No. CCLXXI.-TO REV. THOMAS GRINFIELD, CLIFTON. 16th December, 1841.

MY DEAR SIR-I received your "Syllabus of Lectures on Milton," and feel quite sure that your converse in this mode with the citizens of Bristol must have a refining and elevating influence on the public mind of your city. I take your friendly advice as very kind, prompted, as I am sure it is, by the breathings of a real wish for my safety and well-being.

I am always delighted by a letter from you, being ever, my dear sir, yours most affectionately and with great esteem, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCLXXII.—TO REV. HENRY BELL.

EDINBURGH, 16th January, 1836. MY DEAR SIR-I have just time to request your acceptance of a copy of the fourth edition of my "Bridgewater Treatise."

I look back with great pleasure and much thankfulness to our Matlock visit, and to all the kindness we received from you-a pleasure only marred by the recollection of my own impatience of feeling at the delay in our getting off, from some mistake of the coachman. What a bright and beautiful world we live in, and how abundant in all the means of enjoyment, but for the sad perversity of our own distempered spirits!

Mrs. Chalmers, who has been long an invalid, joins me with Eliza in kindest remembrances both to yourself and Mrs. Bell. Ever believe me, my dear sir, yours very affectionately and truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCLXXIII.—TO REV. HENRY BELL.

EDINBURGH, 28th October, 1846. MY DEAR SIR-I have read so much of your volume, and like it exceedingly. I think there is great beauty in its composition, and that its literary merits stand very high. But I was still more struck with the amount of thought in it, and

I

more especially with the instruction deduced from the passages, or rather from the clauses that you comment upon. have marked particularly what suggests a new argument for the plenary and universal inspiration of the Bible. I rather regret the anti-Calvinism that you have discovered; but let that pass. I have finished lecture second, and am only sorry that at the commencement of my winter duties my perusal of your work must go on very slowly. I have no doubt of its favorable reception.

I am much interested by what you state of Professor Lee's "New Theory of Hebrew Tenses." I should like that you made known that your views for the application of the pluperfect to the 1st and 2d verses of the 1st chapter of Genesis would bring philology and geology at one. My own sense of the meaning was made known to the world in 1814, and shown to Professor Buckland in 1835, who adopted it in his "Bridgewater Treatise," but without acknowledgment. Have you seen Elliott's "Hora Apocalyptica?" He makes a very unwarranted attack on our Free Church, and has been ably replied to by Dr. Candlish, in a pamphlet of which I will send you a copy.

Mrs. Chalmers joins me in the kindest regards to you and Mrs. Bell. I cherish a most pleasant recollection of our last visit to you. If the venerable Mrs. Fox be still alive, offer her my most affectionate remembrances, and the same to Dr. Douglas Fox and all the family. I am yours, &c.,

THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCLXXIV.TO THE REV. TIMOTHY EAST, BIRMING

HAM.

EDINBURGH, 23d January, 1847. MY DEAR SIR-I shall have great pleasure in recommending your volume to

self more closely toy students. I would have applied my

the whole subject some time ago, but the truth is, my theological course is one of three years' duration, and I do not get at the subject of the divinity of our Savior

till next month, when I shall have occasion to state my favorable impression of the merits of your work; after which you will hear what the result is to be. I am much pleased with the new lights into which the argument has been cast by you, and I think it of great advantage to the students that they should, after studying the critical and scientific arguments, be thrown abroad, as it were, on a general work like yours, which takes its own independent and very intelligent view of the doctrine. I shall probably read out to my students those passages which I have marked, as having in them the characters of originality along with great weight.

Forgive me for saying that I think you have expanded too much in the latter part of the volume, which admits, in my opinion, of a good deal of compression, without any sacrifice of the sterling quality of the argument.

