Favorite Chalmers Quotes

1. "The wider a man's knowledge becomes, the deeper should be his humility; for the more he knows the more he sees of what remains unknown. The wider the diameter of light, the larger the circumference of darkness."

2. “Regardless of how large, your vision is too small.”

3. "It is only through faith that we can find our way to love, and only through love that we can find our way to obedience."

4. "Live with the high aim and purpose of one who is in training for eternity."

5. “Gargantuanism and the care of souls cannot coexist.”

6. "Repentance is not one act of the mind; it is a course of acting by which we die daily unto sin."

7. "Obstacles, setbacks, and difficulties are but opportunities for courage and tenacity. Great victories demand fierce resistance. Otherwise, they would not be great."

8. "I would pray unto watching--and watch unto praying."

9. "Let us standfast and contend earnestly for the faith once delivered; let us be manly and strenuous in the vindication thereof; and yet, let all our things be done with charity."

10. "It is not by irregular efforts, however gigantic, that any great practical achievement is overtaken. It is by the constant recurrence and repetition of small efforts directed to a given object, and resolutely sustained and persevered in."

11. "Let us be neither over-sanguine nor over-melancholy of immediate results. Our perspective of time is only slowly synchronized to the clock of providence."

The "Solas" of Chalmers

Thinking about the "Five Solas of the Reformation," on this eve of Reformation Sunday, I couldn't help but also think of the reformational way Thomas Chalmers has shaped my thinking about life, grace, mercy, the Scriptures, and the beauty of the faith that the magisterial reformers bequeathed to us.  

It struck me that like them, Chalmers' influence has also produced a list of "solas." This is my first feeble attempt to somehow codify those "solas."

1. Only the Triune God is truly holy.
2. Only His holiness can offer grace.
3. Only His grace can bring forth faith.
4. Only faith bears the fruit of love.
5. Only love produces hope.
6. Only hope gives way to obedience.
7. Only obedience results in service.
8. Only service manifests mercy.
9. Only mercy makes for justice.
10. Only justice establishes peace.
11. And, only peace can flower into Christian culture.