Letters to Various Correspondents, Nos. 261–293
No. CCLXI. — To MRS. BROWN.
Burntisland, 13th November 1836.
MY DEAR MRS. BROWN, — I cannot adequately express the deep emotion which I felt on receiving the melancholy intelligence of Dr. Brown’s death — one of my most respected and earliest friends, and of whom I have often said, that of all the professors and instructors with whom I ever had to do, he is the one who most powerfully impressed me; and to the ascendency of whose mind over me, along with that of Professor Robison’s of Edinburgh, I owe more in the formation of my tastes and habits, and in the guidance and government of my literary life, than to that of all the other academic men whose classes I ever attended. But, in addition to his public lessons, I had the privilege of being admitted to a long intimacy with your departed husband, and of enjoying the benefits, as well as the charms, of his most rich and eloquent conversation; besides receiving from him many written communications, which I have kept by themselves, and prize as a great literary treasure. Of these, the most interesting is the last, received from him not many weeks ago, and on the most momentous of all subjects. You may be well assured that, when such a master-mind as his thought fit to disclose itself on the high themes of religion, I could not but feel alive to the manifestation of a sensibility on this greatest of all concerns, the knowledge of which I now feel to be inexpressibly precious.
It is my earnest prayer that you and your daughter may be supported on this trying occasion by Him who is the Giver of all comfort, and who alone can sanctify and bless His own visitation. May we all be led to the wise and right consideration of our latter end; and laying hold of the offered atonement of the Gospel, may we henceforth sit at the feet of Him, who alone hath the gift, and who alone hath the words of life everlasting.
I exceedingly regret that I was altogether disabled by circumstances from attending the funeral. Either to-morrow or Tuesday I hope to call upon you at Beaumont Place.
With my best regards to Miss Brown, I entreat you to be lieve me, my dear Madam, yours with deepest sympathy and respect, THOMAS CHALMERS.
[Rectory, Hornsey, 16th August 1852. — MY DEAR SIR, — A discussion took place at the close of 1837 at the monthly meetings of the Society for the Promoting Christian Knowledge, in the course of which the proper designation of the Episcopal Church in Scotland came to be considered. Some members, who sympathized with the very High Church party, desired to describe the Scottish bishops as bishops of the Church in Scotland, or of Scotland, thereby ignoring the Established Church. Eventually it was determined, by the recommendation of the bishop of London, to make use of the designation which the bishops claimed to themselves — “Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church,” by which no offence could be given to any one. Thinking that some incorrect rumour might reach Dr. Chalmers of the discussion, I wrote to acquaint him with the true state of the case. The accompanying letter is his answer. — With kind compliments, I am, yours truly obliged, RICHARD HARVEY.
The Rev. Dr. Hanna.]
No. CCLXIL — LETTER TO EEV. MR. HARVEY.
Edinburgh, Qth February 1838.
MY DEAR SIR, — I owe you many apologies for my delay in replying to your letter; but I am really borne down by arrears of correspondence, and business of various sorts.
I regret that anything should have occurred which might mar the cordiality that ought to subsist between the two Establishments. There are several here who will feel the disownal of us far more deeply than I can at all sympathize with. I feel confident that the exclusive principle which was manifested at your meeting must wear out of credit with the ministers of the Church of England; and that a notion so utterly senseless and fantastic will at length be entertained by so very few, as that we shall at length afford to look on them with the most benignant complacency.
The epithet “Episcopalian” would have saved the credit of the meeting, and, I should imagine, have satisfied all parties. “The Episcopal Church either of or in Scotland.”
When you write Mr. Le Bas, offer him my kindest regards. I rejoice to hear of his preferment; and I hope that I shall meet him in my visit to London, which, if God will, I propose shall be towards the end of April. I have not forgotten my last delightful visit to Hornsey; and I look forward with the greatest pleasure to the renewal of it. — With most respectful acknowledgments to Mrs. Harvey, I ever am, my dear Sir, yours most gratefully, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXIIL — To MR. JOHN SHEPPARD.
Edinburgh, 25th April 1833.
MY DEAR SIR, — I should have acknowledged long ago the kind gift of your acceptable volume,* which I have been perusing with very great interest and pleasure; and which, highly as I esteemed your “Thoughts on Devotion,” I regard as a far richer production, abounding as it does in the views of a deeper experience, and having in it much greater fulness, as a repository of pearls and precious things. I have taken the liberty of referring to it in my “Bridgewater Essay,” now in the press; and I know that a review of it has appeared in our “Scottish Presbyterian,” favourable, though not equal to my own impression of its merits.
My habit in reading a book is to mark with approbation, or the contrary, as I move along. I find that I have given my most intense approval to the following passages: — page 18; bottom of page 20; top of page 157. These I single out as
* “Essays on Christian Encouragement,” &c.
being double marks. The single marks are innumerable, and yet represent, but feebly, the delight I have felt in the perusal of your volume.
I have not, though quite honest in the marks I affix to all my readings, jotted down a single passage as questionable or that I differ from. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours most respectfully and with greatest regard, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXIV. — To MR. JOHN SHEPPAED.
Edinburgh, 1 Qth November 1833.
MY VERY DEAR SIR, — Your very kind letter of the 30th of July I should have acknowledged long ago; but I have been a great wanderer this season, and for a good many months have been marvellously little at home.
I need not say how much I have been gratified by your remarks of approbation and kindness on my last work — an abundant compensation, I assure you, for the hostility which I have been doomed to experience so abundantly at the hands of the English reviewers, who, with the exception, as far as I have yet seen them, of the “British Critic,” seem bent on running me down. One ought not to be sensitive about a matter of this sort, and it would argue a particularly morbid constitution not to be abundantly comforted under all their severities by the approval of the wise and the good.
I have received your Sermon on the death of Mr. Hughes, whom I had the pleasure of knowing. I am much delighted with it; and as I have only room for one remark, I was greatly struck with your felicitous illustration in page 25, on the hostility by which the British and Foreign Bible Society was assailed, and where you have so justly and forcibly characterized, in particular, the attacks that were brought to bear against it from this pugnacious quarter of the island.
I cannot express the tenderness I feel in being made to understand from your letter that you have been labouring under depression; I wish I could prevail upon you, my dear Sir, to look more objectively, and less subjectively, than you appear to do — more to the outer truths, if I may so express it, of Christianity, and less to the inner lineaments which these may have impressed on the tablet of your own character. I should not feel myself justified in offering this advice, did I not feel assured that, after all, it is by the direct exercise of faith, that all these virtues of the new obedience are engendered within us which furnish the materials of a reflex self-examination. I have derived great comfort from a little tract, entitled “Brief Thoughts on the Gospel, and the Hindrances to Be lieve it.”
With the greatest esteem and regard, I ever am, my dear Sir, yours most truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXY. — LETTER TO DR. SYMINGTON.
Edinburgh, 9th October 1838.
MY DEAR SIR, — I should have replied sooner to your kind letter of some weeks past, but I was unwilling to sit down till I had begun the perusal of your work on the Atonement.
I am now reading it with great interest, and, I trust, with a practical and good impression. It is indeed that doctrine of great price, the very name of which is as ointment poured forth.
I hope I shall be able to write you at greater length on the subject after I have completed the perusal of your substantial and masterly volume. Indeed, I believe I shall have to write you at any rate early in November. Meanwhile, I am marking all the passages as I go along, and will furnish you with a list of them either in writing or when we meet.
My preference in the treatment of a subject is for an exhibition of the direct proofs first; after which, I do not object that other arguments, after being brought forward as preliminary considerations, should be exhibited in the form of collateral or subsidiary arguments. For example, I agree with Paley in the first sentence of his “Evidences,” where he pleads for an immediate entry on the strongest credentials of revelation, and that anterior to any consideration of its necessity. But this question of arrangement is too unwieldy for discussion in a single letter; and I think the chief objection to the usual arrangement is done away when the prefatory views which you exhibit are held forth more in the light of presumptions than as the initial steps of a logical process, which last method has the effect of placing the less obvious probabilities at the basis of the argument, and so of making the whole weak throughout, because weak radically.
