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objects of it, by the ill construction of the bill in its most important provisions. By the act it was stipulated, that the power of increasing a minister's stipend should be vested in the court of Tiends, as commissioners to decide between the incumbent and the heritors or landholders, the former giving notice in a regular summons, and the latter possessing the right of litigating the plea. The bill gave to the clergy so situated the privilege of advancing further claims, as they might find occasion for doing so, in the improved circumstances of their parishes. Unfortunately, however, this legislative measure was shackled by two clauses, which, in limiting the intervals of augmentation, left the period of commencement so ambiguous, that it was much to be apprehended the clergy who stood in most need of the proposed assistance, would not be able to prosecute their claims without being at a great expense, and suffering a considerable delay from the opposition of the wealthy proprietors of the soil, and the intrigues of the lawyers. To prevent these embarrassments, and to give efficiency to a proposition that in all other respects was not barely unobjectionable, but essentially necessary, the Presbytery of Cupar deputed Mr. Chalmers to plead the common cause of himself and his brethren of that district in the general assembly. This honourable service called forth his latent powers with such effect, that all who heard him were astonished at the splendour of his eloquence, convinced by the force of his argument, and delighted by the coruscations of his wit.

The eclat which followed this display of his powers did not die away with the circumstance out of which it arose.

As yet,

Mr. Chalmers was now consulted, courted, and employed on subjects of importance, and the conductors of the Edinburgh Review soon had the address to engage his for their critical journal. pen however, the extraordinary talents of this highly gifted man may be said to have been exerted wholly on secular objects. In the strict line of his profession he had produced nothing for the edification of the public, nor was he at all followed as a preacher. But a great and effectual change I was now at hand.

About the time when his memorable speech was delivered in the general assembly, Dr. Brewster was preparing materials, and procuring assistance, for the composition of his projected Encyclopedia. Anxious to enrich his work with articles of the first degree of excellence in their several kinds,

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he turned his thoughts, for the department of theology, to Mr. Chalmers, who undertook the task, and began a course of study suited to the magnitude of the subject. It will seem extraordinary to most persons, that a man of learning, regularly educated for the ministry, and holding a benefice in such a country as Scotland, should have the spirit of religion to acquire, after exercising the teacher's office in a large parish for some years. But remarkable as the fact may appear, it seems certain that Mr. Chalmers never rightly understood the genius of Christianity till he came under the obligation of investigating its principles and evidences for general instruction. After all, this is not a singular case, for we have known several instances of ministers in other communions, who have gone through a long routine of professional duty, with little satisfaction to themselves, and scarcely any profit to their hearers, till some apparently fortuitous incident has given a new impulse to their minds, and an advantageous direction to their labours.

While our author endeavoured to set in a clear light the true character of the Christian religion, he began to suspect the correctness of his former views of this sublime system. In following up this doubt, he soon discovered the reason why his preaching against vice had been so inefficacious. He now saw that, as the mere assent to the divine origin of the gospel, does not constitute operative faith; so neither is the formal practice of certain external duties, that righteousness which can alone render man acceptable in the sight of Heaven. He also perceived the force of the awful declaration, “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all," that is, he has broken the whole law, so far at least as to forfeit by his disobedience all claim to an admission into the realms of infinite purity. This change in his religious views was productive of an important alteration in the tenor of his public ministration; and instead of general declamation against the prevailing delinquencies, he now assailed the citadel of sin, by laying open the heart in all its moral deformity, that his people might be led to feel what their pastor himself felt, their total inability to turn from evil to good, without divine grace.

The article on Christianity, in the Eneyclopedia, gave such satisfaction to the religious public, that the author was ear. nestly entreated to print it in a separate form for more extensive circulation. With

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this request he complied, and the volume entitled, "The Evidence and Authority of the Christian Revelation," no sooner appeared, than it was received with such avidity as quickly to reach a sixth edition. The celebrity which he gained by this luminous performance, spread his name far and wide, not only in Scotland, but in England. In his own country he was honoured with the degree of doctor in divinity, and in England his work was strongly recommended to candidates for orders, by no less a man than bishop Tomline, in a new edition of his Elements of Christian Theology.

Dr. Chalmers was now called forward frequently, to appear in public both as a preacher and a leading speaker at meetings for philanthropic purposes. In 1813 he printed a "Sermon preached at Edinburgh before the Society for the relief of the destitute Sick, in that city;" and in the following year he published an admirable tract, entitled, "The Influence of Bible Societies on the Temporal Necessities of the Poor."

This argumentative performance does not touch upon the positive claims of the institution whose cause it pleads, but is wholly employed in repelling an objection which is set up at the very outset of every attempt to raise a subscription in its support; nothing being more common than to have the secular necessities of the poor brought into competition with it, and every shilling given to the Bible Society represented as an encroachment upon that fund which was before allocated to the relief of poverty.

