they, too, may be made to experience these higher attain- ments of experimental Christianity, for many, many are they whose doctrine outruns their experience, or who have not verified in their own personal state and history, what, neverthe- less, they know to be true. — I am, my dear Mrs. Dunlop, yours very sincerely and affectionately, Thomas Chalmeks. No. CCCCX. EdiuhicrgJi, 2ith March 1847. My dear Mrs. Dunlop, — I send Mrs. Glasgow's paper with the deepest interest, and your observations on your own state 538 CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS. I look upon as being exceedingly just and important. We must not expect to realize at all times the same bright mani- festations. But though they come to us only in passing yet precious glimj)ses, the recollection of them is most helpful for the sustaining of our faith, on which faith it is that, under all the variations of our sensible comfort, our safety hinges. It is by the power of faith that we are kept unto salvation. I know not if you ever read Samuel Rutherford's " Letters." There is a passage in one of them which reminds me of your present experience. He experienced, when in prison, a most remarkable season of spiritual refreshment and illumination, during which he wrote an account of it to one of his correspon- dents. Among other things, he says that he was quite sure the present transport and elevation and sensible comforts were not to last, but that a time was coming when they would take leave of him, and then what he should do would be, " believe in the dark." It is quite competent to believe even in the duller and darker frames of the mind ; for belief does not look inwardly upon the frames, but stays itself by looking out- wardly upon the word ; see Isaiah 1. 10. Nevertheless, such manifestations are mightily to be prized and longed after, as the most precious cordials on our future way ; and the recol- lections of those which are past are confirmatory and com- forting to the soul. — I ever am, my dear Mrs. Dunloj), yours very truly, Thomas Chalmers. KDINBUaOH: T. CONSTABLE, Pni.VTER TO HFE ilAJESTr. In Four Volumes, Sco, Price £2, 23. MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OP THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D. LL.D. BY HIS SON-IN-LAW, THE REV. WILLIAM HANNA, LL.D. In Nine Fols., 3co, Cloth, uniform, Price 10s. 6d. per volume, POSTHUMOUS WORKS OF THE REV. DR. CHALMERS. EDITED BY THE REV. DR. HANNA. " To cojnmend these works is superfluous ; they have met with universal approbation from the British Press and Public. That the periodical press, representing so great a variety of religious and political opinion, should have so generally noticed them, and that too with high commendation, is a circumstance exceedingly rare, if not altogether unparalleled. 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