On the whole, I feel quite assured, and the assurance will gather in strength as I advance in my reading of your work, that it forms a most sound and valuable contribution to our professional literature. — With best regards to Mrs. Symington and your family, I am, my dear Sir, yours most respectfully and truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXVI. — LETTER TO KEV. THOMAS BARTLETT.
Edinburgh, 25th January 1839.
MY DEAR SIR, — Your “Life of Butler” came to me about a week ago; and I suspended all other reading till I should achieve the perusal of it. My engagements leave me very little time for this indulgence; but I have now finished the Narrative, and cannot forbear writing you now, though I have not yet entered on the Abridgment which you make of the “Analogy,” I mean, however, to look over this also; and should anything occur to me, in respect of its execution, I will send you a second letter.
But recurring to the Memoir, I have perused it with great eagerness, and a very intense feeling of satisfaction and interest. My veneration for Butler gives a magnitude even to the minutest traits which are recorded of him, insomuch that I feel as if I had made a real acquisition by knowing of his fast riding on a black horse, and his habit of stopping and turning to his companion with whom he was engaged in talk.
Allow me to say that I look on what is peculiarly your own part as done with great taste and great talent; and it is not with the spirit of flattery, but of justice, that I tell you, labouring as you did under the disadvantage of scanty materials, that the work is greatly indebted to your own reflections, that you have imparted to it a strong literary interest, and have managed to infuse into it as great a biographical charm as the fewness of the known incidents would allow.
Page 222. — I shall here transcribe an extract from my class-book on Butler’s “Analogy.” Dr. Ryland, in his edition of “Andrew Fuller’s Works,” says in a note, — “I heard Mr. Venn of Yelling give an account, however, to Mr. Beveridge, who related his conversation with one of his chaplains, to whom the bishop remarked, ’ that it was an awful thing to appear before the Moral Governor of the world;’ when the chaplain, whose views were more clearly evangelical, referred him to the obedience of Christ by which many are made righteous; and the dying bishop exclaimed, ’ 0, this is comfortable, and so expired.” What I now give brings Butler’s expression still nearer to that at page 226.
Even if you had done no more than collect the scattered remains of such references as were made to Butler by various Authors during his life and after his death, that of itself would have justified the volume; for though these references are taken from printed books or pamphlets, they, even at this time of day, are as little known as if they had been extracted by you from manuscripts and letters.
I shall only add, that nothing can be more agreeable than
2 F your kind notice of myself. Pages 335, 336, brought back to me a very vivid and most interesting recollection.* — With my best regards to Mrs Bartlett, believe me ever, my dear sir, yours most respectfully and cordially, THOMAS CHALMERS.
[Princeton, 10th March 1848. — REVEREND AND DEAR SIR, — Having learned from the public journals that you were engaged in preparing a Memoir of the late great and good Dr. Chalmers, and that you desired to have letters which he had written transmitted to you, it occurred to me to doubt whether I had not a duty to discharge in reference to this request.
Though I enjoyed the precious privilege of corresponding with him, yet but few letters passed between us. We were both too busy, and especially he in the great concerns in which he was called to act, to devote much time to letter- writing. I think the letters which I received from him were not more than three. Of one of them, and the longest, I enclose herewith a copy. The others have, I scarcely know how, passed out of my possession; for, as the handwriting of such a man could not fail of being the object of intense curiosity and of deep interest with the multitudes on this side of the Atlantic, who admired his talents, and venerated his name, I found it difficult to retain in my possession any scrap that bore the impress of his hand.
In one of my letters to this beloved and illustrious man, I begged him, with an importunity never addressed by me to any other person, to favour the American Churches with a visit. I know not that I ever had so ardent a desire to behold the face and to hear the voice of any other human being: and now, painfully aware, of course, that I can never enjoy this privilege, I feel a kind of solicitude that I never felt before, for the accomplishment of the great biographical trust committed to your hands.
I rejoice to have seen all the works of this venerable servant of Christ, that have been placed within my reach; but I must say, that those from which I have received the deepest impression of the real glory of his character, have been his posthumous writings. Of the vigour and elevation of his mind, I had enjoyed proof enough from the many volumes which had long since fallen under my notice. But from some of his most unstudied writings which have lately met my eye, I have received impressions of his moral and heavenly grandeur of soul, greatly beyond those which I had received from the multiplied and rich productions of his genius. I thank his God and my God that I have been permitted to see these last effusions
* See Memoirs, vol. iii. pp. 388, 389.
of his heart and his pen. They have much enlarged my views of his Christian greatness, and, I hope, have not been without benefit to my own soul.
But among all those who will take such a deep and tender interest in your work, there are, perhaps, few less likely than myself to enjoy the pleasure of seeing it completed. Being far advanced in my 79th year, and daily admonished by many infirmities that I must soon “put off this tabernacle,” it is not very probable that I shall survive the publication of your precious Memoir. But be it so: this will be of small importance to any one. Many in both hemispheres will read it, enjoy it, and be, I trust, the better for it; and in the meanwhile I shall be, I hope, so happy as to join the great and beloved man himself, whom all have for a time lost, and to see him face to face in a more enlightened and happy world, and to unite with him in the endless praise and enjoyment of that precious Saviour, whose atoning sacrifice and perfect righteousness are “all my salvation and all my desire.” — I am, Reverend and dear Sir, most respectfully, your friend and brother in Christian bonds, SAMUEL MILLER.
To the Rev. Win. Hanna.]
No. CCLXVIL — To REV. DR. SAMUEL MILLER.
Edinburgh, 28th December 1840.
MY DEAR SIR, — I owe you many apologies for not having replied sooner to your letter of the 28th of January of last year. The truth is, that my whole attention has been absorbed by the questions and the difficulties of our own Church; and I, positively, have had no remaining strength or time for the American controversy, of which you have sent me so full and interesting an account in your kind communication. It is well, however, that there was no immediate practical necessity for giving one’s mind to the subject, seeing that, so far as I know, there was no application made by your seceding party for a recognition of their views by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
I hope you received a former letter of mine on the subject of your book respecting the “Eldership,” which I have ever recommended to my classes as the best I know on its own especial topic, beside being an admirable general vindication of the Presbyterian polity. I am much interested by your argument for the separation of the two orders of elders and deacons, the conjunction of which I have ever deprecated as the most incongruous of all pluralities.
With earnest prayer for your continued public usefulness and personal comfort, and in humble hope that we shall meet in heaven, I entreat you to believe me, my dear Sir, yours most respectfully and cordially, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXVIIL — To EEV. THOMAS GRINFIELD, CLIFTON.
Burntisland, 28t7i April 1841.
MY DEAR SIR, — It is impossible not to be highly gratified by your letter of the 20th, in which you speak so favourably of my “Treatise on Natural Theology,” I labour under the discountenance of one principal Review, and the positive hostility of another. First, the “Edinburgh,” chiefly (I believe) from a difference in our politics: secondly, the “Quarterly,” whose editor, a Scotchman, has been my unrelenting adversary for more than twenty years. It is therefore all the more pleasing when a literary and professional man like yourself gives his attention to my various theses, and records a favourable impression of them. — Believe me ever, my dear Sir, yours very truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXIX. — To EEV. THOMAS GRINFIELD, CLIFTON.
Burntisland, IQth June 1841.
MY DEAR SIR, — I should have much sooner acknowledged your last of May 1 st; but I have been in feeble health, and much and painfully engrossed with the troubles of our Church.
I got an interdict served on me this day which I mean to disregard; and on the identical principle which would decide an English Bishop to disregard the mandate of a civil court, either to admit or exclude a man from holy orders.
I read your pamphlet* with great interest a few days after its arrival, and cannot but augur great good from the establishment in your important city, of such an Association as that before which it was read. I was much pleased with the “Lecture;” and while I thank you most cordially for your most kind mention of myself, I must also express my satisfaction at the testimony you give, and which you have so well established, to the harmony of the two faculties of reason and imagination; an important principle, truly, and sadly overlooked by those heart less Statists and Utilitarians, who think that nothing can be true which is beautiful, and nothing beautiful which is true.
