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Henry Drummond
Henry Drummond (1851–1897). Born on August 17, 1851, in Stirling, Scotland, to Henry Drummond Sr. and Jane Campbell Blackwood, Henry Drummond was a Scottish evangelist, biologist, and author, best known for blending science and faith. Raised in a devout Free Church of Scotland family, he studied at Edinburgh University, earning a degree in natural sciences (1871), and briefly attended New College for divinity but left to pursue evangelism. Influenced by Dwight L. Moody’s 1873–1875 Scottish campaigns, Drummond became Moody’s assistant, preaching to students at universities like Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Oxford, with a warm, conversational style that captivated young men. Ordained in the Free Church, he never held a pastorate, instead lecturing on science at Free Church College (1877–1882) and conducting missions globally, including Australia, Canada, and Africa. His books, Natural Law in the Spiritual World (1883), The Greatest Thing in the World (1889, on 1 Corinthians 13), and The Ascent of Man (1894), sold millions, harmonizing evolution with Christianity. A professor of theology by 1893, he remained unmarried, dedicating his life to ministry despite chronic illness from bone cancer. Drummond died on March 11, 1897, in Tunbridge Wells, England, saying, “The greatest thing in the world is love; it alone endures.”
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Henry Drummond emphasizes the destructive nature of human wrath, explaining how it does not align with the righteousness of God. He delves into the deeper implications of temper, highlighting how it can reveal underlying issues such as jealousy, anger, pride, and other sinful traits that lurk within individuals. Drummond likens temper to a warning sign of a deeper spiritual disease, a manifestation of hidden sins that need to be addressed and surrendered to God.
A Sign of What's Inside
"For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God" (James 1:20). Only temper," they call it: a little hot-headedness, a momentary ruffling of the surface, a mere passing cloud. But here the passing cloud is composed of drops, and the drops betoken an ocean, foul and rancorous, seething somewhere within the life--an ocean made up of jealousy, anger, pride, uncharity, cruelty self-righteousness, sulkiness, touchiness, doggedness, lashed into a raging storm. This is why temper is significant. It is not in what it is that its significance lies, but in what it reveals. But for this it were not worth notice. It is the intermittent fever which tells of unintermittent disease; the occasional bubble escaping to the surface, betraying the rottenness underneath; a hastily prepared specimen of the hidden products of the soul, dropped involuntarily when you are off your guard. In one word, it is the lightning-form of a dozen hideous and unchristian sins.
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Henry Drummond (1851–1897). Born on August 17, 1851, in Stirling, Scotland, to Henry Drummond Sr. and Jane Campbell Blackwood, Henry Drummond was a Scottish evangelist, biologist, and author, best known for blending science and faith. Raised in a devout Free Church of Scotland family, he studied at Edinburgh University, earning a degree in natural sciences (1871), and briefly attended New College for divinity but left to pursue evangelism. Influenced by Dwight L. Moody’s 1873–1875 Scottish campaigns, Drummond became Moody’s assistant, preaching to students at universities like Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Oxford, with a warm, conversational style that captivated young men. Ordained in the Free Church, he never held a pastorate, instead lecturing on science at Free Church College (1877–1882) and conducting missions globally, including Australia, Canada, and Africa. His books, Natural Law in the Spiritual World (1883), The Greatest Thing in the World (1889, on 1 Corinthians 13), and The Ascent of Man (1894), sold millions, harmonizing evolution with Christianity. A professor of theology by 1893, he remained unmarried, dedicating his life to ministry despite chronic illness from bone cancer. Drummond died on March 11, 1897, in Tunbridge Wells, England, saying, “The greatest thing in the world is love; it alone endures.”