RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Chaldea Chamberlain
St. John's, in order that he might, in a newly
constituted parish, have an opportunity of testing
the practicability in a large city of the old Scottish
scheme of providing for the poor. In
In the parish there were two thousand
Glasgow, families. These he distributed into twenty- five divisions; and over each such district he put an elder and a deacon — the former to attend to their spiritual, the latter to their temporal needs. Two commodious schoolhouses were built; four competent teachers were employed, and by school-fees of two and three shillings each a quarter, seven hundred children were educated; while on Sunday the forty or fifty local schools supplied religious instruction. Dr. Chalmers not only presided over all this system of work, but made himself familiar with all the details, even visiting personally every two years each family of the parish, and holding evening meetings. lie also assumed complete charge of the poor; and by thorough system, and consequent weeding-out of unworthy cases, he reduced the cost of maintaining them from fourteen hundred to two hundred and eighty pounds per annum. This efficient system, however, in 1837 was given up; and the " English " plan of compulsory assessments, which requires much less trouble, and probably does much less good, was substituted. In Nov., 1823, Dr. Chalmers became professor of moral philosophy in St. Andrews University, and in Nov., 1828, professor of theology in Edinburgh. In 1833 he issued his Bridgewater Treatise, On the Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man. This work made a great sensation; and his biographer, Rev. William Hanna, says that, in consequence, he received " literary honors such as were never united previously in the person of any Scottish ecclesiastic." In 1834 he was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and soon after one of its vice-presidents, in the same year a corresponding member of the Institute of France; and in 1835 the University of Oxford conferred on him the degree of D.C.L.
Up to this time he had taken little part in church government; from then on he was destined to have more to do with it than any other man of the century. The friction between Church and State in Scotland was rapidly producing trouble. The attempt to settle ministers who were obnoxious to the congregations was the commonest complaint.* The historic case is that of Marnoch. Here only one The Organ- person in the parish signed the call;
ization of and yet the presbytery of Strathbogie
the Free decided, by a vote of seven to three, to Church, proceed with the ordination, and did, although these seven were suspended. In so doing they were upheld by the civil authority, which annulled, their suspension. But this case was only an aggravation of a common ill. Matters became so serious in all parts of Scotland that a convocation was held in Nov., 1842, to consider the matter; and a large number of ministers resolved that, if relief was not afforded, they would with-
*The point at issue was lay patronage, British law having conferred upon landowners the right to nominate to pastorates in their possessions. — A. H. N.
draw from the Establishment. No help came; and accordingly, on May IS, 1843, four hundred and seventy clergymen withdrew from the General Assembly, and constituted themselves into the Free Church of Scotland, electing Dr. Chalmers as their first moderator. He had foreseen the separation, and drawn up a scheme for the support of the outgoing ministers. But, after he had safely piloted the new church through the stormy waters, he gave himself up more exclusively to professional work, especially in connection with the New College, Edinburgh, of which he was principal, and to the composition of his Institutes of Theology. He died suddenly.
Dr. Chalmers is to-day a molding influence. All the churches of Scotland unite to do him reverence. He was a greater' worker than writer, and a greater man than either. It was surety enough honor for one life to inspire spiritual life throughout an entire land; and as the tireless and practical reformer, as the Christian philanthropist, and, above all, as the founder of the Free Church of Scotland, he will live.
Bibliography: The principal Life is by his son-in-law, W. Hanna, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas Chalmers, 4 vols., Edinburgh, 1849-52. Consult also: A. J. S[ymington], Thomas Chalmers, the Man, his Times, and his Work, Ardrossan, 1878; D. Fraser, Thomas Chalmers, London, 1881; J. L. Watson, The Life of Thomas Chalmers, Edinburgh, 1881; J. Dodds, Thomas Chalmers, ib. 1892; W G. Blaikie, Thomas Chalmers, ib. 1896 (in Famous Scots Series); Mrs. Oliphant, Thomas Chalmers, Preacher, Philosopher, and Statesman, London, 1S96; DNB, ix. 449-454.
CHAMBERLAIN, JACOB: Reformed (Dutch) missionary; b. at Sharon, Conn., Apr. 13, 1835; d. at Madanapalli, Madras, India, March 2, 1908. He was educated at Western Reserve College, O. (B.A., 1856), the Reformed Theological Seminary, New Brunswick,. N. J., and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. In 1859 he went as a medical missionary to the Arcot Mission, Madras, and was stationed successively at Palmaner, Madras (1860- 1863), and at Madanapalli, Madras (1863-1901). From 1891 he was lector in Biblical languages and prophecy and acting principal of the Theological Seminary in the Arcot Mission, Palmaner. He was chairman of a committee for the translation of the Bible into Telugu, 1873-94; member of the Telugu Revision Committee of the Madras Tract Society in 1873-80, and in 1878 was elected vice-president of the American Tract Society for India. In 1901 he was first moderator of the South India United Church Synod, and since engaged in literary work in Tamil and Telugu. He translated the liturgy of the Reformed Dutch Church into Telugu (Madras, 1873), and also prepared a Telugu version of the Hymns for Public and Social Worship (1884), as well as other devotional works in the same language. His English works include: The Bible Tested (New York, 1878); Native Churches and Foreign Missionary Societies (Madras, 1879) ; The Religions of the Orient (Clifton Springs, N. Y., 1896); In the Tiger Jungle (Chicago, 1896); The Cobra's Den, and Other Stories of Missionary Work Among the Telugus of India (1900); and The Kingdom in India, with introductory biographical sketch by Henry N. Cobb (1908).
Chamberlain