Chalmers, Thomas
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
Thomas (1780-1847), a Scottish clergyman. He was a native of Fifeshire, and a graduate of the University of St. Andrews. He entered the Presbyterian ministry and became noted as a pulpit orator and a writer. He did a great work in Glasgow in alleviating the distress of the poor. In 1827 he was appointed to the chair of divinity in the University of Edinburgh. In church affairs of Scotland Chalmers ranks second only to John Knox. In 1843 he was the leader of the Free Church party that refused state help and state interference in the management of churches. This, of course, cost him his University position. He wrote a vast number of tracts, sermons, and books in defense of Free Church principles. Summed up, his life may be said to have been devoted to practical work and to the establishment in Scotland of the principle that church and state should be separate. See Presbyterians Chalybeate (ka-llb'e-at) Springs, springs whose waters contain salts of iron in sufficient quantity to be of medicinal value. Iron is a necessary part of blood; therefore such waters have a beneficial effect on thin blood. The presence of iron is indicated frequently by its giving the soil along the outlet a reddish tinge. There are two principal kinds of chalybeate water--carbonated and sulphated. The carbonated contains an excess of carbon dioxide . The most noted of these springs in this country are those of Saratoga, New York . There are springs of note also at Cheltenham, Harrowgate, Bath, and Tunbridge, England; at Kissingen and Spa on the continent. The Black Forest contains several; others are found in Switzerland, Corsica, and Italy. The sulphated water contains iron sulphate. Springs are found in the Isle of Wight and other places. See Waters ; Mineral
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The facts of Chalmers's life as Aiton's gave them in 1910 still stand, but two things have moved. Aiton's says his life was devoted to "the establishment in Scotland of the principle that church and state should be separate"; modern historians stress the opposite emphasis, that Chalmers remained a convinced defender of an established national church and walked out in 1843 only over state interference in spiritual matters "we quit a vestry, not a church", as the Disruption leaders put it. And the division he led has largely healed: the bulk of the Free Church joined the United Presbyterians in 1900 and reunited with the Church of Scotland in 1929, so the breach Aiton's still treated as a living fact of Scottish life is now history. His Glasgow St John's parish experiment in poor relief, praised here without qualification, is now argued over by welfare historians as much as admired.
Written for this edition, 2026.