I did not congenialize with the instance which you gave of the Bishop of Exeter, which, whether correct in itself or not, had better have been avoided. I have not yet finished the

perusal of it, having about 150 pages more to read. I am not aware of any work on the subject so well adapted for general and family reading; and I have often regretted that, besides having works on each of the great doctrines of Christianity, altogether of a critical and controversial character, we should not have works made up of those kind and impressive appeals, which form the main staple of your volume, and which may be read and recognized of all men. With many apologies for my long delay, I am, my dear sir, yours very respectfully and truly, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCLXXV.—TO THE REV. EBENEZER BROWN, OF INVER

KEITHING, FIFE.

GLASGOW, 15th December, 1821. MY DEAR SIR-I received your much esteemed note yesterday. I am quite aware that its suggestions are not only very kind, but very necessary; for I am sure that both in language and in spirit we lie under many temptations to depart

from the simplicity that is in Christ. I can truly say that I have the utmost relish for those evangelical authors whose style is that of great homeliness, while clearly and forcibly expressive of the great truths of the Gospel; and, lastly, I have read with great satisfaction your work of "Romaine on Faith," whose ever-pervading idea is just that of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The constant presentation of this. truth, so far from being offensive to a spiritual man because he heard it before so often, is like the constant presentation of the same food, agreeable and welcome to him because he is hungry; and it is indeed a tremendous thought that by the wisdom of words the cross of Christ may be made of no effect.

There is one thing, however, that ought to be adverted to; the difference of styles is somewhat like the difference of dialects. You would not have a plain Yorkshire minister when he comes to your neighborhood attempt to preach in the dialect of Fife. His own dialect is the best for his own people. And in like manner, there is a style proper to every one, whether it be natural or acquired, which perhaps is the best for one class of ministers, though unsuitable to another. God interposed with a miracle of tongues, that the Gospel might be preached to every man in his own language; and it is perhaps in unison with this principle of His administration that He rears a diversity of authors, who may speak to the people each in his own style or dialect the wonderful works of God. I have much more to say upon this subject, but I must postpone the subject till we meet and talk about it.

May I entreat your prayers, for which, I assure you, I shall have the same value that I would for the prayers of a venerable and much-loved father. May the God of all comfort rejoice your heart with the tokens and demonstrations of your usefulness; and let it be our united supplication to Him, that He would pour down of that Spirit upon our land, without which all human exertion is powerless as infancy.

Give my best compliments to your brother when you write him or see him, with whom, as with yourself, I have had

some very congenial and much valued fellowship. I am, my dear sir, yours most affectionately, THOMAS CHALMERS.

No. CCLXXVI. TO THE COUNTESS OF ELGIN.

EDINBURGH, 1st June, 1826.

MY LADY-Your ladyship's very kind letter was long of reaching me, partly from Mr. Whyte's ignorance of the place where I first resided when I came to Edinburgh, and partly from the change of place which I have undergone during my stay in the metropolis.

I feel myself greatly flattered and obliged by your ladyship's goodness in having again tendered me so pressing an invitation to come to Broomhall; and there is nothing which could afford me greater enjoyment than to renew the Christian and intellectual gratifications which I have had the happiness so often to experience there. This is an object which I shall study to achieve in the course of my present college vacation. Just now there is a very particular avocation which makes it impossible for me to go any where but the east of Fife, and that is, the marriage of a sister, which takes place early next week. I shall be much occupied both before and after that event with home matters; but I am not without hopes of being able through the summer to realize that converse which, I crave your ladyship's forgiveness for saying, has left a fragrance behind it, and the remembrance of which is sweet.

We have lost ground numerically this year on the plurality question, but we have not lost heart; and it is my feeling that bating this and another distressing division, this Assembly has, on the whole, had a very promising aspect, and the spirit of our Church is unequivocally improving.

I beg my most respectful compliments to the Ladies Bruce, and to Lords Elgin and Bruce, who I know are at present from home. I have the honor to be, my lady, your ladyship's most obliged and obedient servant,

THOMAS CHALMERS