Letters to Mrs. Morton

No. CXLV.

St. Andrews, 6th February 1824.

MY EVER DEAREST JANE, — I should have 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, 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 arrival from you as the signal for an immediate exercise in the way of writing, that will 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 makes a very pleasant family — pop-in to my mother and aunt, I took down Mrs. Chalmers and the two eldest children in this style on New Year’s Day. 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 we 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 meagre, 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 progress 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

Him as his 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, No. CXLVI.

St. Andrews. 9th June 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 honour 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

General Assembly to the anxieties and the manifold distraction of St. John’s in Glasgow.

I took Anster 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 corner-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 such formidable accounts, agrees 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, No. CXLVII.

St. Andrews, 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 Sabbath and the expected attentions, of which I laboured with 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 with Helen, who represents her as in a very happy frame of spirit, which has been growing upon her from the commencement 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 the whole of this throng-, however, I have never lost sight of the obligation in which I stood to reply to your last communication, 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 X 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 in Heaven? All the sensible comfort that you enjoy may be regarded 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 Tie 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 will descend upon you as well as mercy to pardon. I like that death-bed experience of Dr. Dwight, who, when asked by his friends how he felt, made no other reply than that there was mercy in God 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 God; 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

B vacation. Both I deem to be very important duties, and this year they 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 inconvenience, attempt Gloucestershire this season; and this inconvenience so far from being lessened, is in my mind aggravated by a most provoking call that I have recently had to preach a sermon in Stockport. I had 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 then under the imagination tlia.t it would quite suit me to be in England at any rate at the time of the anniversary. My circumstances now have wholly changed; but this is not enough for these gentlemen who call what I said a promise, and insist on the performance 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 length. 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 play 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. I 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.

No. CXLVIII.

St. Andrews, 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 whom, 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 perceive 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 itj 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 sadly reduced family. My mother has much of the comfort and complacency of a well-experienced Christian. Her physiognomy is most expressive of that abundance 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 contribute my uttermost to the peace and enjoyment of her remaining days.

It was quite necessary, in point of repose, that 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 which I have hitherto remonstrated ineffectually. 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 yesterday by a passage from the excellent Halyburton, who 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, particularly 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 il 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, 26th February 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 exclusive 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 who am in fault. I believe that it is very generally himself.

I am reading just now “Sheppard’s Thoughts on Devotion.” 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 affectionately, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CL.

St. Andrews, 1 7th 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 station 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 Christian 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 poorest who embrace it. In the case of Sandy Paterson 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. Chalmers 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 tenderness; 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 delicacy of which 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 are near and dear to us, that they should be 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 reconciled Father — a confidence which ministers the utmost peace to her heart, and diffuses a calm and a complacency over the whole system of her affairs. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CLI.

Glasgow, 4th October 1825.

MY DEAREST JANE, — Perhaps I am never in more unfavourable circumstances for writing at length, than when performing my 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 concern; but I am the better enabled thereby to meet the demands 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 practical reading rather than in study. My present book is “Owen on Spiritual-Mindedness” — a book which, when you have per feet leisure, I would recommend to your perusal. 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. Andrews, 15th November 1825.

MY DEAREST JANE, — I rejoice to observe that you enjoyed Sheppard so. My own practice is to read a little before 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 Romaine, 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 arc 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, 6th January 1826.

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 oif 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 30th, 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 Balcomie, which we visited, and Pittorrie, my grandfather Hall’s house, which I recollect to have been in when I was in frocks, and most distinctly recognised the room into which I was admitted to see my grandmother forty-three 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 striking resemblance to her mother, Christian Rankine. This whole road was to me full of interest, presenting such well-known objects as Keplie Docket, 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 interesting novelty in the group. Got to Anster early in the forenoon. The chaisefull came down from St. Andrews, containing my wife, three eldest bairns, and Miss Hutcheson of Glasgow, now with us. I settled my 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. Duff, the sister of Dr. Barren 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 heretofore to cast your dependence 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.

No. CLIV.

St. Andrews, lid March 1826.

Mr DEAREST JANE, — I have 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 by herself 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 supplying her with many a comfortable meditation.

My object in going down was to preach at Kilrenny, which I did to a very 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 the evening to Barnsmuir with Mr. Fortune I spent the night there, and he drove me up next morning in his gig to St. Andrews. 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, who 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 inscription 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 1791) I first was introduced to Barnsmuir.

You touch on a matter of great importance and great tenderness, 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 when 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.

No. CLV.

St. Andrews, llth April 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 overpasses 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 consents 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, No. CLVI.

St. Andrews, BOth 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 sister-in-law, who 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 sufficiency 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 affecting 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. Andrews, Wth 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 company 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 Raukine when I first knew them, and, indeed, have a very strong resemblance, 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 husband, 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.

Anstrutlier, 14t7i February 1827.

MY DEAREST JANE, — Our excellent mother died this morning at half-past eight o’clock. She was entire in reason and recollection to the last; and though she lost all power of articulation within 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 present 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 sufferings 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, 24th 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 visited the hallowed 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 when it was first built.... The Chalmerses have just been ninety years in Anstruther, and after the death of my aunt Jane, there is no further prospect of our being connected 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 postponed them. Perhaps my next visit in a week may supply 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 devoted 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 prosecute 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.

No. CLX.

St. Andrews, 17th April 1827.

