Chalmers, Thomas, c 1843-1847

From a typed note pasted on the page: "Chalmers, Thomas, D.D. (Glasgow), LL.D. (Oxon). Born at Anstruther, Fife, in 1780. Studied at the University of St. Andrews. He was ordained at Kilmany, Fife, in 1803; married, in 1812, Grace Pratt; translated to the Tron Church, Glasgow, in 1815; and in 1819 to the newly erected parish of St. John's, Glasgow. Appointed Professor of Moral Philosophy in St. Andrews in 1823; and in 1828 Professor of Systematic Theology in the Metropolitan University. Elected Moderator of the Church of Scotland Assembly in 1832. From that date the place assigned him in the controversy that issued in the separation of his Church from the State was that of leader. He was the first to follow the Moderator in the procession from St. Andrew's Church to Tanfield Hall; the first to sign the Act of Separation and Deed of Demission; the first Moderator of the Free Church General Assembly; and the first Principal of the New College, Edinburgh. The Free Church owed more to him than to any other man. The Sustenation Fund, which enabled her to become in fact as well as un name a National Church, was the outcome of his practical genius. But Chalmers was more than a Church leader; and he was greater in other fields than in Systematic Theology. The foremost preacher of his day, he was also distinguished in mathematical science, natural philsophy, and chemistry. While working as a city minister he projected plans for grappling with ignorance, the vice and pauperism of a crowded population, which are approved by present day social reformers. He was found dead in bed at his residence, Church Hill, Morningside, 31st May 1847. Publications.- The writings of Chalmers published in his lifetime and after his death are very numerous. Prominent among his apologetic, theological, and expository works, may be mentioned his Astronomical Discourses; his Commercial Discourses , his Bridgewater Treatise on the Adaption of External Nature ro the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man ; his Lectures on Natural Theology , and his Institutes of Theology. Posthumous.- Life, by Dr. Hanna. Biographical Study , by James Dodds of London. Mrs. Oliphant's Life. Thomas Chalmers, by Professor Blaikie ("Famous Scots Series"). Thomas Chalmers, by Alexander Taylor Innes (Religious Tract Society)."