Thomas Chalmers

Thomas Chalmers (March 17, 1780 - May 31, 1847), Scottish divine, was born at Anstruther in Fife. Thomas Chalmers Project Gutenberg eText 13103: Great Britain and Her Queen, by Anne E. Keeling http://www. ... Thomas Chalmers Project Gutenberg eText 13103: Great Britain and Her Queen, by Anne E. Keeling http://www. ... March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in Leap years). ... 1780 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... May 31 is the 151st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (152nd in leap years), with 214 days remaining, as the last day of May. ... 1847 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... ... Anstruther (Enster in Scots)is a small town in Fife, Scotland. ... Fife (Fìobh in Gaelic) is a unitary council region of Scotland situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth. ...

Overview

At the age of eleven Chalmers was entered as a student at St Andrews, where he devoted himself almost exclusively to mathematics. In January 1799 he was licensed as a preacher of the Gospel by the St Andrews presbytery. In May 1803, after attending further courses of lectures in Edinburgh, and acting as assistant to the professor of mathematics at St Andrews, he was ordained as minister of Kilmany, about 9 miles from the university town, where he continued to lecture. He was highly regarded during his lifetime as a natural theologist. The University of St Andrews was founded between 1410 and 1413 and is the oldest university in Scotland (and third oldest in the English speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge ). The university is situated in the Royal Burgh of St Andrews, on the east coast of Scotland. ... Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Mathematics Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mathematics Look up Mathematics in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mathematics Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles — A collection of articles on various math topics, with interactive Java... The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a renowned centre for teaching and research in Edinburgh, Scotland. ... Natural theology (or natural religion) is theology based on reason and ordinary experience. ...

Mathematics

His mathematical lectures roused so much enthusiasm that they were discontinued by order of the authorities, who disliked the disturbance of the university routine which they involved. Chalmers then opened mathematical classes on his own account which attracted many students; at the same time he delivered a course of lectures on chemistry, and ministered to his parish at Kilmany. In 1805 he became a candidate for the vacant professorship of mathematics at Edinburgh, but was unsuccessful. In 1808 he published an Inquiry into the Extent and Stability of National Resources, a contribution to the discussion created by Bonaparte's commercial policy. Domestic bereavements and a severe illness then turned his thoughts in another direction. // Introduction The fundamental component of chemistry is that it involves matter in some way (this explains its broad reach). ... 1805 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1808 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Bonaparte as general Napoleon Bonaparte ( 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a general of the French Revolution and was the ruler of France as First Consul (Premier Consul) of the French Republic from November 11, 1799 to May 18, 1804, then as Emperor of the French (Empereur des Français...

Christianity

At his own request the article on Christianity was assigned to him in Dr Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, and in studying the credentials of Christianity he received a new impression of its contents. His journal and letters show how he was led from a sustained effort to attain the morality of the Gospel to a profound spiritual revolution. After this his ministry was marked by a zeal which made it famous. The separate publication of his article in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, and contributions to the Edinburgh Christian Instructor and the Eclectic Review, enhanced his reputation as an author. In 1815 he became minister of the Tron Church, Glasgow, in spite of determined opposition to him in the town council on the grounds of his evangelical teaching. From Glasgow his repute as a preacher spread throughout the United Kingdom. A series of sermons on the relation between the discoveries of astronomy and the Christian revelation was published in January 1817, and within a year nine editions and 20,000 copies were in circulation. When he visited London Wilberforce wrote, "all the world is wild about Dr Chalmers." The history of Christianity is difficult to extricate from that of the European West (and several other culture-regions) in general. ... The Battle of New Orleans 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... A photo of Samuel Wilberforce by Lewis Carroll Samuel Wilberforce (September 7, 1805 - July 19, 1873), English bishop, third son of William Wilberforce, was born at Clapham Common, London. ...

His Parish

In Glasgow Chalmers made one of his greatest contributions to the life of his own time by his experiments in parochial organization. His parish contained about 11,000 persons, and of these about one-third were unconnected with any church. He diagnosed this evil as being due to several shortages: personal influence; spiritual oversight; and the raw number of parochial organizations, which had not kept pace in the city, as they had done in rural parishes, with the growing population. He declared that twenty new churches, with parishes, should be erected in Glasgow, and he set to work to revivify, remodel and extend the old parochial economy of Scotland. The town council consented to build one new church, attaching to it a parish of 10,000 persons, mostly weavers, labourers and factory workers, and this church was offered to Dr Chalmers that he might have a fair opportunity of testing his system.