MY DEAREST JANE, — I have been again at Anster. The business 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.

In 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 was 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, 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 was in four counties, Donegal, Deny, Antrim, and Down. The marine scenery of Antrim is the finest I ever saw; and there is nothing which has imprest 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 with it his album, requesting an insertion 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 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 Latter 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 hieroglyph! cal scrawls.

Of all the books I have recently read there is none which has deligbted, 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 heed 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. CLXIL

22d November 1827.

MY EVER DEAREST JANE, — I received yours of the 16th, 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, that He who 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 tribulations. 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 willing 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 xyou by such a peace-offering.

All here are well. Compliments to all. — Believe me ever, my dearest Jane, yours most affectionately, No. CLXIII.

St. Andrews, 4th 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 reprobation 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, No. CLXIV.

St. Andrews, 13th March 1828.

MY DEAREST JANE, — The album came to me by Glasgow some days ago. I was comforted to find that some of the contributors had 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 humour in your letters. I shall have an opportunity 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 indelicacy 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 formed 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 impressive passages. 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, whom I particularly wish to protect from a repetition of that throng and pressure to which we were exposed in Glasgow. — Believe me, my dear Jane, yours very truly, No. CLXV.

Edinburgh, 29th 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 residence in Edinburgh, I trust it will subside. I have now a written 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. Chalmers. 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 from without by and by. — Believe me, my dear Jane, yours very truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CLXVI.

Penicuick, llth 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 sorrow 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 sensibly moved and affected me. May the impression be lasting and profitable to us all. The poor widow is bearing up wonderfully, and God will care, I trust, for her and her family. — Believe me, my very dear Jane, yours most affectionately, No. CLXVII.

Edinburgh, Qth October 1832.

MY DEAREST JANE, — I have spent a day with the Denbighs. I think much of her ladyship, both in respect of sound intelligence 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 peculiar, 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 conversation as a whole, but with one drawback — felt, I believe, by all parties during more than the first half-hour of our being together: they neither understood readily my Scotch, nor did I understand readily their English. In this respect of mutual understanding I am far better off 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 barbarians 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 me 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 with a similar sketch afterwards. I shewed it to Dr. Welsh, Professor of Church History, and the most enlightened of our phrenologists. He pronounced upon it as a very remarkable head, and instanced more especially activity with great shrewdness 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. CLXVJII.

15th 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 reposing 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.

Edinburgh, 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 relieved by the Irish Church Reform Bill, the only flaw in it (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 country. 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 constrained 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 m my dearest Jane, yours most truly and affectionately, yo bilious and beloved, your stomachic and sentimental, yo cholical and cholerical brother, who with sincere good will su 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 tl I expected, and it will be, at least, the middle of August befoi

I reach Scotland. I beg you will write immediately on receipt of this, 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 will depend upon this whether I shall go first there, or go immediately to Kelton. Few things would give me greater pleasure than some quiet day of converse with you at a distance from bustle, and where we 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 infirmity 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 dialect not very intelligible to me, and a certain degree of shyness, 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 affectionately, THOMAS 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 sorry 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’Clellan and Catherine, and ever believe me, my dearest Jane, yours most truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CLXXIII.

Penicuick, 24^ June 1834.

MY DEAREST JANE, — The doctor prescribes for me one continued 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 effort, 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 Edinburgh, 25th August 1834.

MY DEAREST JANE, — I am grieved to observe by your letter of the 10th that you have suffered so much lately from ill health. Will you let me know in your next which half of your

MIS. 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.

Burntisland, “27th 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-work for six weeks, and have acquitted myself of it greatly beyond my anticipations. I am much thinner, being now 168 Ibs. weight, whereas I at one time was 205 Ibs., 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 Tory, I am certainly a Conservative, though not in the party, but in the general and ordinary 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 ] 30th 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 subject which, whatever the diversity of our tastes or our employments may be in other things, should at all times cement by the feeling of a common interest those who possess as we do the doctrines, and I trust 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 recommend, as a family book for the adult sons and daughters of a family, than any I know. It is now becoming a deep concernwith me “to watch over the souls of my children;” and we both have so strong a common interest in this, that I cannot refrain from mentioning a book which you would do well to encourage the perusal of amongst those who are near and dear to you. — I ever am, my dearest Jane, yours most affectionately, No. CLXXVII.

Edinburgh, 18th February 1838.

My DEAREST JANE, — There should be no such word as forgiveness betwixt us. You altogether mistake my feelings, if you think that there is anything to forgive. I am well pleased every time I receive a letter from you; but you must not think of tasking yourself to such an exercise. A letter from any of your family is tantamount to a letter from yourself, when occupied or unwell, which, I am sorry to think, you often are. But bear up under the conviction that God is faithful as well as merciful to forgive all who apply to Him in the name of Jesus; and be well assured, that as your fears of alienation or displeasure on the part of your earthly friends here turned out to be groundless, be assured that still more groundless are your apprehensions of displeasure in God, whose darling attribute is mercy, whose strange work is judgment, and who rejoices in the confidence which His own creatures rest in His own name, as the Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. And though He says of Himself, that He will by no means clear the guilty, yet has He found out a way by which He might at once be a just God and a Saviour — just, yet the justifier of those who believe in Jesus.

