Mr Great-heart

This Tribute will appear in the Evangelical Times in May 2020 and cannot be republished until after publication.

Nothing prepares you for the dying moments of a loved one.  On Wednesday 1st April 2020 I received a phone call at 12:35pm from a concerned Doctor from Leverndale Hospital in Glasgow.  My father, Rev John J Murray, had been in isolation since 17th March when he tested positive for COVID-19 but his condition was deteriorating rapidly.  Despite assurances only a few days earlier that he was stable if not improving, he had taken a turn for the worse with laboured breathing.  My Mum and I were asked to get to the hospital as rapidly as possible.  The slightly surreal and, up until that point, very quiet world of COVID-19 in our family had now become a crushing reality.  Resplendent in PPE I was able to read a few verses from Romans 8 and sing a Psalm before my father entered his eternal rest in the early evening at the age of 85.  Online funerals and limited mourners at the graveside were difficult but not insurmountable challenges as we said goodbye to Dad this side of eternity.

Born in 1934 in Dornoch, Sutherland, the middle of three boys, Dad grew up on a 70-acre croft.  My father was clearly reading good books at an early age and particularly mentions:  Thomas Boston’s Fourfold State; John Angell James’ Anxious Inquirer; Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and Guthrie’s Trial of a Saving Interest in Christ.   Dad was impressed very early by Jonathan Edwards and David Brainerd, both men known for their profound spirituality.  It appears that concern for his soul intensified around the age of 16.  Dad spoke to me around 2 years ago of being in an empty house on the croft and having an overwhelming sense of Christ crucified in a very personal way.  The experience must have been profound as Dad talks in his unfinished Memoirs of it affecting his studies at the time.  He also describes a significant night when Prof John Murray was back from America at his family home in Sutherland and preached at the Council Chambers in Dornoch in 1953 on John 6 v 37.  Dad talks of the Free Church in the village as orthodox but lacking in warmth and power.  It was my father’s great desire throughout his life that the church would rediscover ‘experiential Christianity’ as seen in a past generation in the Highlands. 

Leaving Dornoch in 1955 my father worked for the Caledonian Insurance Company in Edinburgh before returning home for further study.  In the late 1950’s my father started to take an interest in the recovery of old truths.  He corresponded with Rev Kenneth MacRae of the Free Church in Stornoway whom he saw as a real champion of Biblical Christianity.  Dad mentions in one of his diaries that he received two books on 19 September 1958 from the recently established Banner of Truth: A Body of Divinity and Sermons of George Whitefield.  Who could have foreseen the lifelong connection that would proceed from that order!  It was during this time that my father began publishing a little magazine called Eternal Truth.  The first copy of the magazine was sent to Iain H Murray and Dr Lloyd Jones and the exchanges of letters between Iain Murray and my father followed.  They culminated in a letter dated 24^th May 1960 from Iain Murray inviting my father to London to help with the work of the Banner.  This was to be a turning point in his life and for the next 60 years he was to be at the forefront of reformed book publishing.  Dad began to attend Friday night lectures at Westminster Chapel, London and vividly remembers the electric atmosphere as Lloyd Jones worked through Romans 8.  My father joined the Evangelical Library Committee which was chaired by Lloyd Jones, and Dad talks warmly of visiting the Dr’s home in Ealing for supper and carol singing in the early 1960’s.  After meeting my Mum in London, they married in 1966 and my sisters Lynda and Anna were born in 1967 and 1968 followed by a cheeky redhead in 1972.  While I was still a babe in arms my parents moved with the Banner of Truth to new headquarters in Edinburgh in November 1972. 

My father was now being called in a different direction.  He was a regular preacher in the London Free Church throughout the 1960’s so it was perhaps no great surprise that he applied and was accepted for the Free Church ministry in September 1973 and started at the Free Church College in 1974 after further study at university.  On completion of his ministerial studies Dad was called to Oban Free (High) Church and was inducted in September 1978.  Our lives were overshadowed shortly after our arrival when my sister, Lynda Joan, took ill.  Her illness was mercifully brief but no less distressing.  She died on 4^th December 1980 in her fourteenth year.  Dad did not speak much of my sister’s death during his life and it was hard not to feel that much of his grief remained too painful to express.  At the 1989 Banner of Truth Ministers’ Conference he gave an address on ‘Providence in Personal Life’ which was a path he had painfully walked for over 9 years.  I often meet men who were there and who describe a profound atmosphere.  The next year the conference paper became a little booklet by the Banner of Truth entitled Behind a Frowning Providence.  This little booklet has been republished at least six times and is now in numerous languages.

In 1989 my father was called to St Columba’s Free Church in Edinburgh where he ministered for the next 13 years.  These were formative years for me as I completed university and started in Edinburgh as a social worker.  Mum and Dad were famous for an open manse and dozens of young people look back to this period as significant in their Christian experience.  My mother has been a rock to my father over 54 years of marriage and ministry and experienced many blows and tragedies.  Her cheerfulness and resilience have been remarkable. Despite the dark clouds on the horizon for the church I remember these years as times of warm fellowship and Dad’s preaching through Romans, Acts and the 10 Commandments had a profound effect on many.  During this time there was great controversy in the Free Church over moral and ecclesiastical issues and my father was in the middle of many of these battles.  Despite what has been alleged my father was no architect of the events but rather sought to respond to allegations that arose.  Despite being accused of many things, he bore the heat of battle with general cheerfulness and lack of spite.  Many of these wounds were with him to the very end and he felt the breach in the church in 2000 very keenly.  While standing on principle without regret, he was saddened by the many relationships and families that were fractured perhaps never to be healed this side of eternity.

When he retired from the pastoral ministry in 2002 my father was well known as a conference speaker and preacher.  He pastored many vacant congregations in the Free Church (Continuing) and was a help and mentor to many other ministers.  Working with his brother Willie in Dornoch he produced many booklets that were no longer regarded as popular and these were sent all over the world.  In retirement he worked on several books: John E Marshall: Life and Writings (Banner of Truth, 2005), Catch the Vision: The Roots of Reformed Recovery (EP, 2007) and John Knox (EP, 2011).  Catch the Vision was dedicated to his children and grandchildren ‘heirs of a precious heritage’.  Dad felt disappointed that the long prayed for revival of church and nation did not come in his lifetime despite the return to expository preaching and the renewed interest in old but Biblical truths.  Retirement was overshadowed by the sad death of my sister Anna in October 2019 from pancreatic cancer.  Dad took the news of her earlier diagnosis very hard and never really recovered his natural cheerfulness until she died.  The loss of two daughters was more than he could bear, and he seemed crushed by grief.  It was a reminder to us, if one was needed, that our confidence is not in length of service or reputation but in the finished work of Christ. 

My father’s legacy is that he was utterly firm in his convictions yet generous in his estimations of other Christians.  One of his friends wrote to my mother of how my Dad reminded him of Mr Great-heart in Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress: loyal, valiant in defence of the truth but also a wise guide.  Like his great hero Prof John Murray, he had very little sense of self and was utterly self-effacing.  It seemed very fitting that at the end of his life there were three books on Dad’s hospital bedside table: the Bible, CH Spurgeon's 'Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith' and a book of sermons by Prof John Murray entitled 'O Death, Where is Thy Sting?'  Isn't that so true for the Christian?  Death is not the end but the glorious beginning.  As a family we are so thankful for the gospel hope.  We are so glad that Dad is free from his pain and sorrow and now knows the reality of 1 Corinthians 15 v 55: ‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’ 

O Death, Where is Thy Sting?