The objection is met, combated, and overthrown, in a variety of ways; and the conclusion is, "That the extension of Bible Societies, while it counteracts in various directions the mischief of poor rates, augments that principle of individual benevolence which is the best substitute for poor rates. You add to the stock of individual benevolence, by adding to the number of benevolent individuals; and this is the genuine effect of a Bible Association. Or, you add to the stock of individual benevolence in a country, by adding to the intensity of the benevolent principle; and this is the undoubted tendency of a Bible Association. And, what is of mighty importance in this argument, a Bible Association not only awakens the benevolent principle, but enlivens it. It establishes an intercourse betwixt the various orders of society; and on no former occasion in the history of this country, have the rich and the poor come so often together upon a

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footing of good will. The kindly influence of this is incalculable. It brings the poor under the eye of their richer neighbours.. The visits and inquiries connected with the objects of the Bible Society, bring them into contact with one another. The rich come to be more skilled in the wants and difficulties of the poor; and by enter ing their houses, and joining with them in conversation, they not only acquire a benevolence towards them, but they gather that knowledge which is so essential to guide and enlighten their benevolence."

It was now obvious that the labours of Dr. Chalmers could not be long confined to a remote and comparatively obscure district. Talents so powerful, combined with the best principles and the most determined energy, required an extensive sphere of action. Accordingly, in 1815, he received an invitation to undertake the charge of the Tron Church at Glasgow. He accepted the call, and, on his removal thither, published an affectionate address to his former parishioners, in which he gave this account of the great change that had occurred in his ministerial conduct while resident at Kilmany:

"Here I cannot but record the effect of an actual, though undesigned experiment, which I prosecuted for upwards of twelve years among you. For the greater part of that time I could expatiate on the meanness of dishonesty, on the villany of falsehood, on the despicable arts of calumny,in a word, upon all those deformities of character, which awaken the natural indig❤ nation of the human heart against the pests and the disturbers of human society. Now, could I, upon the strength of these warm expostulations, have got the thief to give up his stealing, and the evil speaker his censoriousness, and the liar his deviations from truth, I should have felt all the repose of one who had gotten his ultimate object. It never occurred to me that all this might have been done, and yet every soul of every hearer have remained in full alienation from God; and that even could I have established in the bosom of one who stole, such a principle of abhorrence at the meanness of dishonesty, that he was prevailed upon to steal no more, he might still have retained a heart as completely unturned to God, and as totally unpossessed by a principle of love to Him, as before. In a word, though I might have made him a more upright and honourable man, I might have left him as destitute of the essence of religious principle as ever. But the interesting fact is, that during the whole of that period, in which I made no attempt against the natural enmity of the

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mind to God, while I was inattentive to the way in which this enmity is dissolved, even by the free offer on the one hand, and the believing acceptance on the other, of the gospel salvation: while Christ, through whose blood the sinner, who by nature stands afar off, is brought near to the heavenly Lawgiver whom he has offended, was scarcely ever spoken of, or spoken of in such a way as stripped him of all the importance of his character and offices,-even at this time I certainly did press the reformations of honour, and truth, and integrity among my people; but I never once heard of any such reformations having been effected amongst them. If there ever was any thing at all brought about in this way, it was more than ever I got any account of. I am not sensible that all the vehemence with which I urged the virtues and proprieties of social life, had the weight of a feather on the moral habits of my parishioners: and it was not till I got impressed by the utter alienation of the heart in all its desires and affections from God; it was not till reconciliation to Him became the distinct and prominent object of my ministerial exertions;

it was not till I took the scriptural way of laying the method of reconciliation before them; it was not till the free offer of forgiveness through the blood of Christ was urged upon their acceptance, and the Holy Spirit given through the channel of Christ's mediatorship to all who ask him, was set before them as the unceasing object of their dependence and their prayers; it was not, in one word, till the contemplations of my people were turned to those great and essential elements in the business of a soul providing for its interest with God and the concerns of its eternity—that I ever heard of any of those subordinate reformations which I aforetime made the earnest and the zealous, but I am afraid, at the same time, the ultimate object, of my earlier ministra tions.

"Ye servants, whose scrupulous fidelity has now attracted the notice, and drawn forth, in my hearing, a delightful testimony from your masters, what mischief you would have done, had your zeal for doctrines and sacraments been accompanied by the sloth and the remissness, and what, in the prevailing tone of moral relaxation, is counted the allowable purloining of your earlier days! But a sense of your heavenly Master's eye has brought another influence to bear upon you; and while you are thus striving to adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things, you may, poor as you are, reclaim the great ones of the land to the acknowledgment of the faith.