I saw your Alexander, whom I love, yesterday. We met at the church-door. John, who Professor Forbes tells me, is one of the ablest and most scientific of his students, has lately added skating to his other accomplishments; and when I saw him two days ago on the ice, I found him a good proficient in that part of education also. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours most truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CLXXVIII.

Edinburgh, 3d January 1839.

MY DEAREST JANE, — Our place is not Evening side. It is true that it is on the other side of Edinburgh from Morningside, and hence the denomination which I in the fertility of my genius chose to annex to it. But remember, afterwards, and address me at Edinburgh, as the brilliancies of invention, however congenial to minds of a high order, like yours and mine, serve rather to bewilder than to guide the prosaic movements of a postman or letter-carrier.

Our family are at present in tolerable health. Thomas Chalmers Hanna, my grandson, of a year and a half old, has been with us for some months — a delicate skift of a creature, but a great favourite notwithstanding; the object of a very general attention; the centre of a circle of friends and admirers; the little despot of an establishment, all the members of which do him homage, and are subordinate to his sway.

I trust your health is mending, and, above all, that your soul prospers, and is in health. Let us keep on the foundation of Christ’s grace and righteousness, and there is no fear of us. I feel quite assured that the more we look to the Gospel in its freeness, the more shall we experience of its sanctifying power, of its present salvation, the pledge and earnest of that future salvation which it so richly offers to all who will. — I ever am, my dearest Jane, yours most truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CLXXIX.

KirliaMy, 6th April 1839.

MY VERY DEAR JANE, — I should have replied a great deal sooner to yours of January the 9th. I have only this week finished the labours of our College session, where I am very much engrossed; and even at the best I can only write briefly and generally. I saw both John and Elizabeth very lately. I rejoice to hear of his teaching a Sabbath-school. His is a bright order of talent; and it is a great blessing when men of power become also men of deep and decided piety, which combination I pray God that your son may realize. The strongest of my instinctive likings is towards Alexander — a fine laddie-looking fellow, with an approach to a “lint-tap,” and at that age of toothshedding when chasms and vacancies occur along the front gums. — Everything is beautiful in its season.

Part of my family is now at Burntisland, which I left this morning, and am now with my father-in-law at Kirkaldy. Grace, Mrs. Hanna, and the grandbairn or oy, are now on this side of the water — the last mending, the two former colded, and not the better of that raw, penetrating east-wind which is felt so severely along the coast of Fife at this season of the year. That easterly haar, by the way, is an exception: it may be the beneficial result of wise and beneficent laws, but I cannot say of it as I did of Alexander’s toothless apertures — it is not beautiful in its season.

My kindest regards to all — Mr. Morton, Catherine, Anne, Lucy, and John. May they rise around you and call you blessed. I have been reading lately in Fisher’s “Marrow of Modern Divinity” — a truly refreshing work, full of the freeness and richness of that blessed Gospel which holds forth, on the footing of a gift, all that is most precious for sanctification here and everlasting salvation hereafter. — I ever am, my dearest Jane, yours most affectionately and truly, No. CLXXX.

Kirkaldy, 23d October 1809.

MY VERY DEAR JANE, — I have first to begin with an affecting piece of intelligence, the death of Captain Pratt, my father-in-law, which has brought me and Mrs. Chalmers to this place, where we remain several days. The death even of our most aged friends, however much expected, is always sure to strike and to solemnize when it happens; and it is, indeed, most marvellous that, familiarized as we are to this most certain of all events, it always comes upon us as with the force of a new lesson which we had yet to learn.

I have not seen the book entitled “Union or the Church made one,” but I have read the other production of its author, entitled “Mammon,” and think that there is great truth of principle in the work, and that, too, forcibly and impressively propounded.

I have been a great traveller this year, (as far as Sutherlandshire,) and been acting the part of a sturdy beggar in behalf of Church Extension. The sum realized in the course of my itinerancies has been about ^14,000. I am scarcely yet recovered from the exhaustion of these efforts, nor do I mean to repeat them. — With my best regards to Mr. Morton, and earnest prayers for the health, and more especially for the spiritual wellbeing, of one and all of the family, I ever am, my dearest Jane, yours very affectionately, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CLXXXI.

Edinburgh, loth December 1830.

MY DEAREST JANE, — I have not written you since the death of our poor brother James — a touching and most melancholy event — and of which I have already written to Helen, it having been my purpose to hold a special communication on the subject with each of the surviving family; but the bustle and agitation of our various affairs in this place have sadly retarded the execution of my purpose.

We are greatly too reserved on the matter that principally concerns us. There is an unaccountable delicacy in speaking to each other of the things of the soul. I did feel that sensitive repugnance in the case of poor James, though I occasionally dropped a hint or intimation in writing to him. Still I often had my compunctions on his account, and therefore you can imagine the interest and satisfaction which I felt in your daughter Anne’s letter, where she spoke of the confidence lie felt on his death-bed in the merits of the Saviour.

Let us all address ourselves to Him as the alone refuge and propitiation of sinners. We cannot surely trust Him too much; nor is there temerity or presumption in venturing our all upon so sure a foundation. Let us not fear that if our dependence be strong enough, we shall fail in our preparations for eternity; as the simpler and stronger our faith, the more fervent will be our love, the more abundant as well as affectionate will be our obedience.

I grieve to hear that you are unwell. Cling with full reliance to Him who knows how to save us; rejoice in the midst of tribulation; feel the peace and assurance of that blood which cleanseth from all sin.