Nothing prepares you for the dying moments of a loved one.  Coming off a Zoom call (are there any others these days?) on Wednesday 1st April 2020, I noticed a missed call from my Mum just as my phone rang at 12:35 with a concerned doctor on the line from Leverndale Hospital in Glasgow.  My father had been in isolation since 17th March when he tested positive for COVID-19 but his condition was deteriorating rapidly.  Despite assurances only a few days earlier that he was stable if not improving, he had taken a turn for the worse with laboured breathing.  My Mum and I were asked to get to the hospital as rapidly as possible.  I threw a few clothes in a case, virtually kissed the kids and jumped in the car.  The slightly surreal and, up until that point, very quiet world of COVID-19 in our family, had now become a crushing reality.

Once eventually by my fathers bedside, resplendent in PPE, my Dad looked so fragile and frail.  Death was not far away.  Bizarrely given months of illness I suddenly felt completely unprepared to read, pray or sing to him in his last moments on earth.  Scrabbling for profundity in tragedy, I eventually read some tear filled verses from Romans 8 and attempted a very emotion filled Psalm 23 to St Columba's, prayer was beyond my limitations.  I hope he heard. However much you prepare, however many deaths you experience in the family, those final moments are distressing beyond words.  Death, the final enemy had ravaged the mind and body of my father and at the moment when touch would have been so appropriate we were blocked by a thin layer of latex and a cumbersome face mask.  I trust that the last words he heard were the deep affection of a grateful son.

Dad had enjoyed a remarkably healthy life until he was about 83.  He was never a man for exercise (1 Timothy 4 v 8 would have been quoted), his diet would be best described as 'hearty' but overall he remained healthy for most of his life. He seemed to churn out articles, booklets, blog posts, book reviews, lectures and he was preaching almost weekly until around May 2018.  He contracted CLL in December 2016 but it didn't seem to dampen his enthusiasm for writing and preaching.  His schedule continued through most of 2017 and he relished lecturing on Martin Luther (to commemorate 500 years since the nailing of his 95 Thesis in Wittenberg) in Glasgow and Ballyclare.  There was little indication of what was to come over the next two years.  His pace and energy until a couple of years ago was at times breathtaking. 

Spending the last few days in my Dad's study here in Glasgow has been very emotional.  Born in 1934, Dad grew up in a paper culture and he kept everything, and I mean everything.  He has pocket diaries from 1949 right up until 2018 chronicling every major event and preaching engagement.  My father seemed to make a decision to keep things from quite an early age and had meticulously sorted and categorised it over the years.  His 1949 diary is a treasure trove of life in Sutherland just after the war.  He had also started to write memoirs which have all key dates and a few reflections which I will use as I start to write about his life and legacy.  It is remarkable for somebody like me who loves history to read diaries from the 1950's with entries about the Kings health and the latest general elections.  Things that I studied in Modern Studies and History at school were being experienced by a young John J.  My father meticulously kept correspondence and it is amazing to handle letters between my father and men like Prof John Murray of Westminster Seminary.

But for now we are left with scraps of paper and broken hearts.  As somebody has recently written 'one blow does not always prepare you for another'.  This is very true for us.  We felt we were just coming to terms with the loss of Anna when we have been hit with another wave of tragedy.  I have been at the death beds of three of my immediate family in the last 40 years and it doesn't become any less distressing.  Also my fathers deep despair over the last two years was very difficult to understand and respond to.  Nobody will ever understand some of the depths to which we plunged as we longed and prayed to see the old Dad again.  It was a reminder to me, if one was needed, that our hope must never be in our length of service or even our faithfulness but only in the finished work of Christ.  This was true for Dad even when he could not see it or feel it.

My fathers legacy will no doubt be much written about over the next few months and years, I hope to do much of the writing myself.  I hope that these tributes will capture the breadth, richness and warmth of the man.  He was utterly firm in his convictions yet generous in his estimations of other Christians.  Dad was not tribal or sectarian, in many ways he reserved much of his analysis for the failure of the reformed movement to realise its potential. Reading his journals from when he was a teenager, his convictions were made at an early age and hardly wavered in 60-70 years.  Like his great hero Prof John Murray, he had very little sense of self and was utterly self effacing.  Somehow he managed to combine humble service and bold leadership in many complex and awkward situations.  Gentleness, wisdom and patience were often shown when others rushed in.  As somebody has written of my Dad 'he had the mind and attitude of a servant, but he could influence and be a force, without appearing dominant.' 

Theologically Dad was able to present a transcendent God with warmth.  The gospel was the best news to be preached with careful preparation in a prayerful spirit. Dad was ill at ease with the casualness and informality of the modern church.  The 'Young, Restless and Reformed' movement was, for him, far to man centred and lacking the deep spirituality of the Highland piety he was brought up on.  But, the spiteful, harsh, point scoring Calvinism of others was also lost on my Dad.  Calvinism for him was comprehensive, life changing and deeply God glorifying.  He loved B.B. Warfield and often used to use this Warfield quote: 'The central fact of Calvinism is the vision of God. Its determining principle is zeal for the divine honour. What it sets itself to do is to render to God his rights in every sphere of life-activity. In this it begins and centres and ends...The Calvinist is the man who sees God. He has caught sight of the ineffable vision, and he will not let it fade for a moment from his eyes - God in nature, God in history, God in grace.'  Dad grew up with a Christianity that infused every area of life whether it was family life, crofting or preaching - life was to be lived for God. 

My father was humble, bright, energetic, cheerful, Christ-like and yet at the very end, it all seemed very dark for him.  The loss of two daughters was more than he could bear and he seemed crushed by grief.  But these memories will fade and better memories will return.  It seemed very fitting that at the end of his life there were three books on his hospital bedside table: a Bible, CH Spurgeon's 'Cheque Book of Faith' and a book of sermons by Prof John Murray entitled 'O Death, Where is Thy Sting?' published by Westminster Seminary Press in 2018.  And isn't that so true for the Christian?  Death is not the end but the glorious beginning.  On Thursday we will bury my father in a grave where we stood with so many tears 40 years ago.  Then as now, we were stunned, bewildered and overwhelmed.  But we are so thankful for gospel hope.  We are so thankful that this is not the end.  We are so glad that Dad is free from his pain and sorrow and now knows the reality of 1 Corinthians 15 v 55 - 58:

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Just after my fathers death I recorded a few thoughts which can be watched here:

A Life Well Lived (film)

My sister, Anna Murray, died on 20th October 2019 in Accord Hospice, Paisley. She had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February 2018. I decided to make this film to share my experiences of cancer, death and grief in the hope that it might help others. A full tribute to my sister is on my blog http://raggedtheology.blogspot.com/2019/10/a-life-well-lived.html

More information on pancreatic cancer can be found at Pancretic Cancer UK https://www.pancreaticcancer.org.uk/

If you would like to know more about the hospice movement you can find out more here https://www.hospiceuk.org/

A Life well Lived

In the early hours of this morning we received news that my brave sister Anna finally lost her fight with pancreatic cancer.  Her last week was spent in Accord Hospice, Paisley after she took ill at my parents in Glasgow.  Anna has gone to her eternal rest and her body is no longer racked with pain.  We rejoice that Anna is now gazing on the Saviour she followed so faithfully but our hearts are still broken.  Grief has many stages but currently we are numb with pain.  We are no strangers to death as a family but experience doesn't make the pain any less.  A bright light has gone out in our lives and for now, it feels very dark.