You have succeeded, though against the authority of Samuel Johnson, in demonstrating that sacred subjects admit of being represented in the style and with all the effect of the highest poetry. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours most gratefully and cordially, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXX. — To REV. THOMAS GKINFIELD, CLIFTON.
JBurnlwland, 1st September 1841.
MY DEAR SIR, — Your letter has been too long unanswered; but we are still in the thick of our Church contests, with a majority (I hope and believe) of our Establishment in readiness to give up their connexion with it, rather than submit our ecclesiastical affairs to the Erastian control of the civil power.
I gave orders to my bookseller to send for your acceptance each volume of the series as it comes out. I expect vol. xxi. to be published on the 1st of October. It consists of altogether new matter, and on a subject which I should like to be well understood in England, that of Pauperism — a question far from being either practically or doctrinally settled in either of the two countries.
* “Lecture on Imagination and Poetry, with a Special Reference to the Poetry of the Bible,” delivered before the Bristol Book Association.
The manifold distractions of our Church controversy have interrupted the forthcoming of my works, which will now be resumed. I feel that any vigour I ever had, whether in literature or in public life, is rapidly abating. There is a higher and more satisfying pursuit than either, and in which I pray that God by His grace might advance and perfect us both. May our souls prosper and be in health; and for this greatest and best of all communications, I would seek more and more unto Him who alone hath the words and alone hath the gift of life everlasting. — I ever am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, No. CCLXXI. — To KEV. THOMAS GRINFIELD, CLIFTON.
IQth December 1841.
MY DEAR SIR, — I received your “Syllabus of Lectures on Milton,” and feel quite sure that your converse in this mode with the citizens of Bristol must have a refining and elevating influence on the public mind of your city. I take your friendly advice as very kind, prompted, as I am sure it is, by the breathings of a real wish for my safety and wellbeing.
I am always delighted by a letter from you, being ever, my dear Sir, yours most affectionately and with great esteem, No. CCLXXIL — To KEV. HENRY BELL.
Edinburgh, IQth January 1836.
My DEAR SIR, — I have just time to request your acceptance of a copy of the fourth edition of my “Bridgewater Treatise,”
I look back with great pleasure and much thankfulness to our Matlock visit, and to all the kindness we received from you — a pleasure only marred by the recollection of my own impatience of feeling at the delay in our getting off, from some mistake of the coachman. What a bright and beautiful world we live in, and how abundant in all the means of enjoyment, but for the sad perversity of our own distempered spirits I
Mrs. Chalmers, who has been long an invalid, joins me with Eliza in kindest remembrances both to yourself and Mrs. Bell. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours very affectionately and truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXXIIL — To KEV. HENRY BELL.
Edinburgh, 28th October 1846.
MY DEAR SIR, — I have read so much of your volume, and like it exceedingly. I think there is great beauty in its com position, and that its literary merits stand very high. But I was still more struck with the amount of thought in it, and more especially with the instruction deduced from the passages, or rather from the clauses that you comment upon. I have marked particularly what suggests a new argument for the plenary and universal inspiration of the Bible. I rather regret the anti-Calvinism that you have discovered; but let that pass. I have finished lecture second, and am only sorry that at the commencement of my winter duties, my perusal of your work must go on very slowly. I have no doubt of its favourable reception.
I am much interested by what you state of Professor Lee’s “New Theory of Hebrew Tenses.” I should like that you made known that your views for the application of the pluper feet to the 1st and 2d verses of the 1st chapter of Genesis would bring philology and geology at one. My own sense of the meaning was made known to the world in 1814, and shewn to Professor Buckland in 1835, who adopted it in his “Bridgewater Treatise,” but without acknowledgment.
Have you seen Elliott’s “Hora3 Apocalypticse?” He makes a very unwarranted attack on our Free Church, and has been ably replied to by Dr. Candlish, in a pamphlet of which I will send you a copy.
Mrs. Chalmers joins me in the kindest regards to you and Mrs. Bell. I cherish a most pleasant recollection of our last visit to you. If the venerable Mrs. Fox be still alive, offer her my most affectionate remembrances, and the same to Dr. Douglas Fox and all the family. — I am yours, &c.
No. CCLXXIV. — To THE EEV. TIMOTHY EAST, BIRMINGHAM.
Edinburgh, 23d January 1847.
MY DEAR SIR, — I shall have great pleasure in recommending your volume to my students. I would have applied myself more closely to the whole subject some time ago; but the truth is, my theological course is one of three years’ duration, and I do not get at the subject of the divinity of our Saviour till next month, when I shall have occasion to state my favourable impression of the merits of your work; after which you will hear what the result is to be. I am much pleased with the new lights into which the argument has been cast by you, and I think it of great advantage to the students that they should, after studying the critical and scientific arguments, be thrown abroad as it were on a general work like yours, which takes its own independent and very intelligent view of the doctrine. I shall probably read out to my students those pasages which I have marked, as having in them the characters of originality along with great weight.
Forgive me for saying that I think you have expanded too much in the latter part of the volume, which admits, in my opinion, of a good deal of compression, without any sacrifice of the sterling quality of the argument.
I did not congenialize with the instance which you gave of the Bishop of Exeter, which, whether correct in itself or not, had better have been avoided. I have not yet finished the perusal of it, having about 150 pages more to read. I am not aware of any work on the subject so well adapted for general and family reading; and I have often regretted, that beside having works on each of the great doctrines of Christianity, altogether of a critical and controversial character, we should not have works made up of those kind and impressive appeals, which form the main staple of your volume, and which may be read and recognised of all men. — With many apologies for my long delay, I am, my dear Sir, yours very respectfully and truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXXV. — To THE EEV. EBENEZER BROWN
OF INVERKEITHING, FIFE.
Glasgow, 15th December 1821.
MY DEAR SIR, — I received your much esteemed note yesterday. I am quite aware that its suggestions are not only very kind, but very necessary; for I am sure that both in language and in spirit we lie under many temptations to depart from the simplicity that is in Christ. I can truly say that I have the utmost relish for those evangelical authors whose style is that of great homeliness, while clearly and forcibly expressive of the great truths of the Gospel; and. lastly, I have read with great satisfaction your work of “Romaine on Faith,” whose ever pervading idea is just that of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The constant presentation of this truth, so far from being offensive to a spiritual man because he heard it before so often, is like the constant presentation of the same food, agreeable and welcome to him because he is hungry; and it is indeed a tremendous thought that by the wisdom of words the cross of Christ may be made of no effect.
There is one thing, however, that ought to be adverted to; the difference of styles is somewhat like the difference of dialects. You would not Lave a plain Yorkshire minister when he comes to your neighbourhood attempt to preach in the dialect of Fife. His own dialect is the best for his own people. And in like manner there is a style proper to every one, whether it be natural or acquired, which perhaps is the best for one class of ministers, though unsuitable to another. God interposed with a miracle of tongues that the Gospel might be preached to every man in his own language; and it is perhaps in unison with this principle of His administration that He rears a diversity of authors who may speak to the people each in his own style or dialect the wonderful works of God. I have much more to say upon this subject, but I must postpone the subject till we meet and talk about it.
May I entreat your prayers, for which, I assure you, I shall have the same value that I would for the prayers of a venerable and much loved father. May the God of all comfort rejoice your heart with the tokens and demonstrations of your usefulness; and let it be our united supplication to Him, that He would pour down of that Spirit upon our land, without which all human exertion is powerless as infancy.
Give my best compliments to your brother when you write him or see him, with whom, as with yourself, I have had some very congenial and much valued fellowship. — I am, my dear Sir, yours most affectionately, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXXVL — To THE COUNTESS OF ELGIN.
Edinluryh, 1st June 1826.
MY LADY, — Your Ladyship’s very kind letter was long of reaching me, partly from Mr. Whyte’s ignorance of the place where I first resided when I came to Edinburgh, and partly from the change of place which I have undergone during my stay in the metropolis.
