|
See also:CHALMERS, See also:- THOMAS
- THOMAS (c. 1654-1720)
- THOMAS (d. 110o)
- THOMAS, ARTHUR GORING (1850-1892)
- THOMAS, CHARLES LOUIS AMBROISE (1811-1896)
- THOMAS, GEORGE (c. 1756-1802)
- THOMAS, GEORGE HENRY (1816-187o)
- THOMAS, ISAIAH (1749-1831)
- THOMAS, PIERRE (1634-1698)
- THOMAS, SIDNEY GILCHRIST (1850-1885)
- THOMAS, ST
- THOMAS, THEODORE (1835-1905)
- THOMAS, WILLIAM (d. 1554)
THOMAS (1780-1847) , Scottish divine, was See also:born atAnstruther in Fifeshire, on the 17th of See also:March 1780. At the See also:age of eleven he was entered as a student at St See also:Andrews, where he devoted himself almost exclusively to See also:mathematics. In See also:January 1798 he was licensed as a preacher of the See also:Gospel by the St Andrews See also:presbytery. In May 1803, after attending further courses of lectures in See also:Edinburgh, and acting as assistant to the See also:professor of mathematics at St Andrews, he was ordained as See also:minister of Kilmany in Fifeshire, about 9 M. from the university See also:town, where he continued to lecture. His mathematical lectures roused so much See also:enthusiasm that they were discontinued by See also:- ORDER
- ORDER (through Fr. ordre, for earlier ordene, from Lat. ordo, ordinis, rank, service, arrangement; the ultimate source is generally taken to be the root seen in Lat. oriri, rise, arise, begin; cf. " origin ")
- ORDER, HOLY
order of the authorities, who disliked the disturbance of the university routine which they involved. Chalmers then opened mathematical classes on his own See also:account which attracted many students; at the same See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time he delivered a course of lectures on See also:chemistry, and ministered to his See also:parish at Kilmany. In 18os he became a See also:candidate for the vacant professorship of mathematics at Edinburgh, but was unsuccessful. In 18o8 he published an Inquiry into the Extent and Stability of See also:National Resources, a contribution to the discussion created by See also:Bonaparte's commercial policy. Domestic bereavements and a severe illness then turned his thoughts in another direction. At his own See also:request the See also:article on See also:Christianity was assigned to him in Dr See also:Brewster's Edinburgh See also:Encyclopaedia, and in studying the See also:credentials of Christianity he received a new impression of its contents. His See also: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 See also:ministry was marked by a zeal which made it famous. The See also:separate publication of his article in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, and contributions to the Edinburgh See also:Christian Instructor and the Eclectic See also:Review, enhanced his reputation as an author. In 1815 he became minister of the Tron See also:- CHURCH
- CHURCH (according to most authorities derived from the Gr. Kvpcaxov [&wµa], " the Lord's [house]," and common to many Teutonic, Slavonic and other languages under various forms—Scottish kirk, Ger. Kirche, Swed. kirka, Dan. kirke, Russ. tserkov, Buig. cerk
- CHURCH, FREDERICK EDWIN (1826-1900)
- CHURCH, GEORGE EARL (1835–1910)
- CHURCH, RICHARD WILLIAM (1815–189o)
- CHURCH, SIR RICHARD (1784–1873)
Church, See also:Glasgow, in spite of determined opposition to him in the town See also:council on the ground of his evangelical teaching. From Glasgow his repute as a preacher spread throughout the See also:United See also:Kingdom. A See also:series of sermons on the relation between the discoveries of See also:astronomy and the Christian See also:revelation was published in January 1817, and within a See also:year nine See also:editions and 20,000 copies were in circulation. When he visited See also:London See also:Wilberforce wrote, " all the See also:world is See also:wild about Dr Chalmers."
In Glasgow Chalmers made one of his greatest contributions
to the See also: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 the See also:absence of See also:personal See also:influence, spiritual oversight, and the want of parochial organizations which had not kept See also:pace in the See also:city, as they had done in rural parishes, with the growing See also:population. He declared that twenty new churches, with parishes, should be erected in Glasgow, and he set to See also:work to revivify, remodel and extend the old parochial See also:economy of See also:Scotland. The town council consented to build one new church, attaching to it a parish of 1o,000 persons, mostly weavers, labourers and factory workers, and this church was offered to Dr Chalmers that he might have a See also:fair opportunity of testing his See also:system.