Give my kindest regards to all — to Mr. Morton, Catherine, and all the family. Tell Anne how much I rejoiced in her letter, and that I shall always be delighted to hear from her. Mrs. Chalmers unites with me in all that is sympathizing and kind. — Yours most affectionately, No. CLXXXII.

Edinburgh, 23d February 1840.

MY DEAREST JANE, — I should have written much sooner, but could not, under the suspense and uncertainty of dear Alexander’s illness. God has been pleased to take him away from you; and in the death of that very fine engaging boy has given us another demonstration of the evanescence of a world, the best-loved objects of which are liable to be so suddenly and affectingly wrested from our grasp.

I rejoiced to hear from Mr. Morton that you were prepared for the decisive intelligence before he left home. Often have I thought of Mr. Wilberforce’s remark, that the faith of immortality gives a certain firmness of texture to the mind. Could we but realize our future and better world, it would lighten the effect of those calamities to which all flesh is heir in this earthly pilgrimage.

I was glad, though only for a moment, to see poor Elizabeth on the day of the funeral. We shall be anxious to hear how she and Mr. Morton got home.

I am heartily tired of public life, and long, if God be pleased to spare me for such an old age as my mother enjoyed, as if at the gate of Heaven, and with such a fund of inward peace and hope, as made her nine years’ widowhood a perfect feast and. foretaste of the blessedness that awaits the righteous. If I live I shall be sixty on the 17th of March, entering the seventh decade of my life. It has been a fond speculation of mine, would that it were realized, to make that decade a Sabbatical one bidding adieu to all official business, save that of my Professorship, and spending the remainder of my days in the studies and exercises of sacredness. It greatly enhances my desire for such a consummation, when I think of the bright and beautiful serene which sat pn the evening of my mother’s life. There are few things I should like better, during the currency of such a latter-day period, than the tranquil visit of two or three weeks to Chester Hill. But let us not dwell too confidently on these visions of the earthly future, but rather look forward to the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. — I remain, my dearest Jane, yours very affectionately, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CLXXXIII.

Edinburgh, 20th March 1840.

MY DEAREST JANE, — It gives me real gratification and thank fulness to observe the support which you experience from the hand of God under the heavy affliction that He has been pleased to lay upon you. He knows how to temper His own visitations; and how delightfully alleviating must be your recollection of those traits which mark a work of grace on the dear object of our regret and tenderness.

I have now entered on threescore, and desire to give up the remainder of my days on earth to a busy work of preparation for Heaven — a work of greatest difficulty, nay, impracticable, with out the aids of that Spirit who alone can help our infirmities, and perfect strength in weakness. — I ever am, my dearest Jane, yours most truly and affectionately, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CLXXXIV.

Burntisland, 26th June 1840.

MY DEAREST JANE, — I have not written you since poor Mr. M’Clellan’s death. I have exchanged letters with Mrs. M’Clellan, and I am glad to perceive that, though greatly distressed, she has been so well supported under the heavy visitation. Our friends and contemporaries are fast breaking up; and each new summons will, I trust, prove a useful as well as an affecting memento to us who are spared.

Our church matters are in sad confusion, owing to the faithlessness and want of real patriotism in public men. The Whigs used us shamefully; but this I very much laid my account with, and have therefore been still more chagrined and disappointed with the treatment of the Conservatives. I have heard that all is fair in politics, even as all is fair in horse-dealing. It is truly wretched, however, to think that the morality of public and parliamentary men should be on a level with the morality of a horse market.

I mean to retire from all public business, but I have some closing accounts to wind up, which may occupy some weeks yet.

With best regards to you and yours, I ever am, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CLXXXV.

Burntisland, 14<A July 1840.

MY DEAREST JANE, — I am much interested by what you tell me of the Ducie family; and knowing, as I do, Lady Denbigh, I should like to hear from you of her safety. She seemed to me a person of great sensibility, as well as of great intelligence and worth.

I am engaged with Mrs. Chalmers to be at Dunkeld on the day of their Sacrament, which takes place on the first of August. After our return thence, it is possible that we may have to go to Ireland; but this is not altogether determined. It seems we held out some hope to the Hannas of Belfast; but I do trust that we shall not miss the opportunity and great enjoyment of your society while in Scotland. I confess that, as a chield gets aulder, the force of the Scotch proverb that, “Bluid is thicker than water,” is felt with all the greater force by him.

I look back with the greatest interest on the history and character of both my parents, and particularly on the days of widowhood of my mother, who evinced a strength of Christian principle throughout, and a depth of peace and assurance, settled on the merits of the Saviour, which are not often equalled.

I mean to write Helen in a few days; and, meanwhile, with best regards to Mr. Morton, Catherine, Elizabeth, Anne, and all the rest of your family, in which Mrs. Chalmers joins, I am, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CLXXXVI.

Edinburgh, 23d November 1840.

MY DEAREST JANE, — I hope you would receive my last letter to you, which seems to have crossed your last letter to me. I did not advert to your being at Cheltenham till Helen here told me. She is in a quiet and complacent frame, and altogether I am much interested by her visit, as well as by the prospect of your being with us in spring. There is something affecting in the thought of a common gathering amongst the members of a once numerous family, recalling, as it were, their scattered forces, and meeting together once more ere time shall complete its work on the remaining few, by laying each one after another successively in the dust. — With earnest prayer for God’s best blessings on you and yours, I ever am, my very dear Jane, yours most affectionately, No. CLXXXVII.