I feel myself greatly flattered and obliged by your Ladyship’s goodness iii having again tendered me so pressing an invitation to come to Broomliall; and there is nothing which could afford me greater enjoyment than to renew the Christian and intellectual gratifications which I have had the happiness so often to experience there. This is an object which I shall study to achieve in the course of my present college vacation. Just now there is a very particular avocation which makes it impossible for me to go anywhere but the east of Fife, and that is, the marriage of a sister, which takes place early next week. I shall be much occupied both before and after that event with home matters; but I am not without hopes of being able through the summer to realize that converse which, I crave your Ladyship’s forgiveness for saying, has left a fragrance behind it, and the remembrance of which is sweet.
We have lost ground numerically this year on the plurality question, but we have not lost heart; and it is my feeling that bating this and another distressing division, this Assembly has, on the whole, had a very promising aspect, and the spirit of our Church is unequivocally improving.
I beg my most respectful compliments to the Ladies Bruce, and to Lords Elgin and Bruce, who I know are at present from home. — I have the honour to be, my Lady, your Ladyship’s most obliged and obedient servant, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXXVII. — To THE COUNTESS OF ELGIN.
Edinburgh, 6th March 1830.
MY LADY, — I received your deeply interesting letter — the perusal of which, I can assure your Ladyship, has given me unfeigned satisfaction. I hold the faith and the feelings therein expressed to be altogether legitimate — warranted as they are by the terms in which the Gospel overtures are framed, and which direct us to look for the primary object of our confidence, not inwardly upon ourselves, but outwardly to the Saviour.
I have repeatedly expressed my regret that the admirable general lesson of Mr. Erskine’s book should have had the burden of one questionable and obnoxious expression laid upon it; and which I foresaw would frustrate and overbear the good of his publication by the interminable controversy that would arise from it. All men are not pardoned — but all men have the pardon laid down for their acceptance; and the latter is just as effective an exhibition of the Divine character as the former, without the heavy exception of being unscriptural, and liable to be abused to Antinomianism.
I feel that I could talk on this subject far better than write; and therefore I look forward with great interest to my purposed visit to Broomhall, so soon as we are fairly settled in our new house, which I expect will take place in the middle of April.
With most respectful compliments to Lord Elgin, I have the honour to be, my Lady, your Ladyship’s most obliged and obedient servant, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXXVIIL — To THE COUNTESS OF ELGIN.
Edinburgh, 2d June 1831.
MY LADY, — I beg to send your Ladyship the pamphlet on the Poor Laws, along with Sir John Sinclair’s and two tracts of my own. The one on the National Debt may not be very interesting, yet if sound, and I cannot find out a flaw in the reasoning, leads to a conclusion of great practical importance.
I regret that I cannot lay my hands on Mr. Drummond’s or Mr. Irving’s letter on the subject of Miss Mowbray, and I suspect they are still in her father’s hands. I have, however, the satisfaction of sending Mr. Campbell’s.
I returned in time to be present at the discussion of Mr. S.’s and Mr. Irving’s cases. Mr. S.’s very appearance at the bar of the Assembly involved in it a practical bull, and the decision was inevitable. Of all the motions that were fabricated on Mr. Irving’s question, I think the one adopted was the best.
I grieve for poor Campbell. He was probably right in idea, but if he obstinately persist in couching that right idea in a wrong phraseology, he may not be the less dangerous as an expounder of truth. The man whose sound views may save himself, might still, by abandoning the form of sound words, mislead others. Yet I cannot help being in great heaviness on his account.
It is ominous that Spencer Drummond, who is now in Edin burgh, should at this moment have seceded from the Church of England because of its tenet of universal redemption, when our own tenet of particular redemption has driven Mr. Campbell beyond the pale of the Scottish Establishment.
I never leave Broomhall without the feeling of its being the most congenial moral atmosphere I breathe anywhere. My regret at parting from it at this time was aggravated greatly by what I perceived were the sufferings of Lord Elgin. It is our duty earnestly to pray for their alleviation. — I have the honour to be, my Lady, your Ladyship’s most obliged and obedient servant, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXXIX. — To LADY MATILDA MAXWELL.
22d October 1843.
DEAR LADY MATILDA, — I very sincerely regret that I cannot avail myself of your kind invitation — obliged to leave on Wednesday, and engrossed every moment before it. I must confess myself to have been greatly touched by your allusions, both to your dear father and to poor Lady Elgin, whose tragical death moved and affected me greatly.
I should have rejoiced if I had had it in my power to have taken refuge for a few days in the asylum of peace and friendship which your goodness has proposed for me; there to have renewed the associations of former days, and to have had a brief but happy breathing time from the fatigues and anxieties of this stormy period.
I beg that you will offer my most respectful acknowledgments to Mr. Maxwell; and with earnest prayer that we may all meet in that Heaven where separation is unknown, and charity ever reigneth, I always am, my dear Lady Matilda, yours with greatest esteem and regard, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXXX. — To LADY CARNEGIE.
Glasgow, 3d February 1823.
MY DEAR LADY CARNEGIE, — I have looked over the papers which relate to Ireland, and shall give them over to Mr. M’Gregor as your Ladyship directed me.
I feel the weight and magnitude of the object to be such that I would not venture on any deliverance without the actual survey of an Irish district in person, and the leisurely attention of many weeks to the topic in all its bearings. I shall therefore satisfy myself at present with a few remarks that have occurred to me during the perusal of those interesting documents which have been put into my hand.
1. I rejoice to observe a progress towards that subdivision of effort which is so requisite. In proportion as this is carried forward will there be a relief felt from that unwieldiness which has hitherto stamped such an impotency on all the plans of a very ambitious and extended benevolence.
2. So much am I impressed with the truth of the above remark, that I should have greater comfort in the meantime did I contribute my subscription to one complete and concentrated operation on a single parish than to a thin and evanescent sprinkling of good over a whole country. I feel quite assured that the exhibition of a model in philanthropy will do more for the cause than a magnificent aim with an execution that lags at a most hopeless distance behind it. The success of a process upon an experimental farm would give a far more beneficial impulse to agriculture than a large grant from the Exchequer, to be divided equally among all the parishes of the empire.
3. I feel the more comfort in advancing this suggestion that I do not thereby supercede or discourage any extended operation which may be going on at present in the county of Clare. I simply recommend as an addition to the whole that there shall be the singling out of one manageable parish in which there may be immediately established a full system of the means of moral and economical amelioration devised on the soundest principles, and which shall not be suffered to labour under the want or the shortcoming of any one instrument that is fitted to give efficacy to the experiment.
4. I liked the small pamphlet very much, and chiefly because of the intercourse which its plans would necessarily produce between females of the higher and lower orders. All my ex perience has convinced me that from no human influence does a more rapid civilisation ensue than from the personal attention of ladies to the children of the poor.
5. I liked the simplicity of its objects, viz., the cleanliness and personal habits of the peasantry, and to which I would superadd, as far as practicable, their education, comprehensive of reading to all, and sewing to the girls.
6. It is a mistake to think that there is no limit to profitable work; we can no more provide work for the employment of all in a well-peopled country than food for the subsistence of all. I should like to see every plan delivered from errors in political economy; and be assured that there is no permanent amelioration to be looked for but in such an elevation of mind and manners throughout the general mass of the natives as that, under the impulse of their own improved taste, they shall at length become the willing agents in raising and improving their own condition. You will always find that, in the absence of poor-rates, the average style of comfort among the people determines their habits, whether of prudence or of precipitation as to marriage. Should a higher demand for comfort be at length introduced among the peasantry of Ireland, this would restrain these improvident connexions which I hold to be a palpable and im mediate cause of wretchedness in every population. Now, this is not to be done in a day; let us be thankful if it should be done in a century, and meanwhile let each of us suit his movements to the mediocrity of his powers, more satisfied with doing a small thing thoroughly well, than with the short-lived glory of a splendid enterprise that vanishes in smoke. — I am, &c., No. CCLXXXL — To LADY O’BRIEN.
