Prof. Henry Drummond, Addresses

( Originally Published 1891 )

BY REV. W. J. DAWSON.

PROFESSOR DRUMMOND, who was born in Stirling, Scotland, about forty years ago, has been a singularly fortunate man, and it can scarcely be said that his fortune is undeserved. He is another sample of the man who, while doing one duty faithfully, has found a higher duty prepared for him, and with it a new career. It must have been somewhere about 1884 or 1885 that I noticed in an obscure religious weekly, an article on Evolution and Degeneracy, which struck me as singularly fresh and brilliant. I knew nothing about the writer, whose name was quite obscure, and the journal in question was not such as to give any guarantee of distinction to its contributors. But the article struck quite a new note, and put truth in a way which I did not remember to have seen before. It was an attempt to show how Darwin's great doctrines of evolution and degeneracy found an almost scientific expression in the words of Christ, and an exact counterpart in spiritual things. I have not often been guilty of plagiarism, but I annexed that article. I made a sermon out of it. If there is any comfort in the thought, or any apology for my conduct, I have the satisfaction of knowing that a good many hundreds of ministers have since used that article in the same way. I simply had precedence of them in theft. I took the paper for some weeks, in the hope that I might find more material of the same quality, but I was disappointed. I think one or two more articles appeared, and then the paper relapsed into its usual dulness, and I gave it up. When "Natural Law in the Spiritual World" was published, I found the article again, much expanded and greatly improved, and I found what was also a memorable and formative book.

Now this little history is instructive as to the method by which Professor Drummond has be-come a famous author. It has been by a sort of fortunate accident. He does not appear to have been troubled with any fiery stinging of genius, any absorbing ambition to write great books. In the ordinary course of his duties, he delivers a series of addresses to his students on the reconcilements between religion and science, and one or two of these addresses find their way into print. It is said that it was the keen and practiced eye of Dr. Marcus Dods which first discerned their great merit, and it was at his earnest soli-citation they were collected and published. If this be so, Dr. Dods deserves the thanks of Christendom. The address which is known as "The Greatest Thing in the World" was at first a spoken utterance, and appeared in a fragmentary form in a newspaper report. I remember reading this, and being struck with the freshness of the style and the aptness of the illustrations, long before it emerged in its dainty white and gold covers to the delight of its quarter of a million of readers. There is an unsophisticated simplicity in these methods of book-making which is refreshing. Books produced in this way have obviously grown, they have not been made. They are the genuine output of the author's thought, accomplished with-out strain or pressure. Perhaps that has much to do with their charm. We taste a fruit which has ripened slowly and legitimately, and has not been forced. We feel the motive of the author to be pure and high. "Do the duty that lies nearest to you, and take no thought of fame," is the advice which Longfellow gives to those who would be famous. Books written with an eye to the publisher's balance-sheet seldom succeed. Books that are meant as a direct challenge to fame, usually utter their challenge to undiscerning or disdainful ears. The moment the thought of the reward of art intrudes, the spirit of art languishes. Because Professor Drummond did his work without a thought of fame, he did it with a restraint and simplicity which went far to win fame. It is another illustration of the words of Christ, which have a hundred bearings outside the strict domain of the spiritual : he who seeks only the highest finds the less; he who seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness has all the other things added to him.

It is through his great success in literature that Professor Drummond has become so widely known, and it is worth while therefore to ascertain the reasons of this success. The theory that books succeed by luck, we dismiss as childish and absurd. There is more to be said in favor of the theory of the " psychological moment "—the happy conjunction of the man and the hour. Unquestionably Professor Drummond's great book was published at the right moment, when the thoughts of men were busiest on the relations of religion and science, and a voice of assurance was likely to be hailed with a peal of praise. A third theory is the Wordsworthian one, that the greater a book is, the less likely is it to sell; that, in fact, the sale of a book is always in an inverse ratio to its merit. Of course this theory is a great comfort to authors who fail. They console themselves as Landor did with the thought of posthumous fame: " I shall dine late; but the dining-room will be well lighted, the guests few and select." But the implication of this theory. is twofold: first, that great books and great men are always ignored by the public; and second, that the rapid sale of a volume is a sign that its author is not a man of genius. No man of average knowledge and observation is likely to accept these propositions. Really good writers in our day have no cause to complain of an undiscerning public, and the public has grown too discriminating to buy books for their badness. Great writers in the nineteenth century need not "dine late." There is always a place at the board of fame for the new-comer, if he bring with him the true credentials. Indeed, the tendency is to be too generous and effusive in the welcome extended to any writer who shows real signs of genius.

