His pulpit eloquence attracted listeners from great distances. An article which he wrote for “The Encyclopædia” in 1813, upon “The Evidences of Christianity,” attracted great attention, and was immediately republished in separate volumes. Several review articles which he wrote upon scientific and political questions added greatly to his renown. In 1815 he was invited to the pastoral charge of a parish in Glasgow. Here, for eight years, he stood, as a pulpit orator, without a rival. The most distinguished philosophers and the most unlettered men were alike charmed by his address.
Jeffries describes the impression produced by his sermons as similar to the effect created by the most impassioned strains of Demosthenes. Wilberforce wrote in his diary, “All the world is wild about Dr. Chalmers.” He delivered a series of weekly lectures on “The Connection of the Discoveries of Astronomy and the Christian Revelation.” They were listened to with intense admiration, and, being published in 1817, secured an immense sale, rivalling even the Waverley Novels in popularity.
His fame was such, that, being invited to London to preach, the most distinguished men in the kingdom crowded the church, and listened with admiration to his glowing utterances. Several articles which he contributed to “The Edinburgh Review” added much to his celebrity as a philosopher, a statesman, and an accomplished scholar. Through his influence, the old parochial system of Scotland was thoroughly revised; and the whole community was divided into small sections, so as to bring every individual under educational and ecclesiastical influences. The parish of St. John, which contained two thousand families, eight hundred of whom were not connected with any Christian church, was intrusted, as an experiment, entirely to his supervision. The support of the poor in that parish had been costing seven thousand dollars a year. In four years the poor were in far more comfortable circumstances, and the expense of their support amounted to but fourteen hundred dollars a year. Every street and lane was systematically visited.
In the year 1823, Dr. Chalmers accepted the professorship of moral philosophy in the University of St. Andrew’s; and in the year 1828 he was transferred to the higher sphere of professor of theology in the University of Edinburgh. Here he remained for fifteen years. The enthusiasm inspired by his ardor and eloquence crowded his lecture-room, not only with students, but with men of the highest literary distinction, and clergymen of every denomination. In the year 1833 he made a tour through Scotland, collecting funds, and urging forward a movement which would so increase the churches of the country, that the claims of religion should be urged upon every individual heart. He had became the recognized leader of what was called the Evangelical party. In the General Assembly of 1834—of which Dr. Chalmers was moderator—a resolution was passed, that no minister should be forced upon any parish against whom a majority of the congregation should remonstrate. This gave rise to a very violent controversy. The civil courts declared this to be contrary to the law of the land. Thus the church and the civil courts came into collision.
The result was, that, after a struggle of ten years, four hundred and seventy clergymen withdrew from the Established Church, and associated themselves as the “Free Church of Scotland,” choosing Dr. Chalmers their moderator. The last four years of Dr. Chalmers’s busy life were spent in organizing the new church, in performing the duties of president of the Free Church College which had been founded, and in writing for “The North-British Review,” which had been established under his superintendence. In the midst of these arduous labors, Dr. Chalmers was suddenly called to his final rest. He had just returned from London, where he had been consulting some eminent statesmen upon his views of national education, when he was found, on the morning of the 31st of May, 1847, dead in his bed, at Morningside, near Edinburgh. During the night, he had “fallen asleep in Jesus.” The tranquillity of his features showed that the soul had taken its upward flight from the body without a struggle or a pang. He had attained the age of sixty-seven years.
Jonathan Edwards, perhaps, takes the rank of the most illustrious of American divines. He was born at East Windsor, Conn., on the 5th of October, 1703. Dr. Chalmers said of him,—
“On the arena of metaphysics, Jonathan Edwards stood the highest of his contemporaries. The American divine affords, perhaps, the most wondrous example in modern times of one who stood gifted both in natural and spiritual discernment.”
Sir James Mackintosh says of him, “This remarkable man—the metaphysician of America—was formed among the Calvinists of New England. His power of subtle argument, perhaps unmatched, certainly unsurpassed, among men, was joined with a character which raised his piety to fervor.”
Robert Hall writes, “Jonathan Edwards ranks with the brightest luminaries of the Christian Church, not excluding any country or any age.”
In a family of ten sisters, Jonathan was an only son. His father and his grandfather, on his mother’s side, were both eminent ministers of the gospel. His father was distinguished for scholarship in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Under the tuition of his father and his accomplished elder sisters, the youthful intellect of Jonathan was very rapidly developed. Before he was ten years of age, he became deeply concerned for his soul’s salvation, and engaged very earnestly in a life of devotion, praying five times a day in secret. At that early age he wrote a treatise, ridiculing the idea that the soul is material. When twelve years of age, there was a remarkable revival in his father’s parish. In a letter to an absent sister, he wrote,—