Letters to Various Correspondents, Nos. 237–257

No. CCXXXVII. — IN REPLY TO A LETTER REQUESTING SOME DIRECTIONS ON THE SUBJECT OF PRACTICAL CHARITY.

Glasgow, Qth November 1821.

MY DEAR SIR, — I received a letter some clays ago from the person who signs himself “Christianus,” and with which I would have been still more gratified had he subscribed his real name.

I think that the best school for benevolence is a limited district, which it is competent for any individual to assume as the field in which he chooses to exercise his philanthropy. I would take one of the poorest vicinities in the whole town, and measure off for myself a population of, say fifty or a hundred families, and the topic of introduction I should choose would not be an inquiry into their temporal necessities, (for this might call forth a reaction most appalling to the adventurer, and most corrupting to the people whom he means to benefit,) but rather an inquiry into the state of health and the education of the young; or the accommodation that there is with respect to schools and churches; or something, in short, that would begin your acquaintance with the people, without exciting any sordid or mercenary expectation. You will not find it so formidable an affair to secure a welcome from the families, among whom you may reiterate as often as you will on the same topics, but never in the ostensible capacity of an almoner, assuming always the higher capacity of a friend to their chil dren, and a zealous advocate or promoter of all that can conduce to the improvement of principle and moral habits among the population. In this way they will not obtrude their necessities so readily upon you; while you, on the other hand, when their necessities in any particular way force themselves upon your observation, may secretly and without the knowledge of others relieve them. You will thus find the work of charity a very quiet and manageable process; for, in truth, there won’t be half a dozen families among the hundred who will stand in real need of your money; while, perhaps, one-half of the whole would have been the sordid expectants of your generosity had you injudiciously announced yourself as the general almoner of the district that you had assumed.

Meanwhile, ply all the families with kind and moral attentions, stimulate education, recommend cleanliness, encourage church-going habits. Be not too obtrusive with your money; let the people pay for all themselves as much as possible, and, at the same time, shew that you grudge no expense that would serve their best interests by being generous in every case of unquestionable distress; by setting up, if you will, a little library in the district, to which, however, there ought to be small quarterly payments on the part of the people themselves. Set up a local Savings’ Bank if you think it would promote frugality, and study by all possible means to make the people thrive — not so much by any imparted liberality on your part, as thrive by teaching them the power of their own resources and their own capabilities.

I have not nearly exhausted this favourite subject; but I send you to the best school when I send you to the school of your own experience. Blunders, and failures, and discouragements are unavoidable; but you are in the best place for profiting by these, when you confine yourself to a local territory, where you are ever growing in acquaintanceship and mutual regard with the people, than when you throw yourself at large over a boundless field. Mr. John Campbell, Tertius, W.S., has done the very same thing that I now recommend to you, and if you are disposed to consult him, he is qualified to supplement the deficiencies of my present communication. — Yours truly, No. CCXXXVIIL — To A FRIEND.

St. Andrews, 13th November 1825.

MY VERY DEAR SIR, — I have no peculiar mode of addressing the Gospel to any one class of human creatures. It is a wide and general proclamation of mercy to all, and whatever the age or condition of the sinner, still he is welcome to Christ; and coming unto Him he shall in no wise be cast out. All are warranted to approach, even with boldness, to that throne of grace where they shall receive both mercy to pardon and grace to help in every time of need.

It is a wonderful plea that the Psalmist urges for pardon, “Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.” That greatness of transgression, which would preclude the hope of forgiveness from an earthly superior whom we had offended, is the very argument which we are encouraged to make use of in praying for pardon from Him, whose thoughts are not as our thoughts, and whose ways are not as our ways. May you, my dear Sir, and all with whom you are connected, have great peace and joy in thus believing; and sure I am, that when Gospel peace enters, Gospel holiness will follow in its train. Have you read Romaine’s “Treatises on Faith?” — they are very precious. — Believe me, my dear Sir, yours truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCXXXIX. — ON MAN’S RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS BELIEF.

St. Andrews, 15th March 1826.

MY DEAR MADAM, — Lord Byron’s assertion, “that man is not responsible for his belief,” — an assertion repeated by Mr. Brougham and others — seems to have proceeded from the imagination that belief is in no cases voluntary. Now, it is very true that we are only responsible for what is voluntary, and it is also true that we cannot believe without evidence. But then it is a very possible thing that a doctrine may possess the most abundant evidence, and yet not be believed, just be cause we choose to shut our eyes against it; and our unbelief in this case is owing not to the want of evidence, but to the evidence not being attended to. Grant that belief is not a voluntary act, it is quite enough for the refutation of Mr. Brougham’s principle, if attention be a voluntary act. One attends to a subject because he so chooses, or he does not attend because he so chooses. It is the fact of the attention being given or withheld which forms the thing that is to be morally reckoned with. And if the attention has been withheld when it ought to have been given, for this we are the subjects of a rightful condemnation.

It is enough to make unbelief a thing of choice and a thing of affection, that we have power over the direction of our noticing and investigating faculties. You are not to blame if you have not found some valuable article that you had lost in an apartment of thickest darkness; but you are to blame if you might have opened the shutters or lighted a candle, so as to have admitted enough of light for the discovery. Neither are you to blame if you find not the hidden treasure of the Gospel, provided that it is placed beyond the reach of all your strenuousness, and of every expedient that can be used for its discovery; but you are to blame if you have not gone in quest of it, or if you have wilfully and determinedly shut your eyes against it, or if you have not stirred up those powers of your mind over which the mind has a voluntary control to the inquiry after it. The Discerner of the heart will see where the lurking perversity lies, and make it manifest of all who remain in darkness, that they loved the darkness — of all who have not come to Christ, that they were not willing to come.