MY DEAR LADY O’BRIEN, — 1. I should even think Ennis to be too wide a field, and I should prefer a district of the town with a population of three thousand, and this district the poorest in the place.
2. A chapel to be built in it, with a minister who had the zeal and spirit of a most devoted missionary, but who at the same time, totally free of all partisanship, could so manage his addresses, both from the pulpit and in private houses, as never once to advert to such a distinction as that which obtains between Catholics and Protestants. This I think he may do under the single impulse of a desire for the spiritual and everlasting good of all, and without any dereliction of that faithfulness which is incumbent upon him as an expounder of God’s will for man’s salvation.
3. The way to mark that more special reference which the chapel has to the district than to the general town is, first, by holding out the preference for seats to those who reside within the limits of the district; and secondly, by the minister’s assiduous cultivation of it as the peculiar vineyard of his household and week-day attentions.
4. Let not the sittings be gratuitous. If the people are poor, let the seat-rent be the smaller on that account; but let there be a rent however trifling, that the people may have a feeling of property in their assigned pews, and more especially that there may be a distinct and tangible right by which to fence the local congregation from the intrusions of the town at large.
5. The demand for seats may at first be small, but the unwearied ministrations of the clergyman from house to house will make it great. “Whatever vacant room is over after the local demand has been met and satisfied, should then be exposed to the whole population.
6. The minister will soon obtain such an ascendency over the families of his district as would render him the efficient instrument for stimulating all those economic and educational processes that might be judged expedient.
7. He should be a man wrho, standing between the rich and the poor, could as fearlessly tell the latter of their duty in respect of industry, independence, cleanliness, &c., as he could tell the former of their duty as the stewards and almoners of Heaven’s bounty.
8. And he should know that it is utterly impossible to achieve one valuable object of philanthropy by letting forth all the streams of affluence on the relief of indigence, that this last duty should be performed unseen, and without the publicity which combination is sure to give it; and that the only visible movement in behalf of the poor, (in ordinary times,) should be for the purpose of moralizing and enlightening them; it being always understood that every scheme, even for their temporal comfort, will fail, which is not founded on the basis of their own improved hearts and habits.
2 G
9. The minister will be greatly the better of a band of associates, with each having the management of his own sub-district, and being thoroughly impressed with kindred principles to his own, both in regard to the economics of the people and their higher interests.
I am aware of many difficulties which might be felt in the perusal of the above sketch; but I shall not anticipate them, and rather leave them to be started ere I attempt to do them away.
N.B. — The effect of repeated domiciliary visits, when conducted with kindness and judgment, is altogether unknown, and even the obstinacy of Catholic prejudices is not able to withstand it. — Yours, &c., THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXXXIL
Glasgow, llth May 1823.
MY DEAR MADAM, — I have perused with great interest the letters of Lady O’Brien, and have transmitted them to Mr. M’Gregor. I still think, that instead of taking any other part in the more extended movements which are going on for Ireland than subscribing for them as others do, her Ladyship would serve the cause more effectually by concentrating her strength upon a third part of the town of Ennis.
The regeneration of a country is never to be accomplished in; any other way than by a piecemeal operation — by each individual philanthropist doing his part within a sphere that is commensurate to his influence and to his powers. When the Spirit of God writes in many hearts the sacred law, then the owner of each individual heart will go forth upon that portion of the field which is within his reach, and do with all his might that which his hand findeth to do. It is not the local system that will regenerate our land, but a host of spiritual men must go forth in the day of God’s power, and calculating aright on the most effective way of distributing their forces. I think that the result of this concentration would be the adoption of the local system with a busy operation of separate and parochial activities over the face of our kingdom. Still it is the Spirit of God that is the prime mover; still the helplessness of man and the need of prayer must ever obtrude themselves on the notice of Him that looks to the whole question, and attentively regards all the parts and all the bearings of it. Without the descent of living water from above, the local system does not more for a country than the best apparatus of aqueducts for irrigation could fertilize it without rain — as little for it as the agricultural processes of Egypt could avail without the annual overflow of their great river. — I am yours, &c., No. CCLXXXIII. — To SIR ANDREW AGNEW, BART.
Lochryan, 31st August 1838.
MY DEAR SIR ANDREW, — The inclosed paper is very well drawn up, nor am I aware of any amendment that can be made upon it. Allow me, however, earnestly to suggest, that before the managers of the new church at Leswalt attempt distant places they would make a thorough operation on their own neighbourhood. It is not, as you well know, large individual subscriptions that I am contending for, but a general and diffused application by which all who are willing might have the opportunity of making their contributions, however small. I would fain hope that if this were done, the adequate funds might be obtained without the necessity of going beyond the confines of Wigtonshire.
The reason why I do not add my own name to those of the gentlemen who have subscribed this paper is, that from the position I hold I should be exposed to similar applications from all quarters, and so be placed under the necessity either of giving my name in every instance, or of giving offence by refusing it in those cases where I judge it were better that the most strenuous attempts were made to realize the whole sum necessary in home produce rather than foreign aid.
Before I close, I cannot adequately express the deep sense I have of your great kindness and liberality to myself. It is a great contribution you have made to our cause, that from the moment of my touching Stranraer to the moment of my leaving it, you have franked and taken charge of the whole intermediate locomotion, comprising two Presbyteries.* After you had
* “Saturday, August 18th. — Left Fairley at ten. Looked with great interest to the coast all the way from Girvan to Lochryan; it being quite new to me, and maintaining throughout the character of a simple, remote, and solitary glen. Got to Stranraer about nine. The town looked impressive as we approached it — it forming a crescent, and its twinkling lights spread before us in this form. Sir Andrew Agnew waiting our arrival. He introduced us to Colonel M’Dowal; and took us (me and Mr. Collins) in his carriage to Lochnaw Castle, six miles off.
“Tuesday, 2 Is*. — Went to the Presbytery at twelve. Spoke at great length on Church Extension in a meeting-house, to an audience more limited than it would have been, had not the public misunderstood the intimations. Made the acquaintance of Mr. Symington, Cameronian minister here, for whom I have great value.
“Wednesday, 22d.* — The work of this day has been two-fold; first, the forming a Parish Association for Leswalt, which was done in Sir Andrew’s house — the parish minister, and several elders, farmers, and others, having met and adopted our regulations. Went at two, in Sir Andrew’s carriage, to Portpatrick, where I held another meeting with the minister in his manse, and elders, and farmers, and others; and where also Colonel Hunter Blair, Colonel Vans Agnew, Mr. Blair, M.P. and Captain Little, attended. Had a good deal of talk here; and after have ing settled this business, went forth to the harbour, and enjoyed exceedingly the bold rocky beach. Then scrambled along the beach in another direction from Dunskey Castle. Got at length into a den beautifully wooded, and watered with a noble fall, which conducted us to Dunskey House, belonging to Colonel Hunter Blair, who had many visitors.
“Thursday, 2Sd. — I rose about seven. Walked out to a beautiful den, which terminates in the beach. Then laved my hands in the Irish Sea, and returned again through the den, beautifully wooded, and furnished with chairs and wooden bridges; and I thought that had Helen and Fanny been with me, how objectively they would have gazed at the rushing cascade, and the airy seats placed at different points for the best views. Spoke to a crowded audience in Mr. Symington’s church on Church Extension, to my own and the people’s satisfaction. Went off to Lochnaw Castle.
“Friday 24«A. — Sir Andrew’s carriage took us to a most beautiful bathingcottage on the sea-side, where the family reside often for many weeks together. It is situated most romantically in a secluded recess on the beach, with braes, and done so much, I did not object to your settling with the driver at Glenluce, so as that there might be no exception to the munificence of such a help to me through so large a tract of country; but after you had done so much you should have done no more; and, allow me to say, it was ultra or beyond all that ought to have been done that you should propose to bear any part of my
rocks, and famous scrambling heights, on each side of it, and before it the sea, with an expanse of fine yellow sand at low water. Mrs. Chalmers and I are invited to take up our residence there, enfamille, for as many weeks in summer as we like; and well do I know how the explorations, and the climbings, and the shell-gatherings, and the bathings, would be enjoyed by Helen and Fanny in this deep and peaceful solitude.
