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Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847) was a pastor, professor, author, theologian, orator, economist, reformer, and statesman. The historian Iain Murray wrote of him:
When Thomas Chalmers was born in 1780 it was about the deadest time in the history of the Church of Scotland since the Reformation. When he died in 1847 it was about the alivest. The difference was almost entirely attributable to the Spirit’s work through him.
Chalmers was undeniably a man of action. In the crowded hours of his sixty- seven years, he founded more than two dozen mission organizations, Bible societies, neighborhood schools, and community outreaches. He planted two churches and one college and was instrumental in launching a denomination.
But at the heart of all that he undertook for the kingdom was a fervent, unceasing, hidden life of prayer. He knew that the secret of a fruitful public ministry was a devoted private intimacy with the Lord. His byword for all his activity was “I would pray unto watching—and watch unto praying.”
His busy schedule and demanding commitments never deterred him from what he believed was his “most important exercise” and his “most vital engagement”: daily time in adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. Indeed, he considered any prayerless day a wasted day: “To squander the hours with mere activity, however important, is to altogether miss the enlivening work of the Spirit amidst our sweet hours of prayer.”
Chalmers began each day praying through the Scriptures. He followed the old Scots Presbyterian discipline of Horae Biblicae Quotidianae, something akin to a Reformed adaptation of the medieval Lectio Divina. After this deep devotional reading, he would walk, praying through the passage as he went. Then he would record his digested “passage prayer” in his journal. In the process, he would begin memorizing what he called a “keystone” verse from the passage that would then shape his thinking, praying, and doing for the rest of the day.
According to Chalmers:
The praying disciple needs to be taught the necessity of labor and the laboring disciple needs to be taught the necessity of prayer. When our men of devotion become men of diligence and our men of diligence become men of devotion, when there is a union of humble hearts and busy hands, then shall the wonders of the Gospel be spread fruitfully abroad.
Thus, when he discipled men, he taught them his own method of prayer.
“Where might the church learn mastery of prayer?” Chalmers asked.
Let us turn to the cotter’s wife, the nursing mother, or the grandmother in her yarns. Perhaps it ought to arrest our attentions that the people most oft noteworthy for prayerfulness in the Scriptures turn out to be such as these: the Deborahs, the Hannahs, the Marys, the Annas, the Lydias, and the Phoebes.
His approach to prayer was exceedingly practical—and was evidenced in the whole of his life and ministry.
First, his prayerfulness was marked by gladness. He was often heard to exclaim, “Let us go joyfully to God in His Name.” As he declared, “Better than all speculation on happiness would it be that you prized the operation of the Spirit on your heart and that you earnestly and habitually prayed for it.” No wonder he was renowned for his gladsome disposition.
Second, the prayerfulness of Chalmers was marked by a passion for holiness. “Let me never cease to pray for the Spirit to make good my sanctification,” he wrote. His was a very practical Christianity aimed at the eradication of sin in his own life and the encouragement of holy habits in the lives of others. And it was prayer that was at the very heart of this practical purpose. It was prayer that prefaced all his exhortations. As he declared, “Be not surprised at your miserable progress in sanctification if you are a stranger to the habit of prayer.”
Third, Chalmers saw prayerfulness as part and parcel of his calling. “Give me, O Lord,” he implored, “to alternate duty with prayer and prayer with duty.” Indeed, he asserted: “Earnest prayer and vigorous performance should always be alternating the one with the other. A good word with God in secret qualifies for a good work with man in society.” Prayer for him was never an impediment to doing. Instead, it was the inducement, the impetus, and the implement of doing.
Fourth, the prayerfulness of Chalmers was marked by persistence. “I have long resolved never to start anything that I cannot then saturate in prayer,” he declared. He was prodigious in activity: writing, preaching, teaching, organizing, discipling, and leading. Thus, he purposed to be all the more prodigious in praying.
Fifth, the prayerfulness of Chalmers was saturated in Scripture. As he admitted, “I have no right to look for miracles of grace—if myself I will not put into busy operation the means of grace.” After all, he said, “the Spirit guides us unto all truth and all truth is to be found in the Bible; the Spirit therefore guides us unto the Bible.” Thus, his heart’s cry was always: “Let me be well instructed in the mysteries of the Kingdom, and let the Word of Christ dwell in me richly. May that be most evident in my praying.”
What was the secret of Chalmers’ extraordinary spiritual power, his enduring effectiveness, and his astonishing fruitfulness for Christ’s kingdom? Surely, it was his utter dependence on prayerful interaction with the Father. His example has been a profound influence on my own life, and my prayer is that it would be on yours as well.