Christianity lays no unreasonable service on men, and far less that service which were most unreasonable of all — the homage of your belief without offering such evidence as, if attended to, will constrain the belief. Our religion has its proofs, and it also has its probabilities. Its proofs can only be gotten at by patient and laborious inquiry, and when they are so gotten at they carry the belief along with them. Its probabilities again may, some of them, be seen at first sight, and though not enough to compel our belief, yet they form a sufficient claim upon our attention. They form that sort of precognition which entitles Christianity, at least, to a fair and full trial, and, if not worthy all at once of a place in our creed, it is worthy of a further hearing. Now, all I want is, that that hearing shall be given, that the evidences of Christianity shall be studied, that the Bible shall be read with patience, and prayer, and moral earnestness, and on the principle that he who seeketh findeth, I have no apprehension of such a course not terminating in a full and stedfast conviction that the Bible is an authentic message from heaven to earth, and contains in it the record of God’s will for man’s salvation. — I am, my dear Madam, yours most truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCXL. — DIRECTIONS TO AN ANXIOUS INQUIRER.

St. Andrews, February 1826.

DEAR MADAM, — I have been asked by Miss to write you

on the subject of certain difficulties to which I believe almost eveiy inquirer into the way of salvation is subjected. It is very possible that aught I can say may not produce an immediate impression on your mind, for I have often experienced the very great tenacity wherewith the obstacles to a free and full reception of the Gospel stand their ground in the mind of many a labouring seeker after truth; but it is a great thing that you are in earnest if you are not at rest; and in the meanwhile it is the part of every true friend you have to state to his uttermost ability such considerations as might, with the blessing of God, be helpful to your progress.

I would first, then, say to you, that you are not to wait till you have mourned enough for sin ere you accept the Saviour. You complain that you have not such deep views of sin as experienced Christians speak of; but how did they acquire them? they are the fruits of their experience in Christ, and not of their experience out of Christ. They had them not before their union with the Saviour. It was on more slender conceptions of the evil of sin than they now have that they went to Christ, that they closed with Him, and that they received from His sanctifying hand a more contrite spirit than before — a more tender conscience than before. Do as they did; wait not till you have gotten their deep sensibilities till you go to the Saviour. Go to Him now; go to Him with your present insensibility; bring it before Him as part of your disease, and He, the Physician of souls, will minister to this and all other diseases. But, generally, you complain that you are ignorant of how to go — how to believe. Now, this has long been a stumbling-block to many; their thoughts are how they are to believe, when their thoughts should be what they should believe. They look inwardly for the work of faith, when they should look outwardly for the object of faith. “For every one thought,” says Richard Baxter, “that he casts downwardly upon himself, he should cast ten upwardly and outwardly upon Jesus, and upon the glorious truths of the Gospel.” You say that you have no doubts of the freeness of Christ’s salvation, and of His willingness to save you. Dwell upon this; persist in this; stand in the Gospel attitude of looking upon Jesus, and light will at length arise within you. In the act of looking, you may have to wait a longer or a shorter time for your coming enlargement; but surely it is worth the waiting for. Meanwhile your business is prayer; a diligent attention in the ordinances of religion; reading of God’s Word; and, above all, a keeping of the sayings of Christ: “He that keepeth my sayings, to him will I manifest myself,” Be assured you are in good hands, even in the hands of Him who will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax. — Believe me to be, dear Madam, yours truly, No. CCXLL — To THE COUNTESS OF D. A LETTER OF

CHRISTIAN ENCOURAGEMENT.*

MY DEAR COUNTESS, — It is my earnest prayer to God that your superintendence of the Sabbath School, established in the very interesting district in which you reside, may be abundantly blessed, and that it may be productive of lasting benefit to its sequestered inhabitants; that a religious population may arise around you; and that God, by His Spirit, may carry home the lessons of His Word to all to whom they are administered.

When one thinks of the certainty of approaching death, and the greatness of the coming eternity, one cannot but think that the only important history which is going on in the world is the unseen history of human souls; nor do I know a more interesting event than that of a heart alienated from God, and labouring under a distaste for the method of salvation by the Cross, when it becomes at length reconciled to all the peculiarities of the Gospel, and is called out of darkness into God’s marvellous light. In these institutions of Sabbath Schools there is always, * Communicated by the Rev. T. Grinfield, Clifton.

indeed, a secondary advantage to be derived from the acquirement of those habits of regularity, and subordination, and all those minor accomplishments which conduce to the formation of good subjects and good members of society; and when education is received in subserviency to those temporal blessings, it is no doubt of considerable temporal advantage, and must be so considered even by those who have no taste for religion, and take no concern for the high matters and interests of eternity. But really when we look to the insignificance of the present scene, and read believingly the Bible, and there learn the lesson of what a wretched being man is by nature; and when we are made to understand that there is only one way of recovery, and to consider how great and how radical a change must take place in our hearts ere we can be admitted into the kingdom of Heaven, and that we must submit with the docility of a little child to these sayings, that “through faith in the blood of Christ we are justified, and through the washing of regeneration we are sanctified;” — when these views open in their significancy and magnitude upon the understanding, then a mightier object will be seen connected with a Sabbath School. It will be valued chiefly on spiritual and sacred grounds, and the main anxiety will be, that they who repair for Scriptural education shall become wise unto salvation through the faith that is in Christ Jesus. Now, to fulfil this higher object, it is necessary that every higher expedient should be resorted to; that the children should be spoken to with affectionate concern by their teacher, that he should add to his admonition the force of his example; that parents should warmly co-operate in the great object, and add all the force of their example and admonitions; that unanimity should prevail amongst all connected with it; and that the prayers of intercession should frequently be lifted up for the prosperity of a cause so righteous. It is my earnest and real desire that all the inhabitants of your place may experience in rich and satisfying abundance the comforts of the Christian faith, and may grow every day in the graces of Christian obedience. It is, indeed, a wondrous silence which immortal beings observe in their intercourse with each other on the most urgent and greatest of all topics, that of their souls; and I sometimes think how they will look to each other, and upbraid each other, should they meet on the same common ground of condemnation on the great day of reckoning. Be lieve me, I feel nothing but the prompting of anxiety and tenderness when I entreat my fellow-Christians to persevere in a course of earnest and laborious striving for the kingdom of Heaven. The Gospel invitation is free, but the Gospel requirement is strict: there is a change of heart demanded, as well as a change of external conduct. But, oh how delightful that the prayer of faith maketh all things possible, and that, though we begin in darkness, and helplessness, and error, if we follow the Saviour, He will shew unto us the light of life. — Yours very truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