“Sunday, 26th. — Another day of complete rest. Enjoyed the quietness of the sacred Sabbath morn. Had family worship and exposition in the evening; and as Sir Andrew and I were next day to take leave early, I bade a grateful and affectionate adieu to the rest of the family.
“Monday, 27th — Instead of taking the direct road to Wigton, Sir Andrew was kind enough to take me round by the coast, for the sake of its interesting scenery. A plain, pristine, russet-looking country, poor in produce, but not of unpleasing aspect, with rocks peering forth of the verdure everywhere, and a beach which presents a number of fantastic and impressive forms. Had the kindest possible reception from Colonel Vans Agnew.
“Tuesday, 2,8th. — A general movement to Wigton, four miles off, at one. Several carriages put into requisition. We landed at Mr. Young’s, the clergyman of Wigton — a most beautiful village, both in respect of its site and its interior, placed on a gentle eminence, where it commands a noble view of Wigton Bay. The church quite full, as indeed I had been led to expect from seeing at least twenty carriages on the street when we entered the town. I delivered my address from the precentor’s desk; and it went off apparently with the entire and cordial approbation of the audience. Sir Andrew took me out in his carriage to Cumloden, not the seat but the cottage of Lord Galloway. It was a ride in the dark of about nine miles, through, I was told, a very beautiful country, chiefly along the Cree. Passed through Newton Stewart, and about a mile on reached Cumloden, where Lord and Lady Galloway (their visitors having all retired to bed) gave us r, very flattering reception.
“Wednesday, 29th. — Cumloden is a most enchanting place; a large cottage spread over a great extent of floor, with but one good story of numerous apart-” ments and attics above it. A highly-decorated lawn of shrubbery and clumps of trees, and at one place a bushy flower garden; a brawling river, tributary to the Cree, of rapid descent, and which a shower swells into a torrent; a noble Alpine background of northern hills, on the confines of Galloway and Ayrshire, with beautiful glimpses of nearer objects, as the tower of >Jinigaff Church, &c. Walked with Sir Andrew to Minigaff, about a mile off. Every step disclosed new charms of landscape. Minigaff itself has a manse like a rectory, with a most gentleman like approach; and the view from its front door, comprehending the banks of the expenses after leaving Stranraer. When Mr. Symington told mo that you insisted on settling for the chaise-hire to Cairnryan, I felt doubly ashamed of all your goodness to me, though doubly grateful for your kind feelings both to myself and to the great object of Church Extension in Scotland.
Will you forgive me if I entreat that you will not exceed in
wooded Cree, rolling past and before it its dark moss-coloured waters, is one of the most exquisite I ever saw. Walked to the church, at whose door there was a number of carriages. A large meeting of people whom I addressed on Church Extension. Mr. Blair took me in his carriage to Penningham House, his mansion.
“Thursday, August 31st. — Went in cavalcade with a riding horse and two open carriages six miles up the Cree, to a small church now building for a simple and upland population. Delighted with the scenery on the banks of this river, more especially when the Minwick enters it, which one might trace upward through a most romantic and remote glen, but at the entry of which into the Cree, also, we are presented with a truly interesting panorama of level cultivation, skirted by rocky eminences, and expanding upward into ascents of a bolder character, which terminate at length in a noble Alpine boundary projected upon the sky. After our upland survey of this new parochial locality, with its rising church and now completed school, was driven forward by Mr. Gordon to Newton Stewart, and then took leave of my numerous conductors. The views over the Cree from this to the parish of Minigaff are truly glorious. Went alone into Sir Andrew’s carriage. Rode sixteen miles in it by myself over a plain, pristine, peat country, not without its charms, however, and which kept my interest perpetually alive, from my have ing with me a map of Wigtonshire, by which I could verify the hills, rivers, and places. Passed the Church of Kirkcowan half a mile on my left. Got to Glenluce about three. Sir Andrew joined me there, and we got on six miles farther to Dunragget, the seat of Sir James Hay. The Misses Hay, and particularly Susan, greatly interested in my movement here. It seems two Glasgow voluntaries — the Rev. Messrs. King and Anderson — are now hanging upon my rear, and held a meeting after me at Stranraer, which has turned out a failure. They tried to evade the hissing by stating that they would understand every hiss to be directed n gainst the doctrine which they were opposing; and then Mr. Anderson fell foul of me, and they, unmindful of his interpretation, began lustily to hiss; he, as unmindful of his own position, felt greatly annoyed, saying, What, will you hiss the great Dr. Chalmers? Left Dunragget about seven. Landed in Mr. Symington’s, where I took leave of Sir Andrew, and who undertook to order a post-chaise for me to Cairnryan, the place of General Sir Alexander Wallace, whither Mr. Symington and I went, and where we landed about ten, and got a warm welcome, a warm room, and warm and comfortable bed.
“Friday, August 31st. — Lady Wallace and Sir Alexander both very cordial. Took leave at ten, greatly rested and refreshed by this quiet family visit. Got into the mail for Ayr. Entered inside; but was so delighted with the scenery, that I soon got outside. Reached Ayr at ten.” — Extracted from Dr. Chalmers’s Journal. — See Memoirs, vol. iv. p. 166.
your public liberalities, for my impression is, and I state it frankly, that your disposition is to encroach on the duty which a man owes to those of his own household. Do indulge me in the freedom I use. You have done more for our cause by your testimony and personal countenance than you could have done by any pecuniary contribution. It is to the multitude of subscribers, and not to the enlargement of subscriptions that I look for the increase of our means.
With best regards to Lady and Miss Harriet Agnew, and to one and all of your dear family, I have the honour to be, dear Sir Andrew, yours most gratefully and respectfully, No. CCLXXXIV. — To MR. THOMAS WALKER, FLESHER, GALASHIELS.
Burntisland, 1st July 1840.
MY DEAR SIR, — I received your letter of the 22d, and read it with the greatest interest — admiring as I do greatly both the sentiments which it expresses and the spirit which it breathes. The excellence of that composition, as well as the account I have received of you from your worthy and esteemed clergyman Mr. Veitch, has encouraged me to address you as an acquaintance and a friend.
Next to the approbation of my own conscience do I value such a testimony as yours, and more especially as coming from one in your class of society; and I feel it to be an ample compensation for all the discouragements which I have experienced in my attempts to extend the means of a pure Christian education for the people of our land.
I can truly say, that after the salvation of the working classes there is no object which I have more at heart than their elevation in the scale of comfort — only to be attained I think, however, through the medium of their own worth and their own intelligence. And I am therefore all the more cheered
3GO CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. CHALMERS.
and gratified in every new instance I meet with of their high capabilities for mental and moral improvement. I do hope that the influence of your example and your exertions will tell powerfully in the diffusion of a spirit and principles like your own throughout the mass of our population.
I spend the winter months in Edinburgh. Should you ever visit the capital at that season, I beg you will call on me and let me make your personal acquaintance. — With many thanks for your kind and encouraging communication, I am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXXXV. — To KEV. DR. STRACHAN, BISHOP OF TORONTO.
Burntisland, 1st May 1841.
MY DEAR SIR, — I received your letter a few days ago, and have read it with the greatest interest. I spent ten days lately with Professor Duncan, and both he and I put it down to the account of your honest, we have the vanity to think, your intense, and cordial friendship for us that you have given us so kind and affectionate an invitation. Though older, he is stronger and healthier than I; and I must acknowledge that, apart from engagements altogether, I should, on the consciousness of my infirm and irregular health alone, shrink from a voyage and then a journey of such magnitude. I fear that with me it must ever remain a speculation; but I am not the less grateful on that account for the effusion of so much regard to one of your earliest companions.