In See also:September 1819 he became minister of the church and parish of St See also:John, where of'2000 families more than Soo had no connexion with any Christian church. He first addressed him-self to providing See also:schools for the See also:children. Two school-houses with four endowed teachers were established, where 700 children were taught at the moderate fees of 2S. and 3S. per See also:quarter. Between 40 and 5o See also:local See also:Sabbath schools were opened, where more than l000 children were taught the elements of See also:secular and religious See also:education. The parish was divided into 25 districts embracing from 6o to 100 families, over each of which an See also:elder and a See also:deacon were placed, the former taking oversight of their spiritual, the latter of their See also: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. This parochial machinery enabled him jo make a singularly successful experiment in dealing with the problem of poverty. At this time there were not more than 20 parishes See also:north of the Forth and See also:Clyde where there was a compulsory See also:assessment for the poor, but the See also:English method of assessment was rapidly spreading. Chalmers believed that compulsory assessment ended by swelling the evil it was intended to mitigate, and that See also:relief should 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 See also:adoption of his method, the pauper See also:expenditure was reduced to £28o per annum. The investigation of all new applications for relief was committed to the deacon of the See also: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 See also:hour a See also:week among the families committed to his See also:charge, could keep himself acquainted with their See also:character and See also:condition.
In 1823, after eight years of work at high pressure, he was glad to accept the See also:chair of moral See also:philosophy at St Andrews, the seventh See also:academic offer made to him during his eight years in Glasgow. In his lectures he excluded See also:mental philosophy and included the whole See also:sphere of moral See also:obligation, dealing with See also:man's See also:duty to See also:God and to his See also:fellow-men in the See also:light of Christian teaching.
Many of his lectures are printed in the first and second volumes of his published See also:works. In See also:ethics he made contributions to the See also:science in regard to the See also:place and functions of volition and See also: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 See also:November 1828 he was transferred to the chair of See also: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 See also:text-books, and came into stimulating contact with his See also: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.
These academic years were prolific also in a literature of various kinds. In 1826 he published a third See also:volume of the Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns, a continuation of work begunat St John's, Glasgow. In 1832 he published a See also:Political Economy, the See also: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 See also:parent of comfort, not See also:vice versa. In 1833 appeared a See also:treatise on The See also:Adaptation of See also:External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man. In 1834 Dr Chalmers was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in the same year he became corresponding member of the See also:Institute of See also:France; in-1835 See also:- OXFORD
- OXFORD, EARLS OF
- OXFORD, EDWARD DE VERE, 17TH EARL
- OXFORD, JOHN DE VERE, 13TH EARL OF (1443-1513)
- OXFORD, PROVISIONS OF
- OXFORD, ROBERT DE VERE, 9TH EARL OF (1362-1392)
- OXFORD, ROBERT HARLEY, 1ST
Oxford conferred on him the degree of D.C.L. In 1834 he became See also:leader of the evangelical See also:section of the Scottish Church in the See also:General See also:Assembly. He was appointed chairman of a See also:committee for church See also:extension, and in that capacity made a tour through a large See also:part of Scotland, addressing presbyteries and holding public meetings. He also issued numerous appeals, with the result that in 1841, when he resigned his See also:- OFFICE (from Lat. officium, " duty," " service," a shortened form of opifacium, from facere, " to do," and either the stem of opes, " wealth," " aid," or opus, " work ")
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 See also:government to assist in this effort were unsuccessful.
In 1841 the See also:movement which ended in the Disruption was rapidly culminating, and Dr Chalmers found himself at the See also:head of the party which stood for the principle that " no minister shall be intruded into any parish contrary to the will of the See also:congregation " (see See also:FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND). Cases of conflict between the church and the See also:civil See also:power arose in Auchterarder, See also:Dunkeld and Marnoch; and when the courts made it clear that the church, in their See also: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 See also:peremptory negative on the church's claims for spiritual See also:independence. On the 18th of May 1843 470 clergymen withdrew from the general assembly and constituted themselves the Free Church of Scotland, with Dr Chalmers as See also:moderator. He had prepared a sustentation fund See also:- SCHEME (Lat. schema, Gr. oxfjya, figure, form, from the root axe, seen in exeiv, to have, hold, to be of such shape, form, &c.)
scheme for the support of the seceding ministers, and this was at once put into successful operation. On the 3oth of May 1847, immediately after his return from the See also:House of See also:Commons, where he had given See also:evidence as to the refusal of sites for Free Churches by Scottish landowners, he was found dead in See also:bed.
Dr Chalmers' See also: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 See also:argument and See also:illustration on the question of See also: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 See also:instrument of Christian See also:good." He was transparent in character, chivalrous, kindly, See also:firm, eloquent and sagacious; his purity of See also:motive and unselfishness commanded See also:absolute confidence; he had originality and initiative in dealing with new and difficult circumstances, and See also:great aptitude for business details.