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"You have, at least, taught me, that to preach Christ is the only effective way of preaching morality in all its branches; and out of your humble cottages have I gathered a lesson, which I pray God I may be enabled to carry, with all its simplicity, into a wider theatre; and to bring, with all the power of its subduing efficacy, upon the vices of a more crowded population."

Soon after this, Dr. Chalmers added to his celebrity as a preacher and a writer by "A Series of Discourses on the Christian Revelation, viewed in connection with the Modern Astronomy."

These Discourses, or, as they might perhaps have been more appropriately denominated, Lectures, were chiefly delivered on the occasion of the week-day sermon preached in rotation by the ministers of Glasgow. They are seven in number, and an idea of their merit, in point of argument, may be formed from the following analysis given by the author in the introduction:

"The astronomical objection against the truth of the Gospel, does not occupy a very prominent place in any of our Treatises of Infidelity. It is often, however, met with in conversation—and we have known it to be the cause of serious perplexity and alarm in minds anxious for the solid establishment of their religious faith.

"There is an imposing splendour in the science of astronomy, and it is not to be wondered at, if the light it throws, or appears to throw, over other tracts of speculation than those which are properly its own, should at times dazzle and mislead an inquirer. On this account, we think it were a service to what we deem a true and a righteous cause, could we succeed in dissipating this illusion; and in stripping Infidelity of those pretensions to enlargement, and to a certain air of philosophical greatness, by which it has often become so destructively alluring to the young, the ardent, and the ambitious.

"In my first Discourse, I have attempted a sketch of Modern Astronomy, nor have I wished to throw any disguise over that comparative littleness which belongs to our planet, and which gives to the argument of Freethinkers all its plausibility.

"This argument involves in it an assertion and an inference. The assertion is, that Christianity is a religion which professes to be designed for the single benefit of our world; and the inference is, that God cannot be the author of this religion, for he would not lavish, on so insignificant a field, such peculiar and such distinguishing attentions as are ascribed to him in the Old and New Testament.

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Christianity makes no such profession. That it is designed for the single benefit of our world, is altogether a presumption of the infidel himself.-And feeling that this is not the only example of temerity which can be charged on the enemies of our faith, I have allotted my second Discourse to the attempt of demonstrating the utter repugnance of such a spirit with the cautious and enlightened philosophy of modern times.

"In the course of this Sermon I have offered a tribute of acknowledgment to the theology of sir Isaac Newton; and in such terms as, if not further explained, may be liable to misconstruction. The grand circumstance of applause in the character of this great man is, that, unseduced by all the magnificence of his own discoveries, he had a solidity of mind which could resist their fascinations, and keep him in steady attachment to that book, whose general evidences stamped upon it the impress of a real communication from heaven. This was the sole attribute of his theology which I had in my eye, when I presumed to eulogize it. I do not think, that, amid the distraction and the engrossment of his other pursuits, he has at all times succeeded in his interpretation of the book; else he would never, in my apprehension, have abetted the leading doctrine of a sect or a system, which has now nearly dwindled away from public observation.

"In my third Discourse I am silent as to the assertion, and attempt to combat the inference that is founded upon it. I insist, that upon all the analogies of nature and of providence, we can lay no limit on the condescension of God, or on the multiplicity of his regards, even to the very humblest departments of creation; and that it is not for us, who see the evidences of divine wisdom and care spread in such exhaustless profusion around us, to say, that the Deity would not lavish all the wealth of his wondrous attributes on the salvation even of our solitary species.

"At this point of the argument, I trust that the intelligent reader may be enabled to perceive in the adversaries of the gospel a two-fold dereliction from the maxims of the Baconian philosophy: that, in the first instance, the assertion which forms the groundwork of their argument is gratuitously fetched out of an unknown region, where they are utterly abandoned by the light of experience; and that, in the second instance, the inference they urge from it is in the face of manifold and undeniable truths, all lying within the safe and accessible field of human observation.

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"In my subsequent discourses, I proceed to the informations of the record. The infidel objection, drawn from astronomy, may be considered as by this time disposed of; and if we have succeeded in clearing it away, so as to deliver the Christian testimony from all discredit upon this ground, then may we submit, on the strength of other evidences, to be guided by its information. We shall thus learn, that Christianity has a far more extensive bearing on the other orders of creation, than the infidel is disposed to allow; and whether he will own the authority of this information or not, he will at least be forced to admit that the subject matter of the Bible itself is not chargeable with that objection which he has attempted to fasten upon it.

"Thus, had my only object been the refutation of the infidel argument, I might have spared the last discourses of the volume altogether. But the tracks of scriptural information to which they directed me, I considered as worthy prosecution on their own account and I do think that much may be gathered from these less observed portions of the field of revelation, to cheer, to elevate, and to guide the believer.

