Thomas Chalmers
Thomas Chalmers - The Founder of the Free Church of Scotland
Thomas Chalmers (1780 - 1847) was born on March 17, 1780, in Anstruther, Fife. Thomas suffered from an early age, he was one of a family of fourteen and was placed into the care of a cruel nurse at the age of two and faired little better at school. At the age of 11 he went to the University of St Andrews where, for the first few years, he struggled. Chalmers soon discovered an interest in mathematics and so devoted much time to the subject. In 1795 Thomas Chalmers enrolled as a theological student and remained at St Andrews until 1798. In 1799, he received a license to preach the Gospel from the St Andrews presbytery. In November 1802 he was called to the ministry of the Church of Scotland and, in May 1803, he was ordained as minister of Kilmany in Fife. At that time he was appointed assistant to the Professor of Mathematics at the University of St Andrews. As Kilmany was only about 9 miles from St Andrews Chalmers was able to fulfil his obligations to both posts.
Unfortunately Thomas Chalmers failed to get along with the Professor and the two ended up quarelling violently. Chalmers set up his own lectures in direct opposition. He applied for, and was rejected, for the Chairs of Natural Philosophy at St Andrews and Edinburgh University. In 1808 he ventured into economics and published an "Inquiry into the Extent and Stability of National Resources".
Following a severe illness, in 1810, Chalmers underwent a christian conversion and his interests now lay in christianity and mission work. In 1814 he moved to Glasgow to become the minister of the Tron Church. A series of his sermons was published, in January 1817, entitled "Astronomical Discourses" which discussed the discoveries of astronomy in relation to Christian revelation. Within a few months 20,000 copies were in circulation and, within the year it was up to it's ninth edition and Chalmers found himself receiving invations to preach to congregations as far away as London. In late 1819 he became the minister of the new church and parish of St John and was attracting vast crowds by his preaching.
While working in Glasgow Thomas Chalmers had been forced to witness the severe social problems resulting from the industrial revolution. He wrote a treatise on "The Problems of Poverty" in which he put foreward the suggestion that reliance on Christian charity was the way forward for relief of the poor. At that time relief of the poor was through compulsory poor rates, and, to demonstrate his theories, he revived the office of Deacon who was to manage the funds for the care of the poor. The experiment proved highly successful but many claimed the success was mainly due to the fact that many of those who showed support were wealthy people. Furthermore, some claimed that some of those in real need had not been cared for.
In contrast to his earlier rejections Chalmers received a total of six academic offers during his eight years work in Glasgow. In 1823 Chalmers accepted the seventh offer and returned to St Andrews as Professor of Moral Philosophy. In 1828 he was appointed Professor of Divinity at Edinburgh. In 1832 he published his "Political Economy" and was, for the year, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
The political and religous climate was changing and, in 1833, the "Ten Years Conflict" began in the Church of Scotland. Chalmers and many other ministers found themselves in disagreement with the main body of the Church over the association between Church and State. In 1834 put forward a motion which led to the "Veto Act" which were contrary to statute law. Chalmers became the leader of a group named the "Evangelical Party in the Church of Scotland" who declared that the Church had 'intrinsic powers' outwith the law of the land. The movement ended in the "Disruption" and on May the 18th 1843, Chalmers, with 470 (about one third) of the clergymen of the Church of Scotland, withdrew from the General Assembly and set up the Free Church of Scotland. He was the Church's first Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church and the first Principal of its College.
Thomas Chalmers died, in his sleep, on May 31, 1847.
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Thomas Chalmers
A Biography covering many aspects of Chalmers life not mentioned here.
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