St. Andrews, llth April 1841.

MY VERY DEAR JANE, — You will be surprised at the date of this letter; but I have come to repose here for a few days after the fatigues of the session, and the debilitating effects of my late influenza. I am the guest of Professor Duncan, still an inveterate, and, I fear, hopeless bachelor. By October next, we shall have been acquainted for fifty years, or half a century. I told him lately that when we were first acquainted we were “twa callants,” but that now we were “twa carls.” You can easily imagine the delight I enjoy in a visit to my own university, and under the roof of an hospitality as free and open and easy as that which obtains between two student lads.

I like Lady Denbigh. I greatly admired both her sense and her piety when I met her in Scotland. I have no wish, however, to be in London; but should I go, I should rejoice in availing myself of her very kind invitation, and also in coming round to you by the railroad.

Let me know particularly of Catherine. May the Giver of all that is good restore her to your wishes and prayers, yet prepare us for His own holy and righteous will, and so spiritualize our hearts, that their affections may be withdrawn from the world, the nearest and dearest objects of which can so speedily be withdrawn from us. — I ever am, my dearest Jane, yours very affectionately, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CLXXXVIII.

Surntisland, 13th May 1841.

MY VERY DEAR JANE, — The reason why I did not express the delight I shall feel on your visit to Scotland is, that I waited till I could express the still greater delight of a visit from you in our own house. When I last wrote, we were a family of invalids, with no less than four of us occupying each a separate apartment; but now I have reason to bless God that we are gradually getting better, and that we shall have accommodation both for you and Catherine, with a method of providing for Mr. Morton a most comfortable night-quarters in the town, when he comes to spend days with you. You we expect to have for weeks, or, still better, for months; and as sea-bathing, I understand, is good for Catherine, I can assure you that this is the best bathing-quarter I know anywhere, our house being a very small way from a beach of fine sand. Mrs. Chalmers joins me in the earnest expression of our joint wish that you will accede to this arrangement, and we shall manage to have Helen over too. I am sure you will admire the beauties of our scenery, and be charmed with the kindness of our small and simple society, made up chiefly of the Youngs, who are the mag nates of this place, and related to Mrs. Chalmers. Ourchildrei begin bathing in June, and will have great pleasure in joining Catherine.

I mean to be constantly at home all summer, spending it in quiet study, after having renounced all the bustle and publicity of other days. It is a favourite speculation of mine that, if spared to sixty, we then enter on the seventh decade of human life, and that this, if possible, should be turned into the Sabbath of our earthly pilgrimage, and spent Sabbatically, as if on the shore of an eternal world, or at the gate of the upper sanctuary, in the outer courts, as it were, of the temple that is above — the tabernacle in heaven. What enamours me all the more with this idea is, the beautiful retrospect of my mother’s widowhood, all of which she spent in spiritual enjoyments, and in deep re ligious peace. With her the season of final retirement from the world was a season of preparation and piety, and I can image nothing more impressive than my recollection of her dying scene. May we die the death of the righteous, may our latter end be like his. — With best regards to Mr. Morton, Catherine, Anne, Lucy, and the young gentlemen, in which Mrs. Chalmers joins, I ever am, my very dear Jane, yours most affectionately, No. CLXXXIX.

Burntisland, 30th August 1841.

MY DEAREST JANE, — I am grieved to find from your letter that Anne is so poorly. May she be speedily restored to health and strength; and above all, may God’s will be our will. It is good to be reminded of the precariousness of this world’s blessings; and surely it is high time for us in particular to be looking heavenward and homeward. There is not a better attitude, I believe, both for peace and holiness than a quiet resting in Christ as the Lord our righteousness.

Catherine left on Saturday with Mr. and Mrs. M’Clellan, and my brother Charles. She is now at Castlebank, and proposes to go to Wishaw and Skirling. She did not just take with the bathing, and it is thought that going about a little may be of service to her. I hope to see more of her here also, for Charles, now at leisure, can conduct her to us at any time. I have not seen enough of her, nor talked enough to her; and I cannot sufficiently lament the engrossments which have hitherto dispossessed better and higher themes, and restrained my converse on them with my nearest and dearest relatives more than it ought to have been. I have seen, however, as much of your Catherine as makes me like her very much, and think highly of her. She is indeed a great favourite with us all; and I do hope, that when she comes next, she will find me more disengaged, for we have been sadly bustled of late. May God give us grace and wisdom for being Christianly useful to each other in our journey through this wilderness of estrangement both from the light and love of heaven. Best regards to Mr. Morton and the girls, and particularly to dear Anne. All here unite in kind remembrances. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CXC.

Burntisland, 2Qt7i /September 1841.

MY DEAREST JANE, — I rejoice to hear of the betterness of Anne; and do hope that all these family trials and changes will issue in the spiritual wellbeing of us all. Would that we could make them subserve our discipline for eternity, one of the most essential preparations for which is delight in praising God — a higher acquirement, I do think, than even delight and devotedness in prayer. It is a great help, how ever, that in the exercise of praise we should not trust to the mere resources of our own meditation, but seek help in the Bible. And I have never, I think, approximated so much to the spirit of praise, as when reading, not in a cursory manner, but with intentness and fixedness of thought, on the subjects laid before us in the Psalms of David.