[3d April 1852. — DEAR SIR, — My daughter tells me that you wish to know the date of the letter I had the pleasure of receiving from the venerated Dr. Chalmers. I cannot say exactly, but I think it was about the year 1834, or 1835, or 1836. It was on the occasion of a discussion I had with some clergymen of the Church of Geneva, about the Divinity of our blessed Saviour. I cited Dr. Chalmers, as the head of the Presbyterian Church, consequently Mr. M.’s chief, as being peculiarly opposed to a heresy which, I think, tends to subvert the foundations of Christianity, and I took the liberty of writing to the great and good man himself, to confirm the truth of the opinion which I had ventured to assert as being his. — I am, my dear Sir, your obedient servant, CATHERINE OSBORNE.

The Rev. W. Hanna.]

No. CCXLII.

MY DEAR LADY OSBORNE, — You must forgive rny writing in another hand, as I am very much over- worked. And I hope to be further excused if I do not go into the subject of your letter at any great length.

It appears to me that there are two grounds upon which an error in Theology might be fatal: — first, the error might be so opposed to the clearest light of scriptural evidence as to imply the utmost moral unfairness in the examination of holy writ, or a hard rejection of the Divine testimony. With my views of what I hold to be the obvious sense of the Word of God, I could not be an Arian without incurring this delinquency. The second ground on which an error in theology might be fatal is, the great moral and practical importance of the doctrine which is either vitiated or disowned. I could not renounce my opinion of the divinity of Christ, without at the same time renouncing what I at present regard as the most essential and characteristic principle of the gospel. Dilute this article of Christianity, and you in the same proportion dilute other articles of the faith, — no less vital and fundamental than itself, — as the value of the Atonement, the depth of the enormity of the guilt that calls for Divine expiation, the need of a regenerating influence from on high, the unchangeableness and authority of Heaven’s law, and the dignity of its moral government. Those are the great elements of the Christian system; but by detaching the sentiment of Christ’s divinity, we should take all the force and the spirit from them.

This doctrine strengthens and impregnates the whole of practical Christianity; and whether it be the trust, or the gratitude, or the obedience of the gospel we are urging, they can only be urged with effect along with the belief that Jesus Christ, the author and the finisher of the faith, is absolutely and from eternity God. The first chapter of Revelation, the beginning of the Gospel of John, Romans ix. 5, 1 John v. 20, Philippians ii. o, 8, and the first chapter to the Hebrews, appear to me the most decisive passages of the New Testament in favour of the godhead of Christ: and the Old Testament appears to be the more impressive and convincing the longer I attend to it; for this let me refer you to the sixth of Isaiah, quoted in John’s gospel, and applied by him to the Saviour; Isaiah viii. 13, 14, quoted in the same manner by Paul in the Epistle to the Romans; Isaiah ix. 5, 6; Jeremiah xxiii. 5, 6, where the Lord our righteousness is Jehovah; Micah v. 2; Zechariah xiii. 7; Malachi iii. 1. I entreat you to excuse the brevity and the imperfection of these hurried statements. The subject on which you have called me to express myself is fitted for an elaborate dissertation; and nothing like adequate justice can be done to it within the compass of a letter, written in great feebleness and amid manifold engagements. — I have the honour to be, &c., THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCXLIIL — To HIS ELDEST DAUGHTER, ON PARTAKING FOR THE

FIRST TIME OF THE SACRAMENT OF THE LORD’S SUPPER.

Early Vale, 23(7 October 1832.

MY DEAR ANNE, — Though I have as yet said little to you about the Sacrament, it is not that I do not feel, and feel deeply, the importance of the step which you are about to take. I have long and earnestly regretted that the solemn urgency of my occupations should have left me so little time and so little strength for attending to my family, and more especially to that highest interest of all, the state of their religion, impressed as I am both by the weight and importance of the obligation, and also by the solemn responsibility which the Apostle lays upon ministers for the souls of their people, though surely not more solemn than the responsibility of parents for their children, who ought therefore to watch for their souls as they who must give account

I hope that I may have much free conversation with you both respecting the Sacrament, on the Fast-day preceding it on Thursday. But meanwhile I should like you to ponder the following considerations bearing upon the subject: —

1. You should not look on your past sinfulness as any barrier in the way of approaching the Lord’s table; and you can not too soon or too confidently overpass this barrier by believing thoughts of that blood which was shed for the sins of the world — of that propitiation to which one and all are invited to look for their acceptance with God.

2. Neither should you look on your own impotency for acceptable obedience as any barrier; and you cannot too soon or too confidently overpass this barrier by believing thoughts of the all-sufficiency and strength of that Spirit who is freely given to those who ask, and more especially to those who, fleeing for refuge to Jesus Christ the Master of the great solemnity in which you are to join, lift up their supplications for aid and ability to do the will of Grod in His all-prevailing name.

3. If you have faith in the two great truths which I have now specified, this will encourage you to go forward to the table of the Sacrament; and yet instead of putting the question to yourself, Have I faith in these truths ? — I would rather that you dwelt on the contemplation of the truths themselves. It is by thinking directly of the truths, and not by thinking reflexly on what the state of your own mind is in regard to them, that you come to a right decision and establishment of purpose on this subject.