Besides the great kindness of your letter, I was much interested by its subject-matter. I had before read your letter in the Times, and think that you have made out a complete case. I can also well believe that no injustice against you either in the public papers or by public men will ever countervail the substantial good-will which your official and personal attentions are sure to gain from all the classes of your extensive diocese amongst whom you expatiate. It is here that the real strength of clergymen lies, and I have no doubt that the know ledge and experience of this go far to explain the passionate hostility felt towards every conscientious and well-principled ecclesiastic on the part of chartists, radicals, and all those who have leagued themselves against social order and the stability of our existing institutions.
I rejoice in your willingness to entrust with so much power every man above twenty-one, “provided his religious principles are sound, and that he felt it matter of conscience to exercise it aright. Give a man a strong feeling of moral responsibility, &c.” — Your strictures on De Tocqueville are admirably just, in that he would confide power to a people merely on the score of their secular education. But, on the other hand, our High Church conservatives are as wide of the truth as he who apprehends danger in confiding any ecclesiastical franchise to a people whatever their religious knowledge and character might be, and though they should pass through the ordeal of the most strict and conscientious examination previous to their entry on the roll of our communicants: in other words, nothing can be more blind or ignorant than the prejudice of those hard and impracticable Tories amongst us who spy democracy in the present doings of our Kirk — the most distinguished for loyalty and love of order of any corporation in the known world.
We are steering on the middle path .between Puseyism on the one hand and Voluntaryism on the other. I do not say that we will succeed, but it is my firm belief that if we do not, National Establishments of Christianity will and ought to be put down, not for a perpetuity, but till that period when the kingdoms of the earth shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Give my best regards to your son whom I met at Pennicuik,
2 H and of whom I entertain a very pleasant recollection. — I arn, my very dear Sir, yours most cordially, THOMAS CHALMERS.
What weighs with Mr. Duncan against the proposed voyage is the apprehended loss of the “President.” — T. C.
No. CCLXXXVL — To PROFESSOR DUNCAN.
Edinburgh, 29th December 1842.
MY VERY DEAR SIR, — I am just now at holiday time trying to work my way through unanswered letters, among which I find two bearing the subscription of your much-loved name — the one dated the 12th of November, the other, ingrate that I am, the 12th of October.
On the subject of the first I share in the horror you express at the cruelty of slaughtering animals for amusement. I think that their being even slaughtered for food is one of the greatest enigmas of our present mysterious world. The day is coming, however, when “the mystery of God will be finished,” (Rev. x.,) and this, with all other difficulties, will be solved. — Ever be lieve me, my dear Sir, yours very affectionately and truly, No. CCLXXXVIL — To PROFESSOR DUNCAN.
Mornlngside, 7th September 1844.
MY DEAR SIR, — Can you tell me of any author who treats of the properties and progression of prime numbers? The follow ing is a curious order, observed for some time, in the proportion which the composite numbers bear to all others, and from which I had hoped that the absolute proportions of the composites to the primes throughout the whole infinity of numbers might have been ascertained within an indefinitely near approximation: —
The numbers in which 2 does not enter as an aliquot part are to number at large as 1 to 2, or £.
The numbers in which 2 and 3 do not enter as aliquot parts are as 1 to 3, or f.
The numbers in which 2, 3, and 5 do not enter, as 4 to 15, or ,v
The numbers in which 2, 3, 5, 7, do not enter, as 8 to 35, or 3”5.
The numbers in which 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, do not enter, as 16 to 77, or H-See the promise then I had on entering this investigation, that, if you take the primes in order, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, &c., you would arrive at the general proportion that the composites formed of them successively would so run as to leave remainders, which bore to all numbers proportions expressed by fractions, whose numerators each double its predecessor, as 2, 4, 8, 1 6, &c., and whose denominators were the products of the two last prime numbers that had been taken up in the progress of the investigation, as, 2 — 1 x 2, 6 = 2 x 3, 15 = 3x5, 35 = 5 x 7, and 77 — 11 x 7. Judge of my disappointment then, when proceeding to the next prime number 13, and expecting the result -AV I found it very difficult, and thus has my goodly progression been most cruelly put an end to. — Yours very truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.
No. CCLXXXVIIL — To PROFESSOR DUNCAN,
Edinburgh, 14tk Deeember 1845.
MY DEAR SIR, — I should not have written you on Sabbath, but for the subject on which I mean to address you, and to which I shall confine myself. I have long had the utmost regard for you. There is not a human being whom, without the circle of my relationship, I like nearly so well. But, though i affectionate towards you, I have not been faithful. Consider how soon both you and I will bo mouldering in our coffins. Heaven grant that we may both share in a blessed resurrection, through our common interest in Him who hath said, “I am the resurrection and the life,” &c. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours very affectionately and truly, No. CCLXXXIX. — To PROFESSOR DUNCAN.
Morningside, 13th September 1846.
MY DEAR SIR, — It has come at last. This death falls upon your heart as if it were a new lesson which you had still to learn. Oh, that this sorrow of nature were ripened and transformed by divine grace into that godly sorrow which worketh repentance unto salvation never to be repented of. Eternal life is not a thing to be got anyhow. There is a precise, definite, and let me add, only and exclusive way laid down for the attainment of it — a way authoritatively pointed out and prescribed by Heaven. He who hath the Son hath life; he who hath not the Son hath not life. Christ says of Himself, “I am the way,, the truth, and the life — by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved;” and, “No man cometh unto the Father but by the Son.” Let us not quarrel with this way, more especially as it is open to all of us: “Whosoever cometh unto me shall not be cast out;” “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved,” It is for God, the offended party, and not for us, the offenders, to dictate the terms and the treaty of reconciliation. Heaven grant that you may be led henceforth to bestow an earnest heed on the Word of His testimony till the day dawn and the day-star arise in your heart. Read the Epistle to the Romans; and if you furthermore read my printed Lectures upon them, you will have at least my views on the method and way of salvation grounded on my understanding of this portion of the Divine record. May our Father in Heaven bless this exercise to your soul, and so open your understanding to understand His Scriptures that you shall become thereby wise unto salvation.
It is to me a striking coincidence that, on the day before I received the intimation of your brother’s death, I attended the funeral of Daniel Ramsay,* an inmate of Gillespie’s Hospital, in my vicinity here. I go to perform family worship there this evening, when it will be my duty to improve this event to the survivors — all old persons above sixty. The reminiscences of more than half a century have been powerfully and feelingly awakened by both these events. May they tell efficiently and abidingly upon us both; for the time is fast approaching when we too shall be laid on the bed of our last agonies.
I shall not close this letter till I have returned from the evening service at the Hospital.
I have returned from my household sermon to the old people. The text was, “The time is short;” but, in addition to this argument, I endeavoured to press home the growing callousness of the heart to the invitations of the Gospel; yet, nevertheless, the perfect freeness of that Gospel, the benefits and immunities of which are theirs if they will; and on their acceptance of these, they will receive a new heart here, and the joys of an unfading inheritance hereafter.
It is my earnest prayer that God may thus dispose and enable you to receive that truth which is to be found in His Word, and which, if gifted by the Spirit to understand it, you will find to be the power and wisdom of God unto salvation. — Ever believe me, my dear Sir, yours most affectionately and truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.
* See Memoirs, vol. i. p. 6.
[Copy of Correspondence between the Rev. Dr. Thomas Chalmers, Professor of Moral Philosophy, St. Andrews, and Dr. Thomas Easton, Minister of Kirriemulr, in reference to the Pauperism of that parish.]
No. CCXC. — DR. EASTON TO DR. CHALMERS.
Kirriemuir, 26th January 1827.
REV. SIR, — My parishioner, Mr. James Aitken Wylie,* have ing incidentally mentioned that you had been pleased to speak kindly in your class of my statements relative to the pauperism of Kirriemuir, I happened to say to him that I was extremely desirous to obtain your opinion on a question of importance connected with the subject of pauperism. I then stated to him the question to which I referred; and having the utmost confidence to place in the prudence and discretion of the young man, whom I have known from his childhood, I took the liberty of stating to him, that if a suitable opportunity pre sented itself, he would oblige me by laying it before you. His answer, written on his return to St. Andrews, has been re ceived, in which he states your willingness to hear from me on the subject.