From learning of her diagnosis in February 2018, Anna has borne this cruel disease with quiet dignity and without complaint.  Anna hated hospitals, procedures and treatment right to the very end.  They interfered with her frenetic lifestyle.  One of her great hallmarks was her service to others and she hated being the centre of attention.  Anyone who enquired about her illness found discussions to be brief and business like.  During our first meeting with the consultant in March 2018, Anna was given months to live but due to her fitness, resilience, stubbornness and cheerfulness she exceeded all expectation.  She was brave and devoid of self pity to the end.

Some people live long, self centred and empty lives.  Others, like Anna, live short selfless lives filled with service to others.  Two years of pancreatic cancer did little to curtail her energy for life.  She worked almost full time until the day she was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow on 5th October 2019.  One of her colleagues has since told me that she contacted him on her last Friday at work (4th October) to ask if he could complete a 50 page report that she hadn't quite finished!  In typical Anna fashion she was through in Glasgow for a dog show but became increasingly unwell.  Fluid retention in her last two months had become almost unbearable.  

Anna was born in London in April 1968, the middle of three children. Our family moved north to Edinburgh in 1973 and Anna started her schooling at Currie and then Juniper Green Primary School.  Living in Baberton I remember wandering around the Utopian new housing estate called Wester Hailes hand in hand with my big sisters.  They introduced me to the joy of chips from the chippy and I have never looked back.  They were happy, innocent days.

In 1978 our family moved to Oban after my father accepted the call to Oban Free 'High' Church.  As well as being a popular tourist destination, the manse was a haven for stranded missionaries from Mull and Coll as well as a merry go round of the great and the good of the reformed world.  Life was never dull and my sisters and I were frequently pressed in to service.  The manse felt like a model of community and hospitality and Anna went on to model that throughout her life.  Her annual 'Burns Nights' were legendary for tsunami levels of haggis, neeps and tatties and some very ropey singing.  I suspect many a bemused foreign student from Holyrood Evangelical Church had their first taste of Scottish culture on these infamous evenings.

Our lives were shattered in December 1980 with the death of our dear sister Lynda from a brain tumour.  Anna and Lynda were just a year apart in age and shared a room so the impact on Anna must have been unimaginable.  The trauma of a 13 year old's coffin and grave never leave you, and it shaped Anna for the rest of her life.

Unlike her wee brother, Anna excelled at school - Rockfield Primary School and then Oban High School.  After glandular fever set her back a few months in fourth year, she more than made up for lost time. She studied hard, was popular, played a lot of netball, became a prefect and eventually 'head girl'.  She always loved animals and was walker in chief for our west highland terrier Candy.  She seemed destined for a career as a vet.  Anna's idea of a good Easter was lambing in a cold shed in Easter Ross surrounded by hay and afterbirth.  Perhaps not surprisingly she chose to apply for a BSc in Agricultural Science at Aberdeen University in 1986.  Anna threw herself in to student life and played a full part in Bon Accord Free Church and the FCYA.

After university Anna started a PhD at the Bush Estate in Edinburgh but moved back to Aberdeen to work at the Macaulay Institute.  During this time Anna and I shared a flat and I vividly remember her talking to me about her PhD and whether she should continue with it.  Anna was supremely practical and a life of academia did not suit her personality.  She switched to an MPhil which she passed with ease.  The subject matter remains unfathomable to the family but we are extremely proud of her academic achievements.

After a few years with the Macaulay Institute Anna moved to Wye in Kent in 1995 with her beloved dog Jet. She relished rural Kent and linked up with many family contacts from London years.  After a stint with the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories working on Scrapie eradication in sheep, Anna moved back to Scotland in 2001 to work with the Scottish Government during the foot and mouth outbreak.  This was to be Anna's place of work over the next 18 years.  She held three different posts; Scrapie and BSE eradication in sheep, Rural Development (LEADER and Scottish National Rural Network) and latterly she worked on Agricultural Development (new entrants to farming, innovation, skills and knowledge transfer of farmers).

During this last post Anna led a small but dedicated team.  One of Anna's most painful struggles after our last consultants meeting on the 20th September was how to break the news to her team that she was too ill to work.  It seems incredible that despite being discharged from all treatment and receiving a palliative package of care Anna continued to work for another two weeks until 4th October.  In many ways her job personified her passion - the outdoors, Scotland, leadership, animals and rural communities.  She will leave a big gap in the Scottish Government.  Her colleagues have been incredibly supportive to us as a family with lots of texts and emails in Anna's last few days.

Anna loved the outdoors and in the course of many years of hill walking tackled over 100 of Scotland's Munros.  Most weekends, when many of us were thinking of a slow start to our Saturdays, Anna would be gathering her faithful group known as the 'Holyrood Hillwalkers' and setting out for some new destination.  While the hill was important, it always seemed that the coffee shop was equally, if not even more important.  Without fail there would be a Saturday evening Facebook picture posted of bacon rolls, coffee and scones in some rural location with a group of weary walkers still suffering from one of Anna's 'gentle strolls'.  Over the years the hill walks were a haven for many a lonely student or newcomer to Edinburgh and as always Anna gave of herself freely and without reserve.  Anna loved nothing more than finding a beautiful cottage in the Highlands and heading away with 'the girls' for week of walking and good food.  She quite simply loved life and lived it to the full.

Anna loved being around children.  She dotted on her 5 nephews and was forever trying to drag them out of bed on a Saturday morning to go on an adventure.  Anna was always wanting to buy the boys exactly what they wanted for birthday and Christmas and the emails for an Amazon link would be sent out weeks in advance.  No expense was spared on the boys and they were showered with gifts.  Due to their own fathers dislike of the outdoors Anna took the oldest boys for their first camping trip.  With Anna's usual zeal they were introduced to all the joys of the outdoors and have never forgotten the 'compostable toilet'.  Calum became Anna's regular sidekick in dog agility shows and both Calum and Davie attended dog shows regularly.  One of Calum's great highlights was attending Crufts with Anna in 2017.  Anna was immense fun to be around and the boys used to love when  we were invited for Sunday lunch at Anna's, followed by the usual Sunday afternoon walk which always seemed to be via the local school long jump.  The boys invariably came back covered in sand but always hail and hearty.

