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Thomas Chalmers

Thomas Chalmers Biography

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“There are two ways in which a practical moralist may attempt to displace from the human heart its love for the world — either by a demonstration of the world’s vanity, so that the heart shall be prevailed upon simply to withdraw its regards from an object that is not worthy of it; or, by setting forth another object, even God, as more worthy of its attachment, so that the heart shall be prevailed upon not to resign an old affection, which shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old affection for a new one... From the constitution of our nature, the former method is altogether incompetent and ineffectual, and the latter method will alone suffice for the rescue and recovery of the heart from the wrong affection that domineers over it.”

Human NatureAffectionsDesiring God
Book:The Expulsive Power of a New Affection
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“I feel my disease, and I feel that my want of alarm and lively affecting conviction forms its most obstinate ingredient; I try to stir up the emotion, and feel myself harassed and distressed at the impotency of my own meditations. But why linger without the threshold in the face of a warm and urgent invitation? "Come unto me." Do not think it is your office to heal one part of the disease, and Christ's to heal the remainder.”

ThinkingWantFeelsTryingFacesFormChristMy OwnEmotionMeditationOfficeDiseaseConvictionWarmHealIngredientsUrgentInvitationsAlarmsLivelyThresholdObstinate
Author:Thomas Chalmers
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“In the wildest anarchy of man's insurgent appetites and sins there is still a reclaiming voice,--a voice which, even when in practice disregarded, it is impossible not to own; and to which, at the very moment that we refuse our obedience, we find that we cannot refuse the homage of what ourselves do feel and acknowledge to be the best, the highest principles of our nature.”

MenFeelsStillsMomentsVoiceSinPrinciplesPracticeImpossibleHighestConscienceRefuseObedienceAcknowledgeBeing The BestAnarchyAppetiteHomageInsurgentDisregarded
Book:On the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God as Manifested in the Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man by Thomas Chalmers
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“It is not scholarship alone, but scholarship impregnated with religion, that tells on the great mass of society. We have no faith in the efficacy of mechanic's institutes, or even of primary and elementary schools, for building up a virtuous and well conditioned peasantry, so long as they stand dissevered from the lessons of Christian piety.”

WellsLongSchoolChristianEducationBuildingLessonsMassPrimariesVirtuousMechanicScholarshipPietyInstituteEfficacyElementary SchoolBuilding UpInstitutes
Book:On Political Economy: In Connexion with the Moral State and Moral Prospects of Society
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“Enthusiasm is a virtue rarely to be met with in seasons of calm and unruffled prosperity. Enthusiasm flourishes in adversity, kindles in the hour of danger, and awakens to deeds of renown. The terrors of persecution only serve to quicken the energy of its purposes. It swells in proud integrity, and, great in the purity of its cause, it can scatter defiance amidst hosts of enemies.”

PurposeEnergyCausesHoursEnemyVirtueDangerProudIntegrityMetsSeasonsAdversityCalmTerrorProsperityDeedsEnthusiasmPurityHostPersecutionDefianceKindlesRenown
Author:Thomas Chalmers
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“By the very constitution of our nature moral evil is its own curse.”

EvilMoralConstitutionCurseMoral Evil
Book:Discourses on the Christian revelation, viewed in connection with the modern astronomy: To which are added, Discourses illustrative of the connection between theology & general science
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“The human mind feels restless and dissatisfied under the anxieties of ignorance. It longs for the repose of conviction; and to gain this repose it will often rather precipitate its conclusions than wait for the tardy lights of observation and experiment. There is such a thing, too, as the love of simplicity and system,--a prejudice of the understanding which disposes it to include all the phenomena of nature under a few sweeping generalities,--an indolence which loves to repose on the beauties of a theory rather than encounter the fatiguing detail of its evidences.”

FeelsMindHumansLightWaitingUnderstandingIgnoranceTheoryAnxietyEvidenceGainsPrejudiceSimplicityDetailsConvictionExperimentsConclusionObservationEncountersHuman MindRestlessReposeSweepingDissatisfiedIndolenceGeneralities
Book:Works
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“Thousands of men breathe, move, and live; pass off the stage of life and are heard of no more. Why? They did not a particle of good in the world; and none were blest by them, none could point to them as the instrument of their redemption; not a line they wrote, not a word they spoke, could be recalled, and so they perished--their light went out in darkness, and they were not remembered more than the insects of yesterday. Will you thus live and die, O man immortal? Live for something.”

MenWorldLightMovingDiesLinesDarknessHeardStageInstrumentsBreatheYesterdayRedemptionRememberedImmortalSpokesInsectsParticlesUsefulnessStages Of LifeGood In The World
Author:Thomas Chalmers
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“The brute animals have all the same sensations of pain as human beings, and consequently endure as much pain when their body is hurt; but in their case the cruelty of torment is greater, because they have no mind to bear them up against their sufferings, and no hope to look forward to when enduring the last extreme pain.”

MindHumansLooksBodyPainLastsSufferingHurtHuman BeingsAnimalCompassionCasesGreaterBearsEndureExtremesCrueltySensationsAnimal RightsTormentBrutesNo HopeAnimal CrueltyHuman AnimalAnimal WorldHuman CrueltyAnimal SufferingHuman Beings And AnimalsExtreme Pain
Author:Thomas Chalmers
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“I want to feel my own nothingness, I want to give myself up in absolute resignation to God, to lie prostrate and passive at His feet, with no other disposition in my heart than that of merging my will into His will, and no other language in my mouth than that of prayer for the perfecting of His strength in my weakness.”

WantGivingFeelsHeartChristianLyingLanguageMy OwnPrayerFeetMy HeartMouthsWeaknessAbsolutesChristian InspirationalPassiveNothingnessDispositionResignationMerging
Book:Daily Scripture Readings: In Three Volumes
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“Christ came to give us a justifying righteousness, and He also came to make us holy — not chiefly for the purpose of evidencing here our possession of a justifying righteousness — but for the purpose of forming and fitting us for a blessed eternity.”

GivingPurposeChristHolyEternityBlessedPossessionRighteousnessFitting
Book:Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas Chalmers, D.D. LL.D.
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“Such is the grasping tendency of the human heart, that it must have a something to lay hold of - and which, if wrested away without the substitution of another something in its place, would leave a void and a vacancy as painful to the mind, as hunger is to the natural system.... The heart must have something to cling to.”

IfsMindHumansHeartNaturalHuman NatureLaysHungerPainfulTendenciesMinistersProfessorsVoidHuman HeartClingingGraspingSubstitutionVacancy
Book:Sermons: Select Works
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“Every man is a missionary, now and forever, for good or for evil, whether he intends or designs it or not. He may be a blot radiating his dark influence outward to the very circumference of society, or he may be a blessing spreading benediction over the length and breadth of the world. But a blank he cannot be: there are no moral blanks; there are no neutral characters.”

MenWorldMayCharacterEvilDarkMoralForeverInfluenceDesignBlessingMissionsEvery ManLengthMissionaryBlankEvangelismBreadthBenediction
Author:Thomas Chalmers
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