In September 1819 he became minister of the church and parish of St John, where of 2000 families more than 800 had no connection with any Christian church. He first addressed himself to providing schools for the children. Two school-houses with four endowed teachers were established, where 700 children were taught at the moderate fees of 2 and 3 shillings per quarter. Between 40 and 50 local Sabbath schools were opened, where more than 1000 children were taught the elements of secular and religious education. The parish was divided into 25 districts embracing from 60 to 100 families, over each of which an elder and a deacon were placed, the former taking oversight of their spiritual, the latter of their physical needs. Chalmers was the mainspring of the whole system, not merely superintending the visitation, but personally visiting all the families, and holding evening meetings, when he addressed those whom he had visited. 1819 common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

This parochial machinery enabled him to make a singularly successful experiment in dealing with the problem of poverty. At this time there were not more than 20 parishes north of the Forth and Clyde where there was a compulsory assessment for the poor, but the English method of assessment was rapidly spreading. Chalmers believed that compulsory assessment actually swelled the evil it was intended to mitigate, and that relief should instead be raised and administered by voluntary means. His critics replied that this was impossible in large cities. When he undertook the management of the parish of St John's, the poor of the parish cost the city £1400 per annum, and in four years, by the adoption of his method, the pauper expenditure was reduced to £280 per annum. The investigation of all new applications for relief was committed to the deacon of the district, and every effort was made to enable the poor to help themselves. When once the system was in operation it was found that a deacon, by spending an hour a week among the families committed to his charge, could keep himself acquainted with their character and condition. The River Forth meanders over fertile farmlands near Stirling The River Forth, 47 km (29 miles) long, is the major river draining the eastern part of the central belt of Scotland. ... The River Clyde, looking eastwards upstream, as it passes beneath the Kingston Bridge. ...

Moral Philosophy

In 1823, after eight years of work at high pressure, he was glad to accept the chair of moral philosophy at St Andrews, the seventh academic offer made to him during his eight years in Glasgow. In his lectures he excluded mental philosophy and included the whole sphere of moral obligation, dealing with man's duty to God and to his fellow-men in the light of Christian teaching. Many of his lectures are printed in the first and second volumes of his published works. In the field of ethics he made contributions in regard to the place and functions of volition and attention, the separate and underived character of the moral sentiments, and the distinction between the virtues of perfect and imperfect obligation. His lectures kindled the religious spirit among his students, and led some of them to devote themselves to missionary effort. In November 1828 he was transferred to the chair of theology in Edinburgh. He then introduced the practice of following the lecture with a viva voce examination on what had been delivered. He also introduced text-books, and came into stimulating contact with his people; perhaps no one has ever succeeded as he did by the use of these methods in communicating intellectual, moral and religious impulse to so many students. 1823 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Ethics (from Greek ethikos) is the branch of axiology – one of the four major branches of philosophy, alongside metaphysics, epistemology, and logic – which attempts to understand the nature of morality; to define that which is right from that which is wrong. ... 1828 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

In 1841 the movement which ended in the Disruption was rapidly culminating, and Dr Chalmers found himself at the head of the party which stood for the principle that no minister shall be intruded into any parish contrary to the will of the congregation. Cases of conflict between the church and the civil power arose in Auchterarder, Dunkeld and Marnoch, and when the courts made it clear that the church, in their opinion, held its temporalities on condition of rendering such obedience as the courts required, the church appealed to the government for relief. In January 1843 the government put a final and peremptory negative on the church's claims for spiritual independence. On May 18, 1843 470 clergymen withdrew from the general assembly and constituted themselves the Free Church of Scotland, with Dr Chalmers as moderator. He had prepared a sustentation fund scheme for the support of the seceding ministers, and this was at once put into successful operation. On May 20, 1847, immediately after his return from the House of Commons, where he had given evidence as to the refusal of sites for Free Churches by Scottish landowners, he was found dead in bed. take you to calendar). ... May 18 is the 138th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (139th in leap years). ... 1843 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... This article concerns the Free Church of Scotland 1843-1900, for the Free Church of Scotland existing from 1900 to the present day see Free Church of Scotland (post 1900). ... 20 May is the 140th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (141st in leap years). ... 1847 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

Dr Chalmers's action throughout the Free Church controversy was so consistent in its application of Christian principle and so free from personal or party animus, that his writings are a valuable source for argument and illustration on the question of Establishment. "I have no veneration", he said to the royal commissioners in St Andrews, before either the voluntary or the non-intrusive controversies had arisen, "for the Church of Scotland qua an establishment, but I have the utmost veneration for it qua an instrument of Christian good." He was transparent in character, chivalrous, kindly, firm, eloquent and sagacious; his purity of motive and unselfishness commanded absolute confidence; he had originality and initiative in dealing with new and difficult circumstances, and great aptitude for business details.