4. But there is one most important subject of self-examination on which I would make the whole question of this sacramental observance to turn. I would never stir a doubt as to the efficacy of Christ’s blood, or your own welcome to the participation of its benefits; and neither would I stir a doubt as to the readiness of the Spirit to perfect strength in your weakness. But there may be a doubt, and this I would have you to clear up, on the state of your own will and your own purposes. Are you willing to be all and to do all that God would have you? Is it your purpose, in singleness of heart, to be His only and His altogether? Are you honestly desirous of making yourself over wholly unto Him, or, in other words, of submitting yourself entirely to God? These I hold to be the proper questions for putting to your conscience on the present occasion. When thus employed, you are counting the cost of the Christian profession ere you enter upon it; and great, I promise, will be your peace and joy, sure will be your progressive holiness, if in good faith and with firm integrity you resolve henceforward, and with reliance on the Divine grace, to be not almost, but altogether a Christian.

I bid you both recollect not merely the momentous personal interest which each of you has in this great concern, but the immense benefit of your Christian example to the younger children. May this prove, then, a decisive step in the history of your lives — a sure step to that heaven for which it is our highest interest as well as highest duty to prepare. — I ever am, my dear Anne, yours most truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCXLIV. — To MASTER J. MORTON *

Edinburgh, 21st March 1832.

MY DEAR JOHN, — I would have given this letter partly to you and partly to your mamma, making it in that way a proper counterpart reply to the communication from Chesterhill of March 8th; but I feel that I cannot do justice to your very interesting epistle without devoting the whole of this sheet to it. I allude more particularly to your desire that I should tell you something of religion — that highest and most important of all subjects.

The only advice I shall give you at present will be a general,

* Eldest son of his sister Mrs. Morton.

but I have no doubt that if followed it will prove a very effective one. The Bible is able to make you wise unto salvation. I do not want to overtask you with the reading of it, but it is right you should read it by little and little, and that frequently. And I would, therefore, first recommend that you should peruse so much of it every day, and bring to the exercise all the attention and all the understanding you are able to do.

But, again, the Bible itself tells us that no man can understand or feel it aright by the mere natural and unassisted exercise of his own faculties; and that it is the office of the Holy Spirit to make the Word of God clear to our judgments, and powerful in its effect upon our hearts and lives; and it furthermore tells us, that God gives His Holy Spirit to them who ask it. My earnest recommendation therefore is, that as you read, you would also pray that God may open your under standing to understand.

My third and last recommendation is grounded on the saying, that the prayer of the wicked is an abomination to God; and that if we regard iniquity in our hearts, God will not hear us. Therefore, while observing my first and second directions to read the Bible and to pray, forget not my third, to be diligent in keeping God’s commandments, doing all which His Word tells you to be right, refraining from all which His Word tells you to be wrong. Thus will you grow in the knowledge of the way of salvation. He who seeketh findeth; and you seeking to know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, will find the way of righteousness and peace, and have your feet firmly established on that good path which leads to Heaven.

Give my kind regard to your father, mother, brothers, and sisters. — I am, my dear John, your affectionate uncle, No. CCXLV. — ADVICE TO A YOUNG CLERGYMAN.

Ediiiburfjli, 12th November 1838.

MY DEAR SIR, — I shall say nothing of practical or devotional reading and study, indispensable though they be to the upholding of the best and highest functions of our being, but speak chiefly of intellectual pursuits and professional business.

And first, it were of immense value to lay it down as a rule to which you should doggedly and determinedly adhere, that of giving two or three hours daily for at least three days in the week, and, if the calls of immediate business allowed, for more days than this, to some high subject of professional literature. I pressed this on Mr. Douglas, constitutionally one of the most indolent men I know, and the result was his work on the “Advancement of Society,” &c. Your “Exegesis on Miracles,” and your “Sermon on the Sacrament,” convince me that if you would but select your topics and do likewise, you could, by dint of perseverance, furnish products of sounder and still higher quality than those to which I refer.

And the same habit of so much time for this elaborate mental exertion might not only issue in superior authorship, but superior sermons, of which it were well that you had a certain and increasing number when called to preach on great public occasions, or to first-rate auditories.

My reason for being satisfied with three days in the week for the more transcendental effort which I now recommend is, that I suppose your ordinary pulpit preparations are managed in a different way, and might require perhaps two or three days each week, not to be encroached upon by any call on your mind, during these days, for a more fatiguing exercise.

So much for the creative efforts of thought and composition. Additional to these, I would have one or two hours a day for the perusal of the more arduous kind of books, such as might subserve the preparations which I have now recommended, and store the mind with all that is most profound and philosophical in the themes which you propose to elucidate.

If these directions were fully and regularly acted up to, I would willingly allow the remainder of the time for light reading, society, and parochial duties. And, in reference to the latter, I would, as I could find the instruments, devolve as much as I profitably could upon others, whether in the capacity of elders or Sabbath-teachers, without, at the same time, precipitating these arrangements beyond the real worth of the agents who shall or may cast up one by one, and to those you might rightly commit the management in question.

But what is all in all, is a systematic distribution of time. It is not by irregular efforts, however gigantic, that any great practical achievement is overtaken. It is by the constant recurrence and repetition of small efforts directed to a given object, and resolutely sustained and persevered in. In this way you will work yourself into a deep and cleaving interest in topics which at first may have been repulsive. Edwards’s Works supply a rich assortment of such topics; marks of con version, marks of a work of the Spirit, original sin, necessity, sacrament, &c.; see also Butler’s “Sermons,” Davison’s “Prophecy,” and many other authors whom I could mention; but I would rather the concentration of your strength on a few themes, than that you should be a universalist.