The archetypes of the real words in Scripture will serve us better than the conceptions which come at will or random into our minds, or when left to seek for them, without this aid, by dint of our own meditative energies alone.

I hope we shall begin to build in spring. If God be pleased to spare us, I shall be delighted to have a visit from you when we enter it. We are at present in the bustle of preparation for our departure to Edinburgh, whither we mean to go by the 9th of October. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, No. CXCI.

Edinburgh, 12th October 1841.

MY VERY DEAR JANE, — That is a very precious tract which you have sent me, and written, too, by one of superlative talent, though not overborne with the drudgeries and preparations of any great literary office. It is altogether like himself; and I confess that I like to see a vital and practical subject in the hands of such a man as Foster. It reminds me strongly of his Preface to Doddridge’s “Rise and Progress.”

Dear Catherine left us yesterday. She is a universal favourite among her Scotch relatives; and there is something to me most beautifully touching in the quiet, gentle, and unobtrusive style of her piety. May she be preserved a com fort to you in your declining years; and may one and all of your children rise around you and call you blessed. I rejoice to hear that Anne is mending so fast. May her and our souls prosper and be in health; and may we all make sure of the only thing worth minding, an interest in Christ, and access through Him to our reconciled Father in heaven.

I write sparsely you will observe. I am again sunk in arrears, and would really require to write with a rail-road speed by means of a fifty-horse power to get over my daily work, with six letters a- day to the bargain. — I ever am, my very dear Jane, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CXCII

Edinburgh, 31st December 1841.

MY DEAREST JANE, — I expected to write you at length du ing our holidays; but I staid in Edinburgh, and have found myself quite overborne by its senseless and ceremonious calls, so that I am forced to get through my twenty or thirty unanswered letters with as few sentences as possible; and for this purpose, I am now skulking in another house than my own.

We were out at Castlebank the other day at a great New-year’s festival; and I, as being now the patriarch of our im mediate relationship, give the New-year’s day dinner to-morrow. Yesterday I was at Duncan Cowan’s; and he, Alexander his brother, and I, formed the three carls of the party.

My best regards to all. What a rapid flow of years and seasons! May we learn wisdom, and find our way to Him who alone has the words, and who alone has the gift of life everlasting. — I ever am, my dearest Jane, yours most affectionately, No. CXCIII.

Edinburgh, 19th February 1842.

MY DEAREST JANE, — Your letter of the 8th of January has been long by me unanswered. I have been somewhat on the sick list, and more especially from want of sleep for several weeks now. Mrs. Chalmers and I went this day week to Castlebank in quest of sleep for me, and we returned yesterday.

I am rather better, though far from being perfectly restored to the use of my sleeping faculties.

I enjoyed my visit greatly; and when after tea and supper, the three matrons set them down by the fire-side to their respective stockings, I thought it quite in keeping with the quietness and domesticity of the scene.

We heard while at Castlebank, that Catherine and Anne had been in London. What a precious emollient amid all the varieties of human distress is the faith by which I trust that both of them are actuated. And what a mighty accession to the comfort and true wealth of a family when the gospel in its spirituality and power makes entry within its threshold, and operates as a leaven for good both within its own limits and in the vicinity around. I bethink me, when I write thus, of these excellent ones of the earth, Mrs. Heskine, Miss Bliss, and Mrs. General Blackwell, to all of whom I beg you will present my cordial and respectful acknowledgments.

My next birth-day is coming apace, when I shall have entered my sixty- third year. There is, upon that occasion, a general convergence towards our house of the immediate relationhood; and I look for the families both of Skirling and Dunkeld shortly.

May the Lord prepare us all for our last and greatest change. I have got hold just now of one of Owen’s little practical works, which greatly interests me. It is upon the respective dominions of sin and grace.

Give my best regards to one and all of your household. I hope John is enabled to prosecute his studies, though business, of course, must first be attended to, and full acquittal made of it. — I am, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, No. CXCIV.

Edinburgh, 17 ‘th March 1842.

MY VERY DEAR JANE, — I received yesternight your very affect ing letter, where, however, I can read of mercy mingled with judgment, and am truly glad to find that both you and dear Anne experimentally know what it is to rejoice in the midst of tribulations. There is an expression which I think was quoted by yourself in a letter of many years back, and which I think singularly applicable to the present state of suffering which God has been pleased to lay upon you both: it occurs in Deuteronomy xxxii. 36 — “For the Lord shall repent Himself for His servants, when He seeth that their power is gone,” He will have respect unto your weakness. It is not willingly that He afflicts you. He will cause that when you are weak, then you shall be strong — not, it may be, by the removal of the infirmity, but by making the power of Christ to rest upon you.

How delightful the attitude in which the pitying Saviour is represented to the eye of faith, as touched with a fellow-feeling — as having been Himself tried even as we are — and as able (and willing as He is able) to succour them who are so tried. I know not a more precious expression of His character, did we but realize it, than that used by the Apostle when he tells us of the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Let us cast on Him, then, both the burden of our sufferings and our cares, and He, not permitting us to be tempted beyond what we are able, will provide a way of escape, that we may be able to bear it. I feel much obliged by the effort you have made, under illness, to in form me of your state. Give my best regards to all under your roof, and may the visitation which has come upon poor Anne prove a blessing in disguise both to her and to the family.

