Letters to the Rev. Dr. Macfarlan of Greenock
St. Andrews, 15th April 1824.
MY VERY DEAR SIR, — I cannot resist the impulse of my present joy and gratitude on the receipt of a letter from Glasgow this morning, by which I am led to cherish the pleasing and delightful hope that you may be minister of St. John’s.
Just now I am in a perfect hurricane of business, preparing for our public examinations, and I shall just therefore say, for your encouragement, that I stake my whole credit on your finding it the easiest and most manageable city parish in Scotland, and that what many deem the bugbears are indeed the facilities of the parish. I shall be most happy, my dear Sir, to enter with you upon any details that you may require of me, and at present I can do no more than bless the Providence that has evolved itself in a way so gracious. — Do believe me, my dear Sir, yours most affectionately and truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCXXXIII.
St. Andrews, &7i September 1824.
MY DEAR SIR, — I most honestly rejoice at the pleasure you feel in your situation. I think that you will find this much enhanced by your parochial visitations, in which exercise I had always more satisfaction than in any other which belonged to the office.
As to my Sacrament examinations, I requested from the pulpit that all who intended to communicate for the first time should meet me in the vestry at one particular hour — say ten P.M. upon a Tuesday. I had previously marked on little slips of paper “half-past ten,” “eleven,” “half-past eleven,” &c., which I dealt out to those assembled individually; and upon which each came back to me at his own specified time that forenoon — and this afforded me half-an-hour’s conversation with each. The length of this exercise to myself depended on the number who came forward; and if that number was too great, I gave slips of paper for the next day (Wednesday) at “ten,” “half-past ten,” “eleven,” &c., marking Wednesday, however, to separate them from the catechumens of Tuesday. I thus, sometimes in one, and at most in two forenoons, got over the main burden of my Sacramental examinations. If any did not satisfy me, I prescribed chapters of the Bible for their reading, and assigned the time when they should call upon me in my own house for further conversation. I must say, however, and
I was surprised at the discovery, (for which, however, a satisfactory cause may be assigned,) that I found the candidates for the Lord’s Table in Glasgow, generally speaking, to be much better prepared than those in Kilmany.
Besides all this, I, on the recommendation, and according to the practice of Dr. M’Grill, convened all whom I resolved to admit as communicants in the vestry at three, P.M., on the Wednesday previous to the Fast-day, when I gave them an address in cumulo, and then distributed to them their tokens and a certificate that I had that day admitted them to be communicants. It was generally in the interval between the separate conversations and this meeting that each got a testimonial from the proper elder, and shewed it before I gave the token. At the end of each separate conversation I gave to the individual on a slip of paper the day and hour of this general address as a memorandum.
Let me entreat that you will neither be over-fatigued by your visitations nor overwhelmed by your sacramental work. I shall be most happy at all times to furnish any details that may be required of me. — I am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, No. CCXXXIV.
.Edinburgh, 21st December 1842.
MY DEAR SIR, — I have seen Dr. Abercrombie, and attempted to rectify and undeceive him as to my desire of hastening or precipitating the crisis. The truth is, that the success of my attempts is directly fitted to avert a crisis if anything will. Will you look at Regulation Seventh of the enclosed? and I trust you will allow the right middle way is to be provisionally in readiness for the worst. I also send the copy of a subscription paper, which is also provisional. Such an attitude of preparation as I long and labour for would place the Church on right vantage-ground for negotiating with Government on the footing of an independent party. Whether with or without a general meeting of your congregation an association, whether congregational or parochial, could be easily got up anywhere. Our association at Morningside yields already at the rate of £250 a year. Oh, when will men know how to discriminate between what is an imaginative picture, and what a sober and practical reality! — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours most truly, No. CCXXXV.
Edinburgh, 4tk August 1845.