The success of Professor Drummond is the result of a very happy combination of qualities. He has, in the first place, the gift of style. He is absolutely lucid, crisp, and often brilliant. He knows how to say what he wants to say. He never uses too many words for his meaning, and rarely uses the wrong word. He is always interesting, and has an admirable way of using his material to the best artistic advantage. It is this art which makes his "Tropical Africa " so charming a book. It is the smallest of all the great array of books on African travel, but artistically it is the best. What he has to say he says with the best possible effect, and in the most incisive manner. Yet there is no attempt at being brilliant; on the contrary, all is fresh, natural, and unforced. The style, reminds one of a perfectly sunny day, when the air is crisp and clear, and every natural object stands out with dazzling distinctness. Because the style is so captivating to the reader, we may be sure that it has required great pains of the author. The man who writes easily is often the hardest to read. The amount of polish and finish expended on those paragraphs of Professor Drummond which charm us most, is probably far greater than any one suspects. Professor Drummond once re-marked to a friend, who had written an article at the point of the editorial bayonet in a few hours, that he was astonished that such a thing could be done: he would have needed a week to produce it. But he would have produced a better article. It would have had more delicacy of phrase, a subtler handling, a keener sparkle. And the incident illustrates the literary methods of the Professor. He is not, and will never be, a prolific author. He writes slowly and with painstaking. The spring does not flow with any great force or volume. But if it is limited in quantity, the water is exquisitely clear and fresh. A fastidious elegance of phrase is his, and such an art can only be gained by long practice. But in these days of hurry it must always be a rare art, and for that reason will be highly prized.

Tall, slight, delicate in feature, alert in manner, well dressed, there is a touch of this fastidiousness in his appearance, which is no doubt a cause of stumbling to the envious and the undiscerning. One hesitates to use the word "fastidious," because it is so often confused with a very different word—" effeminate." There is certainly no touch of effeminacy in the Professor. The great attraction which he possesses for young men is a sufficient token of this. One has only to mark the breadth of the shoulder, and remember "Tropical Africa," to be quite sure of the masculine qualities of its writer. And the same thing may be said of his writing. It has masculine strength as well as daintiness of touch. He has robust judgment, a keen power of observation, a wide knowledge of men. He is not a man likely to be imposed upon. The man who presumed upon his geniality to make a foolish or disrespectful speech, would soon find out that there was iron in his blood, and a contemptuous scrutiny in the clear eye which would be eminently disagreeable. Rough and careless natures always misunderstand this touch of fastidiousness in others. They regard it as a sign of weakness that a man should dress with taste. On the contrary, it is often a sign of weakness, and a proof that a man does not respect himself, when he does not do so. It is the duty of every young man to care for his person, and to be scrupulous about his appearance. A little dignity in the composition of a man is an excellent thing; it is wonderful how great a power it exerts over others—and specially the undignified. However, this is a small matter, though a characteristic one. He who said the style is the man, said a true thing. Professor Drummond gives the impression of keenness, dignity, fastidiousness; of elegance joined to strength, of shrewdness as the counterfoil of sympathy. This is the man, and this is his style. Just as the style has captivated thousands by its happy combination of qualities, so the man has exercised a charm for years over many of the most thoughtful youths of Scotland; and in each instance the elements of conquest are the same.

