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A 936 6. Caldwell, U. J. Sim, 18541

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BY ROBERT IRVINE, D. D.

Chalmers was principal of the university, and professor of theology and divinity proper. He was also royal chaplain for Scotland, and subject to the order of the Queen to preach at any time or place that the royal will might determine He was the Jupiter Tonans of Scotland at that time, and the Magnus Apollo of the evangelical party for over a quarter of a century. He at once molded and led the best minds of Scotland. The country was ripe for such a movement as the disruption of 1843, and that condition of public sentiment in the nation and in the church of John Knox was the direct result of Chalmers' teaching, alike in the rostrum and the pulpit. When he preached he preached like an angel from heaven When he lectured to his students he always spoke as a man who was groping his way into the hearts, as well as the heads, of his hearers. His views had so thoroughly permeated the whole country that the Honorable Fox Maule (afterward Lord Panmure,) in the House of Commons, warned the nobles of England against a measure which might result in the disruption of the National Church of Scotland, using these words: "I tell England, and I tell the civilized world, that if this Parliament shall hazard a disruption in our national Kirk, nine-tenths of the intelligence and piety will go out of the church, simply because it is the movement of Thomas Chalmera;" and Lord Panmure's prediction was verified by the disruption of 1843.

In the rostrum, as in the pulpit, Chalmers read closely. His manner was rather awkward, his dialect very broad Fifeshire, and his voice by no means sweet or well-toned, yet not harsh nor disagreeable. His eye was mellow, yet the very symbol of earnestness, purity and sincerity. When he became intensely interested in his topic or theme, his eye was the most expressive and overpowering organ of his whole head. It looked as though his brain was on fire, and his soul-bis whole soulaglow. As he swung back and forward in the rostrum, and the big thoughts rolled out of his great soul, the one hundred and thirty-four students who sat at his feet, and fifty teur students in the galtimes electrified. Old scholars and sages wn from the gallery.

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