The following blogs on Thomas Chalmers are part of an address given by my father in law, the Rev James Maciver, in 1997 at the Scottish Historical Studies Conference and used by kind permission. You can listen to the original address here.
It is exceedingly difficult for us today to project ourselves back into the circumstances, ecclesiastically and nationally, that prevailed in the life and times of Thomas Chalmers. In comparing Victorian politics and the church in Scotland then with the present day we are soon aware that it is not a comparison of like with like, so many, and so revolutionary, have changes been in church and state, and even in the relation between them.
For example, to consider only the areas in which Chalmers was actively interested and influential, there was no Social Security system as such for the poor, no church bureaucracy to speak of, no National Health care, and no universal State education system.
Yet it would be very wrong of us to conclude that these changes have meant universal improvement in church and State, or that the Church is more effective in Gospel influence, or social concern and action, than the church of Chalmers. Indeed, to a man like Chalmers some of the above-mentioned changes, like the secularisation of social care, would undoubtedly have been an encumbrance to the carrying of his convictions towards a successful conclusion.
To look into the life and times of Chalmers will make us thankful for our present-day privileges in Church and State, but it will also make us feel very small, and often very guilty. This is because we shall be confronting vibrant faith, energetic concern and action, in the service of God, borne of a burden to have every individual know a decent education, an adequate employment, and above all a saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We may persuade ourselves that we have inherited the Gospel principles of Chalmers and his colleagues, but after examining his life's work in his own time, it will be another thing that we can say we have consciously inherited, to the same extent, his Gospel practice.
In looking at this man’s life and times we cannot hope to include all that is of interest and importance in such a short space as this booklet. I have tried to major on issues involving Chalmers that were of national significance, and in which he left a lasting impression on subsequent generations. I make no pretence at any new thoughts, or even any adequate assessment of Chalmers and his work, although I will try to give an appraisal of some of the issues involved.
To this end I have avoided dividing the subject into an initial biographical account followed by a commentary on the main issues of his life's work. Instead I have tried to incorporate the details of his work and its environment into the framework of a chronological unfolding of his life. His life and times divides rather conveniently into six periods.
1. Early Days - 1780-1803
Born at Anstruther on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th, 1780, Thomas Chalmers was the fifth child in a family of fifteen. His parents were hearty and happy Calvinist Christians, a theology which Thomas was to dislike until he came to be born again during his ministry at Kilmany.
Education and Career
His early school days were not characterised by the great industry of mind which many later would admire in him. In fact, he was rather lazy by all accounts, and yet from the outset he had that generosity and kindliness that marked him throughout his whole life.
Before he had reached the age of twelve Thomas was sent to the University of St. Andrews where he gained his enthusiasm for mathematics. Not only was his mind so obviously a mathematical one, but it could be argued that it was such a mathematical mind that enabled him to absorb the substantial truths of life itself, looking at their relations and proportions, and then applying his conclusions with great power.
It was even in mathematical terms that he reflected on the change that God wrought in his life in his conversion. In arguing against pluralities he was challenged by someone who reminded him that he had once written a pamphlet in favour of what he now argued against. Indeed, he had, he said, but that had been in the days of his spiritual blindness. He continued,
"What, sir, are the objects of mathematical science? Magnitude, and the relations of magnitude. But then, sir, I had forgot two magnitudes: I thought not on the littleness of time; I recklessly thought not on the greatness of eternity!"
Chalmers decided to study for the ministry although neither theology nor religion were then attractive subjects to him. He had a belief in God and could express great admiration for the wisdom of God through reading such works as Jonathan Edwards of The Freedom of the Will, but at the same time he positively rejected evangelical truth.
His style of discourse was developed in the first two years of these studies, a style which interestingly remained largely unaltered throughout the rest of his career. Indeed in 1842 on the very brink of the Disruption, at the meeting known as the Convocation, Chalmers gave a stirring speech in which he sought to make the demands of a disestablished church clear but impressive to his brethren.
"Enthusiasm", he told them, "is a virtue rarely produced in a state of calm and unruffled repose. It flourishes in adversity. It kindles in the hour of danger and rises to deeds of renown. The terrors of persecution only serve to awaken the energy of its purposes. It swells in the pride of integrity, and great in the purity of its cause, it can scatter defiance amid a host of enemies. The magnanimity of the primitive Christians is beyond example in history...Amid all their discouragements they were sustained by the assurance of a heavenly crown. The love of their Redeemer consecrated their affections to his service and enthroned in their hearts a pure and disinterested enthusiasm. Hence the rapid and successful extension of Christianity...the grace of God was with them."
