Often described as the greatest Scotsman of his age, Thomas Chalmers was something of a polymath. He became a colossus for evangelical historic Calvinism in Scotland in his day and arguably the most influential instrument used by the Lord in his Church in Scotland since John Knox.
It wasn’t like that initially though, for, although obviously a young man of unusual ability, he went into the ministry of the Church of Scotland at Kilmany, Fife, in 1803 in an unconverted state. The ministry was a sinecure which gave him, as he saw it, ample opportunity for more pleasurable pursuits and recreations. He could spend a few hours on a Saturday working up a sermon and that was fine. Otherwise he would be pretty well away from the congregation much of the time.
Chalmers was your typical moderate minister. But all that changed in 1810/11 when he experienced an evangelical conversion. There followed a seismic change in not only Chalmers’ life and ministry, but also in the course of Scottish evangelicalism.