As a Christian, Anna had a quiet but strong faith.  She professed faith in Christ in her mid teens after wrestling with assurance for several years.  Unlike her slightly cocky brother, Anna was always cautious and liked to think things through.  She disliked hypocrisy, insincerity and clericalism.  Her faith was robust, deep rooted and supremely practical.  The word 'authentic' is over used today but it is a word that epitomises Anna and her Christian faith.  She was a voracious reader of Christian books and a deep thinker. Anna found a spiritual home in Holyrood Evangelical Church in Leith, Edinburgh.  For many years she enjoyed the clear, warm and practical teaching of Rev Phil Hair (now retired).  When Anna was diagnosed with cancer in February 2018 the church not only embraced Anna, but the whole family.  Their kindness to us as a family will not be forgotten and we can't thank them enough for the way they loved Anna through such a difficult time.  Anna continued to attend the morning service until 29th September 2019 and even listened to sermons in hospital to keep up to date. The congregation understood Anna well. They didn't fuss over her, they didn't interfere but their love was very evident in so many little acts of kindness.  Thank you Holyrood Evangelical Church - you held us up when we would have fallen down.  If the mark of a Christian church is ultimately love, Holyrood passes with flying colours.

Anna loved all animals both small and large.  As soon as she left university Anna was never without a dog and latterly with two.  Her brother remains hopelessly allergic to animals and would have to swig a bottle of anti-histamine before even a quick visit to Currievale Park Grove.  These beloved four footed creatures would hang on Anna's every word and travelled everywhere with her. Thousands of pictures were taken with Candy, Bobby, Jet, Cullin, Shadow and Storm perched on precarious rocks, skulking in deep foliage or posing with various children.  In the last few years Anna became passionate about dog agility and was a loyal member of Exel Dog Agility in West Calder.  Saturdays were taken up with dog shows all over Scotland and Shadow and Storm's rosettes cover whole walls of Anna's house.  Anna found friendship and community in the agility world and she (and the dogs) will be greatly missed.  Her nephew Calum hopes to follow in his auntie's footsteps.

My sister was generous, hospitable, loyal, trustworthy, genuine and absolutely bursting with life.  Even when others let her down she was quick to forgive. In her 51 years she was a shining example of a life well lived.  She embodied the verse in John 10 v 10 'I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.'  Anna embodied the Christian life.  She loved creation, she loved people,  she practised hospitality, she loved her church family and she lived out her faith in an authentic and practical way.

Anna leaves behind a brokenhearted family but we are thankful that we do not rejoice as those without hope.  The night Anna was admitted to hospital (Saturday 5th Oct) we both knew things were serious. I read to her from Psalm 89 before attempting to pray.  Some of you will be more familiar with the metrical version:

O greatly blessed the people are

the joyful sound that know;

In brightness of thy face, O Lord,

they ever on shall go.

They in thy name shall all the day

rejoice exceedingly;

And in thy righteousness shall they 

exalted be on high.

On Tuesday night, after a marked decline over 2-3 days, I read from 2 Corinthians 4 v 16 - 18: 'Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day.  For our momentary affliction is producing for us an abundantly, incomparable eternal weight of glory.  So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.' The weight of the words hung in the air as the words came alive to both of us.  Anna was fading fast but she was drifting closer to her eternal home.

After a painful, at times chaotic and uncomfortable week in the Queen Elizabeth, Anna was moved to the Accord Hospice in Paisley on Friday 11th October.  The care and love Anna received from the moment she was admitted was overwhelming.  During her final weekend my Mum, Dad and I were able to cry and worship together with Anna.  I continued to read 'New Morning Mercies' to Anna as she had done for the last few months.  All the while her two beloved dogs stood as sentinels on either side of the bed.  She had a door in her room that opened outside and the dogs were able to come and go quite freely.  We will be forever thankful for the love and dignity that the Accord staff showed my sister in her final days on earth.  We will never be able to find the words to thank them enough for the way they carried us as a family when wave after wave of grief hit us during Anna's stay.  The work of hospices is truly humbling and in desperate need of wider support.

Can there be rejoicing in death?  We believe so.  Anna leaves a gaping hole in our lives but she is in a much better place.  Her body is no longer twisted and emaciated with cancer. As the shorter catechism reminds us 'what benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?'  Answer: 'The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass in to glory, and their bodies, still being united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.'

For now we have a temporary separation with Anna and Lynda but we look forward to that day when we will be reunited in a place without sin and illness.  On the Wednesday before Anna died, when we were in a very low place as a family, a letter arrived for my father from an old friend.  His words struck a chord with all of us as he spoke of Christ: 'Today you may be walking in darkness without light, but he is still there and, though you can't see him, he never takes his eyes of you; and though you may find it hard today to understand how anyone can laugh, or even smile, one day the Lord will wipe away your tears, put the joy back in your heart, and make you once again, what you have been to others.'  That day feels like a long way off but we trust in the one who does all things well.

Where can we go for our comfort and consolation at this time?  And who can comfort us in our deep distress?  Well surely it must be 'the father of mercies, the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we are comforted ourselves' (2 Cor 1 v 3-4). We trust in a God who walked this earth and knows what it is to suffer loss, feel desolation and who knew what it was to be lonely.  This the God and Saviour who Anna put her trust in and she is with him now.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

In memory of Anna Murray 16th April 1968 - 20th October 2019.

The Expulsive Power of a New Affection - Thomas Chalmers: Disruption Times (3)

This is the third article in a series on Thomas Chalmers.  You can read the first one here and the second one here.  The contents of these blog articles were originally delivered at the 1996 Historical Studies Conference and you can listen to the original address here.

 5. Edinburgh University - 1828-1843

Again, Chalmers was following a Moderate into the chair, and as in St. Andrews, his arrival was greeted with huge excitement.

His Theology

His lectures in theology were philosophic and began with the condition of man in sin, moving to the remedy that God had provided in Christ. The posthumous publication of these lectures in his Institutes of Theology, left some disappointed it must be said. More modern assessment has tended to denigrate Chalmers as a theologian, and even in cases to suggest that the organisation of his lectures in the Institutes.  As Stuart Brown says,

"reveals a mind struggling against doubts about some of the harsher doctrines of scholastic Calvinism and seeking a more personal form of Christianity - while at the same time concerned not to challenge openly the Calvinist orthodoxy of the Westminster Confession which he was bound by his professorial office to uphold. The experience of Erskine of Linlathen and Macleod Campbell had evidently made a profound impact on Chalmers, and his concern for the ecclesiastical organisation and Evangelical mission of the church discouraged him from experimenting in his lectures or in print with new theological ideas."

But there are at least two elements behind Chalmers' theological arrangement that help to explain it and refute the charge that he was a frustrated radical confined in the straitjacket of the church's confessional standards.

Firstly, the fact that his own mind had been drawn to the sovereignty of God long before he had ever come to accept Calvinistic doctrine. That remained strongly with him. And is that not at the root of Calvinism, indeed of Pauline theology, and a central feature of divine revelation itself?

Secondly, it should be remembered that Chalmers could only reach so far in his Moral Philosophy and Natural Theology course. The ethics in such disciplines brought him to the point of man's condition but could throw little light on how man was to be recovered. In his theological lectures Chalmers was anxious to make an immediate connection with where he had left off in his previous course. This was no hesitant Calvinism, nor an incipient Arminianism. It was the work of a thinker in revealed theology rather than a learned theologian like his successor William Cunningham. But it was the work of a man who, in preaching and lecturing, was concerned to set side by side the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. The one was not to be dealt with in any way that impaired the force of the other. His theological teaching sought always to convey the force of each.