During a life of incessant activity Chalmers scarcely ever allowed a day to pass without its modicum of composition; at the most unseasonable times, and in the most unlikely places, he would occupy himself with literary work. His writings occupy more than 30 volumes. He would have stood higher as an author had he written less, or had he indulged less in that practice of reiteration into which he was constantly betrayed by his anxiety to impress his ideas upon others. As a political economist he was the first to unfold the connection that subsists between the degree of the fertility of the soil and the social condition of a community, the rapid manner in which capital is reproduced (see Mill's Political Economy, i. 94), and the general doctrine of a limit to all the modes by which national wealth may accumulate. He was the first also to advance that argument in favour of religious establishments which meets upon its own ground the doctrine of Adam Smith, that religion like other things should be left to the operation of the natural law of supply and demand. In 1851 Mill married Harriet Taylor after 21 years of an at times intense friendship and love affair. ... Adam Smith, FRSE (Baptised June 5, 1723 – July 17, 1790) was a Scottish political economist and moral philosopher. ...

Published works

His academic years were prolific also in literature of various kinds. In 1826 he published a third volume of the Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns, a continuation of work begun at St Johns, Glasgow. In 1832 he published a Political Economy, the chief purpose of which was to enforce the truth that the right economic condition of the masses is dependent on their right moral condition, that character is the parent of comfort, not vice versa. In 1834 Dr Chalmers was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in the same year he became corresponding member of the Institute of France; in 1835 Oxford conferred on him the degree of D.C.L. In 1834 he became leader of the evangelical section of the Scottish Church in the General Assembly. He was appointed chairman of a committee for church extension, and in that capacity made a tour through a large part of Scotland, addressing presbyteries and holding public meetings. He also issued numerous appeals, with the result that in 1841, when he resigned his office as convener of the church extension committee, he was able to announce that in seven years upwards of 300,000 had been contributed, and 220 new churches had been built. His efforts to induce the Whig government to assist in this effort were unsuccessful. 1834 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Royal Society of Edinburghs Building on the corner of George St. ... While the Whigs (along with the Tories) are often described as one of the two political parties in late 17th to mid 19th century Great Britain, it is more accurate to describe them as loose political groupings or tendencies. ...

Natural Theology

Chambers' Bridgewater Treatises On the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God as Manifested in the Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man (see the Earl of Bridgewater for other Bridgewater Treatise) appeared in two volumes 1833 and went through 6 editions. As noted by Professor Robert M. Young, these effectively represent an encylopedia of pre-evolutionary natural history and were commissioned and published whilst Charles Darwin was onboard the Beagle. Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater (1756 - February 12, 1829) was a noted British eccentric. ... In his lifetime Charles Darwin gained international fame as an influential scientist examining controversial topics. ...

In the department of natural theology and the Christian evidences he ably advocated that method of reconciling the Mosaic narrative with the indefinite antiquity of the globe which William Buckland (17841856) advanced in his Bridgewater Treatises, and which Dr Chalmers had previously communicated to him. His refutation of David Hume's objection to the truth of miracles is perhaps his intellectual chef d'ceuvre. The distinction between the laws and dispositions of matter, as between the ethics and objects of theology, he was the first to indicate and enforce, and he laid great emphasis on the superior authority as witnesses for the truth of Revelation of the Scriptural as compared with the Extra-Scriptural writers, and of the Christian as compared with the non-Christian testimonies. In his Institutes of Theology, no material modification is attempted on the doctrines of Calvinism,which he received with all simplicity of faith as revealed in the Divine word, and defended as in harmony with the most profound philosophy of human nature and of the Divine providence. Natural theology (or natural religion) is theology based on reason and ordinary experience. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: David Hume Online editions of Humes work: Works by David Hume at Project Gutenberg Free eBook of A Treatise of Human Nature at Project Gutenberg Free eBook of The History of England, Volume I at Project Gutenberg Free eBook of An...

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, a publication in the public domain. Supporters contend that the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1910-1911) represents the sum of human knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century; indeed, it was advertised as such. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...

References

Among the best recent biographical accounts and academic studies of the life and works of Thomas Chalmers are those of John Roxborogh, Rev. Professor Alexander Campbell Cheyne, Friedhelm Voges and S. J. Brown. Rev. ...

• Online chapter MALTHUS AND THE EVOLUTIONISTS:THE COMMON CONTEXT OF BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL THEORY from Darwin's Metaphor: Nature's Place in Victorian Culture by Professor Robert M. Young (1985, 1988, 1994). Cambridge University Press.

See Also

Additional Chalmers Info[1]