I think that there might be a most beneficial expenditure of all your time, and that the interest of every hour of it might be completely filled up between the two objects of, first, a great mental product, and, secondly, a great practical effort in your parish. I do not want to shut out hours of ease and relaxation; but the fatigue of the other hours will make these last all the more enjoyable. It is a most valuable experience of Brainerd — that the regular distribution of time is essential to one’s religious prosperity; and of Elliot — that through faith in Christ Jesus, it is in the power of prayer and of pains to do everything. — Yours most truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

[In August 1831, the late Mrs. Grant of Laggan received a letter from a lady then in Italy, describing the character of a young Italian Artist, in whom she was much interested, of remarkable genius, but unfortunately imbued with sceptical opinions on religion, which she had in vain endeavoured to remove. She begged that Mrs. Grant would submit a statement of the case to Dr. Chalmers, and solicit the favour of his benevolent aid in suggesting how the erroneous views of the young man might be best combated; a request which Mrs. Grant with considerable hesitation complied with, by sending her correspondent’s letter to Dr. Chalmers. The following answer was returned by Dr. Chalmers to Mrs. Grant.]

No. CCXLVI. — LETTER TO MRS. GRANT OF LAGGAN.

Edinburgh, 2d September 1831.

MY DEAR MADAM, — I am sure you will excuse me from entering in my own person on an argument with one who, from the account you have sent me of him, has yet to acquire the very first elements of a subject on which he speculates so adventur ously, and yet with so little information.

I must therefore confine myself to the recommendation of certain books, which, if not read and studied by him, really makes the task which your friend has put into my hand in every way as hopeless as that of teaching optics to the blind, or teaching philosophy to children.

V Taylor’s “Process of Historical Proof;” Taylor’s “Transmission of Ancient Books to Modern Times;” Paley’s “Evidences of Christianity;” Lardner’s “Credibility;” “Lardner on Jewish and Heathen Testimonies to the Truth of the Gos pel;” Paley’s “HoraB Paulina;” Butler’s “Analogy;” Leslie’s “Short and Easy Method with the Deists;” Littleton’s “Con version of St. Paul.”

I hope that the perusal of these may have a favourable effect, though I must confess that the union of so much confidence 1 with so much ignorance tempts me to despair.

That there should be no time to read, and withal such trust in the conclusions of his own confessedly uninformed mind, forms a composition which it is truly most difficult to deal with, and makes it an impracticable task to put down the determined but withal superficial infidelity of our age. — Ever believe me, my dear Madam, yours most truly and with great esteem, THOMAS CHALMERS.

P.S. — Your friend should continue, however, to treat the person with great tenderness, and to make him the subject of her prayers. — T. C.

No. CCXLVIL — To T. ERSKINE, ESQ. OF LINLATHEN.

Amtruther, Wth August 1818.

DEAR SIR, — I was obliged to leave Glasgow on the day of that night in which you were to have visited me, and left a line explanatory of the cause, which was a sudden call to wait on my father during an illness that has since turned out to be his last. He died here on the 26th of last month; and I propose moving homewards to-morrow.

Be assured that there is nothing that could be more agreeable to me than to enter with you into a regular, though it should not be a frequent correspondence. I derived too much advantage from the personal interview I had with you, not to desire a continuance of intercourse in the only other way it can be maintained when at a distance from each other.^

I shall forbear at present giving a full and deliberate opinion on your “Translations of St. James,” The doctrine you educe from them I hold to be undeniable and highly important; and I feel benefit from the view you give of holiness, in that you

2D rescue it from the humble office of evidencing our judicial state, and would raise it to an importance that were absolute and terminating. I see that many of our divines lay something like an exclusive stress on the object of making our title clear / by our works; whereas the character of being zealous of good works is a character the formation of which is stated as an object in itself of Christ’s coming to this world, and is essential to our preparation for the next.

It just occurs to me that in James ii. 18, the contrast between the two terms is of a wider description than between faith in dormancy and faith in action — it is between faith viewed as one distinct object, and works viewed as another. i,But I trust I shall look over the whole Epistle with greater care, and be able to express myself more fully and decisively respecting it. )

My father, I have reason to rejoice, was a thorough Christian. His favourite, treatise was the “Theron and Aspasio” of Hervey, where the forensic benefit we have derived from Christ is the main topic of his argument. But does not the principle of self-preservation direct our primary attention to this matter, and should we actually conceive a trust in the Saviour for righteousness, who can say that a transition so much fitted to change and to brighten the prospects of man shall not also bring along with it new affections, new desires, new principle, and all the elements, in short, of regeneration.

The Spirit cometh by the hearing of faith. They who trust in Christ are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. — Believe me, my dear sir, yours with great esteem and regard, No. CCXLVIIL — To T. ERSKINE, ESQ.

Kirlcaldy, 15th October 1818.

MY DEAR SIR, — I am here on an excursion from Glasgow, for the purpose of taking back Mrs. Chalmers who has been spending the whole summer in Fife. You may not yet have heard of the matter which chiefly engrosses the interest and the feelings of the people of Glasgow at this moment: — poor Dr. Balfour was seized with apoplexy on Monday upon George Street, and taken into the nearest house, where he still lies, and is not expected to live another day.

VJ received your manuscript a few weeks ago, and have read it, I assure you, with great satisfaction. To pronounce upon it critically would require a more elaborate examination than I can possibly afford; but I can at least say, thatjl never read James with a more entire impression of the unity of what at one time appeared disjointed, of the significancy of what at one time appeared dark, of the pertinency of what at one time appeared irrelevant, than I have done through the medium of your translation. There is a light, and a power, and a moral impression about your performance, that there is not about the version of the Apostle in our authorized Scriptures; and if you can substantiate on good philosophical grounds all the reformations that you propose, you will indeed offer a very valuable, as well, I am persuaded, as a very acceptable contribution to Biblical literature. If you have confidence in the soundness of your various renderings, I regard the work as altogether worthy of publication.