The case is this: — It has been my object to meet the pauperism of this large and populous parish chiefly by collections made by my congregation in the church; and hitherto they have been such as nearly to answer the demands made on us. Now, my difficulty is this. The population of the parish is rapidly increasing, and it may be expected that pauperism will increase in a like ratio; but as the church accommodates a part only of the population, being seated for 1240, there is no hope that the collections of my church will be sufficient long to meet the pauperism, that I cannot but foresee is coming upon us. In point
* Then a talented young man of great promise, and now the Reverend Mr. Wylie, the respected author of many learned works, and more especially of the ‘• Papacy, its History, Dogmas, Genius, and Prospects.”
of fact, the collections are at present, as I ever expect them to be, averaging from £135 to £140 per annum, in halfpence and penny pieces. How then am I to meet the pauperism which must necessarily arise from an increased population? We may expect more cases of insanity, more widows and orphans.
Perhaps one or other of three schemes may be adopted. The first is, let the parish be divided into sections, and let every district provide for its own poor. I fear we are not all Christian enough to trust to this scheme. There are also more poor in one district than in another. Several of our paupers reside in Dundee, and in other towns and parishes.
The second is, let the people add to the amount of their collections. If every individual would contribute a penny weekly in place of a halfpenny, the amount would be doubled. But the far greater part of my numerous congregation is comparatively in moderate circumstances, the heritors and most of the wealthiest of the people being Episcopalians.
The third is, let the church be enlarged, or a chapel of ease be erected. I have had the church examined by an architect of eminence, but his opinion is, that the roof is of a construction so peculiar that it cannot be interfered with. A chapel of ease would be an effectual remedy; but though I have urged the erection of one, I have as yet failed in persuading the people to undertake it. I am afraid, therefore, that unless you can suggest a way of escape, we must at last yield to necessity, and submit to assessments; the many evils of which have often been shewn, but by none so well as yourself. — I ever am, Rev. Sir, your most obedient servant, THOMAS EASTON.
No. CCXCT. — DR. CHALMERS TO DR. EASTON.
St. Andrews, Qth February 1827.
MY DEAR SIR, — I should have replied to your interesting letter sooner. I fear you will think my advice somewhat too general, though I deem it founded on an experience that is quite universal, and which I feel confident that you also will verify should you attempt to enlarge your fund by assessment. The experience is this, that you really do not, by an assessment, make your escape from the difficulties which bring it on. You do not even lighten these difficulties. You may for a time; but you will most assuredly aggravate them in the long run, and will be sure to find that, after all, you have less of comfort, and more of clamour and complaint among your population than at the outset of your compulsory system. Admitting, therefore, fully the existence of the difficulties which you allege, I hold it, on the above consideration alone, to be your true wisdom, rather to acquiesce in them, and manage with your humbler means as you can, than by a forced augmentation of these means, strengthen those evils, which in their present less degree you will find to be far more tolerable.
You state the small accommodation that you have in church for your populous parish, and how from this cause, what would have gone to swell your collection, now goes to the collections of your meeting-houses. On ecclesiastical or Christian grounds, I hold it very desirable that your accommodation should be widened; but I confess that I should not be very anxious about it for the economic object of a more liberal public provision for the poor. My own confidence all along in Glasgow was not upon means, but upon management; and not so much on the positive activity and strenuousness of that management, as on the co-operation of men who thought with myself, that the best way of disposing of every application, was by strict investigation into all the resources of the applicant, to devolve him as much as possible on his own industry, or on the dutv of his relatives, or on the sympathy of his neighbours, or lastly, (though we very rarely indeed had recourse to such an expedient,) on the private liberalities of the more affluent. But we were quite sure, that just in proportion to the regularity, and certainty, and largeness of our sessional ministrations, would all these better securities for the relief of distress be slackened in the parish, — and so, proclaiming the insignificance of all that we could do, we devolved the burden on those upon whom Nature and Christianity had devolved it before us, and felt that the indefinitely nearer we came to a cheap and moderate, and withal gratuitous economy on the part of the public body, the more plentifully did relief flow from all those private sources of industry and sympathy which I have now enumerated. It was not my presence which achieved this. The thing goes on more prosperously since I left it; and our chapel district, with a population of 5000, is upheld by a collection of less than £00 in the year.
Try gradually, and get hold of men who think right upon this object; and though you cannot fill the parish all at once with them, give each a district as he casts up, and let him fully understand, that that man does his duty best to the Session who gives the Session least to do. You will find that each new elder might nearly relieve you of his own district altogether.
I have just room to assure you, that, with some few modifications, I thought exceedingly well of your book, and hailed it as an accession to a good cause. I should express my obligations for your very handsome treatment of myself in that volume. — I am, my dear Sir, yours most truly, No. CCXCIL — DR. EASTON TO DR. CHALMERS.
Kirriemuir, IGtlt February 1827.
REV. SIR, — Your letter of the 6th current I received in course, and I beg leave to return you my warmest thanks for the trouble you have been at in answering my letter of 26th January last. You have indeed bestowed a great deal of attention on the subject to which it refers. What you say is exceedingly satisfactory, and you may be assured that I am grateful for the recommendations you suggest. The only addition, practically speaking, which I would venture to make — improvement I cannot take it upon me to call it — is to classify the cases of poor, and, if we are driven to the expedient, to allow the heritors to provide for the insane, the fatuous, the blind, and to relieve the others from the church collection.
There is an analogical objection that may be urged against the voluntary relief of the poor, which has often occurred to me, and to which I am desirous to draw your attention, — one which I have never seen alluded to by any one. It is an argument founded on what you yourself have said respecting religious education. You object to the leaving of religious education to the principle of supply and demand, because, you say, that, owing to the corruption of human nature, men are naturally averse to spiritual truth, and it is necessary, there fore, that, by means of endowment, it should be brought to every man’s door. But may it not be said that, owing to the same cause, men do not naturally love their neighbours as they ought, and therefore it is necessary that human laws should compel them to relieve the wants of the needy.
As I am aware how very valuable your time is, I do not expect an answer to this letter. — I am, dear Sir, most respectfully yours, THOMAS EASTON.
No. CCXCIIL — DR. CHALMERS TO DR. EASTON.
St. Andrews, 22d February 1827.
MY DEAR SIR, — Your letter is too interesting not to be replied to.
You are quite right in your views of the distinction which obtains between the cases of general indigence and the cases of special and involuntary distress, such as lunacy, dumbness, blindness, &c. There would not be the mischief in assessing for these that there is in assessing for poverty at large, because such an assessment would not multiply its objects, and not go beyond a certain definite amount. Still, however, it is greatly better not to have even this more innocent assessment, for the one is extremely apt to run into the other, and I would far rather struggle to overtake the more special visitations by the collections and purely voluntary subscriptions, than attempt aught so dangerous as the admission of the compulsory into the business of charity in any of its parts.
Your analogical argument in favour of assessments is ingenious, and to myself new. Yet, on a narrower view of the actual similarities and dissimilarities between the course of instruction on the one hand, and the course of the ordinary relief of poverty on the other, I am persuaded it will not be found tenable. “When the course of poverty is left to itself, then in proportion to the aggravation of its distress is the strength and efficiency of these counteractives by which it is mitigated, if not done away. Men are more goaded to industry and thrift, their relatives more excited to duty, their neighbours more awakened to compassion, and the rich more alive to voluntary exertion. When the course of ignorance is left to itself, then in proportion to the aggravation of that ignorance is the growing apathy to the evils of it, and an apathy which extends from the uneducated man to his neighbours, just be cause they too live in a land unblest by education. The institutions for knowledge, besides, can accomplish their object purely and without adulteration. The institutions for general relief, in as far as they may be said to accomplish their object at all, do so at the fearful expense of every virtue concerned in the administration of charity, putting tonight the gratitude of the recipients, and the spontaneous generosity of the dispensers. — I am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.