I send a tract, written by a former student of mine, which I think among the best I have read, it lays down the Gospel

No. CXCV.

with such simplicity and freeness. I should like to know Mrs. Heskine’s opinion of it, for it is not always that our Scotch manufactures are adapted to the English taste. All here join in the most cordial and sympathizing regards to you. — Believe me ever, my dearest Jane, yours most truly and affectionately, Dunkeld, 28th April 1842.

MY VERY DEAR JANE, — I Lave written both Mrs. Chalmers and George on the melancholy event of Mr. Weakness death, which, though I never saw him, has interested and affected me not a little.

I have come here to recruit a little between the rising up of my class and the meeting of our General Assembly, and am greatly delighted with the beauty both of the weather and of the scenery.

I have assisted at Mr. Mackenzie’s sacrament, and been much pleased both with his ministrations and those of some of his auxiliaries — all my own students — and I cannot fail to be gratified by the very superior and more effective style of the pulpit services now than in our younger days. I am quite sensible that talent is but secondary to piety — that gifts are but secondary to graces in a minister of the Gospel, and I there fore am all the more thankful that, besides being men of power and high scholarship, very many of our young preachers are men of faith and prayer, who preside at fellowship meetings, and have been the instruments of great and promising revivals in various parts of Scotland. In short, amid all our troubles, we have great reason to thank God and rejoice when we look to the rising generation of preachers and young clergymen in our Church.

Mrs. Mackenzie was detained by bad health, and is still in

Edinburgh. We expect her, however, to-morrow (Friday.) Our main family anxiety at present is about our little grandson Tommy, at Skirling, who has fallen so unwell that Mrs. Chalmers, though in delicate health herself, has gone to Skirling, whence I wait for accounts, in which I am much interested.

Give my best regards to all your family, and more especially to Catherine and Anne — the nurse and the invalid — who, I trust and pray, will be sustained in their respective lots by Him who is a very present help in the time of trouble. I am sure that there is not a better medicine for the soul than direct intercourse with Himself by prayer. To His care and keeping would I commit you and yours; and may He verify on you all His own blessed declaration, that He will make all things work together for good to those who love God.

I am delighted with the acceptance of the tract I sent you. It is the composition of another of my students, Mr. Bonar of Kelso. — Ever believe me, my dearest Jane, yours most truly, No. CXCVT.

Bosstrcvor, 30th July 1842.

MY VERY DEAR JANE, — The danger of my present situation is not of being spoiled, in the common sense of that term, but of being soured and irritated by the turmoil of those manifold calls, and invitations, and urgencies wherewith I am continually beset, and by which all rest and freedom are denied to me. I make my escape from this in a few days, leaving my family for a week or two. Whatever the lionizers may imagine, there is great discomfort brought upon the lion, who has nothing for it but just to run off in the hope that both his lioness and her cubs may be permitted the enjoyment of some comparative repose.

And yet the kindness of the people here is truly of a most genuine and heartfelt description. What inspires me with this conviction is, that there is so much of real Christianity amongst them. Lady LifFord — a very excellent and devoted person — comes here occasionally for summer-quarters. She is not here at present, but she has been a leaven for good in the neighbourhood, and the savour of her example seems to have told on the vicinity, where I have not met with a greater number of families, within the same compass, in any mere country place, more ready to entertain, and that with obviously congenial feeling, the best and highest of all topics. I have refused all their dinner invitations, but go out in the evenings, which generally conclude with the exposition of Scripture and prayer. — I ever am, my dearest Jane, yours with greatest affection, No. CXCVII.

Edinburgh, BQtk November 1842.

MY DEAREST JANE, — I have just time to say, that our Convocation has done nobly, and that 400 good ministers are ready to cut connexion with the Establishment, should no relief from the effect of the decisions on the case of Auchterarder be granted to the Church. — I ever am, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, No. CXCVIII.

Edinburgh, 31*« December 1842.

MY VERY DEAR JANE, — I was myself very much affected by the death of Lady Denbigh, yet do not feel that I have a sufficient opening for a letter to his Lordship. I quite agree with you in thinking of her as about the most amiable and estimable and withal intelligent Christian I had ever met with.

I very much regret to hear of Anne’s continued illness, while Catherine’s slight relief is matter of thankfulness, though I hear from other notes later than yours, that she has again relapsed.

I very much sympathize with you in all these family visitations, and pray that the sweetening and sustaining influences of the Christian faith maybe so with you as that you shall be enabled to rejoice in the midst of tribulations.

I enjoy Morningside, and on no account more than that the society is of a so much more local and domestic character. “We had a Christmas dinner from Helen on Monday, with all the relations and parish ministers. Yesternight we had our cakes at Charles’s house with the Cowans and others; and to me, as patriarch now of the whole concern, belongs the New-year’s dinner on Monday, when the whole of the relationhood are asked, and the parish minister with his new married wife is to come, and Patrick from Wishaw. now at Merchiston, stops to take part in it. — I remain, my dearest Jane, yours most affectionately, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CXCIX.

Edinburgh, “29th January 1843.