You have certainly succeeded in sustaining a more continuous process of argument and reflection by your version than one can discover to be in the common one.

You will confer a great favour upon me by an occasional letter. What I feel the need of is, that power of faith which must ever accompany the reality of faith, and which, if wanting, may well lead us to suspect the reality. What I have long experienced of my own mind is, that it is quite possible to describe the whole range of Christian doctrine in the terms of a consistent and satisfying argumentation — to make use of all the terms in theology, and bring them into good logical arrangement, just as you make use of the symbols of an algebraical process, and conduct that process in a way that is unexceptionable, while the quantities represented by the symbols are not at all present to the mind throughout the whole process of the investigation. I long for more of the life and freshness of an actual contact with these things — for the kingdom of God as abundantly in power as it is in word — in short, for such manifestations of the first and elementary ideas, as I am persuaded, no play or performance of natural talent can ever conduct me to. It is here that I feel my helplessness — it is here I believe where the accomplished philosopher is on a footing with the most untaught and illiterate of the peasantry — it is here, I am persuaded, where light must be created and sent into our hearts by the immediate hand of God, instead of being excogitated by the labouring of the human faculties. I am awake to a sense of necessity and dependence; and I await the performance of the promise, “Awake, 0 sinner, and Christ shall give thee light.” It is given to prayer while it is withheld from presumption — it is given often to the intercessions of others, while it is withheld from all that a man can ask or do for himself; and believing as I do that when a man goes in quest of Christian truth in proud dependence upon himself, he gives an ungodliness to the very outset of his inquiries; that God must be acknowledged in this way, as well as in every other, ere He direct our path. I have too high an opinion of prayer as an engine of mighty operation, not to feel a desire that I may have a part and an interest in your prayers, that God may visit me with such communications of light and of love, as to give me a distaste for the world, and a spiritual relish of Him as the strength of my heart and my satisfying portion.

I am in the press just now with a volume of congregational sermons. I feel the poorness and the barrenness of them all; and yet somehow or other I have prevailed upon myself thus to.

T. EllSKINE, ESQ. 317

come forward with them. I see a mighty and untrodden interval between the state of my own mind and the spirituality of other Christians; but I have the hope of being the more confirmed by all this in the attitude of the Apostle who had no confidence in himself, but rejoicing in the Lord Jesus was enabled to serve God in the Spirit.

I shall return your manuscript to Mr. Stirling. I hope I have not done wrong in showing it to a neighbour who takes an interest in these things, but who, I am persuaded, will read it with a simple view to his own edification. It is my prayer that you may be useful, and eminently so, in the Church of Christ. What we want is labourers, with or without ordination: either may wield the instrument of God’s Word, and in the hands of neither will it return void. Have you seen Edwards ’s “Treatise on Prayer?” A season of revival in the Church is generally preceded by a season of prayer. I stand sadly in need of your devotional frame all the day long — of the religion of feeling — of a real sensibility towards Him who is both a just God and a Saviour — who has so wondrously blended in one demonstration the infinity of His love with the infinity of His holiness. — Believe me, my dear Sir, yours most truly, No. CCXLIX. — To T. ERSKINE, ESQ.

Edinburgh, 29th December 1843.

MY DEAR SIR, — I read both your letter and that of Madame de Stael with much interest and affection. These are trying and sifting times, but I have the confident hope that good will come out of them. In particular I am most happy to observe that our Free Church ministers are manifesting a vigour and a spirituality which I never before witnessed, even in them, and which, under God, I can only ascribe to their being actuated by the feeling and the conscious freedom of now emancipated men. Meanwhile things are evidently converging to a crisis which I trust will usher in a brighter day both of Christian love and Christian liberty.

I most cordially agree with you in thinking that our journey through Normandy should never be forgotten. In good earnest I assure you that I often look back upon it as the most brilliant and interesting passage of my bygone life, though the death of the poor Duchess casts a deep shade over it.

I should rejoice if we met eye to eye. I feel convinced of a radical and essential unity betwixt us, however diverse and distorting the media might be between our respective visions and certain of those questions on which we may chance to differ. My fatigues compel me now to write by my daughter Grace, who with Mrs. Chalmers desires kindest regards. — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours most truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCL. — To EEV. JOHN FOSTER.

Glasgow, 8th November 1821.

MY DEAR SIR, — I lately saw Mr. Jeffrey, the editor of the “Edinburgh Review,” and spoke to him at some length about the conduct and character of that widely-spread journal. I told him how much it would add to its usefulness, did he not prohibit all his general contributors from ever touching on the subject of Christianity, and, making room for a theological department, admit an occasional article on that subject from one who was soundly acquainted with it, and able to render it impressively to his readers. My time is so much occupied that I have abandoned that sort of literature entirely. But I took the liberty of suggesting you as one whose occasional contributions would be of eminent service to the work; and to yourself I add, that through the influence and diffusion of that work, such a direction may be given to your labours as to be of the first consequence to the best of causes. Mr. Jeffrey requested me to write you, and express the pleasure it would give him could you be prevailed upon to send him an article; and I may here suggest to you, that from the very general character of that work hitherto, it were greatly better, instead of advocating one species of Christian partisanship against another, to advocate revelation in general against infidelity, or to expatiate in those more Catholic tracts of thought and sentiment, where one might keep from that sort of controversy which is so often confounded by a superficial public with the narrowness of sectarianism.