Remarkably these words were lifted almost word for word from a student discourse from these years of early study. If they show that a man may be eloquent with the truth even though he be not saved they also show that not all productions of unconverted days are useless.
Chalmers was licensed to preach at the age of nineteen, a dispensation being granted him from the usual requirement of attaining 25 years of age on the basis that he was "a lad o' pregnant pairts." These "pairts", however, were spent in the study of mathematics, chemistry, natural and moral philosophy, and political economy, for the next two winters. He seems to have done little or no preaching during this time.
For a year he was an assistant minister in Roxburghshire, and then the parish of Kilmany in Fife fell vacant. Chalmers was enthusiastically interested, not over a place of ministry opening to him, but at the prospect of becoming assistant to the ageing professor of mathematics at St. Andrews. He secured the ministry of Kilmany and the assistantship in St. Andrews, and immediately threw himself into the demands of the latter.
He was ordained to the ministry at Kilmany on 12th May 1803.
2. The Kilmany Ministry - 1803-1815 
Chalmers found little need to devote time and energy to his parish ministry at Kilmany. In letters to his father he stated that he felt the duties of the parish were slight and could be dealt with by two of his neighbouring colleagues. It was at this time that he wrote, anonymously, the pamphlet referred to earlier, in which he set out his views that a minister after having discharged his parish duties may rightly enjoy five days in the week in which to pursue any science that may be to his liking! He was, to be sure, at this time a thorough Moderate.
Conversion and Change
The first step towards conversion was in being with his brother George as he died at home in Anstruther, at the end of 1806. Chalmers saw that his brother possessed convictions he himself did not share. Indeed, what was more, George faced death with the very convictions Thomas had often denounced in his sermons at Kilmany! Could he be mistaken? Within two years his sister Barbara had also died of the same disease. She too died expressing confidence in Christ as her Redeemer. Could this faith be the fanaticism Thomas had disparagingly dismissed it as from his pulpit?
At this time also Chalmers was working on an article entitled Christianity for the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia. His views may also be fairly assessed from his preaching at this time.
"Consult your Bibles and you will see that the rewards of heaven are attached to the exercise of our virtuous affections. The faith of Christianity is praiseworthy and meritorious only because it is derived from the influence of virtuous sentiments on the mind...thus shall we approve ourselves worthy of the divine goodness, by directing our efforts to the cultivation of our pious affections and our social conduct."
Chalmers fell sick in 1810 with a severe liver infection. He was confined to his room for four months and was convinced he was about to die. Now his Christianity, was to be tested in the most critical test of all, in the prospect of death - and Chalmers found that this Christianity, when he needed it most, miserably failed him.
Through these months of anguish Chalmers came to know the peace of believing. Writing ten years later to his brother Alexander he lets us have his own commentary on these crucial events,
"I stated to you that the effect of a very long confinement...was to inspire me with a set of very strenuous resolutions, under which I kept a Journal, and made many a laborious effort to elevate my practice to the standard of the divine requirements. During this course, however, I got little satisfaction, and felt no repose...I am now most thoroughly of opinion, and it is an opinion founded on experience, that on the system of - Do this and live, no peace, and even no true and worthy obedience, can ever be attained. It is, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved".
Under the influence of this change Chalmers now diverted his priority from mathematics to divinity. His congregation also immediately began to reap the benefits of what had happened to their minister. Chalmers now told them that all his earnest appeals to them for the cultivation of moral excellence had not resulted in any reformation of their character. He now preached the faith which once he despised. His private thoughts, committed to his Journal, make the point as eloquently as any sermon he ever preached,
"I felt my distance from my Redeemer this evening, but was helped in prayer to a livelier apprehension of him. O God, may I feel peace with thee through Jesus Christ our Lord; and let every good sentiment which I utter be not in word only, but in power...May I give my most strenuous and unceasing efforts to the great work of preparing a people for eternity."
Now he had begun to grasp spiritual magnitudes and the relation between them. Chalmers now began to involve himself with the work of Bible Societies, Foreign Missions, and the needs of the poor. He had always been desirous to see people prosperous and happy, but now as a "new creation" himself he began to formulate plans for church extension and social welfare. Little need of that kind existed in Kilmany, but the providence of God was now to provide Chalmers with a new field of service in which the greatness of his energy and vision could be demonstrated.
Chalmers was presented to the Tron church in Glasgow, where he was inducted on July 1815. He would be fewer years there than in Kilmany. But they were to be years which would contain much that was to be influential not just in that city but in the church in Scotland for many years to come.
To be continued.
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