Catholic Emancipation

By this time the movement for Catholic emancipation had taken on new momentum, and Chalmers had years earlier made known his support. Now he entered the campaign more fully. He had dealt with the subject at the opening of Edward Irving's new church in London in May 1827, asserting that the Protestant faith should not fear Catholic emancipation. Indeed, Chalmers believed that Protestantism had suffered as a result of excluding Roman Catholics from holding political office.

At a meeting in Edinburgh he gave an impassioned speech supporting emancipation. It was one of the most memorable speeches ever given in the city. In it Chalmers argued that the laws enforcing Protestantism had weakened it, making it to rely upon political support rather than on the truth itself. Moreover, Roman Catholics would be more amenable to the Gospel if emancipation should be established. On this latter point his expectations were groundless as history proves. However, his argument was not founded on that belief, but on the conviction that emancipation was a matter of justice.

Two weeks later, addressing the presbytery of Edinburgh, he again stressed the need for emancipation. He argued that there was no Scriptural reason why the state should not extend constitutional rights to all its citizens irrespective of religious persuasion, providing that did not threaten the state's endowment of the established religion. Chalmers would find that his efforts here would add to the determination of disapproving Dissenters to oppose him in his greater efforts for church extension.

Church Extension and Opposition

His main efforts were again now in fact for church extension. By the Assembly of 1834 the Evangelical Party were in the majority and Chalmers was placed as convener of the Committee on Church Accommodation. A huge effort followed on a national scale - appeals, collections, and the formation of associations. In 1835 he reported that £65,000 had been contributed in the year and 64 new churches were in process of building. Over £200,000 was collected within four years and 200 churches erected.

Chalmers himself was at the head of such singular success. Not only did his organisational skills lead the way but he was able also to fill many of the new pulpits with men who had been his own pupils, and they were men of outstanding qualities in cases like Robert Murray McCheyne, Dundee,

The problem was that of funding these new ministries. Seat rents would have to be kept low enough not to deter the poorest in these parishes, yet that would prove insufficient of itself to keep these ministers. An endowment would be needed, and an approach was made to the government, some of whom had expressed favour with the request. But just then Chalmers was thwarted. Opposition arose from Dissenters who saw in this church extension scheme a move on the part of the Establishment to limit their influence.

Chalmers was surprised and annoyed, but the opposition was stronger than he realised. Hugh Miller, through his editorship of The Witness gave him much support. Like Chalmers he considered the church to be the most important institution in the land, and that the people of Scotland needed to be brought to see what a large interest they had in it.

The Dissenters, or Separatists, had their roots in Scottish secession movements from 1733 onwards. Chalmers and the Evangelicals actually regarded Dissenting congregations as a benefit to the Establishment, but many Dissenters had voiced their opposition to the plans for Catholic emancipation fearing that this was the first step towards the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic church. Some Dissenters made the occasion one for attacking all Establishments thus elevating the Voluntary Principle.

Controversy raged for a whole decade. Chalmers kept a level-headed distance. But he did expound on occasions the policy he passionately believed in. Establishment was defendable, but only as it is an effective instrument of evangelism. The Voluntary Principle (where Church endowment is by voluntary contribution of the people) in his view simply wasn't adequate for the needs of a whole community. Voluntaries planted new churches on the principle of attraction, mainly drawing their own sympathisers. The Established church, when operating in Chalmers' vision of it, demanded provision for all the population. Its duty was to supply a Gospel ministry to everyone.

The Voluntaries, on the other hand, argued that no Established church could be truly "free", being under state authority. Chalmers utterly repudiated this. The church and state had coordinate but independent jurisdictions.

When the appeal was made to parliament for the endowment of the new extension charges the Dissenters responded with a memorial in opposition to it. In it they suggested that the main objective of Chalmers was to annihilate dissent under the guise of a scheme to supply religious education to those lacking it. This was an unworthy charge against him. The parliamentary commission set up to look into the question of endowment reported that both dissenting and established congregations in Glasgow and Edinburgh had spare Accommodation. Chalmers had been effectively blocked.

In the course of the crisis on church extension and its endowment, it became apparent that, in the opinion of the civil courts, the independence of the established church was not what it claimed. The Reform Bill of 1832 was felt by many, including Chalmers, to be against the moral and Christian well-being of the nation. It seemed that the new interest in secular politics was a threat to the establishment of the church, given that a shift in political power had placed influence in the hands not only of Dissenters but also Rationalists with hostility to all religion.

The Patronage Question

While the endowment of church extension was the crucible in which crisis developed, it was the question of patronage that provided the catalyst. To the 1832 General Assembly, of which Chalmers was Moderator, three synods and eight presbyteries presented overtures drawing attention to what they regarded as the evils of patronage. Chalmers believed the church already possessed powers to deal with misuse of patronage. In 1813 he had stated that the church might reject a patron's presentee if they judged him unsuitable. The church courts had the ultimate power to decide whether a presentee was suitable, taking account of all the details of the circumstances. The rights of the patron were not absolute, as indeed the 1712 Act of parliament restoring patronage had recognised, although not stated explicitly. Under Moderatism the call of a congregation had become denuded of its real significance, and the priority for Chalmers was the restoration of its significance and effect.

Chalmers himself preferred not to resort to legislation at first. This was not to be the case, however, and instead it was decided that the church should legislate for a uniformity of practice in congregational settlements.

Chalmers immediately suggested that, in such a case, the church should apply to the government to recognise this step, not because he held any doubts about the church's power to enact such legislation, but rather because he knew that others did, and he thought it better to clear the matter from all doubts and concerns from the outset. In this Chalmers deferred to what he regarded as the better judgement of Lord Moncrieff, although he was to regret afterwards that he had done so.

The legislation finally enacted was what came to be known as the Veto Act, passed by the General Assembly in 1834 under which, "the majority of the male heads of families, resident within the parish, being members of the congregation, and in full communion with the church...ought to be of conclusive effect in setting aside the presentee..."

The Ten Year Conflict

This was the marker for the beginning of the "Ten Years Conflict", which would culminate in the 1843 Disruption. The Veto was challenged almost at once. Proposed settlements in Lethendy and Auchterarder were vetoed only to be referred to the Court of Session who pronounced against the veto. The Lord President stated,

"That our Saviour is the temporal Head of the Kirk of Scotland, in any temporal, or legislative, or judicial sense, is a position that I can dignify by no other name than absurdity. The parliament is the temporal head of the Church, from whose acts, and from whose acts alone, it exists as the national Church, and from which alone it derives all its powers."

A complete impasse between the church and the civil courts was reached in early 1841. Marnoch, in the presbytery of Strathbogie, had seen the intrusion of John Edwards, on the signature of only one parishioner and against 261 signatures on the Veto against him.

The patron introduced another man, favourable to the people, but Edwards had taken matters to the Court of Session, who ordered the Presbytery to take Edwards on trials for ordination.