During a life of incessant activity Chalmers scarcely ever allowed a See also:day to pass without its modicum of See also:composition; at the most unseasonable times, and in the most unlikely places, he would occupy himself with See also: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 connexion that subsists between the degree of the fertility of the See also:soil and the social condition of a community, the rapid manner in which See also:capital is reproduced (see See also:- MILL
- MILL (O. Eng. mylen, later myln, or miln, adapted from the late Lat. molina, cf. Fr. moulin, from Lat. mola, a mill, molere, to grind; from the same root, mol, is derived " meal;" the word appears in other Teutonic languages, cf. Du. molen, Ger. muhle)
- MILL, JAMES (1773-1836)
- MILL, JOHN (c. 1645–1707)
- MILL, JOHN STUART (1806-1873)
Mill's Political Economy, i. 94), and the general See also:doctrine of a limit to all the modes by which national See also: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 See also:Adam See also:- SMITH
- SMITH, ADAM (1723–1790)
- SMITH, ALEXANDER (183o-1867)
- SMITH, ANDREW JACKSON (1815-1897)
- SMITH, CHARLES EMORY (1842–1908)
- SMITH, CHARLES FERGUSON (1807–1862)
- SMITH, CHARLOTTE (1749-1806)
- SMITH, COLVIN (1795—1875)
- SMITH, EDMUND KIRBY (1824-1893)
- SMITH, G
- SMITH, GEORGE (1789-1846)
- SMITH, GEORGE (184o-1876)
- SMITH, GEORGE ADAM (1856- )
- SMITH, GERRIT (1797–1874)
- SMITH, GOLDWIN (1823-191o)
- SMITH, HENRY BOYNTON (1815-1877)
- SMITH, HENRY JOHN STEPHEN (1826-1883)
- SMITH, HENRY PRESERVED (1847– )
- SMITH, JAMES (1775–1839)
- SMITH, JOHN (1579-1631)
- SMITH, JOHN RAPHAEL (1752–1812)
- SMITH, JOSEPH, JR
- SMITH, MORGAN LEWIS (1822–1874)
- SMITH, RICHARD BAIRD (1818-1861)
- SMITH, ROBERT (1689-1768)
- SMITH, SIR HENRY GEORGE WAKELYN
- SMITH, SIR THOMAS (1513-1577)
- SMITH, SIR WILLIAM (1813-1893)
- SMITH, SIR WILLIAM SIDNEY (1764-1840)
- SMITH, SYDNEY (1771-1845)
- SMITH, THOMAS SOUTHWOOD (1788-1861)
- SMITH, WILLIAM (1769-1839)
- SMITH, WILLIAM (c. 1730-1819)
- SMITH, WILLIAM (fl. 1596)
- SMITH, WILLIAM FARRAR (1824—1903)
- SMITH, WILLIAM HENRY (1808—1872)
- SMITH, WILLIAM HENRY (1825—1891)
- SMITH, WILLIAM ROBERTSON (1846-'894)
Smith, that See also:religion like other things should be See also:left to the operation of the natural See also:law of See also:supply and demand. In the See also:department of natural theology and the Christian evidences he ably advocated that
method of reconciling the See also:Mosaic narrative with the indefinite antiquity of the globe which See also:- WILLIAM
- WILLIAM (1143-1214)
- WILLIAM (1227-1256)
- WILLIAM (1J33-1584)
- WILLIAM (A.S. Wilhelm, O. Norse Vilhidlmr; O. H. Ger. Willahelm, Willahalm, M. H. Ger. Willehelm, Willehalm, Mod.Ger. Wilhelm; Du. Willem; O. Fr. Villalme, Mod. Fr. Guillaume; from " will," Goth. vilja, and " helm," Goth. hilms, Old Norse hidlmr, meaning
- WILLIAM (c. 1130-C. 1190)
- WILLIAM, 13TH
William See also:Buckland (1784–1856) advanced in his See also:Bridgewater Treatise, and which Dr Chalmers had previously communicated to him. His refutation of See also:Hume's objection to the truth of miracles is perhaps his intellectual chefd'ceuvre. The distinction between the See also:laws and dispositions of See also:matter, as between the ethics and See also:objects of theology, he was the first to indicate and enforce, and he laid great emphasis on the See also: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 See also:harmony with the most profound philosophy of human nature and of the Divine See also:providence.
For See also:biographical details see Dr W. See also:Hanna's See also:Memoirs (Edinburgh, 4 vols., 1849—1852); there is a good See also:short life by Mrs See also:Oliphant (1893). (W. HA.; D.
End of Article: CHALMERS, THOMAS (1780-1847)
Additional information and Comments
There are no comments yet for this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.
|
del.icio.us it!