But style alone cannot secure phenomenal success: we want thought and substance. Perhaps it would be too much to claim for Professor Drum-, mond that he is an original thinker, but he certainly has the power of putting things in an original manner. He can take up a commonplace subject and invest it with freshness. "The Greatest Thing in the World" is an admirable example of this power, and so, in less degree, is "Pax Vobiscum." The theme in each case is thread bare. No pas-sages in the New Testament have been so constantly harped upon as St. Paul's great eulogy of love and Christ's promise of rest to the heavy-laden. The most suggestive preachers avoid them, because they seem to have had all suggestiveness trampled out of them by the insistent and commonplace homiletics of centuries. They are like coins, of pure gold, no doubt, but defaced by hard usage, till the superscription is almost lost. Professor Drummond has the happy art of restoring them to their pristine glory. He makes us feel their truth and beauty, as though we had never been conscious of it before. He does not go out of his way to be original, but he manages to write in a way which is new and suggestive. He has no commerce with commentators, and owes nothing to them. But he has a thirst for truth, and he will be content with nothing but the truth. He has no fear of orthodoxy before his eyes. He says plainly what the passage means to him, and his one object is obviously to make his meaning as clear to us, and his teaching as real, as it is to him. In a word, he has a message. He does not write till he has something to say, and then he says it with charm and force. No doubt it is true that much of what he says has been said before. It is quite easy to point to other writers, and ask, What has Professor Drummond said that they have not said? Absolute originality is too much to expect of any man in this late age of the world; the child and the lunatic, it has been said, are the only per-sons who are likely to be strictly original in their remarks. But next to saying a new thing is the art of saying an old thing in a new way. Professor Drummond puts a familiar truth as it has not been put before; he gives it a new setting; he even utters commonplaces with a note of distinction, and invests them with the air of novelty.

He was the right hand of Mr. Moody in many of his great meetings in this country, and his deep interest in evangelical truth may be estimated by that fact. He is an ordained minister of the Free Church of Scotland, and is engaged Sunday after Sunday through the University session at Edinburgh in religious work among students. During the weekdays he is to be found in the Free Church College, Glasgow, teaching science.

His theological position is the same as that of his friends Dr. Dods and Dr. Bruce, though with such differences as are personal to the man. Broadly speaking, that position is the position of the Reconciliationist. He represents the new culture in religion, and seeks to reconcile the Churches to its inevitable growth. He is the child of the age, and breathes its spirit. It is only the stupidly orthodox who nowadays rave against what they call " modern thought." They fail to realize that there is no way of cutting our-selves off from the thought of the age, except by living in some other age—which is impossible. We cannot breathe the air of yesterday, and modern thought is the intellectual air of to-day's life. In every age there is an urgency upon men, which makes them see truth in their own way, and state it after their own method. Each age has to write its own books, and thus expresses its thought in forms that are native and natural to it. This process in religion means the restatement of truth in the language of the age. The truth may be the same but its form of statement may differ, as St. John's statement of Christianity differs from that of St. Paul and St. James. The work of men like Professor Drummond is to state the old truths in such a way that the friction between vital truth and modern scholarship and culture may be diminished to the lowest possible degree. It is practically to give a new lease to truth by making truth intelligible to the modern mind. Of course, the men who attempt this difficult task may occasionally err in judgment, and it is certain that they must be prepared for suspicion and hostility. Christ said that the Jews hated Him because He was a man who told them the truth. But the man who can so re-interpret vital truth that it becomes real to us, is one of the highest benefactors of the human race. There are multitudes who desire to believe, but they " will not make their judgment blind." They feel the force of the spirit of truth, but they cannot endure the letter. They are al-ways on the lookout for a teacher who can make things clear and simple to them. Such teachers are the Reconciliationists. They stand between the warring hosts and proclaim the truce of God. They set the truth on high above the contentions of agnosticism and intellectual barbarism. They are the vanguard of the army of progress. Their watchword is that though all kingdoms are shaken, there is a Divine kingdom that remains. Their aim is to retranslate Christianity into the dialect of the day, the vernacular of current thought. In that army Professor Drummond is enrolled, and his influence has been far-reaching.