MY VERY DEAR JANE, — I received your last some time ago,

/ and after that a very beautiful letter from your Anne, which

; gives me a view of her mind, for which her friends cannot be

sufficiently thankful. There is no such accession of riches to a

family as that which is brought to it by the conversion of one

of its members to God. May you and yours abound more and

more in these spiritual treasures. I can truly say that, if

clearly confident of all under my roof being in a state of grace,

I should feel and rejoice in it as a nobler inheritance than all

which this vain and transitory world can bestow.

We have all been much affected by poor Miss Edie’s death — a most gentle and amiable creature, and latterly, a most spiritual and decided Christian. The last message to my daughter Eliza at Dunk eld was, that “to die is gain.” The death took place at Dundee.

I beg to offer you my very cordial and sincere congratulations on the prospects of dear Elizabeth, upon which I shall not expatiate at present, as I mean, if God will, to write herself soon upon the subject. — Ever believe me, my very dear Jane, yours most affectionately and truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CC.

Edinburgh, 9th April 1843.

MY VERY DEAR JANE, — We have at length got into our new house, and within these few days I have given up my class. But another heavy work has been laid on me, that of Convener to the Financial Committee of our Free Church, so that I must still claim the privilege of an engrossed man, and will not be able to write so fully or frequently as otherwise.

It should be very solemnizing when one reflects on the nearing of death and eternity. I am as old now as my father was when I was ordained the minister of Kilmany. Let us be awake to the realities before us and above us. I feel more and more the fundamental and all-pervading importance of faith. Let us take God at his word, and we shall believe that Christ’s blood washeth from all sin; and that He hath made Him sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. With confidence in these sayings, we shall not only have peace and joy, but all the principles within us of new obedience. The benefit of the sacrifice and the gift of the Spirit are inseparable.

My kindest regards to Mr. Morton and your family, especially the invalids. Mrs. Chalmers has been very ill of late, but is mending slowly. — I ever am, my dearest Jane, yours most affectionately, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CGI.

Edinburgh, 14th June 1843.

MY VERY DEAR JANE, — You would have been struck with the contrast presented by our out-going clergy between their anxious and wo-begone aspect before they had taken their decision, and their perfect relief and light-heart edness after it. Never was there a happier assembly, with a happier collection of faces, than in our Free Church, with consciences disburdened, and casting themselves without care, and all the confidence of children, on the Providence of that God who never forsakes the families of the faithful.

I am delighted to think that my daughterhood are so heroical on the subject. Rather than surrender the Christian liberties of our Church, they would live all their days on doses of porridge, and scud berrfit on the green of Burntisland. There’s a specimen of our Scotch lasses! If the evangelicals of the English Church had but a tenth-part of their pluck and hardihood, they would either clear their Establishment of its Puseyism, or scatter so corrupt a hierarchy to the winds — I ever am, my dearest Jane, yours very truly,

THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. COIL

Edinburgh, 24th December 1843.

MY VERY DEAR JANE, — I grieve to hear of your and Anne’s continued illness. But a realizing sense of the Gospel and of its precious comforts will make up for all. I have been reading lately, and with the greatest interest, certain books on the Assurance of Faith, which are full of comfort. They give substantially the same doctrine with Hervey in his “Theron and Aspasio,” and “Marshall on Sanctification,” — great favourites, both of them, if you recollect, with my father. John Newton also is very much in the same spirit, and so are Boston, and Colquhoun, and Romaine. Their great lesson is,.j to come unto Christ as we are, instead of waiting for qualifications to come, which, separate from Him, we never can arrive at.l The proper guard against all abuse of this doctrine is, that, when we do come, it should be for a whole salvation, for strength as well as pardon, for holiness as well as reconciliation 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 holiness.

But the great security for our being right is, that we draw direct from the Bible. May you and yours have the full enjoyment of its exceeding great and precious promises. What a precious chapter the 4th 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. CCIII.

Edinburgh, 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 preparing our young men for the Established Church. I am obliged to teach two classes, and the whole number of my enrolment 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 situation 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 closing verses from the 29th to the end of the 6th 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 criminal 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 who 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 needful 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, Anne, 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

I 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?” I have mislaid my copy, else I should have sent it to you. It makes so patent the perfect freeness and simplicity 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 — interposing 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, lllh November 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.

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 January 1845.

MY DEAREST JANE, — I have deferred too long my reply to yours of the 22d November. Let me now send you the remembrances 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 obstinacy 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 know how she is. May the repeated intimations of the precariousness of all earthly comforts lead us to set our affections, 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 very confirming, though I hold as of first importance a Bible reading, 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, ±th May 1845.

MY DEAREST JANE, — This is a very sad and sorrowful bereavement. Death, though long looked for, is always sure to strike and to solemnize at the last; and what an enhancement 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 character, 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 persuaded that she slept in Jesus, and so has added one attraction 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 worketh repentance unto salvation never to be repented of.

I have often spoken of it as a signal instance of God’s forbearance 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-suffering of God; but watching over the souls of those for whom I have to account, let us henceforth, both for them and for ourselves, labour to realize an interest in Him who alone hath the words, and who alone hath the gift of life everlasting.

This sad event has saddened and solemnized all the relationship 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 every 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.

Edinburgh, 19^ 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 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 we live a life of faith 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 Church 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 with Mrs. Watson, who came down from Leuchars on purpose to be with me; and we indulged together in the affecting reminiscences 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 regards to all, and ever believe me, my dearest Jane, yours very truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

[Captain Rankine of Barnsmuir had three daughters: the eldest, Christian, 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.]