The Presbytery, with Moderates in the majority agreed, but the Commission of Assembly forbade proceeding. Seven ministers went ahead, to be suspended by the Commission, but they proceeded anyway to what was, as Dr. Hanna describes,

"an ordination unparalleled in the history of the Church, performed by a presbytery of suspended ministers, on the call of a single communicant, against the desire of the patron, in face of the strenuous opposition of a united congregation, in opposition to the express injunction of the Assembly, and at the sole bidding, and under the sole authority, of the Court of Session."

The church sent some of the ablest ministers, Chalmers included, to preach in Strathbogie. Interdicts were served copiously on ministers intending to preach there, only in most cases to be disregarded.

The effect of these manoeuvrings was to bring to the attention of more and more people throughout the country that every vestige of spiritual authority was being stripped from the church. With Chalmers prominent, negotiations were carried out with the government, but he was disliked by the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. His successor, Sir Robert Peel, proved a no more certain source of hope. Lord Aberdeen launched a bitter and unjustified attack on him. The Home Secretary was sure that the situation needed the strong arm of the State, and Lord Hope, Dean of the Faculty of Advocates was chief adviser to the Moderate Party.

Amid such upheaval and pressure, it is enlightening to find evidence of Chalmers' simple, strong and vital faith. He wrote in his Journal, June 21st, 1840,

"Have not yet recovered the shock of Lord Aberdeen's foul attack on me in the House of Lords. May I live henceforth in the perpetual sunshine of God's reconciled countenance. May I experience the sanctifying power of such a habit. Save me, save me, O God, from the untoward imaginations which disquiet and inflame me, warring against my soul, and engrossing my thoughts, to the utter exclusion of the things which make for holiness and peace...Hide me under the covert of thy wings, and let the menaces which overhang the country and the church pass away from them both."

Preparing for Disruption

But by now it was becoming increasingly likely that only a break with the State could preserve the spiritual independence of the church. For church extension endowment Chalmers had knocked at the door of the Whigs and gone from them to the Tories. Both had failed him. But he had experienced the generosity of the people. As the men of parliament failed him again now, Chalmers would need to go to the people again. He had not lost his vision of a church commensurate with the needs of the people, but now it would need to be without the advantages of Establishment. It was in this vein that Chalmers now looked ahead.

The Assembly of 1842 set aside interdicts served against Strathbogie commissioners taking their seats. For the first time in the conflict the Assembly declared, that "patronage is a grievance, has been attended with much injury to the cause of true religion in this Church and Kingdom, is the main cause of the difficulties in which the Church is at present involved and ought to be abolished."

The Assembly also adopted the document which was to become famous as the “Claim, Declaration and Protest anent the Encroachments of the Court of Session.” It was, as expected, dismissed by parliament, an action that provoked Robert Murray McCheyne to say of 7th March 1843 in his usual saintly candour,

"An eventful night this in the British Parliament. Once more King Jesus stands before an earthly tribunal, and they know him not."

At the Convocation of 470 ministers in November 1842 Chalmers played a leading role. He preached a powerful sermon on Psalm 112 verse 4, "Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness." It is worth quoting from it at some length. He said,

"The great lesson of this text is the connection which obtains between integrity of purpose and clearness of discernment, insomuch that a duteous conformity to what is right, is generally followed up by a ready and luminous discernment of what is true. It tells us that if we have but grace to do as we ought, we shall be made to see as we ought; or, in other words, that if right morally, we are in the highway of becoming right intellectually.

The great lesson of our text is, that if we purpose aright we shall be made to see aright, and that the integrity of our will shall be followed up by light in the understanding. God will establish the just. Commit then thy works to the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. It is he who, by the light of his Holy Spirit, makes good the connection between singleness of purpose and wisdom of conduct, and thus I understand the text, that he maketh wise the simple and giveth understanding to the simple."

From his experience of financing church extension, he also put forward a plan for financing a secession should it need to take place, and by this time few doubted that it would. 

The Decisive Moments

In the Assembly of 1843 the Non-Intrusionists were in the minority for the first time in 10 years. The Moderator Dr. Welsh, instead of constituting the Assembly, announced that he and others could not regard it as a free Assembly. He then read a protest setting out the reasons, handed it to the clerk, and then left, followed by Chalmers and over 190 ministers and elders, joined by many more at the Tanfield Hall where the first Assembly of the Church of Scotland Free was constituted. Chalmers was enthusiastically elected Moderator.

It is impossible to conclude that Chalmers himself had been persuaded by anything less than extraordinarily weighty considerations in severing his connection with the State, a connection that he had held to be so indispensable to the good of the church and its mission.

Chalmers and his allies were convinced that not only had the State's interference been an assault upon the prerogatives of Christ's Headship of his church, but also a stranglehold upon the church's enterprise and activity, a fatal blow to its spiritual life and power. Had even a little latitude been left to the church to give effect to the voice of the people, Chalmers would likely have retained the church-state connection. He did not take the strong view that other Disruption men took of the divine right of the question, but the absoluteness of the State's claims left him in no doubt that severance was needed and right in the circumstances.

Nor was it the case that Chalmers, after the Disruption had taken place, could no longer retain and pursue his vision of the church as God's instrument for the good of the nation. He believed that more good could be done by a disendowed church than by an established church controlled by the State. It was still this conviction that spurred him on in the remainder of his life to the building up and strengthening of the Free Church.

6. New College 1843-1847

Chalmers entered on his service in the Free Church's theological institution, known as the "New College", in November 1843, as Principal and Professor of Divinity. A vast amount of work was necessary in raising up the Free Church, in the provision of manses and schools, and in financing its ministers. All this needed to be virtually a replica of the Establishment they had left, relying on the generosity of the people. Chalmers committed himself mainly to his College lectures and to the Sustentation Fund. 

The Sustentation Fund

By the end of the first year the Sustentation Fund efforts had raised £68,700, enough to pay 600 ministers £100 each. But Chalmers was disappointed. For one thing he wanted to pay each minister another third of that figure.

Then, secondly, he knew that many more ministers were required for new congregations.

Thirdly, the Fund was not, as it stood, going to be sufficient to finance major mission enterprises to the spiritually destitute which Chalmers still dearly longed to see. That was his major disappointment with the Fund.

Chalmers tried to alter the "equal dividend" element that ensured each congregation received an equal benefit from the Fund. But some congregations were selfishly withholding funds while drawing their equal dividend. The brotherly spirit had been over calculated. Chalmers failed in his appeal. He remonstrated vehemently, sometimes with more than reasonable force. But it's easy to see why, when he saw that the Fund was not going to be the means of carrying out his urge of regenerating Scotland's spiritual wastelands.

Yet Chalmers was not finished. Perplexed, but not in despair. He had one more project in mind that would again apply his convictions and would show by God's blessing that they were vindicated. This was the West Port project.

The West Port

Building on his experiences in Glasgow, Chalmers chose this area of Edinburgh for his final evangelistic and social venture. An area of 2000 people, the West Port was one of the poorest and most crime-ridden of districts. Chalmers mapped it out into 20 districts, assigning one to a specific worker who was to visit the twenty families or so there every week. 

