CHALMERS, THOMAS ( 1780-18 17 ) . A Scot tish theologian. Ile was born in Anstruther, Fifeshire, Easter day, 1\larelt 17. 1780, educated at the University of Saint Andrews, and in his nineteenth year licensed to preach the gospel. In 1803 he was ordained minister of the parish of Kilmany. in Eifeshire. near Saint Andrews. .At this period his attention was entirely absorbed by mathematics, political eeonoiny, and natural philosophy, to the neglect of the studies apper taining to his profession. But personal illness, new anxieties. the reading of Willti.rforce's Flew of Praetical Religion• and thought required for his article 4111 Christianity for Brewster's Edin burgh Enenclopadia (18101 awakened his dor mant spiritual nature, and he grew earnest, elo quent. devout, and faithful to his pastoral duties. in July, 1815, he was translated to the Tron Church and Parish, Glasgow, where his magnifieent oratory took the city by storm. His .tstronom lent I)i.cuonr.cr.c (1817) had a pro digious popularity. During the same year he visited London, when- his preaching excited as great sensation as at bonne. But Chalmers's energies could not be exhausted by mere oratory. Thseovering that his parish was in a state of great ignorance and immorality, he began to de a scheme for overtaking and checking the alarming evil. It :A--mid to hint that the only means by which this could be neeomplished was by remodeling. and extending the old parochial ceonomy of Scotland." which had proved so fruitful of good in the rural parishes.
In order to wrestle more closely with the igno rance and vice of Glasgow, Chalmers, in 1819, became minister of Saint John's parish, population of which was made up principally weavers, laborers, factory-workers, and other operatives." Of its 2000 families, more than SOO had no connection with any Christian Church and the children were growing up in ignorance. Ile broke up his parish into twenty-five districts, each of which he placed under separate manage ment, and established two week-day schools, and between 40 and 50 local Sabbath-schools, for the instruction of the "poorer and neglected classes," more than 1000 of whom attended. In a multitude of other ways he sought to elevate and purify the lives of his parishioners. See Chalmers's Christian and civic Economy of Large Towns 13 vols., 1821-26). His plan of parochial work carried out in Glasgow, although aban doned soon after its inception and not elsewhere imitated, may be called the suggestion of the modern method of dealing with the dependent classes as seen in the charity organization so cieties and in settlement work. His parental relation to these phenomena has found deserved lecog,nition in the condensed edition of his Christian and Civic Economy, by Prof. C. R. lIende•son (New York, 1000), and in a similar work published in London in the same year, Chalmers on Charity, a Selection of Passages and
.cones to illustrate the Social Teaching and Practical Mork of Thomas Chalmers, edited by N. Masterman.
13ut such herculean toils began to undermine his constitution, and in 1823 he accepted the offer of the moral philosophy chair in Saint Andrews, where he wrote his treatise on the Use and Abuse of Literary and Ecclesiastical En do•ments (1827). In 1828 he was transferred to the chair of theology in Edinburgh, and in 1832 published a work on political economy in connection with the moral state and moral prospects of society. In 1S:33 appeared his Bridgewater treatise. On thy Adaptation of Ex ternal Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man. It was received with great favor, and obtained for the author many literary honors, the Royal Society of Edinburgh electing tihn a fellow, and the Frond] Institute a corre sponding member. while the University of ox ford conferred upon him the degree of D.C.L. In 1531 he was appointed convener of the church-extension committee; and after seven years of enthusiastic labor, announced that up ward of 1:300,000 hail been collected from the nation. and 220 new churches built. ::\leanwhile, however, troubles were springing up in the bosom of the Church itself. 'The evangelical party had become predominant in the General Assembly, and came forward as the vindicators of popular rights; the struggles in regard to patronage be tween them and the `inoderate' or 'Erastian' party beeame keener and more frequent, until the decision of the civil courts in the famous `Auchtera•der' and `Strathhogie' eases brought matters to a crisis; and on Nlay 18, 1843, •hal mers, followed by 470 clergymen, left the Church of his fathers, rather than sacrifice those prin ciples which he believed essential to the purity, honor, and independence of the Church. (See PnEsnyTErn.tx The rapid forma tion and organization of the Free Church were greatly owing to his indefatigable exertions, in consequence of which he was elected principal of the Free Church College, and spent the close of his life in the zealous performance of his learned duties, and in perfecting his Institutes of Theology. He died suddenly at Morningside, Edinburgh, May :30, 18.17.
The works of Chalmers contain valuable, and in some eases original, contributions to the sciences of natural theology, Christian apolo getics, and political economy; while on minor topic-, such as the Church-establishment ques tion, they exhibit both novelty and ingenuity of argument. As an orator, Chalmers was unique and unrivaled. His works were collected (23 vols., 1836-42) ; posthumous works (9 vols., 1847-49) ; select works (12 vols., 1S54-79). For his life, consult: W. Hanna (4 vols., Edinburgh, 1S49.52) ; D. Fraser (New York, ISM ) ; 3Irs. Oliphant (London, 1893, 2d ed., 1896) ; W. G. Blaikee (New York, 1897).