Mr DEAR SIR, — I now sit down to give you my reasons why I cannot attend the Assembly at Inverness. They may be summed up in two: —
First, There is something more than personal inclination on my part; there is a positive feeling of duty that has resolved me henceforth to live the life of a student. For this purpose I have already signified by a formal act, my retirement from the public business of the Church. It were a rescinding of that Act and the exposure of myself again to other and future applications should I go to Inverness. It is not the time taken up with that solitary movement, but it is the struggle that I should have with subsequent applications which I am most anxious to save. And meanwhile I issue these refusals with a clear conscience; for truly it is a higher department to have to do with the understandings and consciences of my students, than to wear out any more of my life in the outward business of the house of God. But,
Secondly, That business is infinitely better done by the timely retirement of the veterans from the stage, and the con sequent calling up of younger and stronger men. I am fortified in this idea by two very recent examples. I was urged to be a member of the last Assembly, and such was the overweening importance attached to this by some, that they absurdly anticipated a decay of interest in the Assembly should I not be there. Now, I put it to yourself — Do you ever recollect an Assembly the proceedings of which were conducted in a finer spirit, and with higher ability, and with greater effect upon the public mind? Again, Mr. Guthrie applied to me to launch the Manse Scheme at the first meeting about it which he held in Glasgow. This also I resisted; and is not that scheme progressing at a rate most encouraging to all the friends of the Church? I perfectly agree with you in thinking, that the Assembly of Inverness, now that it is determined on, should be made as impressive as possible, so that the larger the confluence to it from all parts the better. This I am urging upon all my acquaintances who should and can go, whether they are members or not. But for myself, it is out of the question. Will you forgive me if I state an illustration which has occurred to me in connexion with this subject? To parade me onward to Inverness appears to me as ludicrous as to parade thitherward a congeries of old bones; for it strongly reminds me of the delusion under which Cobbett laboured when he brought Tom Paine’s bones from America, and carried them through England, in the hope that they would operate as a charm in every neighbourhood wherever he presented them. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours most truly, No. CCXXXVI.
Edinburgh, 7th August 1 845.
MY DEAR SIR, — Our two last letters crossed each other. In regard to my going to Inverness for the purpose of an address on the Sustentation Fund, I beg to submit the two following considerations: —
In the first place, it lias been my uniform experience that the Associations have remained as sluggish and lethargic after such an address as previous to its delivery. Witness my Assembly’s address at Glasgow, and my more recent addresses there, since which time the Associations just yield as little as ever. The only way of advancing the Sustentation Fund is by an agency who might severally deal with each of the localities piecemeal and at close quarters. I did no sensible good by a series of at least twenty public addresses in the north of Scotland. All the good I have done is by correspondence or personal converse, either in my own person or the persons of the agents whom I employed.
But 2c%, My feelings and principles on the subject are well known, and more especially my strong dissatisfaction with a number of the Highland ministers and congregations. On the other hand, they do not at all sympathize with me in my sense of the religious importance of this subject. They call it secular, and seem to speak as if my confidence was placed in carnal weapons. This was the feeling, I afterwards heard, of the men whom I dealt with at Arran, and I believe it to be a pretty general feeling in the north. Now, put these two considerations together; first, my general experience of the uselessness of these addresses; and secondly, my special experience of the positive dislike to the subject in the north; and then I ask you to conceive with what utter heartlessness, or rather with what inward recoil of spirit I behoved to go to Inverness, there to obtrude an unpalatable subject upon an unwilling auditory. — I who am not a member and would be felt by many as a most unwelcome interloper, were I to go upon such an errand. Nothing, my dear Sir, could force a way through such a barrier but a special invitation from the Assembly where they have met, and this too at the instance of twenty, thirty, or forty Highland ministers themselves; after which, and when they had put the censorial staff into my hand, I should feel at freedom to wield it with all faithfulness, though at the same time I hope with all delicacy. But be assured that there are paragraphs in your closing address to the last Assembly which will do infinitely more good to the Sustentation Fund than all I could hope to do by going to Inverness. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours most truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.