Do let me know what you think of this. I shall only say, that I would prefer to see your lucubrations in the “Edinburgh” rather than in the “Eclectic Review,” because of the greater publicity and influence that they would thus attain; while I still persist in another opinion that I have long expressed on the subject of your literary labours, and that is, that I regret you do not give more of your strength to the rearing of such works as may come out ostensibly and independently from your pen — being thoroughly persuaded that you can publish nothing in this way which will not prove a permanent accession to the Christian literature of our country.

I can truly say for myself that I read no compositions with greater excitement than your own. I perused both your “Missionary Sermon” and your book on “Popular Ignorance” with unmeasured delight; and one passage more especially, of the latter, has kept a very tenacious hold of me, that in which you adventured, and with marvellous success, to pourtray the popular imagination of God — a description that came home so much to my own consciousness as to assure me how idolatrous and mean were all my conceptions of the Deity.

There is one thing more that I beg to propose to you ere I am done. I am aware of your taste for landscape, and of the full gratification it would find in the scenery of our Highlands. I have myself gone a very little way into that sublime and interesting region, and I would most willingly give up three weeks to the enterprise of penetrating right through to the most northerly point of Scotland, were it in the capacity of a guide and companion to you. I beg that you would think of coming to Glasgow next summer, and taking up your abode with me till we set out on this expedition.

Meanwhile you will oblige me greatly by as speedy an answer as you can afford to this communication. Mrs. Chalmers joins in kindest regards to you. — I am, my dear Sir, yours very affectionately, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCLL — To EEV. DR. EYLAND.

Glasgow, 18th February 1818.

MY DEAR SIR, — I return you many thanks for the kind present of “Fuller’s Life,” and also for your very excellent pamphlet on “Antinomianism,” — both of which I received from the hands of your son.

I can assure you that I read the latter with much interest and pleasure. It revived all my recollections of the excellent Jonathan Edwards, to whose principles on the subject of Free will I have long been a decided convert. You have given a very clear and judicious exposition indeed, of the perfect consistency which obtains between the absolute sovereignty of God on the one hand, and the fitness of bringing forward the urgency of Gospel calls and Gospel invitations on the other. I trust that your performance will do much good. It reminds me of your conversation when I had the pleasure of meeting you at Bristol, and which I shall not soon forget. I feel greatly indebted to you for the question you proposed to put to him who said, “I have come unto Christ,” — “What have you gotten from Him?”

I rejoiced in recognising it as a very prevalent feature in your connexion, your horror at Antinomianism; — and it is my prayer that, both by doctrine and example, you may succeed more and more in vindicating the truth as it is in Jesus, as being, indeed, altogether according to godliness.

I have read nothing with greater excitement for a very long time than Hall’s “Sermon” on the late lamented death. It is, indeed, a very rich and wonderful composition, and I think more impregnated with theology than any of his former works. It whets the appetite more than ever for a volume of congregational sermons from him. Do wrestle this point with him till you have prevailed. I read lately his and your excellent prefaces to his father’s work.

Mr. Foster is now in your neighbourhood. I know nothing that would more interest me than a communication from him. I carried away with me a very great affection for him, and I retain it. There appeared a vile unchristian attack on him lately in one of our Magazines; and I heard nothing around me but indignation against it. He has many admirers in this part of the country. Your son I see occasionally. I entreat a part in your prayers. (Oh, that we felt more and more a child like dependence on the teachings of the Holy Spirit! May God prosper your abundant labours, and cause you to rejoice in the fruit of them. — I am, my dear Sir, yours most truly, j No. CCLII. — MR. J. E. RYLAND.*

Edinburgh, Id March 1831.

MY DEAR SIR, — I received your melancholy intimation of Mr. Hall’s death with the greatest emotion, and consider it as a severe blow to the Church universal — as an event to be deplored not by his own flock and family alone, but by all the friends of our common Christianity.

I felt a particular interest in your narrative of his death; and was struck with the coincidence between his dying testi- * Author of the “Life of Foster,” &c.

monies and those of Fuller, Dwight, and others of our best established Christians. The “humble hope” of his last moments deserves to be enshrined among the most precious of those memorabilia which he has given to the world.

Will you tell Mrs. Hall (to whom I expect to write shortly) that I do feel a melancholy satisfaction in her having selected me, as one of those friends of her venerable and illustrious husband, who should be especially apprized of the sad event that afflicts and solemnizes us all. — Believe me, my dear sir, yours most truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCLIIL — MB. J. E. KYLAND.

Edinburgh, lltJi November 1843.

MY DEAR SIR, — I should have acknowledged long ago yourl letter of the 17th of October, announcing the death of John Foster — a man of gigantic intellect, and whose writings have earned for him an imperishable name; but who I trust is now enjoying a better and a higher immortality. I ever had the greatest veneration both for him and Mr. Hall, who, along with Dr. Ryland, Andrew Fuller, Drs. Carey, Marshman, and Ward,’ made up altogether a very bright constellation, and which serves to signalize the Baptists of England more than any other denomination which I at present recollect. (l forget whether Mr. Sheppard of Frome is a Baptist. I am much interested by this renewal of our correspondence. It is now twenty-one years since we met at Bristol, and I am now made to understand by your letter that you are settled at Northampton.

Mrs. Chalmers unites with me in kindest remembrances, and I entreat you to believe me, my dear Sir, yours very truly,~ THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCLIV. — To MRS. PAUL.

St. Andrews, 20th October 1827.