Chalmers' Journal shows that on this he spent as much energy in prayer as on any other work he had ever engaged in.

"O pour forth the spirit of generosity on my coadjutors and their friends in the work of cultivating the West Port of Edinburgh...reveal to me O God the right tactics, the right way and method of proceeding in the management of the affairs of the West Port. Oh! that I were able to pull down the strongholds of sin and of Satan that are there...Be my help and my adviser, O God, and tell me by thy word and Spirit what I ought to do."

Progress was not at first encouraging. Yet Chalmers encouraged his helpers with advice like the following,

“We are not worthy of having entered on the experiment if not capable of persevering with it under the discouragement it may be of many alternations, and for a time, if God so please to exercise our faith and patience, of reverse."

A missionary minister, William Tasker, was secured for the work and by the end of 1845 a congregation had been formed. The meetings increased and a building for 520 was built in early 1847, the greatest number of the attenders being from the local area. In April that year Chalmers administered the Lord's Supper to the congregation. He confessed to Tasker,

“I have got now the desire of my heart; God has indeed answered my prayer, and I could now lay down my head in peace and die."

It was exactly a month before his death. How it would have filled him with ecstatic joy to see revival spread across the country in 1860-61, in which new charges like the West Port were also embraced. Tasker wrote in 1861,

“At this moment I have nearly 60 candidates for communion, two thirds of whom date their serious impressions within the last three months. At present we have at least 60 persons who hold district prayer meetings in almost every close of the West Port."

The West Port proved to be a blueprint for other congregations to work from, most notably Chalmers' old charge in the Tron, Glasgow. Yet the goal of Chalmers was never fully realised by himself or after him. Population increased in the cities so rapidly that the church's resources failed to keep up with it. In addition, the famines of 1845 and 46 in the Highlands and in Ireland left thousands facing starvation and showed the inadequacies of both Church and State.

Chalmers was aghast at the laissez-faire attitude of the Whig government and the lack of response from private philanthropy, many preferring to conclude that the people in these areas had brought the famine on themselves and it would be better to let nature take its course and eradicate the population than support it artificially. Chalmers appealed to the government, wrote articles and called for reform.

In reality Chalmers was appealing against his own convictions that State handouts, without corresponding efforts of work on the part of the recipients, were not the answer to poverty. But this was a crisis of unusual proportions, and even had it not been, the failure in response to an ideal is not the same as the ideal itself being a failure.

The Final Days

Early in May 1847 Chalmers was in London, appearing before a Committee of the House of Commons, in relation to the complaints by the Free Church against those who had refused it sites for places of worship, including such powerful landowners as the Duke of Sutherland.

On 28th May he arrived back in Edinburgh, weary and needing rest. Friends and family were anxious, but he parried them. On Sunday 30th May he attended church services but was too tired to conduct family worship that evening, promising to do so in the morning. His housekeeper found him next morning in bed, propped up half sitting. He had died very soon after he had left them the previous evening.

His friend and colleague Thomas Guthrie, deeply affected, said,

"Men of his calibre are like mighty forest trees. We do not know their size till they are down."

Conclusion

Chalmers remains one of Scotland's greatest sons. He was the kind of rare individual who gives direction to a nation, and whose interest is not either in people's souls or in their temporal welfare, but in both.

While he influenced many in the middle and upper classes his heart was also set upon the lot of the poor, the uneducated, the ungodly. Church extension and endowment, educational reform, overseas missionary work, opposition to the Erastianism of the Court of Session, leadership of the body that resulted from the Disruption, were alike tasks for which he was eminently gifted.

His life story also gives the lie to the suggestion that it was the turn in theology from the late nineteenth century onwards that gave impetus to concern, denouncement of, and action about, social deprivations. To think of Liberal theology applying itself to the problems of Chalmers' time, with greater success than Chalmers had, is to forget that its near relative, Victorian Moderatism, had no moral energy at all to transform spiritual and physical slum conditions.

Chalmers himself described Moderate preaching as,

"like a winter's day, short, and clear, and cold; the brevity is good, the clarity is better, but the coldness is fatal. Moonlight preaching ripens no harvests."

Chalmers knew from his own experience, and amply demonstrated in his projects, that only the theology in which Christ's sufficiency and man's utter helplessness in the dilemma of sin, in which Holy Spirit regeneration, active faith in Christ, and a living hope are to the fore, can ever deliver the moral force needed to do good to a nation. 

But perhaps his greatest feature was that in the midst of having a horizon so broad as to include philosophy, physical science, social science, political economy, education, and theology, he retained the piety of a simple Christian.

The most suitable epitaph is in his own words,

"I want to grow in the faith in all its simplicity and self-abasement. I want self to be crucified, and the Saviour to be all in all with me...there is a wonderful charm in the righteousness of Christ becoming our by faith; it throws another moral atmosphere over the soul, and renews at the very time that it pacifies. I desire Christ to be all in all to me...O my God may the fear of thee supplant every other fear, and the love of thee subordinate every other love."

The Expulsive Power of a New Affection: Thomas Chalmers Glasgow and St Andrews (2)

This is the second in a blog series on Thomas Chalmers by Rev James Maciver.  You can read the first one here.  The content was originally delivered at the 1996 Scottish Historical Studies Conference and can be found here.

3. Glasgow - 1815-1823

To begin with Chalmers missed Kilmany and was considerably frustrated with Glasgow, especially the amount of time he was expected to devote to serving on council boards and committees. While his pulpit oratory probably reached its zenith at this time Chalmers was restless and unsatisfied.

While the population of Glasgow had grown enormously by this time the church had lost many of the working masses from its numbers. Poverty was a serious problem in the depression following the Napoleonic War, and as political economy had always been a favourite subject with Chalmers, so now he addressed the question of poor relief.

The power of the Gospel for him was much more than pulpit oratory for the citizens that flocked to hear him. The working classes must also be saved from lapsing further into paganism and crime. In Chalmers' estimation, only as the Church was seen to be a mighty engine for good was it worthy of people's veneration, in post-Industrial Revolution Scotland. Poor relief, church extension, evangelism, and Gospel preaching were all of a piece for Chalmers, inter-related strands of the church's business in the world.

St. John’s Parish

Appalled by the spiritual ignorance as well as the social deprivation of masses of people in his own parish, Chalmers was now prepared to put his theories to the test. He persuaded the town council to erect and finance a new parish, St. John's, in an area populated by many of the poorest in the city.

To try and keep pace with the swelling population in the cities the church had increased the number of ministers in already existing parishes in a "collegiate" arrangement. When that proved inadequate, new church buildings were erected, but the financial cost was high and the councils, by whose patronage they had been set up, recouped their outlay by charging high seat rents which the poor could not afford. This was the situation Chalmers was determined to remedy in St. John's.

The Organiser

From 1819 to 1823 Chalmers presided over the work in St. John's, preaching, visiting, organising schools and charity work. These years were remarkably fruitful for Chalmers and his deacons. Wherever possible family members were encouraged to contribute to poverty among their own relatives. Chalmers consistently emphasised to those who were in work the stigma of sending their out-of-work relations to the poor-house, when they should instead be prepared to contribute to a scheme like his to prevent this.