"But, in the management of such a discussion as this, though, for a great degree of this effect, it would require to be conducted in a far higher style than I am able to sustain, the taste of the human mind may be regaled, and its understanding put into a state of the most agreeable exercise.

"Now this is quite distinct from the conscience being made to feel the force of a personal application; nor could I either bring this argument to its close in the pulpit, or offer it to the general notice of the world, without adverting, in the last Discourse, to a delusion which, I fear, is carrying forward thousands, and tens of thousands, to an undone eternity.

I

"I have closed the volume with an Appendix of Scriptural Authorities. found that I could not easily interweave them in the texture of the work, and have therefore thought fit to present them in a separate form. I look for a twofold benefit from this exhibition-first to those more general readers, who are ignorant of the Scriptures, and of the richness and variety which abound in them,-and, secondly, to those narrow and intolerant professors, who take an alarm at the very sound and semblance of philosophy; and feel as if there was an utter irreconcileable antipathy between its lessons on the one hand, and the soundness and piety of the Bible on the other. It were well, I conceive, for our cause, that the latter

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become a little more indulgent on this subject; that they gave up a portion of those ancient and hereditary prepossessions, which go so far to cramp and enthral them; that they would suffer theology to take that wide range of argument and of illustration which belongs to her; and that, less sensitively jealous of any desecration being brought upon the Sabbath or the pulpit, they would suffer her freely to announce all those truths, which either serve to protect Christianity from the contempt of science; or to protect the teachers of Christianity from those invasions which are practised both on the sacredness of the office, and on the solitude of its devotional and intellectual labours."

The objection to revealed religion, drawn from the plurality of worlds, is not only refuted in these discourses, but retorted with resistless force upon the presumptuous infidel, whose argument is demonstratively shewn to be injurious to the divine perfection. On this point Dr. Chalmers says:

"The more we know of the extent of nature, should not we have the loftier conception of Him who sits in high authority over the concerns of so wide a universe? But, is it not adding to the bright catalogue of his other attributes, to say, that while magnitude does not overpower him, minuteness does not escape him, and variety cannot bewilder him; and that, at the very time while the mind of the Deity is abroad over the whole vastness of creation, there is not one particle of matter, there is not one individual principle of rational or of animal existence, there is not one single world in that expanse which teems with them, that his eye does not discern as constantly, and his hand does not guide as unerringly, and his Spirit does not watch and care for as vigilantly, as if it formed the one and exclusive object of his attention.

now

"The thing is inconceivable to us, whose minds are so easily distracted by a number of objects, and this is the secret principle of the whole infidelity I am alluding to. To bring God to the level of our own comprehension, we would clothe him in the impotency of a man. We would transfer to his wonderful mind all the imperfections of our own faculties. When we are taught by astronomy that he has millions of worlds to look after, and thus add in one direction to the glories of his character; we take away from them in another, by saying, that each of these worlds must be looked after imperfectly. The use that we make of a discovery, which should heighten our every concep

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tion of God, and humble us into the sentiment, that a being of such mysterious elevation is to us unfathomable, is to sit in judgment over him, ay, and to pronounce such a judgment as degrades him, and keeps him down to the standard of our own paltry imagination.

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"We are introduced by modern science to a multitude of other suns and of other systems; and the perverse interpretations we put upon the fact, that God can diffuse the benefits of his power, and his goodness over such a variety of worlds, is, that he cannot, or will not, bestow so much goodness on one of those worlds, as professed revelation from heaven has announced to us. While we enlarge the provinces of his empire, we tarnish all the glory of this enlargement, by saying, he has so much to care for, that the care of every one province must be less complete, and less vigilant, and less effectual, than it would otherwise have been. By the discoveries of modern science, we multiply the places of the creation; but along with this, we would impair the attributes of his eye being in every place to behold the evil and the good; and thus, while we magnify one of his perfections, we do it at the expense of another; and to bring him within the grasp of our feeble capacity, we would deface one of the glories of that character, which it is our part to adore, as higher than all thought, and as greater than all comprehension."

After ministering at the Tron Church about three years, Dr. Chalmers was transferred to the more extensive charge of St. John's parish, in Glasgow, where he successfully introduced the system of Sabbathschool teaching, and also a plan for reliev ing the poor by voluntary contributions, instead of the offensive mode of compulsory levies. These important subjects he brought under the consideration of the general assembly, and with such powerful effect, that in a short time both improvements became general throughout Scotland.

In 1820, Dr. Chalmers published eight discourses on "The application of Christianity to the commercial and ordinary affairs of life."

After this, he began a quarterly publication on "The Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns," which work was completed in two octavo volumes. The great object of this work is to unite the efforts of civil and Christian philanthropy in one stream of effective and regular operation. As they now act, they are too frequently fruitless, the one for want of that spirit of