My DEAR MRS. PAUL, — I have read the MS. on Prophecy which you kindly put into my hand, and I can assure you with a strong conviction of its soundness. I perfectly agree with the writer in thinking that there has been a very culpable negligence of this important department of that Scripture whereof it has been said, that all is profitable. I myself am in for a full share of the blame, and I do hope that I shall not merely feel the obligation of giving more earnest heed unto prophecy, but that I shall henceforth act upon it. The perusal of your paper has freshened the impulse which I received some months ago from reading the work by Irving, and I certainly have of late attained a growing sense of the duty which attaches to this branch of sacred study. I am now reading in ordinary’ the Book of Isaiah, and. derive occasional aid from M’Culloch’s “Lectures;” he is not a millenarian, which I am now very much inclined to be; and the other day read with great pleasure the 26th chapter, the latter verses of which appear to describe the impotency of human and ordinary efforts to Christianize the world, (verse 18,) and then (verse 19) the commencement of the great era which is ushered in by the first resurrection. — Believe me, my dear madam, yours very affectionately, No. CCLV. — To EEV. C. BRIDGES.

Edinburgh, 2d January 1834.

MY DEAR SIR, — I gladly avail myself of the opportunity which the Christmas holidays afford me of acknowledging your most esteemed letter of October last, as when engaged in teaching my classes I find both my strength and time very much engrossed, having two distinct courses of lectures and upwards of 200 students to deal with.

I feel the greatest value for your kind and instructive communication, and more particularly for those parts of it which I can turn to a useful purpose, whether in the way of suggestion or of warning, as to the special business of my own profession. I deeply feel my need of effort and prayer, that my whole course may be more and more spiritualized, assured as I am of the possibility of delivering all the lessons of theology in the strictest form of sound words, and with the fullest adherence to the letter of the truth as it is in Jesus, while the real unction and vitality of the Gospel spirit may be altogether wanting. I shall feel the utmost value in connexion with this all-important object both for your advices and your prayers. It is only by a manifestation from Him who is the Sun of Righteousness that the demonstrations of a professor can be brightened from the moonlight to the sunshine, of which you have so impressively told me, and have not only the greater light, but also the heat of the higher luminary imparted to them.

I have a distinct lectureship this winter on the methods and the machinery of Christian education, which subject leads me not only to the vindication of religious establishments, but also to what may be termed the spiritual tactics of a parish; and I can assure you that there is not one sentiment which you have either written or spoken in my hearing which I more thoroughly sympathize with than the mighty importance of maintaining unbroken the conjunction between the ministerial and the pastoral. I think myself prepared to shew that it is the dissolution of this sacred union that, instrument-ally speaking, has so weakened the influence of the Christian ministry all over the land, and more especially in our large towns. When on this subject I shall have occasion to make extracts from your admirable work on the various official and professional duties of clergymen.

I often think of your parish, which, as a hallowed abode of peace and piety, supplies me with far more interesting recollections than anything I have seen in England. May the Giver of all grace continue to bless, and that abundantly, your ministrations among the dear cottage families around you, and pour down such a blessing that there may be no room to receive it.

I beg that you will offer my best regards to Mrs. Bridges, and to Miss Wakefield, if still with you. In their work and labour of love amongst the young, and particularly among your own dear children, may the pleasure of the Lord prosper in their hands. — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours with greatest esteem and attachment, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCLVL — To EEV. C. BRIDGES.

Burntisland, 12th April 1836.

MY DEAR SIR, — I take great blame to myself in having deferred so long to write to you. It is true that I am much engrossed, and not so able for fatigue as I have been; but nothing can justify the remissness of my correspondence with one whose communications, and, above all, whose prayers, I so highly value.

I have seen Mr. Drummond since I last received your letter. I highly approve of your proposal to publish Fox’s “Martyrology,” though, I fear, I can do little to promote its success in Edinburgh. I am completely over-done, and am obliged to take flight into the retirement of the country.

I hope you see Mr. Bickersteth occasionally — for I should like that, the first time you met him, you would deliver this message from me. When I wrote him last I had only entered on the perusal of his work on “Prophecy,” and not proceeded far in it; and certainly, from the beginning of his volume, I understood that he was doubtful on the subject of Christ’s personal reign — in which sentiment I stated that I agreed with him. I now find, however, that he is decidedly for that opinion; and I am very far from being decidedly against it. But I have not yet got beyond Mede upon this question, who certainly left it indeterminate, though I am now far more confident than I wont to be, that there is to be a coming of Christ which precedes the millennium — a millennium to be ushered into the world by a series of dreadful visitations, for which, I fear, we are fast ripening — in the train of which all our present structures, whether civil or ecclesiastical, will give way, that room might be made for a universal empire of truth and righteousness.

I beg my most grateful regards to Mrs. Bridges; and if Miss Wakefield be still with you, I would offer her, too, my best acknowledgments. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours most cordially, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCLVII. — LETTER TO THE EEV. HORACE BONAR.

Edinburgh, 9th January 1847.

MY DEAR SIR, — Would you allow me to suggest “Alexander on Isaiah” as an admirable book for your review. As far as I have looked into it, it seems a work of extraordinary merit. The author is an American professor at Princeton. I feel quite assured that your brother, were he to address him self to the work, would go through it con amore. I cannot close this communication without expressing my entire satisfaction with the doctrines and the progress of what I call your South Country School, of whom I hold yourself, Mr. Purves of Jedburgh, and Mr. Campbell of Melrose, to be the trio of its representatives. It is not of your prophetical, but of your theological views that I now speak, though to the former also I approximate much nearer than I did in my younger days.*

* Ps. L. 1-6. — “This is a remarkable psalm, and the subject of it seems to lie within the domain of unfulfilled prophecy. There has been no appearance yet from Mount Zion at all corresponding “with that made from Mount Sinai. And I am far more inclined to the literal interpretation of this psalm, than to that which would restrict it to the mere preaching of the Gospel in the days of the apostles. It looks far more like the descent of the Son of Man on the Mount of Olives, with

Bi But speaking of the latter, nothing can be more precious than the manner in which you expound the things that are freely given to us of God. I feel assured that no other doctrine will regenerate the world. — Give my kindest regards to Mrs. Bonar, and ever believe me, my dear sir, yours very truly,