One of the main objectives of his scheme was to stimulate this sense of responsibility. Compassion and contribution from relatives and neighbours, coupled with independence, economy, and sobriety would ward off poverty to a much greater degree. He viewed the legalisation of pauperism as a degradation of the poor.

He was convinced that poverty was only exacerbated by encouraging dependence on State help. For him the old method of relief from church door collections, when accompanied by a careful system of parochial visitation, was the best solution to the needs of the poor. Chalmers in this no doubt looked back on a pre-Industrial Revolution Scotland, but not in the spirit of the romanticist that longs merely to repeat the past. He believed that a church revitalised from the grip of Modaratism was the best means to effectively deal with the rapidly increasing social problems of his day.

Looking at the venture from a financial perspective makes interesting reading. The cost of maintaining the poor in the area of this parish up till then had amounted to £1400 per annum. The St. John's door collection ran to £480, yet Chalmers was determined that all cases of poverty within the parish, apart from those already inmates of the local poor-house, should be met from these door collections.

The outcome of these labours was such that by the end of his time in St. John's Chalmers had seen a considerable drop in the number of new cases of poverty in the parish, and in addition a corresponding drop in the cost of keeping them. By the second year of the scheme St. John's had taken over the maintenance of all the inmates of the poor-house. The poverty that had cost the council £1400 a year was now managed by St. John's at a cost of £280.

The comment of Dr. Hanna in his Memoirs of Thomas Chalmers, is instructive.

"The St. John's deaconry - employed as it was to promote the education as well as to manage the indigence of the parish - mingling as it did familiarly with all the families, and proving itself, by word and deed, the true but enlightened friend of all, did far more to prevent pauperism than to provide for it."

Despite this the scheme was not to continue successfully in Glasgow, nor was it much taken up elsewhere. This was not due to lack of interest. There were those who took note of the success of his scheme, and Chalmers longed to see something similar applied in England, but many of those who identified with it there were already committed in time and resources to the anti-slavery movement.

In addition, from 1828 onwards, Chalmers, by that time in Edinburgh, faced staunch opposition from the Dissenters, or Separatists, and from a government which had no intention of allowing the church to regain its claim over society.

In Glasgow itself Chalmers had called for laws of residence to be drawn up to prevent the poor in other areas descending upon St. John's, and so limiting the scheme to that parish alone, but this was never done.

Perhaps one of the main reasons why it wasn't replicated elsewhere at the time was that Chalmers in his social policies was ahead of his time. And such a scheme as St. John's required an enormously energetic leadership. Chalmers himself could not only enter enthusiastically into such work, but also inspire others to carry his plans into effect. But there were few, even then, of his kind around.

The Preacher

We cannot leave Chalmers' ministry in Glasgow without touching upon Chalmers as a preacher of the Gospel. Before he came to Glasgow evangelical preaching had been regarded by many, as had been true of Chalmers himself, as either sentimentalism or fanaticism, or something of both. Through Chalmers now that perception was being steadily transformed. It was by his voice that the city awoke to the evils and corruptions it possessed, as it was through his industry that the means were set up to tackle them. Not the least of his achievements in Glasgow was the raising in public esteem of evangelical preaching.

Yet Chalmers left Glasgow in 1823, after eight dynamic years. No doubt the incessant toils of preaching, writing, visitation, correspondence (some 50 letters a week), family commitments, and all his practical schemes, were taking their toll. He was at times exhausted. But that would not explain his decision to leave, and to take up the offer of the chair of Moral Philosophy at St. Andrews. Nor was the main reason in his desire for an academic chair which he had cherished since boyhood. Chalmers saw that his influence could now be even more widespread than was possible through his Glasgow pulpit, especially through the press, and without the burdens of a parish ministry. He could build upon his unrivalled fame as a preacher and extend his usefulness even further.

In fact, as he mentioned in his letter to his elders, deacons, and Sabbath School teachers in January 1823, he saw that, to all intents and purposes, to continue to hold a preaching ministry and be a leader of such an enlarged work as his social reform, would require him to be a pluralist!

And there was something else, something of which he had written in the early stages of his work, The Christian and Civic Economy of large Towns, in 1819.

"You know that a machine in the hand of a single individual can often do a hundred-fold more work than an individual can do by the direct application of his own hands...But further, the elevated office of a Christian minister is to catch men. There is, however, another still more elevated, and that too, in regard to Christian productiveness - which is to be employed in teaching and training the fishers of men. A professorship is a higher condition of usefulness than an ordinary parish...Were there at this moment fifty vacancies in the church, and the same number of vacancies in our Colleges, and fifty men...rich in their qualifications for the one department and the other, some of you would be for sending them to the pulpits - I would be for sending them to the chairs. A Christianised university, in respect of its professorships, would be to me a mightier accession than a Christianised county, in respect of its parishes. And should there be a fountain out of which emanated a thousand rills, it would be to the source that I should carry the salt of purification, and not to any of the streams which flow from it."

It was in such a mind, from such a work, into even greater influence, that Thomas Chalmers preached his farewell sermon in Glasgow on 9th November, 1823, and gave his introductory lecture in St. Andrews five days later.

4. St Andrews University - 1823-1828

Very different were the thoughts, feelings and aspirations of the new professor of Moral Philosophy to those he had cherished some twenty years earlier in this same place of learning. The enthusiasm with which students awaited his lectures was intense, especially in the second year of his professorship there, regarded by many as the most brilliant in all his academic career.

Excitement and Activity

St. Andrews university sat petrified in Moderatism when Chalmers arrived there. Students now began to vote against it with their feet. Chalmers had brought life, conviction and enthusiasm. A Missionary Society was established and some of the young men who now gathered at his feet, like Alexander Duff and John Adam, were destined to become highly influential missionaries.

After the 1825 Assembly he engaged in preaching and working in his former parish in the Tron, Glasgow. All the way through his enormously busy schedule he made conscience of being a good family man! Writing to his wife regularly, he told her that she was to give the children a feast of strawberries on the delivery of each letter and to let them know that these were from him!

Chalmers was far from confining himself to academic labours. St. Andrews was not Glasgow, but it had its dark side nevertheless. Chalmers took on the role of a Sabbath School teacher, visiting the families as well as teaching the children. On Tuesday evenings he began a class of religious instruction for students.

While at St. Andrews Chalmers advocated raising the academic standard for those entering Scottish universities. He proposed an entrance examination and that a secondary school should be attached to each of the universities, specifically to instruct students towards sitting this entrance examination. By modern standards this may seem a modest proposal to say the least, but it was part of a plea for greater endowment of Colleges, and the principle and vision behind this appeal should not be lost on us. As he put it himself,

"The family honour (of colleges) is built on the prowess of sons, not the greatness of ancestors."

To Chalmers the greatness of any College was not simply a matter of great men in their past; it was very much also to do with the calibre of men graduating from them continuously. That was why endowment was important to him.

In October 1927 he was elected to fill the chair of Divinity at Edinburgh University. He accepted, knowing he would not begin there till November 1828. Theology was higher in importance than moral philosophy, and Edinburgh was of greater influence than St. Andrews. But this phase of his career was to present him with even greater challenges.

To be continued.